Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
I’m back! You’ll have to forgive me for the past couple months. They were arguably the busiest of my entire life. But I am baking once again! Before we get into the details of my latest delicious creation, here’s a brief recap of recent events to give some context for my absence and perhaps entice understanding from my wonderfully patient readers:
- Moved into my new apartment
- Unpacked – umm…amidst the busyness, this took several weeks
- Waited for cable / internet to be installed…twice – thanks for not showing up the first time Time Warner!
- Travled to Rhode Island for a weekend to attend a wedding
- Planned and conducted a major brainstorming workshop for clients at work
- Cheered for the Cardinals at a Mets game – they’re in the playoffs now!
- Celebrated a good friend’s birthday
- Drove to CT and back for work meetings – times two
- Vacationed in Europe with Dan for 10 days – an absolute DREAM! If this were a travel blog, I could do a billion posts about that trip!
- Worked 75+ hour weeks for a month straight, including through Labor Day weekend…
- …while I was in Chicago visiting my sister – and having lunch with Jenn!
- Traveled across the country for a week to watch market research focus groups
- Played host to my parents while they were in NYC for a weekend
- Researched and bought a new bike – wheeee!
- Brunched with old friends from high school
- Went to several doctor appointments
- Plus a whole bunch of other very important stuff that I need to keep secret for now…shhh…
Whew! A lot of work (sad…) but a lot of fun (happy!) in there too. With all of the above going on, I haven’t had much time – or kitchen access! – to make my own meals, let alone do any awesome baking. However, the dust seems to be settling – knock on wood – so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
To kick it off, let’s play a little game of Train of Thought, shall we? I’ll show you how I decided to make what I’m sharing with you right now!
Today = October. October = fall. Fall = pumpkin. Pumpkin = great oatmeal mix-in. Great oatmeal = pumpkin + mashed banana + flax + … Ooh – I got it!
These Pumpkin Banana Oat Muffins both welcome the new season and celebrate my re-found ability to make breakfast in the morning. Pumpkin, banana, flax and maple syrup are the ingredients that make up my favorite bowl of oatmeal – and they’re now brought to you in muffin form! Top these off with some peanut butter and you’re good to go. Yum!
Here’s my recipe for Pumpkin Banana Oat Muffins, adapted from this recipe:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup flax seed meal
2/3 cup maple syrup
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup oats
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 375*F. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, mashed bananas, vanilla, eggs, flax seed meal and maple syrup until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix whole wheat pastry flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just blended. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.
I was quite pleased with these muffins! Seems like the ole baking skills haven’t gotten too rusty from lack of use. Dan liked them too – though his enthusiasm might have been more reflective of the fact that I was baking anything at all! Moist, chewy and filled with healthy ingredients – they’re a perfect way to start the day.
Do you eat oatmeal? What would your fall + oatmeal muffins look like?
YES
Mom said you were back.
I love pumpkin everything. I told Mom just today to buy pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin beer. October, November, December are my favorite months by far.
Since you made pumpkin (banana) oat muffins, I have to throw out the counterpart to the autumnal treat–pecan! …cuz there’s pumpkin and pecan pie at Thanksgiving. That was my thought process.
OMG you are back! so happy to have you baking delicious things for us again.
MISSED YOU!!!
I’ve grown to like St. Louis but not enough to live here permanently. It’s a big change from growing up so close to NYC. I am hoping to find a more long term job (or maybe go to grad school) in another city. Glad you finally have time to get back to baking!
girllll those muffins look FRESH. I am Obsessed (with a capital O) with pumpkin. It is one of the great flavor of all time and I just wait all year for fall to come around. Can’t wait to try these!
Welcome back!
Great recipe! I LOVE how there’s no added sugar. 🙂 Clean and healthy muffins – I like it!
Glad to hear the dust is settling just a bit…and welcome back to the blogosphere. 🙂
Glad you’re starting to settle in a bit more and super glad to see you posting and baking again!! Welcome back! 🙂
Wow – 75 hrs/week! Glad things are getting smoother.
Those muffins look delicious!
Yummmmay!! These look awesome – wow, look at all that stuff you just did. I understand the busyness (as you know, since I totally ducked out on you two at lunch..ugh!) I hope life settles down and you can get more baking in – I’ve missed you!
I would like to hear these secrets, if I can. I don’t know what it is, but if it’s what we had talked about briefly when we met…I want to know 😉 Obviously, no pressure to tell…but I’m just saying! Hahaha.
back! and with a vengeance 🙂 these sound delish, and quite the summer you had–sounds like it was alot of fun 🙂
Great to see you are back- sounds like you have been EXTREMELY busy!! The muffins look beautiful!
Looks delicious! Glad to see you’re baking again! Sounds like a great summer though, besides all the work….
OOooh Ashley, these muffins look so tasty & fabulous even!!
Good luck & enjoy your new appartment!!
YES!!!!!!!!!!
Dont you ever do that to me ever again! bahaha. I missed you to pieces.
Oh and about this: ‘If this were a travel blog, I could do a billion posts about that trip!’
What a tease! I say you blog 1 post about your travels…please???? pretty please with sugar on top?
These were AMAZING. I added some chocolate chips for good measure and wow – definite hit. WELL DONE! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
I tried these today and boy did they taste great thanks for the recipe 🙂
Made a half batch of these today as mini muffins with the guts from a small pumpkin. they were a huge hit with the kiddo and apparently go well with legos too.
Really amazing! Very tasty but not too sweet. A perfect breakfast muffin. I made these as mini muffins and the recipe made 48 in total. I added a little nutmeg and some chopped walnuts but otherwise followed the recipe as specified. Will definitely make these again!
Have you ever tried using spelt for this? Would it ruin the recipe? I am fairly new to baking and I need to avoid wheat, but this looks delicious. I have substituted spelt for a couple of things so far and it worked out, I am just not sure about the pastry flour…have not even heard of that. Thanks!