Healthy Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

Pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin!

Over the weekend, I cooked my first pumpkin of the season.

Slowly but surely, my pumpkin pile is dwindling.

Just look at the last 3 days’ breakfast for evidence.

Pumpkin oats with brown sugar and pecans.

Pumpkin oats with maple syrup and pecans.

  Pumpkin oats with ground flax, peanut butter and maple syrup.

Clearly, my morning pumpkin needs are being met.

But what about lunch and dinner?

If I had only thought about it earlier, I would have put pumpkin in my celeriac soup.

It was pretty amazing, even without pumpkin!

What about my lunch-time salad from yesterday?

I could have subbed pumpkin in place of the blueberries. Pumpkin would have gone well with the plum cobbler the Year 1 students made for the teachers.

I guess my pumpkin addiction will have to manifest in muffin form.

My attempt to create a Pumpkin Morning Glory Muffin was quite successful.

As an added bonus, my apartment now smells like autumn!

These muffins were tossed together using ingredients I had on hand.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Whisk the wet ingredients together.

  Stir in the carrots.

 Add the dry ingredients.

Stir until well combined.

Chop the seeds, nuts and dried fruit.

  Fold in the nuts, seeds and fruit.

Spoon the batter into greased muffin trays and garnish with pumpkin seeds. 

Bake, cool and enjoy!

Makes 14 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (or yogurt)
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricot, etc.)
• 1 Tbsp. flaxseed, ground
• 1 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp. pumpkin seeds plus more to garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, pumpkin, vanilla and honey. Stir in the shredded carrots.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until well mixed.
4. Fold in the nuts, seeds seeds and dried fruit.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the muffins.

Now please excuse me, I haven’t eaten pumpkin in the last 3 hours.

I must remedy this immediately.

Thank God for muffins!

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