Whole Wheat and Seed Pumpkin Muffins

Soft and delicious mini muffins made with whole wheat flour, ground sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, and pumpkin.  Quite filling.

Happy Super Bowl everybody.  It seems like everywhere I look people are posting dip and appetizer recipes for your Super Bowl party.  I'm not having a Super Bowl party, I'll be watching (and Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl) but I'm watching alone.  I'm kind of a loner and when my husband is away I sometimes go weeks with out talking to anyone (other than myself).  Don't get me wrong, I like people and when my husband's around (he is much more extroverted than me) I enjoy having people over and I love making food for people.  But if there isn't someone around to invite people over I am perfectly happy being by myself...I guess I'm just weird.  So that means I am not making anything special for the Super Bowl today.  I wanted to post something, so I decided to post my recipe for Pumpkin Muffins.  I made these a while ago and froze half of them and for breakfast this morning I pulled a few out of the freezer, microwaved them for 1 minute, and they were as good as when they were fresh from the oven.

My thought process when I originally made these was that I wanted them to be healthy and filling.  I had about 3/4 cup of pureed pumpkin, leftover from another recipe, so I used this and decided to omit added oil or butter.  I also wanted to make these a bit more filling by using ground seeds to add some protein.  The end result was great, they are not too sweet, have a mild pumpkin and sunflower seed flavor, and are tender.  Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup ground sunflower seeds (1/2 cup whole sunflower seed kernels ground in a blender)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)
4 Tbsp pumpkin pie spiced sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup pumpkin
1 cup kefir (or buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 375F with the rack in the middle.  In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.  In a separate bowl mix together wet ingredients.  Meanwhile prepare muffin tin(s) for baking by either lining them with paper cups or greasing them. When ready to bake the muffins, add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Put into the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes for mini muffins or 25 for regular sized muffins (check for doneness by inserting a wooden toothpick into the center, if it comes out clean they should be done).  Remove from pan and let cool for a few minutes before eating.  Makes 34 mini muffins.  Enjoy.