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Even as we move into gardening seasoning outside, I am keeping all of my indoor gardens going through the summer months. I've been surprised by how handy it is to have these gardens nearby and how it leads to me using crops like fresh herbs more often. The side effect I didn't expect was how much I enjoy having the actual plants and greenery around in my bedroom and living room: The gardens produce a calming tickling-water sound, like a creek, and I love the smell of the plants. If gardening outside isn't for you, you might find one of these indoor gardening sets that require almost no skill to be just the trick.

These commercial sets include everything you might need, from the seed cups and growing medium, to the lights, and the use a pump to recirculate the water at regular intervals. Small sets like the Aerogarden Harvest or Letpot can sit on a countertop and large ones like Rise need their own space on the floor. Here are the tips I’ve developed to use these gardens more effectively. 

Buy a level

Hydroponic gardens work by keeping the roots of the plant constantly hydrated either in a pool of recirculating water or by routinely “watering” them via a pump. For this to work effectively, the entire system has to be level. Usually, bigger kits like Rise will have leveling feet to help with this, but a system like LettuceGrow doesn’t, so you’ll need shims. You still need to ensure your countertop garden is level. When they’re not, the water will list to one side of the garden, and some roots might not get hydrated. If only one side of your garden is germinating, this might be the cause. 

Grow the right crops

Hydro gardens grow crops in a tight space, with a finite amount of “sunlight” and no soil for roots to steady themselves in. While almost anything will still grow, crops that are going to require a lot of support like squash can’t flourish. Crops with a really long grow period, like pumpkins, also are not ideal for the system, since you’ll need to turn the garden system over before the pumpkin is done and it will grow out of the “sunlight.” Moreover, while smaller and smaller vegetable plants are always being bred (I recently grew actual tomatoes on eight-inch tall plants from Aerogarden), it doesn’t mean they’ll taste good. I’ve been really disappointed by fruit and vegetables grown in hydroponic environments; while they still receive nutrition, sunlight and water, they usually just don’t taste great. So while you can grow almost anything, I’ve found that simply growing herbs or simpler, short crops like peas is the best way to go. 

Learn how to self-pollinate

Since your hydroponic garden won’t be visited by bees to do the work of carrying pollen from plant to plant, you’ll need to do that if you grow any type of fruit or vegetable. I’ve seen many of these gardens advise casually shaking the plants from time to time, but this is disingenuous. To achieve good pollination rates, you need to really vibrate the plants and do it often while there are flowers. The best way I’ve found to do this is with a real vibrator or massage wand and to use a smart automation to have it run for a minute every few hours. I specifically looked for one that plugged in and used a manual switch, rather than a button to be powered on each time. This way, I could leave the want plugged in and on, and just set an automation for the outlet it was plugged into. I just left it set on top of the garden, but you could also tape it to the back. As long as it’s attached in some way to the garden, it will vibrate it enough that the pollen will be freed and form a cloud of yellow dust that will settle onto the blossoms and pollinate them. 

Grow any seed you’d like

Most companies that make hydroponic gardens sell seed packs or starts for those gardens, and they’re quite expensive. But the gardens provide everything a plant needs to grow: sunlight, nutrition, and water. You can always purchase aftermarket pods and growing medium and plant your own seeds. There’s nothing particularly special about the lettuce or herb seeds they’re using, and you likely have seeds or can purchase a packet of them, cheaply. While small “patio” vegetables are bred specifically for these purposes, you can usually purchase similar varieties online (although, again, growing them is mostly for sport as they don’t taste great). 

Be vigilant about pest prevention

Plants will attract pests like aphids and gnats on their own with little work. Hydro gardens seem to worsen the problem, so you have to be proactive. Always ensure there is no standing water around, from a leaking unit or when you add water to the unit. Using traps nearby is a good idea—I like the Zevo flying insect traps that use UV light to attract the insects. You can consider adding nasturtium flowers to your garden—not in abundance, but in one of the growing pods since they work to “trap” aphids. The aphids are attracted to the nasturtium, and just hang out on it, avoiding your other plants; you just leave the nasturtium to do it’s work. 

The secret sauce, for me, has been using smaller gardens for growing herbs, which I use consistently, making sure I am hacking the plants back on a regular basis to keep them from bolting. For larger gardens, I grow greens like lettuce, celery, celery, chard, and spinach. Using small, compact plants like these means that nothing is crowded out, there’s no fruit to be disappointed by or that will take too much time, and you ultimately end up pretty satisfied with the experience. 


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With some products, like phones, you have a myriad of options to sort through. But if you want to buy one of Peloton's spin bikes, you only have two choices: the Bike or the Bike+ (pronounced “bike plus”). That little “+” costs an extra thousand dollars, so is it really worth it? Let’s dive in. 

Overview of the important features

I’ll go over the details below, but here’s the short answer: if you just want “a Peloton,” the regular Bike is the original. It’s the one most people have, it’s cheaper, and it does the job just fine. I have a regular Bike and I’ve never felt like I’m missing out. The regular price for a Bike is $1,445, but with a good sale you can find it closer to $1,000. If you're willing to look at used models, they can often be had in the mid to high triple digits.

The Bike+ costs significantly more, so what are you paying for? The tech components are nicer, so the on-screen experience will feel a bit faster and smoother. Other than that, the big features are auto-resistance (the bike will follow along with classes without you having to turn the knob) and a swiveling screen so you can turn it to the side for things like strength workouts and guided yoga sessions. List price on the Bike+ is $2,495, with deals sometimes bringing it as low as $1,995. Refurbished and used models will, of course, cost a bit less.

What’s the same between the Bike and the Bike+

Most of the differences between the two bikes are tech-related, and we’ll get into those in a minute. But first, you should know what’s the same between the two bikes. 

First, they’re the same size. Both have the same footprint, 4 feet by 2 feet—Peloton recommends that you allow 24 inches on each side of the bike, and that you put it in an area with at least 8-foot-high ceilings. This allows even tall riders to be able to stand up and pedal. (If you don’t care about standing, or if you’re shorter, you might be able to squeeze into a tighter space. I’m 5’6” and never had an issue with my attic’s 7-foot ceilings.)

The controls and the frame are the same, with the exception that the original Bike had a seat post recall, and the Bike+ did not. (If you’re buying used, make sure that the seat post was replaced.) Both have a hard wired 3.5mm headphone jack, although it’s probably more common to use the onboard speakers or a bluetooth headset rather than plugging in a pair of headphones.  

Both flavors of bike can accommodate a rider who is anywhere between 4’11” and 6’4” and weighs up to 297 pounds. The Bike itself weighs 135 pounds, and the Bike+ weighs 140, due mainly to the hefty flywheel (with spin bikes, the heavier the flywheel, the better).

Both the Bike and Bike+ have access to the same subscription options. For the $44/month All-Access subscription, you get: 

  • Classes on the bike—these are the classic offering, with a charismatic instructor leading you through a structured workout (and often peppering it with motivational speeches).

  • Scenic rides on the bike, with “Peloton radio” for music (I usually mute it and just play my own music from my phone).

  • Lanebreak (a sort of ride-along video game) on the bike.

  • Access to classes through the Peloton app on your phone.

  • The ability to create multiple profiles for family members, so you can all share the bike without additional subscriptions.

Besides cycling classes, the bikes and the app can also provide follow-along classes for strength, stretching, yoga, and more. You can take bike classes on the phone app as well, a handy feature when you have access to a spin bike but it’s not a Peloton (for example, at a gym). 

Now that we know what’s the same, let’s dig into the differences.

The Bike+ has a swiveling screen, but don’t buy it just for that

The first thing you’ll notice about the Bike+ (and arguably its only visually distinctive feature) is the fact that its screen is on a swivel. This lets you set up a space next to the bike, perhaps with a mat and dumbbells, to do other types of workouts. Hop off the Bike+, point the screen toward your mat, and you can do a yoga class without having to crane your neck to see over the seat. 

The screen on the regular Bike doesn’t swivel, but it does tilt. This lets you adjust it for the most comfortable angle or to avoid glare while you’re riding. If you want that swiveling feature, though, you don’t have to pony up an extra grand for a whole new bike—an aftermarket swivel mount is only about 50 smackers.

The Bike+ has auto-resistance and a real power meter

If the Bike+ has a killer feature, it’s this. When an instructor tells you to set your resistance to 30, you don’t need to touch the knob—the Bike+ will adjust the resistance for you. 

You can turn this feature on or off during a ride by tapping the lock icon next to the resistance numbers. On regular rides, the Bike+ will adjust the resistance whenever the instructor announces that the resistance is changing; on power zone rides, it will adjust as needed to keep you in your power zone. 

The catch is that auto-resistance only works for rides where “target metrics” are programmed. This includes most rides from Peloton’s back catalog, but it does not include rides where you’re following along with an instructor in real time. After those live rides, Peloton will add the target metrics, but they say it can take up to 24 hours for that feature to become available for a given ride. 

The Bike+ also has a power meter built in, so that it can tell exactly how many watts your output is. (The regular Bike will show you an estimated wattage, but Bikes can become miscalibrated and the wattage may be off.) While you can calibrate a regular Bike, the Bike+ always knows how hard you are actually pedaling, and you may appreciate this extra accuracy.

The Bike+ has better quality tech in its tablet

The screen on the front of your Bike or Bike+ isn’t just a screen; it’s a whole tablet computer with its own processor, RAM, and other electronic components. An under-appreciated part of the Bike+ upgrade is just that everything in the tablet is nicer, better, and faster. The screen itself is larger: a 23.8” diagonal instead of 21.5”. The Bike+ also has:

  • 4 gigabytes of RAM instead of just two

  • A 2.5 gigahertz Qualcomm processor instead of a 2.0 GHz Mediatek

  • A 26-watt sound system with front- and rear-facing speakers instead of a 16-watt system with just rear-facing speakers

  • Bluetooth 5.0 instead of 4.0

  • A USB-C port so you can charge your devices while you ride (the regular Bike has a charging port, but it’s micro-USB, so most of us would need to get an adapter).

  • A smudge-proof, reduced-reflection coating on that big ol' screen.

There are also two features that are better on paper but that won’t matter to most of us. First, the Bike+ supports GymKit, a protocol for connecting your Apple Watch to the Bike+ for heart rate data. (They briefly stopped supporting GymKit, since there’s a Peloton Apple Watch app that does most of what GymKit does, but got enough complaints that they brought it back.)  

Second, the Bike+ has a nicer selfie camera, 8 MP versus 5 MP (and a privacy cover for said camera). Wait, the Peloton has a camera?? I hear you say. Yep, and according to Peloton its only use is for taking a selfie to use as your profile picture. (You can also just take a photo on your phone and add it to your profile through the app.) That said, Peloton users have said they’ve used the camera for video chat—but nobody seems to actually like that feature.

Ultimately, these features mean that your experience will be just a little bit faster and smoother. Some Peloton riders say that the nicer tech means that Lanebreak is less likely to have that occasional lag when you change “lanes” during the ride, and that the interface is just generally a bit more responsive.

The bottom line: Peloton Bike vs. Bike+

The Bike is a solid choice that will fulfill pretty much all your Peloton dreams. The Bike+ has some features that are nice-to-haves. 

Buy the Bike if: 

  • You just want a dang Peloton.

  • You don’t want to pay an extra $1,050 for minor upgrades.

Buy the Bike+ if: 

  • You want the fastest and smoothest tech experience.

  • You’d like the Bike to adjust itself during (most) classes.

  • You’re a numbers nerd and want to know your exact wattage and know that the bike is perfectly calibrated.

Ultimately, both are good choices. The exact price differential between the two models will depend on whether you can find your chosen bike on sale, used, or as a rental (I crunch the numbers for those scenarios here).


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Credit card points and airline miles are strange aspects of the modern economy. On the one hand, they’re not really worth all that much—airline miles, hotel points, and credit card reward points max out at about 1.5 cents per point, with most valued significantly less than a penny. On the other hand, they’re basically free money—you get them whenever you use the card, so as long as you’re traveling places you need to go to and buying stuff you need anyway (and not paying interest on those purchases), those points will eventually add up to something of value you wouldn’t otherwise have.

If you’ve got an airline-affiliated credit card like the United MileagePlus card or something similar, you’ve probably used the points you accrue mainly to offset the costs of travel. Points can be pretty easily used to pay for flights, hotels, and rental cars, and if the exchange rate is awful it’s still essentially free. But hotels and flights aren’t the only ways to cash in those points.

Donations

The points and miles you earn via credit card purchases or airline loyalty programs may not have much cash value, but they have some cash value. If you want to make the world a slightly better place without actually taking a hit in your bank account, you can probably donate your miles or points to charity. Most loyalty programs already have built-in relationships with charities that make this pretty easy. Keep in mind that these donations are probably not tax-deductible; the IRS views points and miles as discounts, not income.

Magazines

Your loyalty program or credit card website might have a built-in option to subscribe to magazines or newspapers, or you can check out MagsForMiles to see if you can trade those points for reading material. If you’ve got nothing else to do with your miles and you will actually get something out of the periodical, this could make sense—especially because points and miles are often high-value when used this way, for some reason. For example, with MileagePlus miles you can get a 15-issue subscription to Wine Spectator for 1,000 miles; that sub costs about $72 annually if you bought it directly, which values your point at about 7 cents each, which is not bad at all.

Gift cards

If you want to convert your miles or points into something a little more flexible, a solution most people overlook is a gift card. Most of these programs will happily sell you a gift card (you can also sometimes exchange your unwanted gift cards for points—United’s MileagePlus program does this—creating a weird kind of circular economy of craptastic gift cards). As with all points/miles transactions, you have to dig in to see if you’re getting any sort of value. A $5.00 Starbucks card through MileagePlus will cost you 1,666 points, making those points worth about 3 cents each. On the other hand, a gift card makes it a lot easier to actually buy things at Starbucks, so it might make sense. Plus, it’s a way to give someone a gift without spending any real money, you cheap weirdo.

Experiences

Yeah, the word “experiences” is kind of silly, but if you’ve got a stash of miles or points sitting in an account somewhere, you should look into the “experiences” you can either buy or bid on. MileagePlus offers a bunch of sporting experiences you can bid on with your miles, and Hilton Honors members can bid on a wide range of special events, like concerts, sporting events, or special dinners. Since these are usually auctions of some kind, you might get tempted into using more points or miles than you want—but since those miles and points are more or less free, it might be fun to just yeet them into an adventure you might otherwise never pay for.

Cash

While it’s generally legal to sell your points or miles to a third party like MilesBuyer, it’s not a great idea because most airlines and credit cards prohibit the practice. If you’re caught, you could lose your account and all your accrued points or miles.

But there are some options. Many rewards programs have options to cash out your points—Citi, for example, makes it pretty easy to convert your ThankYou points into a direct deposit into your bank account, a credit to your credit card balance, or even a check in the mail. That transforms your difficult-to-redeem points into actual cash, so it’s worth checking into the details of your program to see what your options are. But do the math before you jump on it—generally speaking, you want to get at least a penny a point before you convert to cash; otherwise waiting to redeem them for other goods or services might make more sense. For example, Citi’s ThankYou points are worth exactly one penny each when you turn them into cash, so 5,000 points becomes a $50 deposit in your account.


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When you're in a financial bind and need to borrow money quickly, two common options are payday loans and installment loans. Both provide fast access to cash, but they work very differently in terms of how you repay the borrowed amount. Here's a look at the key distinctions and some guidance on which type of loan may be preferable depending on your circumstances.

What is a payday loan?

A payday loan is a short-term, high-cost loan that typically needs to be repaid in full by your next payday, usually within two to four weeks. The maximum loan amounts are relatively small, usually $500 or less.

To get a payday loan, you provide the lender with a post-dated check for the full loan amount plus fees and interest. On your next payday, the lender cashes that check to recover what you owe. If you can't repay, you may be able to roll the loan over by paying only the fees and interest, but this will result in additional high charges being added.

Payday loans have extremely high annual percentage rates (APRs) that can exceed 400%. The combination of short repayment periods and exorbitant interest rates makes these loans very difficult to pay off, which is why many borrowers end up trapped in cycles of debt.

What is an installment loan?

Installment loans, as their name suggests, allow you to repay what you borrowed in a series of scheduled payments or installments over a period of months or years. Typical repayment terms range anywhere from a few months to a few decades.

The funds from an installment loan can often be used for a variety of purposes like debt consolidation, major purchases, home improvements, and more. You'll usually repay the loan on a fixed monthly schedule, making equal payments that go toward both principal and interest.

Installment loans can be secured by collateral like a home or car title, or they can be unsecured. Interest rates tend to be lower than payday loans, but will vary based on factors like your credit score, income, and whether the loan is secured or not.

Which should you choose?

In almost every situation, an installment loan is the better choice compared to a high-risk payday loan. Installment loans:

  • Are far less expensive overall due to lower fees and interest rates

  • Give you longer to repay in reasonably affordable installments

  • Are available in higher amounts suitable for bigger expenses

  • Are less likely to trap you in never-ending cycles of debt

The only instance when a payday loan could potentially make sense is if you need a very small amount of money to cover an emergency and you're certain you can repay it quickly to avoid interest charges piling up. But in general, the high costs and short repayment terms of payday loans make them exceedingly risky.

Whenever possible, explore installment loan options from personal loan providers, credit unions, banks, or online lenders. With better terms and more affordable repayment plans, they are almost always the smarter choice over predatory payday loans. For more, here are some tips for paying off loans early.


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Microsoft first released support for passkeys in Windows 11 last year, introducing users to a passwordless way to sign into their Microsoft accounts. Now, all consumer accounts can finally generate passkeys for use across Windows, Android, and iOS.

Microsoft announced the full rollout on its security blog this week. The company notes that attacks on passwords have surged more than 3,378 percent since it first introduced Windows Hello, its biometric-based login method for Windows 10, fueling its efforts to replace passwords with passkeys. Starting this week, Microsoft will now let you add and use passkeys that let you access your account with your face, fingerprint, or a device PIN on Windows, Google, and Apple platforms.

Passkeys have been increasing in availability across a number of sites and platforms, with Google even going the “passwordless” route by adding its own passkey systems. In short, they offer more security than a traditional password, as they're device-based: Your device holds one part of the key, while the app or site—in this case, Microsoft—holds the other. There's no "password" to hack: Without the trusted device, bad actors can't break into your accounts.

Microsoft has slowly been working towards adding passkey support across its ecosystem, starting with a passkey manager in Windows 11, which lets you save passkeys for other sites and apps directly on your device. Creating a passkey with Windows will also hopefully help make signing into other apps easier, as it sounds like Microsoft wants to expand where its Windows passkeys are accepted.

With password crackers becoming so prevalent, and passwords requirements becoming increasingly complex, passkeys offer both a convenient and more secure way to log into your account that won’t require you to write down some long and overwhelming password—thus removing some of the additional security of the password right off the bat—to remember it.

You can manage your passkeys on Windows 11 by navigating to Settings > Accounts > Passkey Settings and pressing the three dots next to any passkey to manage it.


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If you’re a Gen Xer or a millennial, you remember a time when college was pitched to you as a value-add, rather than a necessary expense. We all know how that turned out. And while many of us graduated and hopefully put our degrees to work, as many as 40 million Americans were classifiable as college dropouts in July 2021, according to according to EducationData.org—folks who previously enrolled in higher ed but left before completing a degree.

Plenty of people from all generations leave school before finishing a degree, for reasons that vary from financial to personal. But even after you've already entered the working world without a degree, going back to finish yours can be a smart move. If you've already earned a good number of general ed credits, for example—say a year’s worth—in theory you should be able to apply them to a degree in a new field that reflects your current ambitions, not those of your teenage self. 

For many adults, going back to school seems daunting, but finishing your degree could lead to higher salaries and more opportunities, or put you on the path to a different career altogether. I talked to an expert to get some tips on how you can apply your life experience to picking up where you left off, and share proactive strategies for finally finish your degree. 

Take stock of your (scholarly) assets

Whether it’s been one year or 20 since you left school, it’s hard to remember exactly what's on your transcript. Record gathering is an important part of the back-to-school process, so start there. Even if you plan on attending the same school you left, it’s essential to know where you stand.

Doing this will help you avoid disappointment or surprises by giving you a better idea of what’s under your belt. As a kid, the college application process seemed complex and difficult, but when you’re in your 30s and have been laid off a few times, it’s really no more complicated than a job application. 

College transcripts are an important way to take stock of your credits and their subject matter, but you might also need your high school transcripts if you’re going to be attending a different school or if it’s been so long that your previous school no longer has those records. Calling, emailing, and filling out forms is your first tstep, but paid services like Parchment can help with some of the legwork.

I asked Dr. Bri Newland, assistant dean of the New York University School of Professional Studies Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies (NYU SPS DAUS), where o begin when determining your credit status. 

“Most program policies on transfer credit typically have a maximum limit of 10 years," she said. "However, it is crucial to schedule a meeting with an experienced academic advisor who will thoroughly assess your transcripts alongside you, regardless of whether you acquired these credits beyond the specified timeframe.”

There’s more factors at play than when you stopped attending. If you have any other type of technical schooling or certifications, gather this paperwork in case there are professional equivalencies that could make your credits go farther.  

“The [NYU SPS DAUS] also assesses prior learning through other experiences beyond college credit," Dr. Newland noted. "For example, military experience can be reviewed for college credit, as well as prior work experience and apprenticeships.“

While colleges and universities are places of higher education, they are also businesses, and want you to keep going (and graduate) to keep their reputation for excellence intact, so they are usually willing to work with you. Save money and time by knocking out as many equivalent credits as possible.

Dr. Newland gave an example of how this works at NYU. “For associate's degrees, students can transfer up to 30 credits, while for bachelor's degrees, 80 credits can be transferred," she said. "This flexibility allows students to build upon their prior learning and accelerate their path to graduation.” 

Reach out to your alma mater

Give the admissions folks at your former school a call. Spring is a great time for adult students to ring, as most graduating high schoolers have already made their enrollment decisions. At many colleges, adult applicants can complete their application whenever they want, especially if it’s a school they already attended. 

Admissions counselors can do everything from getting you set up with an application, to checking your records to make sure that you have what you need to reapply, and even directing you to other school services that could make the process easier. Alumni services serve as post-attendance marketing, enticing you to return and maybe even helping you meet that goal by connecting you to financial resources.

If you’re a working professional, counselors can also help you decide if your previous school can accommodate your schedule. If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people laid off right now, you should apply for financial aid now while you’re between jobs. 

How to pay for it

If you’re in a stable job and your company doesn’t already provide educational resources as a matter of course, it can’t hurt to ask. Continuing education is often a part of competitive compensation packages, and you should to use that to your advantage. Education focused workplaces, especially in tech and healthcare, will sometimes even allow you time off of work to focus on these pursuits.

NYU in particular devotes an entire segment of their school to lifelong learners. Dr.Newland said. Adult and continuing education programs at many schools take a different approach to schoolwork too. “For example, through hands-on projects, real-world case studies, and industry collaborations, NYU SPS DAUS students gain practical experience and develop the tools and strategies needed to tackle complex problems and drive innovation in their fields, she noted.”

For the unemployed or underemployed, you can follow the same route you did as a high schooler: Apply for financial aid, in all its many forms. It’s easier than ever to find loans and scholarships, and you can enter into the process with your eyes open and the financial literacy of an adult. Grants, repayment programs, and even low-cost loans could offer just enough to cover the handful of credits you need to complete if you're close to finishing, while a scholarship could cover a year or more.

Use all the tools at your disposal

I'm not saying you should use AI to write an entrance letter or complete your research papers after work, but imagine if you had ChatGPT to check your grammar and spelling 15 years ago. Digital calendars, digital note-taking, and other educational tools have come a long way in recent years, and you should use them help you across the educational finish line, wherever that may be. For example, software like Otter.ai can take notes for you, and you can summarize them with OpenAI and track your projects on Monday.com.

Remote learning is no longer considered a fringe or lesser higher education experience. Online classes can be your sole method of schooling, and you don’t have choose an online-only schools to get a remote degree.

If you require more accommodations that you did (or that were available) back when you were in college, look into those too: These days, every college has an office deevoted to helping people with disabilities do their best in academia. Neurodivergence, mental illness, or physical ability need not be an impediment in today's educational environment. School services can help you create a plan for success, and social attitudes have shifted to make receiving this assistance more commonplace and easier to access. 

Apply everything you learned as a professional to your back-to-school experience, and you’ll finally be able to get that (very expensive, hopefully equally valuable piece of paper.. 


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It may not come as a surprise that there’s yet another scrumptious morsel you can easily whip up with the help of boxed pancake mix. This malty, self-rising baking mix makes an excellent frying batter for veggies and a perfect dough for apple fritters (among other tempting carb-laden snacks). With both sweet and savory applications, complete pancake mix can do no wrong. Let’s add another one to the list of Boxed Mix Greatest Hits: quick and easy blueberry muffins.

Most cakes and quick breads contain similar ingredients—flour, leavening agent, sugar, salt, fat, and eggs—just in different proportions. Baking from scratch comes easy to some, and they’re the folks who might find boxed pancake mix a veritable baking scam. It’s premixed dry ingredients (and sometimes even dry egg powder), so why not do it yourself? To that I say: Precisely!

Complete pancake mix is already pre-measured and combined, so all you have to do is mess with the proportions a bit and add some liquid to make the type of quick bread you want. Less time spent pulling six different containers out of the pantry, fewer measuring utensils, and an easier cleanup. Plus, sometimes you're just plum outta eggs.

Even boxed-mix baking can be easier with the right tools:

The right ratio for muffins

Muffins have a slightly higher sugar and fat content than pancakes, so besides liquid (which needs to be added regardless) that’s all that needs to be added. Oh, and the blueberries of course. I don’t like my muffins to be as sweet as cake, but if that speaks to you then add another tablespoon of sugar to the mix. Muffin batter is also much thicker than pancake batter, so keep in mind that the mixture should be rather thick.

Blueberry muffin batter in a bowl
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

How to make blueberry muffins from pancake mix

1. Whisk the boxed pancake mix, sugar, oil, and milk together in a mixing bowl. The mixture should be well combined, but a few lumps are okay. Add the blueberries and stir gently. You can use frozen blueberries, though they’ll tint the batter blue-gray. 

2. Spoon the batter into a buttered or paper lined cupcake pan. I usually fill them just shy of the top because I like the muffin to crown. For a crunchy crust, generously sprinkle granulated sugar over the tops of each muffin. 

3. Bake the muffins in a preheated 400°F oven for about 12 minutes, or until browned and springy in the center.

Feel free to zhuzh up your pancake mix muffins with a pinch of ground cinnamon, a splash of vanilla extract, orange zest, or even different fruit. This recipe makes about five muffins and can certainly be doubled.

Easy Blueberry Muffin Recipe (from pancake mix)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup complete pancake mix 

  • 2 tablespoons sugar + more for topping

  • 2 tablespoons canola oil

  • 4 tablespoons milk (subsitute alternative milk, or water)

  • ½ - ⅔ cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 6-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, or generously butter the cups and the top edge around each cup.

2. Whisk the pancake mix, sugar, oil, and milk together in a bowl until combined. The mixture should be well combined but a few lumps are okay. Stir the blueberries into the mixture gently with a spoon.

3. Divide the batter into each muffin cup. Generously sprinkle the tops with more granulated sugar. 

4. Bake the muffins for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned and they’re springy in the center. 


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