My new found love for baking has basically become all consuming. I spend countless time searching for new recipes to try and I subject my new husband to trying anything and everything and giving me too much feedback. So when I discovered that a friend of mine started her own {incredible} recipe blog, Hello Delicious, I was pretty much dead set on making every recipe she posts. Well, that was until I got completely stuck on her Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe that I’ve now made 3 times. I’m sharing it with you today because the muffins are 1. So incredibly delicious, 2. They are really easy to make and 3. Everyone loves them! Make them for your next function and you’ll make instant friends everywhere. Not kidding.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
(makes 24-30 muffins)
- 4 eggs
- 2 c sugar
- 1 can pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 1/2 c vegetable oil OR 1 1/2 c apple sauce
- 3 c flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 c mini chocolate chips
-Preheat your oven to 400°F.
-In a large bowl combine your eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and apple sauce together with an spoon.
-In a separate bowl combine your flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. The past couple of times I’ve also added less than 1/2 tsp of a nutmeg just for extra Fall-ness.
-Add your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and mix until combined. I like to do this in 2 installments so I don’t get flour everywhere. When you can’t see anymore flour stir in your chocolate chips.
-Prepare your muffin pans with non-stick spray or cupcake liners. Fill each cup half to three-quarters full. Bake for 15-20 minutes. At ten minutes I check mine and rotate the pan to ensure even cooking.
{Recipe 100% adapted and mostly copied from Bethany Taylor at Hello Delicious. Original recipe can be found here}
After years of loudly proclaiming that I hated- and would always hate- to cook, I fell completely in love with cooking and baking my own food earlier this year. Perhaps it’s my coming of age tale, who knows. I love every single step of the process. From recipe hunting, to making grocery store lists and trips, to prep work and then finally enjoying the delicacy that you created with your own hands. I used to think that health food was bland. Blah, gross, khaki colored food with little to no flavor, meant to be enjoyed only by those who had no taste buds and had forced themselves to enjoy lackluster food. However, once you learn to love the cooking process, you begin to understand how flavorful real food is. Once you let go of this idea that healthy food has no flavor, you begin to savor the fresh, crisp taste of a cherry tomato and the amazing richness that comes with adding parsley or rosemary to a dish. Anyways, I’m getting weird now, so let’s just get on to why my obsession with cooking has been so helpful since starting this diet…
The Feed Your Face diet is full of awesome, REALLY easy, delicious recipes that I’ve fallen completely in love with. They’re all low in salt, no white sugar and never have any white flour. Plus, they all take very little time to prepare. Here’s one of my favorite recipes that I’ve tried so far: Chicken Pasta
You’ll need the above ingredients, as well as cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and light feta cheese that I added. (Obviously all three are optional, I just wanted the added flavor)
Steps:
- Grill thawed, boneless, skinless chicken breast with no-salt seasoning.
- Cook your pasta simultaneously (generally takes about 10 minutes)
- In a sauce pan, heat up 2-3 tbs of the vinaigrette (this particular one is red wine and olive oil vinaigrette from Trader Joe’s and is my personal favorite dressing for ev.ery.thing), 4-5 sun dried tomatoes, 1 tbs of dried (or fresh) rosemary, 2 minced cloves of garlic and 2-3 tbs of chopped parsley. Let this simmer on a low heat while you finish grilling the chicken and cooking the pasta.
- Slice up the chicken, place on top of the pasta, pour your dressing on top and mix together. For added flavor, put some low-fat cheese (I used Feta) and fresh cherry tomatoes on top.
Serve warm with a delicious glass of Cab on the side.
Total time: 20 minutes
Try this for dinner tonight and let me know what you think! I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised at how delicious face friendly food is.
xo,
Libby
p.s. product review for my favorite primer coming later this afternoon!
