Skip to main content

Pumpkin-Ginger-Chocolate Muffins....or Oh, The Hypocrisy!

SUBTITLE: I HAVE NEW TECHNOLOGY.  SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ENTRY!

Remember this post?  In which I complain about eating too much and feeling crummy?  In which I resolve to keep foods simple and close to the source?

Yeah.  That lasted three days.  Less than that, actually.  But that's neither here nor there.

I'm a hypocritical idealist.  Sue me.  I see the world in a certain, simple way...and figure that it's a matter of a practical course of action that will get me there.  But reality has its own ways and means as well.

Aaah well, there's always tomorrow to get on board with the right kind of eating.  Whatever that means, really.

So.  The husband took down the Christmas tree today and my kids began to clear out the holiday detritus.  And what's good for the (Ryan) goslings is good for the goose.  My kitchen pantries are in need of the same.

Hence, these muffins I made today.


With the holidays come holiday baking and cooking.  With all that come extra ingredients...chocolate chips, nuts and other sundry odds and ends.

When Kirby planned the meal for today, and put regular ol' Pumpkin Muffins on the menu...I saw a golden opportunity.  As luck/fate/my own damned inefficiency would have it, I had no ground ginger in the pantry.  But...I did have a three-inch leftover knob of fresh ginger left over from the beef pho I'd made the night before.  Ha!

And, I also had a half-bag of mini chocolate chips.  Double ha!

I also have various nuts in my freezer and I was two seconds away from adding a handful when I remembered that my husband "prefers not to have nuts added to baked goods".  So I left them out (this time...I found out later, to my chagrin, that he would have been fine had I added some pecans - jerk).

I used the last bag of pumpkin purée in the freezer (seems like just yesterday...or September...when I was baking all those pumpkin pieces for processing).  It also occurs to me as I type this RIGHT NOW that any kind of puréed vegetable might work here.  Squash, definitely.  Carrot, maybe.  Rutabaga?  Hmmm.  And the extras?  You are only limited by what pantry items you need to get rid of...except for pinto beans or similar.  That, I'm afraid, I cannot condone.  Shredded coconut?  Wheat germ?  Flax seed?  Raisins?  Canned pineapple, drained?  Get crazy!

I know I was all on my high horse a couple of days ago about eating right and eating simple...and I know, I know.  You're right.  Baked sweets does not constitute eating right.

Fine.  I eat my words.  And my muffin.

NEW FEATURE: Printable Recipe Here

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Go Placidly

My food truck business started back up this past weekend, and from here until November, the weeks will be packed.  Sandwich-slinging Thursday-Saturday and bartending work Monday-Wednesday.  And Sunday, I guess, is the day to sleep in and hide in my house. Hiding out is the one thing I feel like doing a lot of these days.  My food truck's ReOpening wasn't the only thing happening in my hometown this weekend past.  A 13-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed on Saturday and then yesterday, the police department busted one of the biggest meth labs in a long time. Both are tragic...one is a sad loss, one that will devastate a loving family for the rest of their lives.  One is tragic only because of the profound stupidity/ignorance/addiction of a few people who happen to be living in a town mostly filled with good-hearted, hard-working people. And if it's not drama at the local level, then there's the constant bombardment of news that seems to be vividly...

We Overeat...Because We're Getting Fatter?

Well, if that just doesn't flip conventional medical wisdom on its head, I don't know what will. So I'm reading "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes, right? Chapter 9 is titled "Laws of Adiposity" - much of the first section discusses an experiment conducted by George Wade.  After removing the ovaries from three sets of female lab rats, this is what he found: 1. The rats who were allowed to eat whatever, whenever gained weight and became obese. 2. The rats who were put on a strict post-surgery diet still gained weight and became obese. 3. The rats who were injected with estrogen and left to whatever eating pattern they chose did not grow obese. Obviously, this experiment (with further explanation in the book) linked the presence of estrogen to weight loss/gain.  Taubes goes on to say "estrogen influences an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL)".  These enzymes pull fat into cells that express a need for it (91).  When there is no estrog...

Fun With Tomato Juice

This blog entry has quite a backstory, but I'll sum it up quickly. In making the mega-batch of Red Sauce, I drained roughly 32 oz of juice from a large can of diced tomatoes.  "Waste not, want not", so I froze the leftover liquid, to be used at a later time. That time was today.  My original thought was to concoct a chili or similar, but then...I had ideas! Searching online, I found a recipe for Tomato-Basil soup at www.allrecipes.com.  With slight modifications (I had no crushed tomatoes or fresh basil) to the soup, today's lunch was soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Raves all around, and I guess now I can say goodbye to Campbell's Tomato Soup. Thank you - allrecipes.com! That left me with another 20 or so ounces of remaining tomato juice, and I was hankering to do something crazy with it.  And what would be on the other end of the tomato usage spectrum, if innocent, comforting tomato soup is on the another? The Bloody Mary, of course!  Blo...