A Perfect Way to Start off Your Day...

These Pumpkin Muffins are a great start with a cup of coffee! (...or milk for the kids)

...and, seriously, who doesn't want to start the day with chocolate chips? :)

Ingredient Notes: No flour or sugar, contains egg

These are fabulous make-ahead muffins for those quick school or work mornings...whenever we know what that feels like again, huh? Very much kid and husband approved.

I have made these SO many times, they are a definite favorite, go-to recipe very often. I do not remember when or where I got the original recipe--so I cannot share a link. I have tweaked it many times to be what we like.

Last week, I had planned to make these but neither of my 2 store stops had canned pumpkin! (Everyone is going to have canned stuff in the pantry for months that they don't use would be my guess!) So, I used applesauce with a small bit of mashed banana to thicken it up a little. It worked well as a pumpkin replacement and they were tasty--but definitely not as good as the pumpkin!

So, when I saw pumpkin in the store this week, I just had to purchase and make them again.

I figured I would share since this has been one fo our favorites for a while now. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup / Agave (I usually mix the two so I don't use up all of one or the other.)
- 1 Tbsp. Vanilla
- 3 Tbsp. Melted Coconut Oil (You could also use 3-4 Tbsp. Nut Butter of choice)
- 1/4 to 1/3 Cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (or your milk choice. Start w/ 1/4 cup add more if too thick)
- 2 1/4 Cup Oats (Pulse to flour before adding)
- 1 Tsp. Baking Powder
- 1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 Heaping Tsp. Cinnamon
- 1/2 to 2/3 c. Mini Chocolate Chips (really any you like best, regular size chips would be fine too)

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350F (My oven runs hot, so I set it at 340F for my non-stick muffin tins.)
- Grease muffin tins with coconut oil (yields about 15 muffins for me)
- Pulse the oats by themselves till they turn to flour
- Add the Powder, Soda, Salt and Cinnamon, and pulse together well.
- Starting with the wet ingredients, layer everything into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. (Scrape down and pulse again if needed.) *At this point, I usually scrape everything into a bowl & give it one quick/gentle stir w/ a spatula to make sure it's well-combined.)
- Stir in the chocolate chips gently with a spatula.
- Spoon batter into greased muffin tins, about 3/4 full. (yields 15 muffins, or for larger divide batter into 12 tins)
- Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes, until springy to the touch and golden.

Below are some pictures to reference. Let me know if you make them and how they turned out. Enjoy!