MMM Smells Like Pumpkin….

The weather in Las Vegas has been fabulous. I think 100 degrees is long gone. I’m already putting away my summer clothes and getting my fall/winter clothes ready to go. I’ve been on a mad shopping spree lately to get some new items to wear this season. I even picked up a can of pumpkin to make these delicious muffins!

I found the recipe from the Paleo Plan. Their recipe for Paleo Pumpkin Muffins is so simple and delicious. My house smells so good right now, I can’t wait to dig into a muffin after I click publish. This will now help when I drink my afternoon cup of coffee at my favorite coffee shop. The cream cheese pumpkin muffins and pumpkin breads will not mesmerize me as much. Now I can enjoy my pumpkin muffins at just 166 calories per serving and not get that sugar crash.

Happy Pumpkin Eating!!

Fallon

Breakfast Gems

Hello hello! Welcome to the 3rd day of the E-Recipe roundup from the Breakfast/Brunch contest I'm helping Shelby host from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch. I'm very excited about today's recipe because I actually made this one! Well actually it is because it sounded like a great recipe to have on hand, and it sure was. These gems came together in a matter of minutes and everything was mixed in the same bowl. Love that! Nan of Nan Cooks shared her recipe for Breakfast Gems. She made these muffins during her freshman home economic class in the 70's. I'm sad to say.. I still wasn't around but I'm sure it was a great decade! ;)

Mine look a bit rustic ;)

My dad really liked these. I had 18 muffins made and within 24 hours they were all gone. So you know these were well liked. They reminded me of a fresh biscuit. Not too sweet but flaky and melt in your mouth kind of muffin. The added fruit spread in the middle gave it the perfect sweetness. I made some with black cherry and apricot. I couldn't taste the crushed pineapple, but I think that what makes these muffins super moist. Nan recently shared her muffins on her blog once again and added some changes like coconut. Great idea!

I had to spread a little crunchy peanut butter on mine. Delicious!

You can get the recipe HERE for Breakfast Gems.

Hop on over to Shelby's blog to check out her post and photos for Breakfast Gems. Come back tomorrow for the 4th recipe!

Fallon

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

Hey guys I'm really sorry for lack of posts. Just been really busy, had more computer problems, and too tired to even want to blog anything at the end of the day. I did my best to keep up with reading my daily blogs and leaving comments. I'll be back soon with new posts because I'm missing it already!
 

Thanks Shelby for letting me borrow your photos ;)

Back in March (yikes has it been that long already?) I mentioned on my blog I was going to help Shelby from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch host a Breakfast/Brunch cooking contest for her E-Recipe club! We ended up with 7 entries and decided it be fun to try them all out. I wish I had more time to test them all as well but I only decided to stick with the 2 that caught my eye. Shelby was more adventurous and tackled every recipe! I went with 1 sweet and 1 savory, which you will have to stay tuned for on those entries. ;)

Today I bring to you a sweet muffin recipe great to have at breakfast mornings and brunch gatherings. Strawberries are in season as of now, and what couldn't be better then adding it to a muffin recipe! Christine from Cooking with Christine submitted her favorite recipe for Fresh Strawberry Muffins. Click HERE to visit Christine and check out her recipe for Fresh Strawberry Muffins! Thanks for sharing Christine! Come back tomorrow and check out the next great recipe!

Always,
Fallon

Never knew it was soo difficult to find a muffin recipe!

Hey guys! It feels like forever since I've made a post. These last 2 weeks been pretty rough for me in the sense I haven't talked to my boyfriend. It is really driving me up the wall, and I wish I could just hear his voice. My appetite is all over the place, not eating full meals and instead have mini-meals when I feel hungry. The gym and my workouts really help me out, I'm so glad I have that to resort to. I love my best friend who is here for me all the time! I try to meet up with her to go for a walk with her and Mason (her 3 month old son!). My parents are really supportive and are trying their best to keep me happy. I just know who my true friends are and who really does love me. At the end of the day, no one else will be able to be like that and I don't want to waste my time. Again, I'm really fortunate to have what I have.

 

I'm trying to keep myself busy and my mind off of it.. but at the end of the day none of it works. I never thought I'd come this low to feeling this down. It sucks. I'm not happy and I'm very lonely. Which brings me to this blog. I'm really glad I started this blog. It gives me something to look forward too. I love all the comments my readers leave me. Thanks guys! It cheers me up and makes me feel good about myself because someone out there is reading this blog. It another thing that keeps me going and staying positive!

With all these emotions flying around, cooking and baking are flying around too. I have several events coming up and I have no clue what I want to bake or cook. I'm very undecided on everything I try to choose. Like tomorrow is a meeting at work to prepare us for the holiday! It the first one we have had in over 3 years and we always did a pot-luck. Since the meeting is at 7 am I wanted to make something that is a breakfast type item.. Muffins! Wow can I tell you it took me forever to decide on a muffin recipe? Nothing was calling my name. At one point I was like forget it I'm not making anything. I finally looked on the Cooking Light website. This was my final resort and I found it. Peanut Butter and Honey Muffins! I didn't even have to make a trip to the grocery store for ingredients because I had "almost" everything on hand.

The full recipe is HERE. I made several adjustments because it what I had in my kitchen! Gotta be flexible sometimes.  

Adjustments:

• 2/3 cup honey: I WAS ALMOST OUT OF HONEY! I barely had 1/3 cup to measure, so the remaining was filled with raw blue agave (not so raw when cooked though).
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter: I used Skippy Natural. I haven't baked with a natural nut butter yet because I hear they make baked goods dry, and for a store meeting I feel that this would be sufficient enough. It is more nutritious then the fried donuts I'm sure someone will bring!
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk: I think milk is yuck, let alone fat free. My parents had organic 1% which I used. If I were making these for myself I'd use a nut milk.

I tried one after it cooled off some and they were rather interesting. The batter was lumpy and I was concerned how that would turn out in the end. They were moist and had air pockets throughout the muffin. They weren't dry, which I was almost worried about because they were lumpy. I taste the honey and not so much agave, so I don't think they will notice. If anything the star of this muffin is the peanut butter!! Now I can enjoy something at a store meeting since I usually don't eat anything! Can't wait to try another one tomorrow.

Big hole! Definitely a moist crumb that holds well.
  They baked up beautifully and just the right size.
  Cooling off for the meeting! 
 

I'm about to head out and watch the fights at my best friend's house. Another something that keeps me sane, being with friends and watching people beat the crap out of each other!! Keep the comments rolling because I love them.

Have a great weekend,
Fallon

Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins

Okay so I FINALLY decided to make the Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins I mentioned a while back when my mom was making her Turkey Taco Chili. My dad requested she make it with ground beef this time around, since he isn't a turkey fan. So I noticed I still had some pureed pumpkin to use up and this was screaming MAKE ME! I only made half a serving, 6 muffins. We each ate one and I put the remaining 3 in the freezer. Thinking about it, I freeze a lot of my baked goods and end up forgetting about them. I should see what I have lurking around. ;)

The recipe for the Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins comes from the Wholefoods website. I think I printed this recipe out LAST YEAR and never made it till recently. I have so many recipes I want to make and then I never make them. I think it just a foodie thing many folks do because we save so many recipes and it becomes very overwhelming!

I made some changes to the recipe. The scaled down version of 6 muffins is below.

Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins (Adapted from Wholefoods Market)
Ingredients
1/4 cup cooked, mashed fresh or canned pumpkin
1 tbsp flax meal, 3 tbsp water (Do this first and set to the side, it takes about 2 minutes to set)
2 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil or spray 6 muffin tins (I used a silicon muffin pan and sprayed it lightly just to make sure nothing would stick.). In a large bowl, combine, pumpkin, flax/water combo, and yogurt. In a separate bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, honey, baking powder and salt. Add this to the liquid ingredients, stirring to just combine (I added the honey to the dry and mixed it in, you can add to liquid instead, won't make a difference.). Do not over-stir or beat. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake 20-25 minutes, until muffins are golden and a toothpick is inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

They baked really nice in the silicon.
Check out the flax specks!

What's a pumpkin cornmeal muffin without
some pumpkin butter?

Chili with extra lean ground beef.
It was good but I liked the Turkey version better.

That's right baby!

They were absolutely awesome. I ask myself why didn't I make these sooner? They weren't overly sweet, perfect cornmeal crumble and the oil and butter couldn't even tell it was missing! To be honest with you, I didn't realize that I didn't add any canola oil or butter to the mixture. I was more focused on swapping out egg for flax that I totally forgot! Oh well because I didn't even notice it was missing, neither did anyone else. LOL

I'm off to roast some cherubs (baby tomatoes) and eggplant. So much work and so much food, I'm just cooking it up and throwing meals together for work. Way better then eating out any day, in my opinion!!

Happy Saturday,
Fallon