Healthy Pumpkin Recipes-- muffins and cupcakes

 Oatmeal, Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Muffin

I am having so much fun baking with pumpkin. I was never a great lover of pumpkin pie. Don't get me wrong, I always enjoyed my piece at Thanksgiving but it was not something I looked forward to or found the means to have it more than once over the holidays. Now I am discovering that I love the flavor! I especially love it with Pumpkin Pie Spice. It is also heavenly to smell as the latest recipe is baking in the oven!

I tried out a Pumpkin Cupcake recipe from SkinnyTaste.com which were fun to fix for my Fall Chili Supper. They looked good and smelled heavenly but there were mixed opinions about the taste. I thought they were a little gummy. I intend to keep looking for a better cupcake recipe.

Next I tried out an Oatmeal, Dark Chocolate Pumpkin muffin recipe from fitsugar.com. I made this recipe with a friend in mind. She loves things with chocolate in them. These have dark chocolate chips which makes them healthier, especially since the recipe is also made with whole wheat flour, old fashioned oats and walnuts. These are tasty but, as you might imagine with the listed ingredients, fairly dense. They definitely "stick to you ribs" but good for cold weather.

This week I tried out a lighter looking muffin recipe. It also has the least calories of any of the pumpkin muffins...145 per muffin. This simple Pumpkin muffin can be found in myrecipes.com. These were light and airy, even though it does have a 1/2 cup whole wheat flour in it. These were a big hit and I plan on baking them again. A similar recipe which looks good but not as healthy for a simple Pumpkin muffin I also found in myrecipes.com.

Next I plan on trying out a Pumpkin-Cranberry muffin recipe--myrecipes.com. This one I expect to be a hit while still being pretty healthy and under 200 calories. I will let you know what I think!