Recipe for kid friendly food 1

I had a request from a reader to share what kinds of foods our family eats. I responded in the comment section of the helpful websites post from Sunday. I mentioned a few favorites that I will give recipes for. Here is one for my pumpkin muffins. I developed this recipe when I was pregnant with Alex 11 years ago. I called them sunshine muffins when they were little, now they call them yum!

I refer to expeller pressed oil. Most commercailly produced oil is derived by soaking the vegetable or grain in a chemical to separate the oil from the food. Expeller pressing is just what it sounds like. Crushed food is placed in a bag, weighed down and pressed to expel the oil. This is much healthier and as close to nature as possible.

Our palets have been accustomed to low sugar foods for a while, so I barely use any sugar. An old friend told me that they needed more sugar, my response was "my kids eat them without it, so why should I add it in?" You may want to increase the amount of sugar to 1/2 c otherwise they may not taste good to you. Eventually if you reduce the sugar in your diet, you won't miss it. Yesterday I made these with a 1/3 c of brown rice syrup instead of sugar. They were moist and delicious.

I use almost all organic ingredients, but these work fine with conventional foods as well.

Sunshine Muffins
preheat oven to 400 degrees

1/2 c oats pulverized in blender
1 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c ground flaxseed
1/3 c sugar
2t baking powder (rumford brand)
1/2 t salt
1 egg beaten
3/4 c milk
1/3 c oil (expeller pressed if possible) I use sunflower, safflower, olive or canola.
3 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
2 t vanilla
1 15 oz can pureed pumpkin- not pumpkin pie filling

Optional crumb topping to be sprinkled over tops before baking
4 T butter
6T flour
1/2 t cinnamon
3 T sugar
Mix until crumbly.

Mix all wet in 1bowl, mix all dry in another. Dump dry into wet, mix until just blended. Line muffin tin with liners, add a scoop in each . Makes 24 muffin. Bake 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.