Pumpkin Banana Oat Muffins

It's officially October so I figured it was time to break out the pumpkin and let the fun begin! As fall approaches, thoughts of pumpkin bread, ice cream, muffins, spice cake, etc, start to swirl in my head. I love the stuff and thankfully, there has been no shortage of pumpkin puree in my area. Still, this year I am faced with a challenge of a different sort. Then new and improved clean eating me can't bear the thought of making pumpkin-you-name-it and not being able to enjoy it.

I set out to try and find a clean way to enjoy pumpkin, and found inspiration from Katie at Good Things Catered. She took a pumpkin banana oat muffin recipe from recipeZaar.com and made some substitutions to make it a little more nutritious. Still, her recipe packed plenty of sugar and white flour, and that wasn't going to work for me. I switched out the white flour, whole eggs and sugar with some cleaner ingredients and the results were fabulous! This was my first time working with sucanat as a sweetener, and although I was hesitant to try it - it's great! The molasses flavor is fantastic and really adds to the complexity of the flavors in the muffin. I omitted the nuts this time around because I wasn't sure where I would be with the calorie count, but might throw them in next time now that I know the base recipe is only 100 calories per muffin!


Pumpkin Banana Oat Muffins
Adapted from Good Things Catered
Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup oat bran
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1.5 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 of a 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 egg whites
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/2 cup sucanat

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Spray with cooking spray or line muffin tins with paper liners.
-Combine flours, bran, oats, baking powder, spices, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
-Using whisk or spoon, stir until well mixed.
-Combine remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl; beat until smooth.
-Gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined
-Spoon into prepared pans or tins.
-Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
-Remove muffins from pan and cool on wire rack as soon as they come out of the oven.

Nutritional Information per muffin:
Calories: 98
Fat: 0.7 g
Saturated fat: 0.1 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 150 mg
Potassium: 83 mg
Carbohydrate: 20.7 g
Fiber: 2.9 g
Sugar: 6.5 g
Protein: 3.3 g