Pumpkin Oat Muffins

At the beginning of October, I start getting ready for Halloween.  Skeletons start populating our porch, ghosts take up residence in our yard, and pumpkin recipes start abounding in our kitchen.  Bags of candy are bought (and hidden so that they actually make it to Halloween), and costumes are chosen: one for me, which I excitedly wear, one for my husband which no amount of wheedling can get him into, one for my SIL, which she tries to get out of wearing (good luck with that) and one for the dog, who only wears it because she can’t figure out as good a hiding place as where I keep the candy.

This year, I had to add another item to the list: light bulbs for the lights on our walkway…and almost got another skeleton to put on the porch in the process.

I took the bulb out of one of the lights and went to a local lighting store because I thought I’d have a better chance there than at some place like Home Depot.

Me: I need several of these bulbs

Guy behind the counter:  What you need to do is turn around and go to an auto parts store because that is from a car.

Me:  No, it’s from a light in my yard (and if you keep talking to me in that patronizing tone of voice, I’m going to turn around and give you an up close and personal encounter with this light bulb that you will never forget)

Guy:  Are you sure that’s where it comes from, because it looks like it belongs in a car.  Maybe you’re mistaken.

Me: Pretty sure I took if from the light in my yard and not my car, but I might be mistaken because sometimes I get those two confused.  They look so much alike to me.

Guy: (apparently not entirely sure I wasn’t serious) No, really, it comes from a car.

Me: No, really, it comes from an outdoor light.  Here is a picture of one of the lights in my yard.  It’s right next to that big metal thing, what did you call it?  A car?

Random guy customer who decided he wanted to risk his life by butting into the conversation (honestly, sarcasm is just lost on some people):  Let me see that.  Yeah.  I think it’s from a car.

Me: And you’d be wrong, but thanks for adding totally nothing to the conversation (okay, maybe I used my inside the head voice for this comment, but my outside my head eyes definitely rolled and my outside the head teeth bared)  Once again, wrong.  I took it from a yard light.  I unscrewed the top, got a screwdriver and unscrewed the the two bolts holding it in place, then I took it right here.  But I did drive my car, if that counts.

Guy #2 behind the counter: (obviously sensing things were going downhill faster than a pig on skates) We have a box of those downstairs.

Guy #1: We do?  Well, they’re probably not the same voltage.

Me: Really? Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oat flour (you can grind up rolled oats instead of buying a separate bag of flour)
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup of vanilla protein powder (I use RAW)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (unsweetened)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350, and line approximately 14 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour through the pumpkin pie spice (I use a whisk)
3. In a small bowl, whisk the syrup through the vinegar till combined.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a spoon till combined.  Let the batter sit 5 minutes or so to rise a bit.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, put one scoop of the batter into each cup, then bake the muffins for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!