Pumpkin Muffins

As you may gather from some of my posts, I have this addiction to the grocery store. I could spend endless hours reviewing the sale ads, creating my menus, & grocery shopping. I think my favorite mail day is Wednesday, b/c that is when I should get the weekly grocery store ads. I am always a little disappointed when it doesn't come until Thursday.

So you can only imagine how excited I get for the grocery store pre-Thanksgiving ad. Sugar, flour, butter, Cool Whip, pumpkin, all things baking are always on sale for super cheap. Like $1 a piece. And thus I stock up.

With my 5 cans of pumpkin, I decided to try pumpkin muffins first. I was making breakfast for my husband & his cousin before the disastrous Chiefs game that I refused to go to, and while I had eggs, bacon & hashbrowns on the menu, I wanted something sweet as well. Plus I woke up at like 7am and was bored.

Pumpkin Muffins
Cooking Light
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup fat-free sour cream
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through salt) in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine pumpkin and next 6 ingredients (pumpkin through egg white); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon the batter into 18 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

Combine 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and brown sugar; sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; cool on a wire rack.

I will first & foremost apologize for the horrible picture. I had to take it at work b/c I forgot about taking one, and these muffins deserved a picture. Initially I had made them without frosting & just the crunchy sugar topping.

But the sugar topping soaked into muffins by Monday morning. I had about 12 muffins leftover, so I told the hubs to bring them into work. I had the pumpkin yumkins on my baking list, but since they were pretty identical to these, I decided to just use the frosting recipe.

1 (3oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tsp fresh squeezed orange juice

2 c powdered sugar

zest of one orange, preferably organic

I am not sure if she has her measurements wrong, but 1 tsp of OJ mixed with 1 cup of powdered sugar & 3 oz of cream cheese makes a paste, not a frosting. I added another oz of cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat) and probably 2 Tbsp of OJ to the mixture.