Pumpkin Protein Muffins

I've been working on a Pumpkin protein muffin and I think I've finally found a good combination of ingredients for the perfect, healthy, cold weather muffin. The original muffin recipe that I played around with to come up with my recipe can be found here at Dashing Dish.  As with most of my muffin recipes, this one includes no added refined sugar and it gets its sweetness from honey and dates. It is also classified under the gluten free category and it got two thumbs up from my kids and fellow "health nut" trainers at the gym. So I think we're good!! If you like pumpkin I think you will really like this, and I love that it has a good little dose of protein to it, making it a great pre or post-workout snack. Enjoy!

 Ingredients: 

1 15 ounce can pumpkin
1 cup Plain lowfat Greek yogurt
1 cup Applesauce (I used my home made applesauce that also had some cinnamon in it)
12 TBSP Pasteurized Egg whites (I use Organic Valley) - any would be fine
2 ½ Old Fashioned Oats
2 scoops French Vanilla Protein powder (I like the Designer Whey brand)
1/2 cup Raw local honey (microwaved a few seconds to liquefy a bit)
6 pitted dates
2 tsp Baking soda
4 tsp Baking powder
3 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Pumpkin pie
Dash of nutmeg


Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray your muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Here's the easy part....take all of the above ingredients and dump them into a food processor and blend until it's smooth and oats are all ground up.

Fill your muffin tins with the mixture (about 3/4 of the way full) and bake for 18-20 minutes.  Mine took the full 20. Let them cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tin.  Then place them on a cooling rack before storing.  They taste good a little warm!!  This recipe yielded me 20 muffins.

Enjoy!

In Good Health,
Debbie