Last week I shared some of my favorite fall recipes (see fall recipe round-up) including a recipe for cinnamon oatmeal apple muffins. As an extra bonus I said I was currently working on a recipe alternative or remix using pumpkin instead of apples. Well here it is! They are just as tasty and hearty for morning breakfast as the apple variety.

Today is my mother’s b-day and she makes a wonderful cream cheese pumpkin muffin. When Luke and I got ready to take the U-haul across the country to New York last fall I asked her to make us a batch. They were a great treat with coffee as we hit the road (even if the crumble topping made a small mess in the truck). Now these are not the same muffins. As much as I love her cream cheese pumpkin muffins I wanted to attempt a healthier alternative. But maybe I will make some  closer to the holidays. . .

Other than the obvious difference in fruit use (yes pumpkin is actually a fruit) I added  honey because pureed pumpkin does not have the natural sweetness of applesauce or apples.  Each muffin is 125 calories and this recipe makes 20-24 of them.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 C pumpkin puree

1 C 1/% milk

1/2 C brown sugar

¼-1/2 C honey

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves

1 tablespoon pumpkin spice

Instructions:

1.  Soak the oats in milk for an hour.

2.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

3.  Spray muffin pan with cooking spray or line with butter.

4.  Combine the oat mixture with the pumpkin, milk, egg whites, and honey, mix until combined. Depending how sweet you want your muffins, you may want to use 1/4 or 1/2 C honey. If you use 1/2 C honey then you muffins will be 140 calories each.

5.  In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients (except the ½ tbl pumpkin spice, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp sugar) together.

6.  Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined.

7.  Spoon muffin mixture into muffin pans

8.  Combine cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and brown/white sugar and top each muffin with some of the mixture.

9.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

What is your favorite pumpkin flavored food? Dessert?