Pumpkin Muffins and Apple Spice Muffins

Two posts in the same month? It's a miracle!

I mentioned on Friday that I'd be making muffins for the Saturday morning breakfast at my ladies retreat. Well, I've had many requests for those recipes, so I figured I'd make life easy and blog it here!

We celebrated family birthday's earlier this week, and my awesome lil-sis-in-love got me a new cookbook. *yay!* It's babycakes by Erin McKenna. The recipes are vegan, (mostly) gluten-free, and (mostly) sugar free. And they rock! I did two of her recipes on Saturday, and I'm going to share them here. I highly recommend adding this cookbook to your collection! And to make life easy, I'm even including a link for buying it from Amazon. ^_^

http://www.amazon.com/BabyCakes-Gluten-Free-Sugar-Free-Recipes-Talked-About/dp/0307408833/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381093340&sr=8-2&keywords=babycakes+by+erin+mckenna

These apple cinnamon muffins were delicious. Our little guy was lucky enough to have a few, and he kept asking for more. (In the end, I limited myself to four muffins in one sitting, thankyouverymuch.) These are great for breakfast! Or just snacking. Or just whenever...

Roasted Apple
1 pound granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced in 1 inch cubes
1 pound pink lady apples, peeled cored, and diced in 1 inch cubes
1 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Muffin Mix
2 cups all purpose GF flour (they recommend Bob's Red Mill, but i used my own flour blend)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup rice milk (or coconut, or almond, or hemp, or...)
2 TBSP vanilla extract

 * To make the yummy

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, toss apples, cinnamon, agave nectar and lemon juice until the apples are completely coated. Spread this mixture evenly on the baking sheet. Bake them in the oven for 35 minutes, rotating the sheet after 20 minutes. The apples will be soft when done, pull them out and cool them.

Keep the oven on, and line your muffin tins!

Now whisk together all your dry ingredients-the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. Add the oil, agave nectar, milk and vanilla, and mix completely. Add in 1 cup of the apples.

Fill each little cupcake mold about halfway to two-third's full. Bake for 22 minutes, rotating the pans at the 10 minute mark. They'll be golden brown and pass the toothpick when done.

Cool, eat and enjoy!

***When I made this recipe, I double the muffin batter and used ALL the roasted apples. She makes a note in the book that the apples can be kept in the fridge for up to a week, if you want to make a batch of muffins a few days apart)


The pumpkin spice muffins were a huge hit yesterday-and I clearly didn't make enough yesterday! I decided to make them again this morning for those who didn't get any yesterday (including myself) and this time I made enough. These are moist, yummy, tender, absolutely delectable. I've got a feeling I'll be making more of these soon.


2 cups All-Purpose GF flour blend (the recipe recommends Bob's Red Mill. Today I used my own personal blend)
 2 tsp baking powder
 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp xanthan gum (only if it isn't already in your flour blend. My personal blend has it, so I omitted it today)
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP cinnamon
1 TBSP ginger
1/2 cup coconut oil
 2/3 cup agave nectar
 2/3 cup rice milk (or coconut, or almond, or hemp, or...)
2 TBSP vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
 1/2 cup hot water

•  How to make the yummy!
  
   Preheat the oven to 325. Line your cupcake pans with liners. The recipe says it makes 12, but today I got away with making 23?...
  
  Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Add the oil, agave nectar, milk and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth and thick. Add pumpkin and water, blending thoroughly.
  
   Fill your cupcake liners about halfway to two-third's full with batter. Bake the muffins for 22 minutes, rotating the pan(s) after about 10 minutes. Use a toothpick to confirm they are done.
   Allow to cool, then inhale and enjoy!
  
  ***I added chocolate chips to mine, because I love mixing pumpkin and chocolate. I added roughly 3/4-1 cup of chips in after I had already blended in the pumpkin and water.
  
  

Lessons learned and pumpkin bread

I really should post more about dinners and such, instead of cookies and carbs and whatnot... Hmmm... *shrugs* Oh well! ^_^

 This morning I woke up randomly craving pumpkin bread. Ok, maybe it wasn't all that random-I think the pumpkin bread I saw at a store recently just lodged itself into my brain. I could've had a slice they were offering right then and there, as I'm allowed to have wheat, dairy, sugar, corn and oats again. However, I'm not having wheat/gluten at all ever again. (at least, not in a baked good kind of way. If the french fries I want from Jack in the Box are cross-contaminated, I won't sweat it) See, I've discovered something. I really am allergic to wheat/gluten.

 A few weeks ago I enjoyed some Christmas cookies and trail mix that my friend made-tasted soo good! (it was sugar, of COURSE it tasted good!) But I realized something halfway through that first cookie-I could feel land and settle in the pit of my stomach. After two cookies, I could feel a headache starting slowly. After four cookies I definitely had a headache. ...I'd love to say I stopped there, but three cookies after that was when I stopped. I was dizzy, had a headache, they were just sitting in my stomach and I figured I'd blown the "small amounts of wheat" idea out of the water well enough. When I woke up the next morning, I had joint aches, my dry skin exzema issue was back in full, and I had four cold sores on my lips. Oh yes, I am avoiding wheat!

 Dairy isn't as bad a reaction. My skin had cleared up beautifully over the last 3 months or so, but once I started having my yogurt and kefir again?...my face has horrible breakouts all over again. >_< So once I finish off that kefir and yogurt, I'm done with dairy! I won't sweat the small stuff, like, if my friend makes cookies and they used milk. Whatever. I have no shame in enjoying a piece of dark chocolate every now and then. But once this dairy is out of the house, I'm not going back to kefir with breakfast and yogurt for a snack! That Girls' skin has spoken!

 All that to say, I will stay as gluten free and dairy free. I may have a recipe every now and then with corn or oats. And maybe a bit of cane sugar every now and again. But celiac's and lactose-intolerants will continue to find welcome recipes here!

 That was a rather long winded explanation for why I didn't have a pumpkin bread sample in the store and why I woke up craving pumpkin bread. Wow. Sorry!

Cut it 

Cut me. Ladies and gentlemen, using knives before the brain is awake is no easy thing!

 The other reason I wanted to make pumpkin bread was because I realized I still had a sugar pumpkin from before Thanksgiving that had to be used. So this morning I cut open that pumpkin,  sliced the skin off it, cubed it, steamed it, pureed it and was ready to make me some pumpkin bread! Woohoo!
 It tasted so good.

 Super easy to make, and soo worth it! I made 3 small loaves, froze 2 and cut one up for breakfast bread. Life is good, as far as our taste buds are concerned!

3/4 cup coconut sugar
4 TBSP pure maple syrup
1/4 cup EVOO
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin is fine)
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup teff flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I had whole cloves of nutmeg, so I just used freshly ground half a nutmeg)

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Mix all the wet ingredients together
3. Add dry to wet. Blend well.
4. Spray chosen loaf pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Bake in oven that's been preheated to 350. If you're making three small loaves, 35 minutes is good. If it's one large loaf, aim for an hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean

See how easy that is?! I'm thinking that next time I make this bread, I may make two regular loaves, and add cocoa chips to the other. Or try making them into muffins. Next time I'm going to try subbing applesauce for the oil-make it a bit healthier. Either way, it's sooo good! If you like pumpkin bread, even a bit, you'll enjoy this! For those three loaves, I got about 10 slices from each. So the tally is 70 calories and 12 carbs a slice of pumpkin pleasure. ^_^

Halloween and yummy foods

This past weekend was insane. Plain and simple.

Saturday- make 5 course meal for Mystery Dinner
Sunday morning- make 2 different baked goods, a protein dish and 2 fruit dishes for church food table
Sunday night- dinner for friends coming over for Halloween Hullabaloo
Tuesday-working the polls for election day-6am to 10:30pm-need food for myself all day

It was busy. And I survived it! And now I have a few more great recipes in my clutches for this season! *bwahahaha*

Saturday was fun. Plain and simple. My friend was hosting a Mystery Dinner, and she wanted to have a 5 course meal with it. Small problem is, my hubby and I were both going to go, and we have all these food allergy problems. Soo, I volunteered to "cater" it and make food there at the party. So much fun. We had aioli dip with roasted potato slices and carrot sticks, a lovely green salad, pumpkin soup, cranberry chicken with rice and green beans, and an asian apple tart. The tart and soup were my favorite. And this is coming from the girl that has texture issues, didn't like pumpkin for so many years, and couldn't stand cooked fruit dishes. Yeah. Life changes.

That soup. Oh, that soup! New favorite for our house. It is amazing. Plain and simple. The ailoi dip, the pumpkin soup and the tart recipe all came from Gluten Free Girl and the Chef's cookbook. Amazing book-if you have gluten allergies-GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW! Or, better yet, TELL YOUR FAMILY YOU WANT IT FOR CHRISTMAS!!! No joke-best birthday gift I got this year. I use this book so much!

The great thing about the recipes in the book-as long as you follow it and don't make a ton of changes to the recipes, it'll turn out amazing. Everything I've made has been delicious. Even with me needing to alter it for dairy avoidance. Amazing food. Amazing!

 Anyways, back to that night. It was great, I made the tart crust the night before, because the dough needed to be fridged overnight. Prepped as much as I could for all the different aspects I was going to be making. Made the dip a few hours before. Cooked the crust and tart there. I had so many lovely ladies helping in the kitchen to prepare! So many thanks to them! I had one friends slicing potato's into little wedges for the appetizer, another helping with dicing up onions for the soup, and then various floaters who would open the oven door for me when needed and stir this and that when needed. Amazing team effort. I made the tart, got that baked, cooled and put in the fridge to chill. Then focused on the soup. And it was worth it. Every minute spent working on that soup was worth it. My oh my. I had been nervous-THREE recipes I had never tried, but was going to making for a crowd. Why did I worry? Why worry when it's recipes from GFGirl? Seriously, silly me!

Creamy. Chunky. Spicy. Sweet. Smooth going down. A warm, hearty soup that sings of autumn leaves and scarves and evenings with family. I could eat bowls of this all day. Perfect for this weather!

Try it. You won't be disappointed. And if, somehow, you are-then call me and I'll pick it up and eat it for you. But if you follow this recipe, I promise you won't be sad.

One 5-pound sugar or pie pumpkin

6 TBSP EVOO

kosher salt and cracked pepper
1 large carrot, peeled and large diced
1 red onion, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, large diced
5 cloves garlic, smashed into smaller pieces (and peeled, of course)
1 TBSP chopped fresh sage (I only had dry, used the same amount)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, quartered and medium diced
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or, like me, powdered)
1 bay leaf
2 quarts chicken stock
1/2 cup coconut milk (or heavy cream, for you dairy people)
2 TBSP butter

2 tsp pumpkin seed oil (or EVOO)

1.  Preheat the oven to 450. Cut the tops off the pumpkins and slice into quarters. Scoop out all the pumpkin guts-but save the seeds for later. Arrange pumpkin flesh side up on baking sheet. Brush on EVOO and salt/pepper mix. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the flesh is soft. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
2. You can use the same sheet if you want, but either way, lightly coat the seeds with oil. Toss in the oven for about 5-10 minutes, until the start to brown ever so slightly. Season with salt and set aside to cool.
3. Scoop the pumpkin flesh from the skin. Dispose of skin. Break/cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces-about the size of chunks you wouldn't mind on your spoon in a soup.
4. Set a large-ish stockpot over medium heat and add the last of the EVOO. Add carrot, onion, celergy, garlic and cook, stirring until the onion turns translucent. Maybe 10 minutes or so. Add sage and cook until you start smelling the herb.
5. Add in the sweet potato. (yay!) Toss in nutmeg an bay leaf. Pour in the chicken stock, and add the pumpkin chunks. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until that sweet potato is tender.
6. Find and remove the bay leaf-it has done its job well. Puree 3/4 of the soup and add it back to the chunky soup. It will create a lovely cacophany of texture. Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper.
7. Add cream/coconut milk and butter. Bring to a boil then again reduce to a simmer for about another 10 minutes. We're thickening it a bit, and giving it a few minutes to fully blend and incorporate. Stir it frequently through this time.
8. Ladle the soup into bowls, and garnish with pumpkin seeds a little dash of pumpkin seed oil. Serve.

 Serves 6-8. 322 calories and 35 carbs

I think I prefer my soup without the seeds added to it-I prefer munching on them while cooking and mingling. A delicious little snack. (I say this as I'm sitting here typing and munching on them)

Best soup ever!

Next time I make the apple tart I'll take pictures and post the recipe. (unless you want the recipe now?) Just know it tasted great. So very great!

I'll post one more recipe for now, then I gotta run a few errands for work. (yay work!) The protein dish I made for Sunday. I've never made an egg casserole before, and I felt a bit intimidated when I realized that all recipes for egg casseroels have cheese in them. I mean, an egg casserole without cheese? Would that even taste good?

MMmmm...yes!

May I emphasize this as a protein dish?...

3 sausage
4 bacon
1/2-1 cup sweet potato
6-8+ eggs
1/2 cup+ coconut milk
chili pepper

Cooking the sausage, break into small bits. Dice the sweet potato and add to the sausage. Season kinda heavily with chili powder. Once it's cooked, spread into the bottom of the baking dish, reserving a small amount. Beat eggs and milk, and pour into pan, enough to cover sausage and potato. Cook bacon and break into small bits. Sprinkle 3/4 of the bacon over the egg. Add the last of the egg and sprinkle with remaining sausage/potato/bacon. Bake in oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Serve.

Sooo good!

Pumpkin Carob Chip Mini Cakes

I have discovered my birthday cake. And it is amazing. I can hereby celebrate and be happy!

This recipe I found from one of the blogs I like to follow, and then I altered it a bit to suit the no-sugar and flavor preferences. So if you want the recipe unaltered, here's the link to that recipe, and the awesome blog I love to follow:
http://iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/2009/10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-mini-bundt-cakes.html

There's another awesome blog, you may have heard of it before, Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. They just came out with a cookbook-I'll be getting it soon from a friend for a birthday present. *YAYAYAYAYAY!* I follow those two blogs and check them each day-they have wonderful recipes for baked goods, meals, occasions, everything. And it's really encouraging to read about other families that have similar challenges with their diets, and how they overcome. If you, or anyone you know are celiacs, and you haven't checked these sites, you gotta check them ASAP!

Last night we celebrated the September birthdays on my hubbies side-his Dad, our brother-in-law, and myself. The cupcakes had dried a bit (which I figured they would, considering the box mix was using ONLY rice flour and tapioca flour) but that's why I made something else sweet to bring. And it was so delicious! Pumpkin carob chip mini cakes. They were so moist and delicious. I love them. Dearly. I used to always want chocolate chocolate chip bundt cake for my birthday-and that's kinda difficult when I can't use that recipe or have real chocolate. But instead, I mixed the next best things into an amazing dessert, and I will be making it again. And again. And again. And again. And maybe sometime I'll reduce the sweet, and make them into muffins for breakfast. Ooh...that IS a good idea! Maybe I'll run to the kitchen to play later.. >_>

 It's a long list of ingredients, but SUPER easy to make! You can make them into actual bundt cakes, mini bundt cakes, cupcakes, whatever!

Pumpkin Carob Chip Mini Cakes

2 oz millet flour
2 oz teff flour
2 oz buckwheat flour
2 oz tapioca flour/starch
2 TBSP carob powder (or unsweetened cocoa)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
dash of allspice
dash of mace
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 can pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (mine was actually raspberry applesauce, but you couldn't tell)
1 cup maple syrup (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup brown sugar)

2 oz carob chips (or chocolate chips)
1/2 oz maple chunks (optional)

1.  Sift all the dry ingredients together, making sure there's no lumps and it's mixed fully together.
2. Stir all wet ingredients together and blend fully.
3. Add wet to dry, and incorporate til smooth. Add in carob chips and stir gently. I added maple chunks to what I made, just for the fun of it.
4. Pour into pan(s) that are pre-greased. Toss into preheated oven of 350 for about 25 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. I think mine took about 30 minutes to fully bake, but mine also had added moisture from the maple syrup.
5. Cool fully. You can add a chocolate glaze if so desired. I used the same glaze recipe that I made for the scones awhile back.



Sifted flours-not yet stirred up though



Stirring up them flours





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Wet ingredients!



Wet ingredients are prepped and ready to be added!

Measure those well!



Poured and ready for some baking-can't wait to see how they'll be!



You gotta admit, those look rather impressive!

With some carob glaze of yumminess!

Moist, pumpkin, carob goodness! Each little cake you see in the pictures is roughly 145 calories and 25 carbs. (I had 15 servings, so that's what it measured out too, feel free to do the math if you make more or less) 

ENJOY!