Taste of Fall... Mmmmm... Pumpkin (and chocolate!)

Ahhhhh... it feels so good to finally be home.  Wednesdays are sooooo crazy for us!  It's a leave the house at 6:50 a.m. and get home at 8:00 p.m. kind of day. 

The other day, I was reading my friend Jenn Tousey's blog, Re{def}ining, and she was describing a nice fall morning.  It was cool enough to have the windows open, and she was enjoying some coffee and a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin.  When I read that post, I was like, "Wow.  That sounds perfect."  And for some reason I kept thinking about it.  This morning I was still thinking about pumpkin muffins!  I might have dreamed about them last night.  (Do you dream about food?  I do, ALL the time!) 

I really love pumpkin-flavored anything.  I haven't gotten a pumpkin latte from Starbucks yet this season, because it's hard to enjoy it and feel like it's fall when it is still over 90 degrees.  Well, today I decided I didn't care.  I was going to make some pumpkin muffins, by golly.  So I started scouring the Internet for recipes.  I read a bunch and I kept jotting down ideas until I had one I thought might work.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Can you smell them through your screen???

Ingredients:

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup cinnamon applesauce

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix together sugar, applesauce, and eggs until blended.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt.  Add wet mixture to the dry mixture.  Stir until everything is mixed.  Stir in chocolate chips until incorporated.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 cups full.  (Makes 12-15 muffins)

These muffins were A.MA.ZING.  LOVED, loved, loved them. 

If you make them, let me know how you like them.

I did double duty tonight and have ANOTHER dessert baking in the over right now for a girls'night out at my friend Kate's house.  You'll have to wait for pics of that tomorrow.  But I can tell you that it smells sooooo good.  It's going to be hard to save it for tomorrow!