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A Recipe for Pumpkin Muffins

healthy-muffin-585The Fit Bottomed Girls are all about enjoying all that life has to offer, and sometimes life offers dessert. And the FBGs love us some dessert—and not just the fat-free type. Unfortunately, over consumption of mouth-watering desserts can get in the way of maintaining a fit bottom, and most of them aren’t exactly easy to make anyway. Have you ever actually tried making a Martha Stewart dessert? I did it once in college, and after a whole day in the kitchen, while staring at a smug photo of Martha with her perfectly frosted lemon cake, I began to feel inadequate in all areas of my life. (If I can’t get this dang cake’s icing smooth, how will I ever find a job, let alone start a solid career?!)

The FBGs are here to help (and hopefully save you from any of the above-mentioned self esteem snafus). We have a low-fat pumpkin muffins recipe that is so easy even the baking-impaired can succeed. And I personally guarantee its deliciousness. The muffins may not win in a taste test with Martha’s desserts, but you can make them in less than 30 minutes and maintain your sanity.

For the Punk-in Muffins (“punk-in” has a double meaning here, acting both as slang for “pumpkin” and as a verb: punk-ing desserts Ashton-Kutcher style), you take a regular box of spice cake mix and mix it with only a 15-oz. can of pumpkin. If you can find a reduced-sugar spice cake mix you get bonus points.

Two important points to remember:

  1. Only mix the cake mix and the can of pumpkin together. Do not—and I repeat do not—add eggs, water, oil, etc. The batter will be thick, but it’s right. Girl Scout’s honor.
  2. Do not use a can of pumpkin-pie filling. Get the plain, pureed, boring regular can of pumpkin.

Mix the two ingredients together well, and spoon batter equally into 12 regular muffin tins lined with paper or sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Eat and enjoy guilt-free. Each big pumpkin muffin has about 180 calories, 2 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein and 4 grams of fat, and is filled multiple grams of pumpkiny spicy goodness.

And if you’re feeling extra adventurous, try the same base recipe with different flavors of cake mix. Lemon cake mix creates a fun, summery orange sherbet flavor, and any type of chocolate cake mix is delicious. You really can’t taste the pumpkin with the chocolate, and it’s super fudgy and moist. I made these last weekend during an intense chocolate craving. You can see the deliciousness!

 

Trust in FBG. Punk out that healthy pumpkin muffin recipe. —Jenn

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Comments

6 Comments
  1. Live Well says:

    I’ve never thought to try that recipe using chocolate (my absolute favorite ingredient ever) cake instead of spice cake — thanks! And great blog by the way!

  2. Anonymous says:

    i make thin and choc all the time…i am excited to try it with lemon mix and i want to try the black bean brownies!

  3. Georgia says:

    This actually sounds pretty tasty! I love chocolate (duh!) and pumpkin so this sounds like a yummy mix…

  4. lorrwill says:

    They are in the oven right now. I used Bob's Red Mill Spice Apple cake mix cos it had the least amount of calories per serving and whole wheat flour and mostly organic ingredients. (You can find it at Safeway.)
    172 cals per muffin, 1 g fat. Not bad at all. I have to wonder how much a fat free cream cheese frosting would cost (calorically)…hmmm…

    I am loving trying FBG recipes!

  5. Stacey says:

    Chocolate are delish! But I think they’re too big because they are so rich. Next time I am going to make 18 instead of 12 – wonder how long to cook them. Any suggestions?

  6. Meredith says:

    Super easy recipe – I’m always a fan of pumpkin! I added a dash of cinnamon to mine, overall nice flavor. Texture was very dense though, so not my favorite…maybe eggs would’ve helped there? They’re very lumpy, too, I’ll have to mix more next time, I suppose. A good healthy alternative, but I think I like a classic pumpkin bread the best!!

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