Pumpkin Protein Muffins

I am pretty much in love with anything sweet, especially if it involves ice cream. But, that's not very conducive to my triathlon-training lifestyle! So, in an attempt to make baking a little more healthy, I tested out a recipe from Neghar Fonooni's blog (a super strong woman that seriously kicks butt and takes names!) for pumpkin protein muffins. The basic recipe taken from her blog http://www.negharfonooni.com/ is as follows:

Wet stuff:

15 ounces canned organic pumpkin

2 egg whites

Dry stuff:

1 cup oats, ground in food processor

2 scoops vanilla protein powder (this had 23g per scoop!)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup splenda (you could certainly use sugar or agave nectar if you don't mind the calories)

Handful chopped walnuts

Mix all that junk up and transfer to a muffin tin coated with nonstick spray, filling each muffin cup about halfway. Put into a 350 degree oven and bake for just 8-10 minutes.

I actually doubled the recipe when I made them (apparently I was confident that they would turn out yummy!), but I accidentally forgot to double the sugar, so they turned out a bit less sweet than you'd expect in a muffin. I also added some milk to the batter, since it seemed a little thick. The overall result was quite tasty. They are still very muffin-like, although slightly more dense and none of that weird oily (read: fatty) texture you get sometimes, and the ground up oats and protein powder combo (rather than just plain, all-purpose flour) make them much more nutritious than your average muffin. I'm curious to try making these again with a little more protein powder and oats, or maybe a wheat germ/oats combo....some of the larger muffins were still a bit undone in the middle (perhaps partly the result of me adding milk), but the wheat germ should help soak up any extra moisture. I also want to try subbing the egg whites with a flax seed/water combo that is a great egg substitute in vegan baking.

These could easily be made vegan and/or gluten free, although I still need another batch or two to get the texture right. This is my first time cooking with protein powder, and overall the muffins turned out great! I'm excited to try some other combos in the future, to lend a little more nutritional value to some of my baking endeavors!

Up next: Frosted Caramel Apple Layer Cake!

Fresh out of the oven, still kind of dough-like rather than muffin-like