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.
  
  

God is GOOD.

It's finally Autumn (ish) around here. The weather is starting to cool down to the 70's and lower, the Santa Ana winds are howling, and all of a sudden I feel depressed. It took me awhile to finally put my finger on it, as I hadn't thought of it at all since mid summer.

I should be just in my 3rd trimester.

I should be bustling about my kitchen, making pies for tonight, pressing my belly against the counter, straining to reach my different flours. I should be starting to find it difficult to find comfortable sleep positions. I should be bathing in lotion, trying to avoid stretch marks.

But instead I'm jumping up and kneeling on my kitchen counters to easier reach my different flours. I'm sleeping like a log most nights, because I've been staying up late sewing, planning and being productive. I'm remembering to put on lotion, when my skin feels like an alligator's.

In one regard, when moments like this hit me, I feel so empty, like something is missing. (which, honestly, is true.) But at the same time, I feel so full!

God knew that my little one (1.5, as I've started calling him), would be better going straight from the warmth and love of my womb, straight to the eternal warmth and love and joy of His arms. God knew that I would need my full energy and non-hormonal patience for when my sweet boy dumps his entire bowl of soup onto his tray at lunch time. (which just happened, mind you) God knew that my schedule would be so FULL that I would have had a hard time keeping it all together if I was pregnant right now. God knows what I don't-the future.

Maybe, instead of giving birth around New Years, I'll be helping someone move, or help a family with their kids, or just have a wonderful time relaxing with the family at home. Maybe, instead of balancing a newborn and a toddler early next year, maybe I'll be balancing more sewing projects and maybe moving?  Maybe, instead of staying home with two kids, I can take my one over to a friend's house and help her with her newborn.

Who knows? Not I.

Even though moments like now, my heart feels heavy, I choose to be content. I choose to have joy. The Lord has given me peace. Yeah, I may not be bouncing around the house today, but I will not wallow in self pity. I am healthy. My husband is healthy and has a wonderful job. My son is healthy and full of energy. (ok, that last bit about his energy may not be the greatest thing...) I just finished some big sewing projects for clients that helped to pay off some costumes I made this summer. Life is good. We are blessed. My little 1.5 is walking with Jesus, meeting family we have in Heaven, experiencing a closeness with God that I have yet to experience!

And we've been busy. I'm making pies today for our ladies retreat tonight. Tomorrow morning I'll be making muffins, then later tomorrow dinner rolls. (and then a cinnamon bun cake and waffles on Sunday!) We're planning Festividad this year for church. We have an anime convention in January. Our cup is full.

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

~*~*~

So today I'm trying out two new recipes. An Americana Apple Pie and a Moo-Less Chocolate Pie. (I'm especially excited about the chocolate pie, no surprise there! Neither of them are originally my recipe, so here's the two links to both recipes:

The apple pie smells amazing! I just pulled it out of the oven, and I gotta say, it really does smell good. I'm looking forward to cutting it open tonight and trying it out.
http://thefitchen.com/2013/06/25/americana-apple-pie/

I have the crust finished (just use gluten free cookies for the crust), and once my little guy is down for his nap I'll continue on and make the filling. So excited for this one!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/moo-less-chocolate-pie-recipe/index.html

 

Doesn't that pie look good?!

He did this while I was typing. I suppose the spoon just wasn't working fast enough!