I love anything pumpkin — pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin curry soup, pumpkin spice cake, and on and on. So I grow a lot of pumpkins each year, process them, and freeze the puree. My favorite pumpkin to use is Winter Luxury. I have also been known to substitute Sweet Meat or Hopi Pale Grey squash in any pumpkin recipe.

I usually end up with an abundance of pumpkins and squash and enjoy searching for new ways to use it. I found this recipe one day while doing just that. I found it here (along with a bunch of other yummy-looking gluten-free recipes): www.onelovelylife.com. The recipe called for ½ cup maple syrup, but since I am sensitive to maple I substituted pear/nectarine/orange syrup that Jamie made and preserved.

• 1¾ cups pumpkin puree
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup rolled oats (can use gluten free oats)
• ½ cup syrup (the original recipe called for maple, but I think any light fruit syrup would work)
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ginger
• ½ tsp. cloves
• 2½ cups flour (can use a gluten free blend)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (more or less, to taste) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I have also used raisins)

Preheat oven to 375° F and grease your muffin pan.

In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin, orange juice, oats, syrup, eggs, coconut oil, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Stir in flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Fold in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups ¾ full. Bake at 375° F for 20-25 minutes, or until set. Allow to cool slightly, then remove from the pan and put on a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Repeat with remaining batter until all muffins are baked. This recipe makes about 2½ dozen regular sized muffins or about 5 dozen mini muffins. These are dense, filling muffins and can be individually wrapped and frozen for take-along treats.