Zombie Muffins + Free Printable & Coupon

Halloween is almost hear and it’s that time of year to start creating those fun, spooky food for your kids. As part of the Mom It Forward Blogger Network I was asked to create a recipe for Hillshire Brands.  Hillshire Brands has so many great products that are perfect for my families high protein diet so I was very excited to make a recipe for them.

As soon as I saw that Hillshire Farms Cocktails or Lil Smokies were one of the products I could create a recipe with, I knew what I would be making! Zombie Muffins! I’ve shared my Gluten Free Corn Dog Muffins in the past but this time I wanted to add a little creepy aspect to my old recipe for Halloween. (Wouldn’t these also be awesome for a Walking Dead party!)

I was inspired! Right away I ran to our local Safeway to grab up my ingredients! One of the awesome things I also get to share with you is how you can get coupons for your Hillshire products with Safeway’s J4U app.

I actually use this app almost every week to help me get the best deals at Safeway. All you have to do is sign up for J4U, install the app and you can instantly add coupons to your account. You then can use those coupons with just your phone number or card. Some of these deals are even unique to you and how you shop. Sometimes I even get free items from J4U. Here are some of the offers that they are offering right now:

• Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage -$.55/1
• Hillshire Farm Cocktails (Lil Smokies) – $.55/1
• Jimmy Dean Refrigerated Sausage -$.55/1
• Jimmy Dean Frozen -$1/1
• State Fair Corn Dogs – $1/1
• Ball Park Hot Dogs -$.55/1

Check them out here: refridgerated items & frozen items

Once I had my ingredients it was time to start cooking. These muffins would be great for dinner before trick or treating, a fun option on your Halloween party table, or for a fun Halloween bento to send to school. They are packed with protein and whole grains to keep your kids filled and fueled!

These were a very easy recipe and even once they are made you can store in the fridge ready to put in a lunch or warm up for a meal. One trick I want to share when creating your Zombie Muffins: when you stick your Lil Smokies into your batter make sure and stick them out pretty far, as the muffins bake it will rise and the little arms will be just barely sticking out.

Once I got the muffins out of the oven I knew they needed a little something more to make it obvious these lil arms were reaching out of the grave. Then it hit me, we needed tombstones! I made a very simple printable for you to download so you can add tombstones to your muffins also.

You can get the printable here. You will need some cardstock, tape, and toothpicks.  Just print the pdf, cut the gravestones out and tape toothpicks to the back. Stick them into the back edge of your muffins.

Now you have your own little creepy cemetery. I had tons of fun making these and my boys kept begging me to eat them. We ended up having some for dinner and some went into bentos for their lunches for the next day. I would say they were a huge hit.

For my bentos I added veggie straw bones, broccoli bushes, and a jack o’ lantern mandarin orange. I think they turned out pretty fun and were great for an October bento.

Find More Hillshire Recipes & Ideas

• Mummy Dogs for Halloween
• Pesto Alfredo Tortellini with Smoked Sausage
• Mini Corn Dogs for the entire family
• Breakfast for Dinner (Simple Traditions.)
• Sausage Gravy & Biscuits
• Spicy Smoked Sausage Wrap
• Tasty Smoked Sausage with Peppers
• Sunday Brunch: Crustless Sausage Zucchini Quiche