Cake Mix Muffins (Diet-Friendly)

When you are looking to shave off a few calories and add a little bit of filling protein to your breakfast muffins, I found this recipe hack that is simple, yummy, and versatile. With only three ingredients, it doesn't get much easier than that! Enjoy! (You can also use higher calories/lower protein mixes, yogurts, and shakes, if dieting is not your concern and you just want some yummy, easy muffins.)

Cake Mix Muffins (Diet-Friendly)

Ingredients:

• 1 box cake mix, any flavor (preferably Zero Sugar)
• 1 cup yogurt, any flavor (Oikos Triple Zero tends to have the lowest calories for the highest protein)
• 1 protein shake (Core Power also tens to have the lowest calories for the highest protein)
• Optional Mix-ins

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare approximately 18 muffin cups (spraying your pan with non-stick spray or using silicone muffin liners).
2. In a large bowl, mix together your cake mix, yogurt and protein shake until just incorporated. Depending on the mix-ins you use, either add them now, or add them to each cup of muffin batter in the next step. 
• I found that mixing blueberries into my lemon muffin batter at this stage made it hard to control how many blueberries ended up in each muffin, so next time I will probably add them individually to each muffin in the next step.
3. Divide your batter evenly between your prepared muffin cups. Add any other mix-ins, like sugar crystals on top.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for a minute or two, then remove from muffin pan to prevent sweating.

Each muffin is roughly 100 calories depending on what ingredients you used. To make these lemon blueberry muffins a more protein filled meal, I added two string cheeses to my plate and called it breakfast.

Protein Deep Dish Cookie Pie (Single-Serving Breakfast Muffins)

These looked like they could be a delightful diet-friendly breakfast, and they were! Just a touch dry, I think I will try to add just a bit more applesauce next time until I can get a nice, moist cookie.

Protein Deep Dish Cookie Pie

(Single-Serving Breakfast Muffins)

Calories per serving: 230

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oat flour (you can make this by blending oats)
• 1 scoop (about 30g) vanilla or chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup almond butter or peanut butter (preferably natural, unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt (non-fat or low-fat)
• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup extra dark chocolate chips or chunks 

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together all your ingredients folding in your dark chocolate chips last. 
3. Pour the batter into a greased 8-inch round/ square baking dish OR individual meal prep ramekins
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until just baked through and the middle is slightly underdone. 
5. Makes 6 servings. 

Breakfast Muffin Bites

Saw this on Tiktok and had to try it. They were yummy!

Breakfast Muffin Bites

Ingredients:

• 6 pre-cooked sausage links
• small box of muffin mix of your choice, approximately 7 oz.
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

1. Quarter up your sausage links. 
2. Mix your muffin mix with 1/2 cup milk. 
3. Fill mini-muffin cups halfway and then press one pieces of sausage into the center of each cup. 
4. Makes 24 mini-muffins. 
5. Bake at 400 for about ten minutes.

Marsha's Notes: 

This recipe was designed for a smaller package of muffin mix (like those little Jiffy mix boxes that only make about 6-12 regular muffins). If you get the bigger boxes of mix, then you will need to add more milk to your mixture and either make MORE mini-muffins (and need to cut up more sausages)... or in my case, I currently only have one mini-muffin tin, so I just did the rest of the batter and regular sized muffins without the sausage in the middle. (I used a Krusteaz chocolate chip mix, approximately 17 ounces. Their mixes range from 15-20 oz per box.)

Costco Muffins- Copycat (Any Flavor)

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Costco Muffins- Copycat (Any Flavor)

Ingredients:

• 1 (18 oz.) box cake mix
• 2 Tbl. flour
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together.  
2. Spoon into prepared muffin cups. 
3. Bake at 375 for approximately 20 minutes or until tops are lightly browned.

Mix-ins:

• Almond Poppy Seed Muffins- use a white cake mix, add 2 tsp. poppy seeds and 1 tsp. almond extract
• Chocolate Muffins- use a chocolate cake mix and stir in 1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Marsha's Notes:

Try any combination you think sounds good!  (White cake mix with chopped up raspberries and white chocolate chips… yellow cake mix with blueberries… lemon cake mix with poppy seeds…)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (Jumbo)

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (Jumbo)

Ingredients:

• 1 box lemon cake mix
• 1 cup boiling water
• ½ cup oil
• 1 small box instant vanilla pudding
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup poppy seed ***

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  
2. Mix all ingredients together.  
3. Fill muffin cups about half full.  
4. Bake for 15 minutes.  I used jumbo muffin pans with jumbo muffin cup liners.

Marsha's Notes:

I thought 1/3 of a cup was too strong for the poppy seeds, so I just will add poppy seeds until it looks right to me.

Pillsbury's Blueberry-Almond Creme Muffins

The picture and the recipe came from the Pillsbury website.

Blueberry-Almond Creme Muffins

Ingredients:

• 4 oz cream cheese (half of 8-oz package), softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup Fisher® Chef’s Naturals® Blanched Slivered Almonds, finely chopped
• 1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Layers refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)
• 3 tablespoons LAND O LAKES® Unsalted or Salted Butter, melted
• 1/4 cup Smucker's® Blueberry Preserves

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Generously spray 8 regular-size muffin cups (2 3/4x1 1/4 inches) with Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray.
2. In medium bowl, stir cream cheese, 1/4 cup of the sugar, almond extract and vanilla until smooth and creamy; set aside.
3. In medium shallow bowl, mix almonds and remaining 1/4 cup sugar.
4. Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Separate 1 biscuit into 3 layers. Brush 1 layer with melted butter. Firmly press layer, butter side down, into almond mixture, coating evenly. Place layer, almond side down, in bottom and up side of muffin cup. Fill with 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture; spread evenly. Top with second biscuit layer; press edges of layers together. Spoon 1/2 tablespoon of the preserves onto middle of second layer. Brush third biscuit layer with melted butter; firmly press, butter side down, into almond mixture. Place third layer, almond side up, on second layer; press edge of third layer into edge of second layer.
5. Repeat with remaining biscuits, refrigerating biscuits if dough becomes too soft to separate. Sprinkle any remaining almond mixture onto tops of biscuits.
6. Bake 17 to 27 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove muffins from pan to cooling rack. Cool 15 minutes before serving.

Marsha's Notes:

I did find that the biscuits started to get too soft during the middle of the preparation, and they need to stay cold so you can more easily get the layers of dough apart... so I would suggest opening the can, separate the 8 biscuits and place them on a plate in the fridge to keep cold. Remove them one at a time from the fridge while you work with them.