Fit Friday – Skinny Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

First of all, let me clarify – no, I did not create this recipe.  (You can see where I got it in the picture.)  But I did try it, and it was pretty good!  I would say that it’s not super sweet, so next time, I’ll probably add some Splenda to the cream cheese part because it’s just plain in this recipe.  I also often ate these with cinnamon cool whip on top!  🙂  (Oh, a little warning – when you add the pumpkin and water to the cake mix, it seriously foams…a lot.  It kind of freaked me out, so I wanted to warn you.  Lol!)

Skinny Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

• 1 box angel food cake mix- the 1 step kind
• 1 15oz can Pumpkin
• 3/4 Cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 8oz pkg. reduced fat cream cheese
• -few tablespoons of water, to be mixed with cream cheese

I let the cream cheese soften on the counter for a while then I added it to my stand mixer & beat it with a couple of tablespoons of water until smooth. I just wanted it to thin out a little bit.

In a separate bowl, mix the cake mix, pumpkin, water, & cinnamon together until it is smooth & well mixed.

In a 9×13 pyrex dish- sprayed with PAM- add HALF of the cake –pumpkin mix. Then smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Drizzle half of the cream cheese over the top of it and take a small spatula to smooth it over the top. Add remaining cake-pumpkin mix & also the remaining cream cheese just making layers. Finally take a butter knife- stick it into the mix and go back & forth over the top of the cake making figure “8’s” – to blend it a bit.

Bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees OR until a toothpick comes out clean.

~ by Dusty Crabtree - Author of Shadow Eyes on September 27, 2013.