Eddie made me do it...

The other day I was asked by Eddie (@damanlovett) if I did cool breakfasts too. I had to admit that I really didn't make many cool breakfasts. I like something that can be taken out of the fridge and eaten. Sometimes I get into making the whole diner style breakfast, but not very often.

So, research geek that I am, I started looking around for breakfasts that I could bake once and have during the week. Breakfast In A Cup sounded promising. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver on its promises. It was dry and too rice-y. (I know, rice-y isn't a word.) It would almost be better as a side dish for dinner.

Then I thought about muffins. I was first thinking of a muffin version of carrot cake, but then the talk in my Twitter group of pumpkin spice lattes made me think of pumpkin spice muffins. Thanks for the suggestion! They were delicious.

CRANBERRY PUMPKIN SPICE MUFFINS

2 cups whole wheat flour (I use white whole wheat flour)

2 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

2 t ground cinnamon

2 t ground nutmeg (use fresh if you can - it's amazing)

1/2 t salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup splenda

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

2 T vegetable oil
1 t pure vanilla extract

1 cup craisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside. (Note: These aren't overly sweet muffins, so if you like sweeter muffins, adjust the sugar/splenda)

2. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin, sugar, applesauce, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Slowly add the flower mixture to the large bowl until just blended. Mix in the craisins and the walnuts. (I should note that I "chopped" my walnuts in my silver bullet blender and ended up with ground walnuts with some larger pieces. I just dumped it all in the bowl.)

3. Spoon the batter into 18 non-stick muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove muffins from the oven and let cool slightly. (I had no patience to let them cool because I was hungery. Please. Let them cool. They'll come out of the muffin tins much easier for you than they did for me!) Remove muffins from the pan and let cool completely. (I didn't wait for this part either. They were really good nice and warm.)