Are You Ready for Halloween?

Costumes are done. Check. Decorations are up. Check. Candy is bought. Check. Bought more candy, cuz you already ate it. Check.

If you already gained weight, here’s a couple of tips for next year: 1) Wait to buy the candy the day before Halloween. Those little Halloween treats are small, but the calories add up after the third or fourth chocolate. 2) Make a rule. Allow yourself one piece a day and stay strong.

Pumpkin is the new orange. Right? It’s everywhere and is very healthy. It’s loaded with vitamin A to repair body tissues and help with night vision. Americans are coming up short for many nutrients including vitamin A, so look for ways to get more vitamin A into your diet.

I’ve never been a big fan of pumpkin pie, so I wanted to find a way to enjoy pumpkin. Literally, I started dumping together ingredients and came up with these delicious, moist pumpkin muffins. I was totally surprised at how great they turned out. Try them yourself.

Dump and Go Delicious Pumpkin Walnut Muffins – Makes 12 muffins

2 cups flour

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon cloves

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 large eggs

½ cup applesauce

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup water

½ cup chopped walnuts

¼ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, walnuts, raisins. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin, eggs, applesauce, oil, water. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and quickly stir until mixed. Don’t over mix, or you will have pumpkin rocks. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. After a few minutes, take the muffins out of the pan.