Last week when we were menu plan­ning, I got the urge to make some muffins.  This fall, I have been LOVING any­thing with pump­kin in it.  When I was try­ing to decide what muffins to make, I thought about mak­ing banana muffins which are our reg­u­lar around here.  Then, I remem­bered my friend Erin telling me about these pump­kin choco­late chip muffins she had found on Money Sav­ing Mom’s blog.  I decided to make those, but I also remem­bered Erin say­ing that she had found them to be a lit­tle oily, so I decided to make some changes.  Some turned into many, and here is the result.

The orig­i­nal recipe (my changes in bold)

Pump­kin Choco­late Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups sugar  (I changed this to honey, and I reduced it to 1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp of honey**)
1 (16 oz.) can pureed pump­kin  (Because of my change from sugar to honey, I took out 6 Tbsp of pump­kin)
1 1/2 cups oil  (I used 3/4c. apple sauce, 1/4 c. oil, and a banana)
3 cups flour  (I used half all pur­pose and half whole wheat flour)
2 tea­spoons bak­ing soda
2 tea­spoons bak­ing pow­der
1 tea­spoon ground cin­na­mon
1 tea­spoon salt
1 pack­age choco­late chips  (I used 1/2 pack­age of choco­late chips and a hand­ful of raisins)

In a large mix­ing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pump­kin, and oil until smooth. Add in dry ingre­di­ents and mix well. Fold in choco­late chips (and raisins).  Fill greased or paper-lined muf­fin cups 3/4 full. Bake 16–20 min­utes (I found about 17 1/2 min­utes to work the best for our oven)at 400 degrees. Makes 24–30 muffins.

**One web­site I found said to add a pinch of bak­ing pow­der to neu­tral­ize the acid­ity of the honey.  Since I was already adding it, I didn’t add any­more.  I’m sure I could have though.

Results:

They turned out really well espe­cially con­sid­er­ing what I did to them.  I think next time the only changes I would make are tak­ing out all the oil and using the pump­kin instead.  I also found them to be plenty sweet, so I might exper­i­ment with less sugar and more flour.  My kids really enjoyed them, and even though they are gone, I am still get­ting “mump­kin puf­fin” (accord­ing to A) requests. 

I can­not find a good recipe!  If any­one has a great (veg­e­tar­ian) lentil soup recipe, please let me know.  Tonight, I made Deb­o­rah Madison’s Hearty Lentil Soup, and it was alright, but it wasn’t great.  I have made a cou­ple other recipes in the past, and I find it is miss­ing a depth in taste.  Any leads, sug­ges­tions, or ideas are appreciated.

For some time now, I’ve been look­ing for a fab­u­lous recipe for hum­mus. I’ve found a few that are fine. I found one that was decent. I also found one that was not good at all. I just haven’t found one that is great, though.

I really like the hum­mus from the store. It’s so expen­sive though for such a lit­tle con­tainer. I should be able to make my own for a frac­tion of the price, right? Well, I can make my own, but it’s missing…something. Mine seems to have a bland taste and not be rich and deep like the fla­vor of the store bought hummus.

My recipes are all pretty sim­i­lar. They all con­tain chickpeas/garbanzo beans, olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, gar­lic, and salt. I just vary the pro­por­tions of each ingre­di­ent, but I just can’t get it right! Heather! Do you have any gourmet magic? Any­one else? Even sit­ting here, I’m get­ting a crav­ing now for some really good hum­mus. Too bad the stuff I made on Sun­day is just okay.