Clean Pumpkin Muffins

       That moment when you realize; the school year is back in full swing, your first wedding anniversary is fast approaching, and you feel like a bloated mess...

That's when you coax your hubby into a clean eating lifestyle, until further notice.

We're eating all fruits and veggies, lean proteins, healthy fats and staying away from white rice, pasta and bread.

Anywho, I've said all that to say, here is my first baked goodie. I was afraid that making a healthy muffin would result in a dry, flavorless, mess... So glad I was wrong. I loved the result and I want to share the recipe with you.

What you'll need:

Ingredients

3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp all natural peanut butter ( or your fav nut butter)
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp flax seeds ( I didn't grind mine, I like the crunch factor. Otherwise, grind em!)

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1tsp baking soda

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 dried cranberries

cooking spray

Tools:

Oven ;)

food processor

baking tins or muffin tin

Directions:

• preheat your oven to 350
• use your processor to grind the oats
• remove oats from processor and place in a medium bowl
• add dry ingredients to  bowl with oats, stir ( excluding walnuts and cranberries) 
• add pumpkin, egg, honey, nut butter and vanilla to processor
• mix until smooth
• add dry ingredients to wet, mix
• fold nuts and cranberries into your batter 
• spray your tin
• fill 2/3 full with batter ( top with more nuts and berries if you desire) 
• bake until a tooth pick comes out clean
• cool in pan then, remove and finish cooling on wire rack

 Recipe yields 6 muffins.

Your oatmeal should resemble flour, once chopped

Pumpkin puree

Filling the tins

Fresh from the oven

Hope you enjoy!

That's my 2 cents!

-Kimba

Soup Series: Delicious Crock Pot Vegetarian Chili

Oh fall, how I love thee! Your beauty, your crisp air, your comfort food ;-) yes...

Simple crock pot chili!

Dump it all in, stir, let your crock pot rock... then ENJOY!!

What you'll need:

1 bottle BBQ sauce

1 can each (drained and rinsed);

cannellini beans (white beans)

black beans

pink beans

kidney beans

one 8-12 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes

1 cubanelle pepper (seeds removed and diced)

1 tsp crushed red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Note* This recipe yields four- six servings depending on the greed of your family or guests. ;-)

Instructions:

• Dump every thing into your crock pot (high setting)
• stir
• Come back and 2 hours
• DEVOUR!!!!! 

That's my 2 cents!

-Kimba

SOUP SERIES : Spicy chicken and potato

Hello Friends,

How has the first week of fall been to you? It's been a bit rainy here in Boston. That's alright with me. Rain causes me to slow down, take time to think, relax and COOK!!! Yes, so whilst thinking I decided to begin a soup series. Which led me to cook. Heheheh.

For the first soup recipe in the series we're looking at a delish, filling, flavorful spicy chicken and potato soup.

 This recipe is super simple. Especially since I'm starting with canned broth.

What you'll need:

one 3 lb can of chicken broth

3 green onions

1/4 small white onion diced

4 medium sized potatoes (peeled and diced into bite sized pieces)

half a  red pepper diced

half a green pepper diced

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1+1/2 cups cooked chicken meat shredded

Goya Sazon seasoning packet

 (recipe feeds 4 greedy people)

Instructions:

• Empty can of broth into a medium stock pot, bring your broth to a boil.
• While waiting for broth to boil, peel and dice potatoes.
• Once broth has boiled add packet of Goya seasoning.

• mix seasoning into broth with a large spoon, then add potatoes, green onions, onion,  peppers and red pepper flakes.

• Bring back to a boil, add chicken, cover, lower heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Your potatoes will be tender, chicken will stay moist and your soup will be full of flavor.

Nothing like homemade soup. It beats the canned stuff every time ;-)

ENJOY!!!! 

That's my 2 cents!

-Kimba

Pretty Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

An excerpt from  "Merry Autumn" By: Paul Laurence Dunbar

The earth is just so full of fun
It really can't contain it;
And streams of mirth so freely run
The heavens seem to rain it.

Don't talk to me of solemn days
In autumn's time of splendor,
Because the sun shows fewer rays,
And these grow slant and slender.

Why, it's the climax of the year,—
The highest time of living!—
Till naturally its bursting cheer
Just melts into thanksgiving.

Happy Saturday,

Fall is here HOORAY!!! Anyone who knows me well, knows I really like fall and I really love cupcakes!!   Today's post combines  two of my favs into a delicious treat!! Pretty Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes... With it being the first day of fall and all, I'm really excited to share this recipe with you.

No, your eyes are not fooling you. 

The cupcake is filled with pumpkin pie!

What you'll need:

For cake:
3 cups Softasilk cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1+1/2 sticks of butter

For pie:
One 15oz can pumpkin pie filling
2 eggs slightly beaten
3/4 cup evaporated milk

For frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp evaporated milk
Heaping tbsp of pumpkin puree

Recipe Yields 18 cupcakes

Pie instructions:

• Follow instructions on your favorite pumpkin pie mix for baking  pie. Typically it's one can of pie mix, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup evaporated milk. Once you've mixed the ingredients together, spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and fill with mixture. Bake according to instructions. (usually 450 for 15 minutes then 350 for 30-40) remove and cool. Once cooled, slice into 1-1 1/2 inch chunks. The chunks will be used to fill your cupcakes! YUM

Your chunks should look like this.

 Cake instructions:

• Oven should be preheated to 350

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together.

• In a separate bowl mix baking powder, baking soda and salt together with cake  flour

• Add eggs one at a time to sugar and butter mixture. Mixing well after each egg is added. 

• Stir in milk and cake flour. Alternating what you add. First flour then milk then flour then milk. ( until all cake flour has been added) Mix well
• once cake batter is fluffy add vanilla beans ( or vanilla extract)

To assemble cupcakes for baking:

• fill cupcake pan with liners. 
• Using a 1/8 measuring cup, fill liner with batter.

Take your chunks of pie and place in the middle of batter... Then cover with another 1/8 cup.

     

• Bake until firm and edges are golden. (aprox. 20 minutes)
• Allow cupcakes to cool fully before attempting to frost.

Frosting instructions:

• In a large mixing bowl cream 1/2 stick of room temp butter
• add sugar by the half cup, mixing well
• once all sugar has been added, add pumpkin puree ( this will give your frosting a nice tint and light flavor.)
• to frost, simply fill Ziploc bag with frosting and snip off corner. Frosting will glide smoothly out allowing you to frost your cupcakes in whatever manner you'd like. ( You can always just smear the frosting on too still yummy) 
• Use leftover pieces of pie to adorn the top of your cupcakes.

NOTE: If you'd prefer vanilla frosting, just add 1 tsp of vanilla extract and skip the pumpkin puree.

Thanks for stopping along on the fall crawl! I hope you've enjoyed ;-)

Make sure you check out all of the awesome, creative, seasonal crafts
that have been shared along the way!! 

That's my 2 cents!

-Kimba