Pillsbury Strawberry Banana Muffins

Being the coffee lover I am, I tend to order more of the "adventurous" flavored coffees at my local coffee spot. One of my absolute favorites is the strawberry banana coffee - which is a mixture of strawberry flavored coffee and banana coffee (flavored beans, not syrups). Chatting with my boyfriend one afternoon, he had mentioned that he'd love to try a strawberry banana muffin ... and that's when the light bulb over my head lit up.

I have made banana breads with roasted strawberries in them, so I imagined it wouldn't be too difficult to make some. It just happened that I was buying ripe bananas to make a banana bread to give to my dad for his birthday. Since I had extra bananas I looked for a muffin recipe online and stumbled upon one from Pillsbury ... and that's when the Strawberry Banana Muffins came to life (and a double batch at that!).

Whipping the batter up was a breeze, baking was a breeze and consuming was a breeze. I made enough to send some home with my boyfriend, to share with family and to bring some in to share with my coworkers. They had the classic chewiness that comes with muffins, but it had that banana bread flare. The fresh strawberries running throughout the batter was a nice twist. Overall these muffins were a total hit and everyone that had one (or two, or three) enjoyed them immensely.

Each muffin is 210 calories or 6 points plus values.

You can find the recipe here on the Pillsbury website.

Pillsbury Reduced Fat Cinnamon Rolls

I stumbled upon an interesting find at a local grocery store finding and purchasing the Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls Reduced Fat with Icing. I love cinnamon rolls but I find them to be typically too high in points to find justifiable. Since they were reduced fat and the nutrition facts weren't too out of control I decided to give them a try for breakfast one day when my niece had slept over.

I sprayed the bottom of a cake pan with nonstick cooking spray, placed the rolls in (cinnamon side down) in a circle around the pan, adding the remainder into the middle of the pan. I put them into a preheated oven and let them cook. Since my oven tends to cook baked goods faster than normal, I lowered the temperature a bit and extended the cooking time just slightly.  The end result came out perfect. Nicely golden browned, cooked all the way through, soft but firm enough.

While hot I smeared the icing onto each of the rolls and let them cool for a few minutes before serving. The end result was quite delicious. A perfect little treat and so delicious no one even noticed they were reduced fat. I've learned over time to not even express it out loud because it makes people go into eating something that's reduced fat as if it's going to poison them. When the rolls cooled they were perfect as is, but they were even better warmed just slightly in the microwave as a little treat.

A serving, 1 roll, is 130 calories or 4 points plus values OR you can have 2 rolls for 260 calories or 7 points plus values.

Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookies

My niece was spending the night and I made the "mistake" of shopping with my mother and niece at the same time. Knowing I'm a pumpkin aficionado my mother picked up a package of the Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookies to 'show' me them ... that's when my niece -- a miniature pumpkin aficionado - got all bright eyed and bushy tailed. I stated "No, not happening, put them back." That's when my niece (who's 5) said "That's okay, gramma, we can hide them from auntie." Attempt: Failed.  That's when the night turned into 'baking cookies with auntie Shannon' - which admittedly was fun and I'm glad to make cookies with her.

 

The package stated the pumpkin cookies had cream cheese flavored chips. The chips resemble white chocolate chips - but do have a bit of a cream cheese flavor to them. The easiest part, with little fingers, was the cookie dough comes in little pre-portioned sections making for easy baking and even portion sizes. All that was left for me to do was open the package, lay down a baking sheet and my niece broke up the cookie dough and layered it onto the tray. A few rearrangements and the cookies were into the oven for baking.

 

Since my oven cooks extremely fast, I lowered the oven temperature and cooked for a few minutes less and they came out perfectly. The edges were light brown, the bottoms were cooked, the cookies were soft yet had a slight bit of bite to them. Better yet they were a hit with my niece and my mother enjoyed them. I had one cookie. They're good ... they do have a chewy pumpkin flavor to them and the cream cheese bits add an extra boost of sweetness. Overall, they're truly not that bad and an enjoyable, different way to have pumpkin.

 

A serving is 1 cookie for 120 calories or 4 points plus values.

Pumpkin Chocolate Walnut Muffins

With the temperature dropping to freezing cold, what better way to warm up the house, other than baking goodies? So with that, I decided to make some muffins to not only get some warmth throughout the lower level of the house – but also to have some goodies since I haven’t baked since Halloween.

I had a few boxes of pumpkin cake mix, so I decided to put one box to good use.  This recipe is truly SO incredibly easy to throw together. The most tedious part is putting the batter into the muffin tins in the pan. They puffed up marvelously and are delightfully delicious and not guilty whatsoever!

 

Serves 12. 4 Points Plus Values.

Ingredients:

• 1 box, Pillsbury Perfectly Pumpkin Cake Mix
• 15 oz can Libby’s Pumpkin Puree
• 2 tbsp Egg whites
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• 5 tbsp Water
• 2 tbsp Milk chocolate chips (or semi-sweet)
• 1 ¾ tbsp chopped walnuts

Line a muffin pan with 12 liners, spraying each tin with non-stick cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together cake mix, baking soda, pumpkin, egg whites and water until well blended and mixture is fully combined.  Evenly distribute mix to each muffin tin.

In a small bowl toss together chocolate chips and walnuts. Evenly sprinkle mixture over the top of each muffin.

Place muffins into oven and bake per box directions, adjust time based on how fast/slow your oven cooks. My oven is on the faster side and these were done in 16 minutes.  Cupcakes are done when a knife is inserted and it comes out clean.

Funfetti Dip

Funfetti cake is probably one of the best cakes that Pillsbury produces and sells.  There’s pudding in the mix which makes the cake super moist and who doesn’t love cute little sprinkles of color throughout their cake and if you’re feeling adventurous cute color sprinkles throughout their frosting?  The downside … it’s one of the higher calorie cake mixes.

Now fast forward to the fabulous brain power in some Weight Watchers members, someone (apologies, don’t know who the first person who created this recipe was) came up with a DIP using funfetti dip and incorporated it with some guilt-free additions.

I made this dip as one of the desserts to put out on Easter and it was quite a hit.  I will say it makes a HUGE vat of dip, which if I were to make this again, I would undoubtedly cut the recipe in half.  I served it with animal crackers as well as two pints of fresh strawberries.  (Side note: My 1 year old nephew LOVES strawberries and kept dragging himself onto the table to snag the strawberries out of the bowl. So cute!!)

Now if you want to make this dip at home all you need are 3 very simple ingredients.

• 1 box of Funfetti cake mix
• 2 cups fat free plain yogurt
• 1 cup Lite Cool Whip

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 3-4 hours before serving.  It’ll make it into a thicker, frosting type consistency.

Serving size for 3 points plus you can have ¼ of a cup.  I found this serving to be very generous.  Of course, you’ll need to factor in the points for your animal crackers – or if you wanted to make it even more guilt-free eat it with strawberries.  Either way, it’s divine!

QUESTION:

Have you tried Funfetti dip?