Garden Lites Veggie Muffins Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip

Garden Lites soufflés have become a staple in my freezer as of late, so when I heard the brand released frozen veggie muffins I was on the hunt. Unfortunately I continuously came up empty handed for months until I decided to check the “health food” section of another local grocery store (Stop & Shop). Low and behold I stumbled upon a few muffin options and decided to go with the Garden Lites Veggie Muffins Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip.

I decided to give these a try as part of my snack for the day, so I followed the box directions and microwaved the muffin in its pouch. Once done the muffin was nice and hot and after giving it a few minutes to cool, I found the muffins were delicious. Moist, flavorful, chocolaty and a delicious treat. They’re smaller in comparison to average muffins, but if you’ve made healthy alternative muffins (i.e. Weight Watchers friendly) these are comparable in size to those. The banana flavor is mild, the zucchini flavor almost nonexistent, but the chocolate bits are definitely at the forefront. They’re a great quick snack or even addition to breakfast – but if this were to be a meal I’d suggest pairing it with say, a Greek yogurt.

A serving is 1 muffin, which is 120 calories or 3 points plus values.

Spiced Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins

Last week I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Walnut Muffins and they were such a hit they were gone in a couple days.  So being in the baking mood I decided to make a similar batch but using spice cake mix.  Spice cake is one of my favorite types of homemade cakes, but since I don’t always get to have it homemade, boxed is second best.  I used a very similar recipe to what I did with the pumpkin muffins, although with this batch I increased the amounts of some ingredients.

These came out perfect – they’re moist, delicious, and again another crowd pleaser. These were even given the stamp of approval from my 4 year old niece. I’d call that a success in my book.

4 Points Plus. Serves 16.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Betty Cocker Super Moist Spice Cake Mix
• 15 oz can Libby’s Pure Pumpkin
• 3 tbsp egg whites
• ½ cup water
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbsp chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet)
• 3 tbsp chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers, each paper spritzed with non-stick cooking/baking spray.

In a large bowl mix together cake mix, pumpkin, egg whites, baking soda and water until blended and smooth.

Evenly distribute batter to each cupcake paper. I found large heaping tablespoons helped distribute the batter evenly, with the remainder being distributed throughout the cups.

In a small bowl mix together chocolate chips and walnuts, then evenly sprinkle over the top of each muffin. I used a ½ teaspoon to distribute.

Bake per box directions.  Cupcakes are done when a knife is inserted and comes out clean – roughly 15-18 minutes.

Betty Crocker Cornbread Muffins

Ahh … cornbread! I developed a deep love for cornbread as a youngster. My dad would make hands down THE best cornbread.  He’d add real corn into it and sometimes he’d jazz it up with some jalapeno for a little spice. So, good!  And I admit, not so healthy in the quantities I’d eat it in.

These days, I don’t have cornbread very often – but when I saw this Betty Crocker cornbread muffin mix, I had to pick it up.  I calculated out the points for just the mix alone and figured instead of adding all the “fatty” stuff it called for, I’d try to jazz it up and make it points plus friendly.  Turns out my experimental baking was perfect because the cornbread muffins turned out absolutely perfect.  I was even asked as I served them up “You really made these with apple sauce? They’re so good!”

I emptied the cornbread packet into a bowl, added in ½ cup of natural unsweetened apple sauce and ¼ cup of water. I mixed it until everything was well combined – then transferred equal parts of the batter into muffin tins. I made 6 muffins and they came out perfect after being baked in the oven.  I did eat one as they were nice and warm and it was delicious. It was moist with a slight hint of apple lingering in the background.  A few spritz of spray butter on the top and I certainly did not miss the full-fat homemade version.

The greatest part was that each cornbread muffin was only 3 points plus values! Quite a steal when compared to any other cornbread muffin or cornbread loaf.

QUESTION:

How do you make your cornbread?

Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Muffins

I hadn’t made any baked goods in a while, so while grocery shopping with my boyfriend we decided muffins would be a great item to make.  So while “cruising” the baking aisle I grabbed a package of the Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Muffins.  I’ve made these a number of times and I enjoy them because they’re just very simple yet delicious.   All you do is add the muffin mix to a bowl and add a ½ cup of water, mix and divide into muffin tins. Simple and easy as pie!

Typically when I bake I try to find healthier alternatives, but this Betty Crocker mix certainly dumbs that process down without even having to consider substitutions.  The muffins when cooked are smaller chocolate chip muffins but they are fluffy, chocolaty and relatively moist.  The consistency is a little chewier than regular full-fat muffins, but it’s not bad.

One of the great parts is that each muffin is only 3 points plus values.  Quite a steal if you are looking for something chocolate for either breakfast or a snack.

QUESTION:

Have you tried the chocolate chip muffins from Betty Crocker?

Wild blueberry, banana walnut muffins

I adapted this recipe from Weight Watchers community.  The recipe is listed as the Healthy Blueberry Banana Nut Muffin: http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=294527280.  The only thing I altered was the fact I used frozen wild blueberries in my recipe instead of regular blueberries.

My boyfriend absolutely LOVES blueberry muffins and sometimes I get a mild eye twitch when he goes to Dunkin Donuts to get a blueberry muffin (because honestly how do they get all that FAT into a muffin?!).  Plus with muffins, it’s a great, simple breakfast/snack and I find when we have folks over offering someone a muffin (and mentioning they’re “healthy”) they tend to go faster.  Meaning I don’t have to be tempted for longer than necessary ;).

I will say while baking these my kitchen smelled amazing, you get that delicious banana, blueberry scent.  They puffed up nicely and had a very nice delicious texture AND taste.  Folks who don’t even follow Weight Watchers (and even those that shun Weight Watchers recipes) told me that these were really good muffins.

So, take THAT Dunkin Donuts!

Here is the recipe just incase you cannot access it on the Weight Watchers website:

Serves: 18

• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon (since I like cinnamon I did a whole teaspoon)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup wild blueberries, slightly defrosted
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ¼ cups natural apple sauce (no sugar added)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• Cooking spray

You want to bake these in a 350 degree oven, cooking in a lightly greased (with cooking spray) muffin tins.

In a large bowl mix the flour, brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.

In another bowl mix the bananas, eggs, apple sauce and vanilla extract.

Mix the banana mixture into the flour mixture until it’s smooth – then fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins (18 muffins).  Bake in the oven for roughly 16 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and it comes out clean.

QUESTION:

What is your favorite muffin flavor?

Reese’s Puffs Muffins!

Who knew the words Reese’s Puffs, Muffins and Healthy could be combined into one sentence and it not just be a jumbled up string of words?!  This creation is certainly something that I found to be absolutely mouth watering and a must buy in the very near future (once I start using up some of my baking mixes, etc.).

Around the middle of last year, Betty Crocker came out with a few muffin mixes geared to resemble classic cereals that are out in the market.  One of them was Reese’s Puffs – the other two are Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs.  The moment I laid eyes on the Reese’s Puffs muffin mix I immediately had to purchase it.  I will say I had a tough time at first finding these because my local super market did not carry them – I found them eventually at Target and another higher priced grocery store in my area.

Now I am a complete sucker for anything adjoined to the Reese’s brand.  I LOVE Reese cups, pieces, Reese bar mixes, etc.  That peanut butter, chocolate mixture is just a gold mine for me.

For these I made them per the box direction – adding the mixture to a mixing bowl – although instead of using the eggs and oil the mixture called for I simply replaced all that with soda water. 1 ½ cups of soda water to be exact.  I then divided the mixture out evenly into 12 cupcake tins (sprayed with Pam) and topped evenly with the “streusel” topping.

They baked up perfectly and were so delicious.  The cake had a definitive chocolate/peanut butter taste and they were just so yummy!  Not overly spongey as some “healthier alternative” cakes can get.

Points Plus wise it wasn’t bad at all – 3 Points Plus for a muffin.  Quite a delicious and unique snack!

QUESTION:

Have you tried any of the Betty Crocker cereal brand muffins?

Breakfast: Egg-“Hash” Muffins & Ham Steak

I’ve been getting bored with breakfasts as of late and have been finding I’ve been gravitating towards the same things.  Typically some sort of deli meat on toasted light wheat bread.  Of course I switch it up, but at the end of the day, it’s still deli meat and that can be really boring.  One thing about me is I am and probably always will be a complete carbaholic.  I LOVE anything that’s a carb – bread, potatoes, rice, etc.  If it’s starchy, I love it.  I had wanted hash browns and since I’m not a terribly huge fan of eggs I decided to try morphing the two together.  I looked up a few ideas online and found an egg white version but since I don’t like egg whites, I decided to just go with my own idea and chug along.  I originally was going to chop up my ham steak and drop it into the muffin tins, but when I got to that step there just wasn’t enough room in the tins.  That would work if I used giant muffin tins.

The only ingredients I used were 1 cup Simply Potato shredded potatoes (this is for 2 servings – ½ cup a serving – 3 tarts per serving), 1 cup egg beaters (1/2 cup per serving),  minced garlic, black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder and Mrs. Dash Spicy seasoning.

I mixed the minced garlic (use as much/little as you like – I love garlic so I put a fair amount) with the shredded potato, add in sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder to your liking and mix until blended.

Split the mixture up into the 6 greased (with Pam) muffin tins.  In the same bowl the potatoes were in add in 1 cup of egg beaters, black pepper, sea salt and the spicy Mrs. Dash seasoning.  Blend and pour the mixture evenly over the 6 cups of potatoes.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for roughly 20 minutes (until eggs are cooked through).

I ate with 3 ounces Carando breakfast ham steak and I topped my eggs with sriracha (LOVE that stuff!).  They were really yummy – the potatoes mixed with the eggs and made a fabulous flavor.

On my last trip to the grocery store they didn’t have the shredded potatoes, so I bought the diced with onion – which would be 2/3 cup of diced potato in place of the ½ cup per serving.

3 muffins comes out to be 3 PointsPlus Values (2 for the potatoes, 1 for the eggs).