Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I'm not much of a baker, but I made some pumpkin pie for thanksgiving from a *real* pumpkin (oooh, ahhh!!) and had a lot of puree left. I made some risotto with it for turkey day and still found myself with a cup and a half of puree. Since I am trying to eat better, I decided to try my hand at muffins. They're tasty, freezable and make a great breakfast on the go.

1 1/4 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 c oats
1 1/4 c pumpkin puree (canned is fine)
1/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c milk

Preheat oven to 350 and grease or spray the muffin pan.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until moistened.

Divide into 12 muffins (it's about 1/3 c. batter each).

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Pop the muffins out of the tin to cool. I wrapped them in wax paper and froze them. Though smaller than a traditional muffin, these keep you full well into the morning and are easy to eat while driving.

I used evaporated milk to make these because I had some left over from pie making. Skim milk would probably work just as well. If you need/want to use evaporated milk, you should dilute it with 2 parts water to one part milk before you add it.

Out of curiosity I calculated the calories per muffin. They're about 174 calories each.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I'm not much of a baker but when I see a recipe for shortbread, I can't resist. Bonus points for the addition of chocolate chips.

I got this one out of this months issue of Vegetarian Times. Since I am not much of a baker, I followed this one verbatim. The only thing I would change is the cooking time. I'd do 25 minutes, or somewhere about there to keep the shortbread from being too flaky.

3 2/3 c. flour

1/2 c. cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1 lb. (4 sticks) butter, softened
1c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla
1/3c. REAL maple syrup (I used some from a special someone in VT)
1 1/2c. mini chocolate chips

In a bowl, combine flour, cornstarch and salt. Mix well.

In another bowl, beat together butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla.

Slowly mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Press dough into 15x11 jelly roll pan and prick all over with fork.

Bake for 35 minutes at 325.

Cut and serve.

This recipe also had instructions for melting chocolate and pouring it over top of the baked cookies. I opted to skip this step, but if you want to do it, melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute. Pour it over the cookies and refrigerate until set.