Pumpkin Butter + Apple Muffins

Phew! No snow on the ground this morning. (They were predicting 1-3 inches.)

Yesterday after work, Craig and I hit the gym for a weight lifting session. Usually when I go to the gym, I focus on upper body lifts: arms, shoulders, back, and abs. I figure my legs get plenty of exercise with all the running I do. However, I will do squats, dead-lifts, and lunges occasionally.

Since I lifted last night, I took the morning off from running and decided to wait until this afternoon.

With my extra time this morning, I cooked up a bowl of oatmeal.

In the mix:

– Homemade Scottish oats

– milk

– water

– chia seeds

– banana, sliced

– bluberries

– vanilla extract

– pure maple syrup

Toppings:

– Nature’s Path Granola

– peanut butter

– PUMPKIN BUTTER!!

I technically shared my pumpkin butter recipe in a previous post, but I wanted to give it all the credit it deserves by posting about it again!!

This stuff is amazing!! It is full of creamy, pumpkiny, sweet, goodness. Both Craig and I can’t get over how delicious it is.

Plus, you can put it on:

– bread/toast

– roll/bun

– muffins

– oatmeal

– even sandwiches! (Craig did it last night and I saw another blogger do it as well!)

Pumpkin Butter

(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup apple juice

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients together in a small saucepan on the stove. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until thickened.

(Note: The mixture will be very thick, so be sure to stir often–otherwise it will stick to the pan.)

2. Stir in lemon juice.

3. Store in a jar in the fridge.

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I also had a muffin this morning.

I had an apple that was about to go bad, so I baked a batch of Whole Wheat Apple Muffins. The original recipe can be found here.

They were full of moisture and the brown sugar topping gave them the final gold star!

Usually when I make muffins, I use canola oil, but this recipe called for butter, and I could detect the difference. Maybe it is because I’m used to canola oil or because I don’t spread butter in the muffins, but I didn’t care for the butter in the recipe.

Don’t get me wrong, they are good, but I prefer oil instead.

And in honor of Halloween, some “Trick of Treat” muffin liners. I grabbed these at Target when I saw they were cheaper than the regular, plain colored ones.

There weren’t any tricks in this post but lots of treats!