Guest Post: Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

Today's guest post comes from Ali, who lives in Vancou... you'll see.

Hi everyone.

My name is Ali, and I live in Vancouver, Canada with my boyfriend J. We are both graduate students, so we eat on the cheap, and we're both pretty active - I'm training up for a half marathon - so we're a couple of hungry buggers. The recipe below is a great way to use up pumpkin, if you've got it, and cranberries.

This muffin is one of our faves: It's cheap and healthy and good (what a coincidence!), and also portable, freezable, and toastable. CHGPFT! Also, let's compare this nutritional info with the info for a "Lowfat raspberry muffin" from a large international coffee chain that shall remain nameless. Their muffin (according to their online nutrition info): 340 calories, 6g fat, 2g fibre, 7g protein. This is their healthy muffin, people. And let's not even talk about the price...I'm not sure what they are charging for their muffins, but it sure as heck isn't $0.53. Yikes. So, save your money! Save your calories! Give the muffins below a try....you won't regret it. Promise.

A couple of notes:

1) The inspiration for this recipe comes from a fantastic cook book called Re:Bar, but we've made loads of adaptations to it so I'm not sure you could call it the same recipe. Nevertheless, the idea of putting millet and pumpkin together in muffin form comes from those guys and their yummy restaurant.

2) Did you know that there is as much protein is 1/2 cup millet as there is in 2 eggs (11g)? I didn't. And the millet is a third the price. So there's that.

3) For the pumpkin: we bought a huge (10 pound) pumpkin from a farmers' market, cooked the sucker, mashed up its insides, and froze the resulting mush in 2-cup ziplock bags. I admit I do not remember the exact price of the pumpkin, but it was cheap. So what you have here is my best guess for price. I'm guessing that the pumpkin cost about $10, and we got about 7 frozen cups of mush from it, plus a cup or two of pumpkin seeds.

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If this looks good, you'll surely love:

• Banana Oatmeal Muffins
• Blueberry Muffins
• Egg McMuffins

~~~

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

1/2 cup millet (uncooked)
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1.25 cups pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
1 cup flour (all white, or 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

1) Preheat oven to 375 degress. Grease a muffin tray, or line with muffin papers.

2) Toast millet in a hot dry skillet until it's lightly browned and starts to smell toasty. Set aside.

3) Beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla until well mixed. Then add in yogurt pumpkin, and vegetable oil. Mix.

4) In a different bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and millet.

5) Combine wet and dry, and stir in cranberries. Don't overmix, or muffins will be tough - use minimal stirrage.

6) Bake at 375 for 20-25 mins or until a knife comes out clean.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fibre, Protein, and Price Per Serving
155 calories, 3.8g fat, 3.1g fibre, 4g protein, $0.53

NOTE: Calculations are in Canadian dollars. Just add about 10% to convert to USD.

Calculations
1/2 cup millet: 378 calories, 4.2g fat, 8.5 g fibre, 11g protein, $0.50
2 eggs (we used happy-organic-free-range-type, hence the price): 126 calories, 8.7g fat, 0g fibre, 11.1 g protein, $1.75
1/2 cup sugar: 387 calories, 0g fat, 0g fibre, 0g protein, $0.25
1 teaspoon vanilla: 12 calories, 0g fat, 0g fibre, 0g protein, $0.10
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt: 77 calories, 1.9g fat, 0g fibre, 6.4 g protein, $0.64
1/8 cup vegetable oil (we used grapeseed): 241 calories, 27 g fat, 0g fibre, 0g, protein, $0.20
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree: 104 calories, 1g fat, 9g fibre, 3.4g protein, $0.75*
1/2 cup whole wheat flour: 203 calories, 1.1g fat, 7.3g fibre, 8.2g protein, $.0.18
1/2 cup white flour: 228 calories, .5 g fat, 1.7g fibre, 6.5g protein, $0.15
1 teaspoon baking soda: 0g everything, $0.05
1 teaspoon cinnamon: 6 calories, 0g fat, 1.2g fibre, 0g protein, $0.10
2 teaspoons fresh ginger: 12 calories, 0g fat, .5g fibre, .3g protein, $0.35
2 cups cranberries: 87 calories, 0g fat, 8.7g fibre, 0.7g protein, $1.35
TOTALS: 1862 calories, 45.5g fat, 36.6g fibre, 47.5g protein, $6.37
PER SERVING (Totals/12): 155 calories, 3.8g fat, 3.1g fibre, 4g protein, $0.53