Easy Pumpkin Muffins

In the final hours before Thanksgiving, Meg and I thought we'd give you a special holiday gift: three days of pumpkin recipes! So check out the blog tomorrow and on (Pumpkin) Friday for more yummy goodies.

But back to today's recipe ...

I'm a bit slow.

Let me explain.

I was trying to break out of my pumpkin cookie/pumpkin bread/pumpkin pie rut. I turned to allrecipes.com and found a recipe for these highly rated (4.5 out of 5 stars!) pumpkin muffins. Throw "Easy" in the title, and I was sold. Another perk? I had all of the ingredients, and I set out to make them (some for me, of course, and some for a friend who recently had twins).

But as I was making them, I kept thinking, "Wow, these are so easy! And healthy! And wonderful!" And I wondered why these thoughts seemed so familiar ... when I realized they are the exact thoughts I have about the Pumpkin Cookies that are so near and dear to me.

Duh.

Sigh.

Essentially, they *are* the Pumpkin Cookies, but don't call for spice cake mix and give you a bit more creative license on how much cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves you want in your muffin.

They could easily be made in to Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes, too, with a bit of Cream Cheese Frosting on top. Yummmm.

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until smooth. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.


Source: allrecipes.com