Perfect Pumpkin Spice Muffins

My sister loves everything pumpkin; lattes, pies, cookies, pumpkin butter. She recently drove in for a visit and I thought I'd surprise her with fresh baked muffins. The recipe that I first used was out of the norm for me, calling for 1 cup of brown sugar and vegetable oil - not really the way I look to start out my day. So as usual, I switched things up a bit and am happy with the results. I also replaced the 2 large eggs with additional pumpkin. Eggs, not really needed (click here for perfect egg subs).

These muffins take 5 minutes to whip up and are an awesome way for you to start out your morning - no refined sugars, no white flours and everything that treats your body good.

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 1/2 cup warm water
• Rolled oats
• Some raisins or dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease muffin pan with coconut oil.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Beat agave and pumpkin in medium bowl until blended (I do this with a fork), add water and vanilla, stir. Gradually stir in flour mixture. Add a handful of raisins, stir. Fill muffin tin with batter. Sprinkle each muffin with rolled oats and press lightly into batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pans, remove to wire rack (i never do this.. muffins are still sitting in their tins - whoops).

If you really want to pick things up a bit, throw in some toasted wheat germ, chia seed and/or flax meal.

Enjoy!

Kale Chips - who knew??

Who knew that you can "chip" this amazingly great for you green, that it would taste oh so good and, you'd actually crave more?

I found this sweet invention (orig. recipe here) during the CSA season-  here's the one that we're with and they ROCK, when I had chard and kale coming out of my ears. Now, I'm longing for all of those greens so I can throw some olive oil, cider vinegar and sea salt on them and roast 'em up -so so good.
psst - moms, kids like them too!!

Preheat oven to 400F, give some olive oil love to a cookie sheet.

• 1 bunch organic kale, torn into 1/2" pieces, can remove stem or leave on -washed etc
• 2 TBL organic olive oil
• 1 TBL organi apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp sea or kosher salt

Whisk oil and vinegar, toss kale pieces into the dressing until thoroughly coated. Place kale on oiled sheet in a single layer and sprinkle with salt. Bake for about 15 mins or until crisy. Secret is to check these after 10 minutes, shake up the pan and go from there.

Enjoy!

Perfectly Rich and Silky Ice Cream; one ingredient and no maker needed!

I'm sitting down tonight, earlier than usual and had to share a dessert that I just made. I'm super excited about it and the fact that I was able to get it done in 2 minutes, makes it even better. I should also mention that since I've been prego, I crave ice cream and I don't even believe in pregnancy cravings, however, ice cream has my heart (and belly) at the time.

I ran across this today on the kitchn blog and was intrigued enough to add it into my evening detail. The title to the post is "How to Make Ice Cream with Just One Ingredient" frozen bananas.

Seriously? Do you know how many frozen bananas I have waiting for me in my freezer? I usually will whip'em into a healthy banana bread or muffins or add into something that I'm baking. Lately, I haven't had the luxury to bake and my frozen banana stash has been growing. BTW, don't ever throw a brown banana out, peel it and throw it the freezer in a ziplock for baking, smoothies and now, voila, ice cream.

Since I was intrigued (and slightly obsessed) I mean really, how could you get luscious, delicious, creamy, smooth ice cream out of frozen bananas??? I'll tell you, pull them out of the fridge, cut into chunks and throw into your food processor - that's it. Watch in amazement how they whip into ice cream right before your eyes.

and of course.. it was so good!

The major tips can be summed up as: (click here for a step by step slideshow, it's pretty)

• Peel your bananas first.
• Cut them into small pieces.
• Freeze for just 1-2 hours on a plate. (mine were in a ziplock in the freezer for who knows how long)
• Blend, blend, blend - scraping down the bowl when they stick.
• Enjoy the magic moment when they turn into ice cream!