Every summer we buy melons- watermelons, honeydews, cantaloupes, and so forth. However, as a family of four, we often have trouble finishing the whole melon. Last summer I made a muffin with a cake mix and watermelon. This summer I decided to work on that recipe. These muffins turned out delicious! They were light, fluffy and very healthy. They are also dairy free and egg free. If you would like to use eggs instead of the flax seed, replace the water and flax seed with 2 eggs. Enjoy the recipe!
Melon Muffins with Lime Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
1 Cup Blended Melon
1 Cake Mix (White, Yellow, or French Vanilla)
1/2 Cup Multi Grain Hot Cereal (I used Hodgkins Mills)
1/2 Cup Applesauce
1/4 Cup Juice (I used mango/tangerine, but any juice would work)
1/8 Cup Flax Seed
3/8 Cup Water
Lime Caramel Sauce (Optional)
1/4 Cup Honey
Juice of 1 Lime
Lime zest
Melon Muffins
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Microwave water for 45 seconds. Mix flax seed into water and stir. Set aside to cool.
2. In your magic bullet or blender, blend about 2 cups fresh melon (I used cantaloupe and watermelon). Your goal is 1 cup of blended melon. You want a thick juice. Small chunks of melon are okay, they actually taste delicious in the muffin!
3. In a large bowl, mix together melon, muffin, multi-grain cereal, applesauce, and juice. After mixing, mix in flax seed. Thoroughly spray muffin tins with non-stick spray. Fill each muffin tin almost to the top. It will make 12 muffins. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes. Muffins will start to crack and pop up when gently pushed. They will also start to brown around the edges. Let cool before adding sauce. (I let ours sit covered overnight)
Lime Caramel Sauce
Poor honey in a small pan. Juice 1 lime into pan (make sure to remove seeds). Mix together. Cook on high, stirring constantly. It will take 2 to 3 minutes to make the caramel. I let mine boil for almost 5 minutes and that was too long. The caramel and lime will start to boil and then froth up. Keep stirring, it burns easily. After it has reached a rapid boil, let boil for a minute. Pull off the heat and let continue boiling for a minute, stirring while it cools. Drizzle over muffins. Grate lime zest over top of the muffins.
Summer is finally here!!!! As a teacher, summer is a precious time for me. It means weeks of teaching and spending time with my own babies. I love it! For us, an important part of summer is grilling with friends. I tend to buy huge watermelons and then after the bbq, my children get to see the watermelon at every meal for the rest of the week. This week I decided enough was enough, I was going to figure out something to do with the rest of the watermelon. Celia, Charlie and I created this recipe for watermelon muffins. Can you believe it only has 2 ingredients! They had a lot of fun helping me. Charlie loved them so much he ate 7 in 2 days!
Watermelon Muffins
Ingredients:
3 Cups of Cubed Watermelon
1 Cake Mix (white, yellow, or be creative, maybe strawberry)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Puree watermelon cubes in the food processor until it resembles chunky applesauce. Don't over puree, 5-7 pushes of the button should do the trick.
3. Mix watermelon puree with cake mix. Pour into cupcake pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.
I love after holiday sales! I went to Dollar General the other day and I got these 3 Chocolate Bunnies for ten cents apiece. What a savings! Andy's cousins moved into a new house so I made these Chocolate Bunny Bars for them for a housewarming gift. They were oooey gooey chocolate goodness and easy to make! Enjoy :)
Chocolate Bunny Bars
Ingredients:
For the Base:
1 Devils Food Cake Mix
3 Chocolate Bunnies (I used the hollow ones)
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup of Vegetable Oil
1/4 Cup of Milk
For the Top:
1/2 Cup Cake Mixture
1/2 Chopped Chocolate Bunnies
3/4 Package Cream Cheese, chopped into small cubes
1&1/4 Cup Coconut
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 glass baking pan.
2. Chop Chocolate Bunnies into small pieces, then set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil and milk. Add 1/2 of the chopped bunnies.
4. Set aside 1/2 Cup of the mixture in another bowl for the topping. Spread the rest of the cake mixture onto the bottom of the 9 x 13 pan.
5. In the other bowl, add the rest of the chocolate bunnies, coconut and creme cheese cubes. Mix together with 1/2 cup of cake mixture. When mixed, drop onto base in small dobs. Make sure to dob evenly across cake base.
6. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
This is a coffee cake I made for our Easter Breakfast at church. I have been working on "healthifying" my recipes, so this one is made with skim milk, pineapple and apple sauce. There's not any oil or eggs in it! It turned out incredibly light and delicious. It was so easy to prepare, I will definitely make it again. If you cut the cake in 10, there's about 5 weight watchers points per slice. Enjoy!
Pineapple Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup applesauce
1 cup bisquick
1/2 yellow cake mix
1/2 cup skim milk
1 can pineapple chunks and juice
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix together applesauce, bisquick, cake mix, skim milk and the juice from the pineapple in a bowl.
3. Spray 9" pie pan and pour pineapple on bottom. Pour batter on top. Sprinkle ground cinnamon on top. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
4. Let cool and serve, or flip coffee cake over onto a serving platter and have Upside Down Pinapple Coffee Cake.
