Tropical Muffins

So what do you get when you have 4 very ripe bananas and a pineapple cake mix? Well, I don't know, but if you add in a can of mandarin oranges, you get Tropical Muffins!

I had 4 bananas that were very very ripe and it was at the point where I either make something with them or I toss them. Not one to waste, I thought about making some banana muffins. But also one to take a somewhat lazy approach, I went looking for cake mixes. Since I've been eating healthier lately, I haven't been buying any mixes so all that was left in the cabinet was a pineapple mix. At that point I thought that banana and pineapple would go well enough together, but that something it still needed something else. Upon opening another cabinet, I found a can of mandarin oranges. Then I thought some more about it and came the conclusion that if I didn't add any nuts to the muffins they would just be uniced cupcakes. Thankfully I keep a bag of walnuts in the freezer (they stay fresh longer that way).

Everything was now set. I prepared to make Pineapple-orange-banana walnut muffins. The cake mix called for 3 eggs, 1/2 cup of oil (I think), and a cup of water. Since the oranges were packed in about a cup of light syrup, I omitted the water. And I knew that bananas and such were great for keeping things moist, so I also omitted the oil. The batter came together like normal cake/muffin batter consistency.

To make getting the batter into the cups easier, I used an ice cream scoop. Its a great idea for anytime that you have to get a lot of equal sized portions out quick. The muffins only took 20 minutes to bake at 350 C. I probably could have left in the oven a little longer and gotten the tops more browned, but this way they were extra moist.

I brought them into work this morning (letting my fitness class get first dibs). There were about 30 muffins on the tray and between a few people at the gym and my coworkers in my building they were all gone in under an hour. I've gotten lots of compliments so far, so I guess they came out really well.