A Vegan Food Delight: Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins

Muffins are a favorite vegan food {yep, I’m one of those weird people who doesn’t eat animal products}. But vegetarians do eat animals products and this is proof to any doubters that healthy vegetarian and vegan recipes can be both healthy – AND tasty!

This is a carb-rich food which is my favorite kind of food. Politically correct eaters spurn carbs, but I certainly don’t. In fact, if there’s ever a contest for Carb Queen Of America, count me in. The good news for any doubter is that even my son likes these pumpkin cranberry muffins and he looks at much of my food with the enthusiasm of a plate of insects.

It’s still autumn, at least for 16 more days, and if pumpkins and cranberries aren’t autumn foods, what are?

Before I give you the recipe for these low fat muffins – actually NO fat muffins – it’s important to note something … when we make breads that are low in fat, or in this case have no fat at all, their texture definitely isn’t like cake. It’s good ole fat that makes breads like cake. How I eat these is by heating one (or two, or three – just kidding. Not quite that greedy!) and putting on some of the jam or jelly that’s made with fruit juice. Please, please, please avoid that awful things with fake sugar. They are neither healthy or bliss-promoting.

* 2 cups whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour
* 1/2 cup sugar + 1 teaspoon stevia (you can use all sugar if you wish, but stevia is a great product)
* 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 1 T baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 can of pumpkin
* 1 T Red Mill egg replacer (makes the muffins rise more) (if you want a vegetarian recipe, use eggs)
* 1/2 cup dried cranberries soaked in 1/2 cup water

Preheat your oven to 375.

Allow the cranberries to soak for a few minutes and then put everything into one bowl and mix just until damp. The more you mix these the tougher they will get, so be light handed.

Bake 25-30 minutes.

Of course, you can make lots of substitutions here. For instance, use raisins or other fruit, or even chocolate chips (I use vegan chocolate) for the cranberries. Of course, if you use chocolate, you will definitely add fat – although it might be worth it to you. It is to me sometimes. Also, you can substitute any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger for the spices. Also, you might want to use sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin. These are pretty forgiving.

Give these a try and you might realize that vegan food really isn’t poison. Or if you want ‘real’ eggs, add them and you’ll still have a healthy vegetarian food. And you’ll be doing good for the animal kingdom while you eat. Not a bad deal.