More Fall Fun & Pumpkin Muffins!

Here are "the boys of fall"....not the boys mentioned in Kenny Chesney's song about football players -- but MY boys of fall. ;)

We looked around for some fun fall related activities and we found an event at the Lawn on D in Boston. They had a kid friendly Pumpkin Patch event, and I think I mentioned that in a post a few weeks ago. It was FUN. Lots of activities for kids and adults - my kind of event! 

We also took Caden and Conor to Lexington Center yesterday morning for some coffee, pumpkin bread, and foliage by the Lexington Battle Green. Here we all are playing in the leaves yesterday! 

We also went to my godson Jared's first birthday party AND ventured into the city to visit Jordan and Chelsea's for the Patriots game. Here's a pic from their awesome roof-deck. 

On a completely unrelated note, if you haven't seen the "muffins" skit on youtube, you have to stop everything and watch the ridiculousness now. My sister and her friends discovered it back in 2006 or 2007. Whenever anyone says anything related to muffins, I instantly think of that skit.

You can [hopefully] see where this is going. I decided to make some pumpkin muffins this morning because of the pumpkin bread the boys devoured at Starbucks yesterday. So I found a recipe online which made about two dozen. I tweaked it a bit due to what ingredients I had and what ingredients I wanted to add. Short of it was, I didn't have any eggs and needed to make do.

Pre-oven pics:

Post-oven pics:

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup applesauce
1 banana
1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place paper liners into the cups of your muffin pan.
• Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, whisk together and set aside.
• In a second bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, coconut oil (warmed/liquid), chia seeds, chocolate chips, applesauce, banana, and vanilla extract.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until everything is incorporated into the batter.
• Use a large scoop (like an ice cream scoop) to evenly distribute the batter into each well. Fill them almost to the rim -- clearly I did not. I made small ones for C and C. If you fill them to the top, it will help give your muffins a nice puffy dome.
• Bake your muffins for 20 minutes.

*Notes:
If your coconut oil is solid, warm it up a bit so that it is in liquid form.



The boys LOVED the muffins. They are perfect at around 9AM they want a second breakfast, so these super healthy filling muffins are perfect! The pumpkin, chia seeds, banana, applesauce, and coconut oil are all great for kids' diets. YUM!

Til next time...

Shaz, C & C