Mini pumpkin muffins }{ recipe

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

This week has been busy with preparations for our family's Thanksgiving meal. Today we set the table and I baked mini pumpkin muffins. Each of us will be bringing three dishes, and I figured I would get a head start on mine now.

Tomorrow there will be so much cooking, talking, drinking, and making merry, that I know I won't have time for blogging. So I wanted to share this awesome little recipe with you tonight. It's delicious and it comes in bite sized pieces for less guilt. Well, that word shouldn't be allowed on Thanksgiving at all anyway.

The original recipe is found here: Allrecipes' pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I doubled the recipe and made half with raisins, and the other with peanut butter chips instead of chocolate (as per a family member's request)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/4 cup of apple sauce
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of water
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400F and grease or line a pan of 24 mini muffins
2. Mix the sugar, apple sauce, and eggs.
3. Add the canned pumpkin and the water and mix.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients, then combine them with the pumpkin mixture.
5. Divide the batter however you like and add the raisins and chips. My family wanted more peanut butter chips, so I divided the batter into approximately thirds and added the raisins to 1/3 and peanut butter chips to the other 2/3.
6. Spoon the batter in the liners/greased pan and bake for about 15-17 minutes. Repeat until you use all the batter. We got 60 mini muffins today with these measurements.

I set them on a platter, but somehow the mini muffins seem to be disappearing...

A day for giving thanks

I love Thanksgiving.

It's the one holiday, squeezed between two other awesome but very commercialized holidays, that still centers around family. At least for us it does. It's not that I don't love Christmas, I do. Believe me, I do. But there's just something fulfilling about thanksgiving and getting together with the family for a big feast. I like the idea of taking time to reflect on the things I am grateful for, and we do it almost every day before bed or at dinner time. But then, to have a special day dedicated to that, that's just gravy.

So, in honor of this great holiday, here's my list of 10 things I am thankful for (in no particular order).

The princess drew this for me at school

1. Life: waking up everyday to a brand new day, alive and healthy.
2. Beauty: take a look outside and find beauty around you. It's there.
3. Family: it's a given, but I love my family so much. All of them, even when I'm mad at them.
4. Laughter: its infectious, and the cure for the worst cases of the blues. Go figure.
5. Friends: a second family that I've chosen myself. Here's to making new ones and finding long lost others.
6. Opportunity: I've been given so many great opportunities, though I haven't succeeded in all.
7. This blog: it's been neglected but never abandoned because it makes me so happy and provides an outlet for my scattered brain.
8. You: my bloggy friends who still take time to stop by, read a bit, and say hello sometimes. You make my life happier.
9. My husband: life would be so much sadder without him to share it with.
10. My daughters: yeah, they're family of course, but they get a special place of their own. I'm so thankful and amazed that they're here.

And speaking of family, here's what I received from mine. My aunt sent me these adorable mittens for N1 (the princess) and the cutest hat for N2 (the dragon). One day I hope to be as good as she is with crochet...

Thank you for stopping by!

One for the family

This post goes out to our families scattered throughout three continents.

The Squish with her eyes open:

This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, I will be posting more than usual. Today, a little Squish for the family, tomorrow a thank you post, and Wednesday, a recipe for bite-sized yummies for Thanksgiving dinner. Hope you're all having a wonderful week!