Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin muffins are usually a fall thing, but when Eric told me last night that his office was having a potluck today and he volunteered to bring muffins, it didn't leave us with many options. The recipe calls for pumpkin pie spice, but I was afraid that would make it taste too Thanksgivingy, so I did vanilla instead. The recipe called for 1 cup of pumpkin puree, but the blog I got it from said they accidentally used the whole can and it was fine, so that's what we did.

I got it from http://muffintop.wordpress.com/, who got the recipe from Gourmet magazine.

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 15oz can solid-pack pumpkin

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla
1.25 cups plus 1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Equipment: 12 foil or paper muffin liners; a muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups

DIRECTIONS:
Put oven rack in middle positiona nd preheat oven toe 350F. Put liners in muffin cups.
Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, 1.25 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.
Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.
Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full).
Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

*We made mini muffins and baked them for 14 minutes.

I love pumpkin muffins, and they weren't too Thanksgivingy at all. They were moist and pumpkiny and not too sweet. I think we may have to make a batch for ourselves now! Mini chocolate chips might not hurt it either...

Turkey Nachos

1 bag corn chips

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 tomato

1 avocado

low fat sour cream

1 bag taco cheese, or other cheese

Brown turkey, and add taco seasoning according to the package. Spread the chips out on a baking sheet, and top with the turkey. Sprinkle cheese over the top, and bake at 350 until the cheese melts (about 5-10 minutes)

While it bakes, cut up the tomato and avocado. When the cheese is melted, take it out, and top with the tomato, avocado, and sour cream.

YUM!

Banana Split Breakfast

This is one I made at work with the kids, it came from Highlights, or one of those kid magazines. The kids loved it, and we've made it a few times.

Put a container of yogurt in the freezer for at least a few hours. If you are using a large container (not a serving size one) make sure you take it out at least an hour before you use it. If you use a serving size container, you only need 20 minutes.

Halve a banana, then cut each half lengthwise and put a half in each bowl. Scoop the frozen yogurt over it and top with fruit and granola. We used strawberries and blueberries.

The kids loved making this! We put each topping into a separate bowl and they got to put on as much as they wanted. Its easy to make and not too messy. We also have made it without freezing the yogurt, when they decide at the last minute they want to make it, and they like it just as much.

Tabbouleh

I have fond memories of eating this at my grandparents house growing up, its one of my favorites, and its sooo healthy!



1/2 cup bulgur
10 scallions, chopped
1 small bunch fresh parsley
10 fresh mint sprigs
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Put the bulgur in a bowl and cover with water (the more the better). Let stand for 30 minutes. Drain it and squeeze to remove excess water, then place in a bowl. Finely chop the scallions and herbs in a food processor, or with a knife, then add to the bulgur. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, cover, and chill 2 hours before serving.

Eric and I couldn't wait with our first batch and ate it right away...and the bottom of the bowl was the best. I highly recommend storing it in a wider container rather than a taller one, because all of the lemony goodness falls to the bottom...which may be why they sell it in those short rectangle boxes...

Worlds most amazing smoothie

We finally got around to buying a stick blender, the Cuisinart CSB-76 Smartstick! So far we've only made smoothies and spaghetti sauce but it is the best way of getting vegetables into things that don't usually have vegetables. We bought a bunch of kale, and blended some into the spaghetti sauce.

Then today, I made a super smoothie. I started by washing a handful of kale and trimming off the stems. Then I put in some frozen peaches, pineapple, grapes, and blueberries, and some mandarin oranges from a jar. I splashed in some Bolthouse Farms C-Boost and some Pom Wonderful pomegranate mango juice for liquid, and then added a spoonful of wheat germ and a spoonful of flax seed meal.

Blended it up and you can't even taste the kale (it showed up pretty green in the picture but you actually can't see it unless you look realllly hard)

One thing we discovered on Sunday though is that you shouldn't eat a smoothie with blueberries in it on your way to somewhere or else you'll be scraping blueberry skin off your teeth in the church parking lot

This is definitely something to keep in mind for everyone, but kids in particular will love this. Its sweet but has no added sugar, (actually mine did because I used mandarin oranges but we ate all the other fruit in the house so I had to cheat) and you could even use low fat yogurt or vanilla frozen yogurt to make it more milkshake-like. It took maybe 5 minutes from getting out all the ingredients, washing and trimming the kale, and getting it all blended.

Plus you get all kinds of good stuff, kale is one of the most nutritious vegetables, plus it has a decent amount of calcium, and blueberries and grapes are so high in antioxidants, wheat germ is a good source of folic acid, and flaxseed meal has fiber and omega-3 fats!

Beat that, ice cream!