Rock Star Mom with 2 Ingredients!!

Have you ever had those days where you look around at all your children, and realize that there are more than twice as many children as you normally have - and they don't belong to YOU!   Holy playday!  They don't want much; they just want to run and scream and play like crazy monsters.  How do you appeal to all these wild heathens?  I'm going to share with you a secret.  Children like food.  Boys especially like food.  Food is the way to a man's heart - no matter their age.  (There were 2 girls here too, but I'm pretty sure girls eat food too....) 

Out comes the failsafe snack.  (This is how I became the Rock Star Mom with just 2 ingredients!)  I wish I could tell you that I spend hours and slave away in the kitchen for the sake of my family....but that just isn't true.  I like it easy, delicious, and healthier-than-not. 

Can we give a big welcome to.....Drum roll please......Pumpkin Muffins!

Now watch closely.  I'm going to break this down for you (and your 3-year old, because they can make these too.  Seriously.  Great place to start simple-baking in the kitchen with the littles!).

Ingredients: 
Spice cake mix  (whatever brand is on sale)
Pumpkin puree  (small can for one box, big can for 2 boxes)

That's it.  Dead serious.  (I've also made it with vanilla, white or yellow cake mixes also.  It's okay, but this is the best.  And when you're only using 2 ingredients, you may as well go all out.)

Put dry cake mix and pumpkin puree in bowl. 

  Mix together using whatever is easiest.  I prefer a hand mixer.

Scoop by the spoonful into mini muffin tins. 

There is minimal rise. 

Mini muffins tins really are the best.  I've done the bigger ones and they just don't come out the same.  Harder on the outside, gooey on the inside.  These minis are perfect - and they are just the right size to pop directly into your mouth.  Yum.

SPRAY PAN with cooking spray.  (Unless you like peeling away baked-on-stickiness.  Ugh.) 

Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes.  Let sit for a couple minutes before you drop them out onto a cooling rack (if they make it that far.  My kids steal them directly out of the pan!).

  Just out of the oven - see?  Very minimal rise.

  As you can see, small humans have already stolen half my rack of muffins.  I made a double batch, which produced 96 mini muffins.  (All gone within an hour, btw!)

Caught red-handed!

That's it!  I feel good about this crazy-fast and easy snack because of the pure pumpkin puree.  Pumpkin is a superfood that is ridiculously beneficial for little people (well, all people, but I try to hide as much good foods in my kids' diets as possible!).

So there you go.  Go and bake.  Enjoy.  Gather your little ones to help you make this super complex snack - and then they get to feel great about what they baked!  Because it will taste amazing!  Let me know how it went!

The Mama Bear