A Tasty Experiment

I have quite the stash of recipes, and because I’m a make-do kind of girl I often adjust them a little to suit my family’s tastes or to substitute ingredients for what we have on hand, but I can claim very few as my own.  This one, though… it’s definitely mine.

On Monday, under the careful supervision of my littles, I cut into one of the few dozen pumpkins we’ve picked from our mulch pit.  We toasted the seeds and made pumpkin puree for the first time.  “Now what, mom?”

After denying a request for “pumpkin patch pie” (I had already made a chicken pot pie and was done with pie crust for the day, thankyouverymuch)  we decided on muffins.  But not just any plain ol’ pumpkin muffins would do…

Starting with my favorite whole wheat banana bread recipe (from my home-town church cookbook) we got creative, mixed a few of our favorite flavors, and pulled these tasty muffins out of my oven.  You know I wouldn’t share them if they weren’t good!  Give ‘em a try!

Finer Things Fall Comfort Muffins

• 1 c. melted butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. honey
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 c. water
• 1 c. mashed banana
• 1 c. pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. soda
• 1 tsp. Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus (a spice miracle!) or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 c. white flour
• 2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. chocolate chips (or a few more )

Blend sugar and butter.  Add honey, eggs, and water.  Mix well.  Add banana and pumpkin.  Mix well.  Stir dry ingredients together, add to wet batter just until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Makes 3 dozen (plus 3!) muffins.

Experimenting in the kitchen with ingredients you have on hand can result in frugal, tasty fun!  Free pumpkins from my garden + red-taped bananas ready for a good recipe = yummy muffins.  We even got to create the name!

This post is linked to

• In Season Recipe Swap
• Life as Mom
• The Grocery Cart Challenge