Pumpkin isn't just for pie

Well, after I came home this morning from dropping Mike off I had some free time to kill. I started thinking about the several cans of pumpkin I have in my stockpile downstairs and did a little research to find some yummy recipes. Because of course, as we all know, pumpkin is super healthy and should be utilized as such. :)
I found one recipe I thought I would try , mostly because I hadn't really eaten breakfast yet and I was hungry.
Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

I found this recipe on the cooking light website and make a few tweaks of my own. I also doubled the recipe and was quite pleased to find buttermilk in it, because I just so happened to have some leftover from the potato leek soup this past weekend.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces) I used a mix of half white, half whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger instead of the ginger, cloves, and cinnamon i used 2.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder oops accidentally forgot this 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup granulated sugar i used a combo of half splenda, half sucanat(also known as evaporated cane juice) but you could use all splenda or stevia or whatever you want
• 1 cup canned pumpkin yum
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk yay its all gone from my fridge
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped (such as Craisins) used craisins in cherry juice, raisins would work too
• Cooking spray 

  Cook as directed, 20-25 mins in a 375 degree oven. I baked mine for the 25 mins as mentioned  by cooking light, but I think it could actually have been better at 20 mins. Another step I failed to follow in the recipe was to spray the paper cups with cooking spray. :) My muffins smelled and tasted great but were horrible to peel out of the cups. That'll show me for not reading all the directions.

In any case, definitely a keeper. The cooking light version has 199 calories, 3.2 grams fat, and 41 carbs per muffin. My version, using sparkpeople's recipe analyzer, has 150 calories, 3.1 grams fat, and 29 carbs per muffin.
I ate 2 before I had to stop myself and put them away. :)

In other news, I actually weighed in yesterday at 338, yay me! but then was back to 339 today. It's all good. I went for a 2 mile walk yesterday with Mike as well, finished in just under 48 mins. It's a little better than last time, 50 mins. We're planning on going fishing this weekend, supposed to be better weather than all this rain mess. I also made a new goal with Mike. I told him that when I lose 50 pounds we're going mini golfing. And not one of those lame courses either. I want pools and caves and hills and everything. Since I am only 11 pounds away, I feel  pretty motivated. We don't get out to do fun stuff too often. I also made a shorter goal with myself. My brother is coming up to visit from Georgia in 2 weeks. I want to be able to tell him I've lost 45 pounds since the last time he saw me, a year ago. So that's 6 pounds away from where I am. I feel like it's an excellent short term goal. One that I can easily reach within 2 weeks. Wish me luck!