Turkey with Cranberry on Pumpkin Muffins

I'm BACK!!! And guess what? I typed all of those recipes for nothing! Because the city we were in, which was a "small town" of eleven million people (according to the Chinese), had ZERO western groceries. And no ovens. I was able to get a small toaster oven, and I was going to try to cheat and cook stuff in it, but then there were no baking pans whatsoever. No measuring cups or spoons. I did cook potatoes from time to time. But, um, that's it, as far as the oven is concerned. Potatoes and toast.

So we cooked tons and tons of Asian food. Which is why I'm sure as heckfire not going to be posting any Asian meals for a very, very long time. I'm not making or eating rice or chinese-style noodles for several months, I think. :)

Can I tell you how fun it was to go grocery shopping today? Wal-Mart is ENORMOUS! And their meat is refrigerated! As are their eggs and their milk! And their eggs are clean! And their milk is pasteurized! Oh, life is so good. I had so much fun cooking today. I can't even tell you.

Aight. So let's get to it. I made one of my favorite fall meals tonight - it probably would be perfect for lunch, but I don't believe in cooking for lunch. It takes so long to cook for dinner, I do sandwiches at lunch.

I found this recipe in the November 16th, 2009 People Magazine. Sometimes they put in recipes for "dinner for four under $10," or "lunch for four under $10." Sign me up, dude. I'm all about that. Especially after today's shopping extravaganza. Talk about major sticker shock. It costs next to nothing to eat, or even to live, in China.

And I've tweaked the recipe a little bit. It calls for mini-muffins, and I don't have a mini-muffin tin. So I changed the cooking time. And this recipe is actually typed doubled from what it was in the magazine, because I have a big family, yo. "Sue-gah," as the Chinese would say - "Four kids."

This is a great way to use up leftover turkey after Thanksgiving. But honestly, I often cook turkey in my crockpot just so I can have this meal. (Which is what I did today.) Or I use sliced deli turkey.

Turkey with Cranberry on Pumpkin Muffins

3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/3 cups milk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
A pound or so of turkey, cooked and shredded
1 can cranberry sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 30 regular-sized muffin tins.
2. In one bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In a separate bowl, stir pumpkin, milk, oil, and eggs until blended.
4. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture.
5. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Recipe makes 30 muffins, so depending on your oven and tin size, you may need to repeat.
8. Once cool, cut muffins in half horizontally. Place sliced turkey and cranberry sauce on bottom half. Replace muffin top.

* Note - My hubby wants to try this with cream cheese also spread inside the muffins. I forgot to get cream cheese today, so we didn't get a chance to try it. But if any of you try it and like the results, let me know!