Banana bran chocolate chip muffins

Even though I am not normally a fan of baking mixes, I am making an exception for this weight watchers friendly recipe.  Here is the basic idea:

3 cups of Quaker low fat muffin mix (I used the honey bran type)
3 cups of all-bran or bran flakes (the PC blue menu bran flakes worked nicely)
2.5 cups of warm water
1.5 cups of fruit, e.g. mashed ripe bananas, pumpkin puree, applesauce, rhubarb
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup of raisins OR chocolate chips OR cranberries, etc (optional)

1. Mix bran and water, let stand for 5 mins.
2. Add muffin mix, fruit, baking powder and raisins/chocolate chips/cranberries, and combine well.
3. Spray mini-muffin tins with cooking spray or oil.
4. Fill mini-muffin cups fairly heaping.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 mins.

Notes: The original recipe said this amount made 32 mini-muffins for a point each, though I made 48 heaping mini-muffins with this amount. I guess my mini-muffin trays are on the small side, but this way I can add the raisins or chocolate chips and still keep the points to one per muffin.

Last night I made banana muffins with chocolate chips and added some nutmeg.  Delicious, though adding about 1/2 teaspoon of salt would have helped a bit. I needed about 4 mashed bananas (previously frozen) to make 1.5 cups.  I have also made pumpkin raisin muffins, using cinnamon, all-spice, nutmeg and ginger to make them more interesting - and you don't need to be shy with the spices.  1.5 cups of pumpkin puree is about 1/2 one of the big cans (28 oz I think).

Of course adding butter makes them infinitely more delicious, but apparently weight watchers poo-poos on butter. Sigh...anyway, enjoy!