Pumpkin, Take One (of many)

I love pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bars. You name it, I love it. Now that fall is (sort of) here, I felt the need to make something with pumpkin. You can bet this will be the first of many things pumpkin-related to be added to the blog in the next few months. I already have plans for some pumpkin madeleines to break in my new madeleine pan.

I was considering making a quick bread, but I just decided to make muffins for portion control and because I just love having muffins for breakfast, So, once again, I altered my basic healthy muffin recipe to make the pumpkin muffins. These are even healthier than usual because pumpkin is packed with so much nutritional goodness!

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Healthy Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ginger
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable/canola oil, if you're not calorie counting)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Sift together flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices.

In a seprarate bowl, beat egg with brown sugar until well combined. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, applesauce and pumpkin puree.

Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in nuts and raisins.

Pour mixture into muffin cups and  bake approximately 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Nutrition Info, per muffin: Calories: 143 / Fat: 3g / Carbs: 27g / Dietary Fiber: 2.4g / Sugar: 2.2g / Protein: 3.8g