Hearty Breakfast Pumpkin Muffins

I've been pretty busy lately, which is why I didn't post this weekend! Between traveling for Mother's Day, mailing off gifts, and baking various treats, I haven't had much time to blog. So before I begin this next entry, I'd like to thank Camilla from Enlightened Baking and Lina from My Life is Yummy for the blogger awards they gave Flour Arrangements -- thank you both for your kindness :) (I've posted the awards on the "About" page :). I look forward to passing these along to other bloggers some time in the near future!

Speaking of showing thanks, just yesterday we took the time to show our mothers and mother-figures how much we appreciate them. I don't know about you, but I tend to run out of ideas when it comes to thinking of the perfect homemade and one-of-a-kind Mother's Day gift (I prefer to make gifts for special days like these). It usually takes me awhile to come up with an original and thoughtful gift that somewhat captures my love and respect for the receiver of that gift. Most of the time, I make cards, but this year I thought I'd do something a little different...why not make up a recipe? Well, sadly, I wasn't able to do this for everyone, I still need quite a bit more baking experience, but I was able to do it for my mom. I created a Hearty Breakfast Pumpkin Muffin recipe in her name, making sure to use ingredients that she'd like. For instance, my mom is not a fan of bleached flour, so I used multigrain flour :). Thankfully, she really liked the muffins!

I've decided that I plan on giving baked goods away as gifts more often. I know I'm obviously not the first to realize that it's a great idea -- just think of how the stereotypically dreaded holiday fruitcake came about ;). But...I do think it's a great way to show someone you care, especially if you use their favorite ingredients :D. Plus, you don't have to worry about it becoming another white elephant gift :P!

I bet you're thinking the muffins are topped with crushed nuts of some sort! Nope! Jose recently introduced me to steel cut oats, they're much healthier than the quick rolled oats we normally eat for breakfast. Why? Rolled oats are more processed than steel cut oats, they undergo a change that makes them easier to cook. If you're allergic to nuts, steel cut oats are a great baking alternative. Topping these breakfast muffins with steel cut oats gave them a crunchy texture that's similar to that of crushed nuts. Try them out, they even have better flavor than rolled oats! You can read more about them here. You'll find the recipe for the oversized muffins below, they're huge but tasty :)!