Baking made easy, like unbelievably easy! These two ingredient muffins are a fall staple in our house and for good reason. They are so simple even the kids can make them! My favorite part about these muffins is how customizable they are. We love to play around with toppings, letting everyone choose their own or eating them plain. Bake them plain and top with powdered sugar or icing once they’re finished. Or top with nuts, chocolate chips, raisins or pumpkin seeds before baking.

Ingredients:

1 can pumpkin purée
1 box spice bake mix

Optional additional topping ingredients:

Nuts
Chocolate chips
Butterscotch chips
Raisins
Icing
Powdered sugar
Pumpkin seeds

Makes 12 muffins

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with 12 silicon or paper muffin cups. Next, in your stand mixer dump in your cake mix and your pumpkin. Mix together on low speed until fully combined. The batter is going to be thick and sticky. Carefully spoon the muffin mixture into your lined baking cups. Fill each cup about 75% of the way, as these muffins won’t rise too much and you don’t need to worry about them overflowing.

These muffins are going to look lumpy, for a smoother texture and nicer appearance I have a little trick. Get a small glass of water and place a spoon in it. Take the back of the wet spoon and smooth out the top of each muffin, dipping your spoon back into the water between each muffin. Once the tops of your muffins are smoothed out, feel free to add toppings. A few of our favorites are chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. Get creative, top these with whatever you like.

In this first picture, you can see the difference in the one row I smoothed out with the wet spoon, compared to the back two rows.

Now it’s time to bake them, into the oven the muffins go for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean. If you’re wishing to add your toppings of choice after baking be sure to let your muffins cool completely. Once cooled, top muffins with powdered sugar or icing, flavors we like are vanilla or maple. Seal muffins in an air tight container and enjoy within 5 days.

The pumpkin purée holds a lot of moisture, so whereas these muffins might seem dense in their texture, they’re not dry. For more richness you can add an egg or two to your batter, but they’ll be delicious even without it. If you’ve got a kiddo interested in cooking this is a great beginner recipe that they can start with. Even get your toddlers and younger kids involved. My little one always loves to line the muffin cups for me with the muffin liners. It’s a little step that helps to make them feel involved but also safely keeps them away from the oven.

I love a good breakfast casserole for brunch or a special weekend breakfast. However, their prep and cook time will have you looking at over an hour before it’s ready to eat. I was looking for a way to make a savory breakfast that was more portable and quick for busy weekday mornings. As is true with a lot of my recipes this is 100% customizable to your personal flavor choices.

Ingredients:

10 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Lunch meat
1 Cup Cheese
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
8 Slices of bread
Everything Bagel Seasoning
2 Tablespoons fresh thyme (about 6 sprigs)

Additional supplies needed:
Muffin tin
Non-stick cooking spray

Makes 24 muffins

Method:

First up, spray your muffin tins REALLY good with non-stick cooking spray. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Next break apart or cut your slices of bread into 1/2” size chunks, then divide the bread evenly into all of the muffin cups. Next whisk together your eggs, milk and mustard until smooth. Dice up your lunch meat and cheese and add to the top of your bread pieces. Wash your sprigs of thyme and remove the leaves from the stems, stir thyme leaves into egg mixture. Now evenly pour egg mixture over bread filled muffin cups, about an 1/8 cup egg mixture per muffin cup, give each muffin cup a healthy sprinkle of everything bagel seasoning over the top and place into the oven.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min, let cool 5-10 minutes, then pop out of your muffin tin and enjoy or seal in an air tight container and store in the fridge. Enjoy within 3-5 days after making. To re-heat place muffins in the microwave for 30 second intervals until desired temperature is reached.

The two flavor combinations I use the most are turkey and cheddar or ham and colby jack. However, use whichever meat and cheese combination you like, for a more classic take go ham and swiss. If you prefer a little heat in your breakfast use pepper jack cheese. You can even substitute cooked breakfast sausage or cooked bacon in place of the lunch meat. If you wish to keep these vegetarian, skip the meat and go cheese and spinach. The possibilities are endless! Customize these to suit your favorite flavor combinations. This is sure to be an easy, healthy, protein packed, portable, new breakfast the whole family will love.

I admittedly knew very little about pancetta when I first got into cooking. If you’re anything like I was then I’m here to help! Pancetta is an Italian pork belly bacon that’s been salt cured. It can be shaved thin and eaten raw, like in an antipasto platter or it can be diced and cooked. Once cooked like in this recipe it becomes crunchy, much like the traditional bacon you’re used to.

Ingredients:

12 ounces or 3/4 of a 1 lb. box of pasta (I used linguine)
1/2 cup pasta water
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup parmesan
4 ounces pancetta
Juice of half a lemon
Pinch of Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
Mascarpone cheese, for topping

Method:

Crisp pancetta over medium, medium high heat in a shallow pot or cast iron skillet, the same way you would bacon. While your pancetta is cooking, boil your pasta in salted water until al dente. Be sure and save 1/2 cup of pasta water (the liquid your pasta just cooked in), set aside. Once desired crunchiness is reached for your pancetta, drain it on a paper towel. To the pancetta pot melt 2 tablespoons butter, with a pinch of Italian seasoning and minced garlic cloves, saute until fragrant (about a minute). Add to your butter and garlic mixture the milk and pasta water, I start with only a 1/4 cup of pasta water to see how the consistency is. If you’re happy with it, don’t add any more pasta water, if you want a thinner sauce, feel free to add more. Stir your sauce occasionally until everything is combined and warmed through, about 3-5 minutes should do. Next take your sauce off of the heat and stir in your parmesan cheese. While your sauce is coming together warm your peas. To finish off, toss your pasta in the sauce with the peas, then top each bowl with pancetta, a tablespoon of mascarpone and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

I absolutely love the pre-packaged diced pancetta from Trader Joe’s. Talk about a short cut, it makes this dish one easy, delicious, weeknight dinner. Now when cooking this, the sauce doesn’t look like much, but all of the flavors are there. The saltiness and crunch of the pancetta, sweetness from the peas, lemon juice brings the acid while butter and mascarpone add richness, it’s just perfect.

If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, look for pancetta in the deli or specialty meat section of your grocery store and be sure to dice it fine before cooking. Same goes when looking for the mascarpone, it’s usually by other soft specialty cheeses such as brie and feta. If you cannot find either pancetta or mascarpone you could make an american version of this dish using bacon and cream cheese. I’m happy to report all 3 of my kids ate this up! I’ve made it a few times now and bowls are cleaned every time.