Less Muffin Tops more Muffins

Lately I've been trying to figure something out to have to eat in the morning before I go to work super early to get me though until my first break at work. I tend to get so hungry that I get grumpy so I wanted to find something to hold me over till then but not totally blow my calories for the day. I tried some poppy seed muffins, and they were great, but I thought I'd try something a little different… So i went searching online and got two recipes to try….. SAVORY and SWEET Muffins….. I think I've got something here!

Savory

11 Muffins
Calories: 90.2

Protein: 9.4g

Carbohydrates: 9.1g

Fat: 1.6g

60g Garbanzo Bean Flour (any combination to equal one cup)
30g Quinoa Flour
30g Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/4 Cup Egg Whites (~276g or 6 eggs)
1/4 Cup Applesauce
2 oz Almond "Jalapeno Jack Cheese"
6 pieces Jennie-o Turkey Bacon
Copped Parsley

This recipe called for quick cooking oats, but in all of the confusion of measuring the flours and not being sure about how the quinoa was going to taste with this one. (I had a mishap with the poppy muffins and quinoa) I accidentally forgot to add the oats, it called for 1/3 cup and I'm sure it would have added good texture but I think they taste fine without them.

The oven should be pre-heated to 375. All the try ingredients can be mixed together in a large bowl. Separately mix the eggs and applesauce. Once they are combines add them to the flour mixture, it shouldn't be over mixed. Lastly add the bacon, cheese and parsley until they are fully incorporated.

Evenly distribute the mix into pre-greased/pam'ed muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.

These really ended up being super easy and I was pretty happy with the end result. BUT I was in kind of a baking kick and had bought the makings for a sweet muffin too, so I did BOTH.

Recipe Source: http://www.incredibleegg.org/recipes-and-more/recipes/baconcheddar-breakfast-muffins

Sweet

16 Muffins
Calories: 89.9

Protein: 7.6g

Carbohydrates: 14g

Fat: .8g

20g Oatmeal Flour
120g Whole Wheat Flour
90g Garbanzo Bean Flour (~2 Cups Total)
2 Scoop Cake Batter Muscle Gauge
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Flax Meal

3/4 Cup Sugar-free Almond Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Tbsp Egg Whites (1 Egg)
1 Cup Fat Free Greek Yogurt
1/4 Cup Apple Sauce
1tsp (per muffin) Sugar-Free Jam (~1/2 cup)

Topping
1/4 Cup Sugar-Free Amaretto Syrup
1 tsp Cinnamon
35g Spelt Cereal
A few sprays of "I cant believe its not butter" Spray.

The oven should be pre-heated to 400 degrees and the tins should be sprayed with pam or greased in some way.

Whisk all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (protein, flours, salt, baking soda and powder, and flax meal). In a smaller bowl evenly mix the syrup, vanilla, egg, yogurt, and applesauce. Mix the two together in the larger bowl until everything is incorporated but not over stirred. Distribute all of the mix into the tins and add 1 tsp of jam to the top of each muffin. The dough was too wet to make indents in with a utensil. I added the jam to the top of each and just pushed it into the muffin a little with my finger.

I always like a strudel top to muffins, but this can easily be omitted and shaves off 8 calories per muffin…. Its your choice. I just took some of the spelt hot cereal mix and mixed it with some cinnamon, butter spray and sugar-free syrup to make a topping and evenly distributed it on top of each muffin.

These muffins take not time to cook. The suggested time was 12 minutes and they were defiantly done in that time.

I think these are my favorites…. I had to have two right away just to make sure.

Recipe Source: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/bread-recipes/muffins/jam-muffins-687863/

I dedicate these to Monica…. who's been waiting ever so patiently for me to post something again. Mony--- this is worth the wait!

An early start for my Birthday Cake recipe....

Carrot Cake!

My mom always made me carrot cake for my
Birthdays so I was keen to try and make
something with less fat/calories. I got a box of prunes from Walgreen's and it had a recipe so I thought I would try it out... Why not? Keep in mind that this is (secretly) my second attempt at these muffins (its much easier to portion into a muffin tin). In other words, this is a fantastic recipe because I took away some of the things I screwed up on the first time and I got a few pointers from Chef James Gibson at Salty's. Try them out... I really like them....

Carrot Muffins (Made 26 Muffins)
Calories: 85.6
Protein: 5.6g
Carbohydrates: 14.1
Fat: .6

6 oz Shredded Carrots
8 oz Can Crushed Pineapple
1 Cup Egg Beaters
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/3 Cup Stevia for Baking
8 oz Prunes
1 Cup Water
200g Bob's Red Mill Oatmeal Flour
40g Bob's Red Mill Buckwheat Flour
2 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Scoops Muscle Gauge "Cake Batter"

First thing to do is to soak the carrots. I weighed out as many as I wanted and then soaked them in water while I went to the store. James says that this makes them cook quicker in the oven and not come out so hard. I start out with a medium sized bowl and put in the whole can of crushed pineapple liquid and all and the preferred sugar. I do use less than the recipe I found calls for because the protein does have a little sweetness to it.

Next you make a puree with the prunes by throwing it into a food processor with one cup water. This will be helpful with keeping your batter wet enough. To make things easier on myself when scrapping out the prunes I just mixed in the eggs and vanilla too. This makes the eggs a little fluffier and incorporates the really wet ingredients. Add that mixture to the pineapple and sugar. Since I like to make sure I get everything out of the food processor I add the shredded carrots to it with the leftover egg/prune puree to pick up any last bits of it and also make it so that the shreds aren't so long. This is much easier to scrape out of the food processor then the prunes alone....

Now we add the dry ingredients. Add the cinnamon, salt, baking soda, protein and flours. The measurements for the flour is 2 Cups or 240g. I did not like the consistency of the muffins with just the buckwheat flour so I thought I would use only oat because of its soft airy texture it gives to baked items but I wanted to have at least a little structure and integrity to the cake so I added a little buckwheat. Plus the buckwheat is a little higher in protein which helps out overall. I add the Muscle Gauge "Cake Batter" because its great to bake with and it makes what were enjoying a little more well rounded.... Not just chocked full of carbs!

For the muffins I use a 1/4 Cup to measure into the pan. I found when I was attempting to devour my first creation that the batter really sticks to the liners. I felt like I was only getting half of my muffin because it was stuck to the paper. So, I suggest not using them like I did to be lazy and not have to wash the pan.

Cook these on 375 for 18 minutes or until you can poke them with a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Happy Eating!!

If you are interested I'm sure a fat-free cream cheese with some equal or sugar-free vanilla syrup would be fantastic as a frosting on top of these..... I would try but I don't think my tummy would like it..... So I stick to the plain ones.....

I got this recipe from the back of a Deerfeild Farms box of Dried Prunes.

Im on a cake roll..... this time I'm much less crabby.

Something Savory?

Crab Cakes (Makes 2 small or 1 large cake)

Calories: 135 Carbohydrates: 10.5g

Protein: 18.3g Fat: 1.5g

2oz Snow Crab
1Tbsp Fat Free Mayo

2 Shakes Lemon Juice

2 Shakes Tabasco

2 Shakes White Pepper

3 Shakes Johnny's Seasoning Salt

1/4 Tsp. Worcestershire

1/8 Ground Toasted Brown Mustard Seed

1 Tbsp Egg Beaters

I slice Sara Lee Whole Wheat 45 Cal Bread

10g Red Pepper

5g Jalapeno

First I took the mustard seed and toasted it in a pan. I use very low heat and in the pan I plan on using later i just roll the seeds around until they kind of pop a little and then I ground them up to add to the mix later. I also took one frozen slice of the Sara Lee bread and put it in the toaster oven to make bread crumbs out of it. (This was kind of last minute so i was thinking on the fly.) I used the "warm" setting for 20 mins and let the bread get really dry and hard. After flipping once I chopped it up in the food processor and left it to the side.

Add everything to a smaller mixing bowl except the bread crumbs. I waited until everything was fully incorporated before I started thickening it up. I found that it was a little wetter than I had planned, but once I started adding the bread crumbs it seemed to work out OK. I managed to add almost all of the crumbs. I kept some on the side to coat the outside. The right consistency seemed like the cakes kind of flop around in the bowl while mixing. I think it might have been better to use a 1/2 a slice more of bread to make the mix more dry. I pan fried them with Pam on medium low heat covered so that the egg cooked all the way and flipped when it had browned. I had to flip it in the pan rather then with a spatula because I was afraid it would break in the turning but I think adding more crumbs would have solved that problem. It was pretty easy!

Why crab cakes? I kind of got tricked into making these. Derrick had leftovers of crab from the other night (when we were celebrating having a night off together) and he thought that it would be a good idea to try and make crab cakes…. Why not right? And of course, I wanted to be able to participate in the action too, so I gave it a go. I actually liked them more then I thought I would. The only thing is that they were a little sweet. This probably being from the fat-free mayo I used, or to the fact that we were using snow crab. Either way I liked them and I ate all of mine that I made! I think personally if I were to make them again I would use dungeness crab and maybe sub the mayo out for fat free yogurt, it strangely enough has less tang than the mayo and has about the same fat and calorie content. Mind you they are a little spicy so add or take out the Tabasco and jalapenos as you like it.

Hopefully someone likes these and enjoys the change of pace from sweet to savory indulgences.

Pancakes Revised!

Finn was taking a nap so I took an opportunity to try these again...

Pumpkin Pancakes

61 Calories a cake

(pro: 4.2, carb: 10.2, fat: .5)

4 cakes with 5 grams slivered almonds and 1/4 cup sugar free syrup:

Calories: 294.1 Carbohydrates: 50

Protein: 18.1 Fat: 4.7 total

100g oatmeal

120g buckwheat flour

1 tsp stevia in the raw baking

1 scoop cake batter

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup organic pumpkin puree

4 tbsp Egg Beaters

3 Tbsp TJ pear sauce

3/4 Cup Greek Yogurt mixed with H20 In place of milk equating 2 cups.

Oh wow these were so much better and softer than the first ones!

I used half buckwheat flour and half oatmeal by suggestion and just used the food processor to make the oatmeal like a flour. I added to the flour/oat mix the stevia, cake batter protein, baking powder and cinnamon. In another bowl I did the puree, eggs, pear sauce and greek yogurt "milk." I mixed the two in the larger bowl and started cooking them on medium low. I think the temperature could be lower so that they can cook longer and not burn. I found that right off the bat they seemed like they were undercooked but after keeping them in the toaster oven on warm while i made the rest i had no problem. This made about 20 pancakes using a 1/4 cup to pour them.

Try these ones……

My first real flop, Flapjacks.

I don't think that they were as bad as I'm making them sound, but Derrick wouldn't eat them. I think that says a lot! First off I forgot to mix the buckwheat with oatmeal to make them fluffier and less dense. Secondly, there defiantly wasn't enough puking flavor. I would have liked to taste it more no next time I make them I plan on adding more. Lastly I used pear sauce instead of oil because I heard somewhere that apple sauce was a good substitute for oil, and well I had no applesauce so I used pear sauce. Well here it is in case anyone wants to try it or even make it better… Please add your comments and let me know how it goes.

Pumpkin Pancake (Serving: One Cake)

Calories: 78 Carbohydrates: 13.9

Protein: 5.5 Fat: .6

1.5 Scoop Muscle Gauge Cake Batter Protein (Mixed with water in place of Milk to equal 1 3/4 cup)

1/2 Cup Pumpkin Puree

1 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Cup Egg Beaters

2 Cups Buckwheat Flour

2 Tbsp. Trader Joe's Pear Sauce (40g)

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1.25 Tbsp. Cinnamon

6 Packets of Stevia in the Raw

In a medium sized bowl add the flour, Stevia in the Raw, baking powder, cinnamon and salt (The original recipe calls for Pumpkin Pie Spice but I had none so I just used cinnamon. In a second bow add the protein mixed with water with the pumpkin, egg beaters and and pear sauce. Once its fully incorporated add it to the flour mixture. I used a 1/4 measuring cup to pour it onto the pan. I used medium heat and they cooked pretty quickly so be mindful that they don't burn.

If you need help with the calorie conversion if you end up with more or less pancakes the batter had 1092 calories so in the end just divide by however many cakes you get.

Good Luck with these, I hope yours turn out better than mine did.

Source:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Pancakes-3/Detail.aspx

Less padding while still enjoying Bread Pudding.

I was tinkering around on a few websites and ran across some ideas for quite a few lower calorie options for a bunch of things. I found them on prevention.com for lower calorie recipes and I thought I could one up it with the bread pudding. I planned on having David and Davicia over for dinner and I really wanted to be able to enjoy something when they came over. I thought I'd try this one out on them. I also really love Dahlia Bakery's (http://tomdouglas.com/index.php/restaurants/dahlia-bakery) Toasted Pecan Flax Bread and I thought it would be the best thing to try in it. Also, they were super great about giving me all the ingredients so that I could find out the nutritional information.

Bread Pudding (Serving 1/12)

Calories: 130 Carbohydrates: 17.4

Protein: 4.5 Fat: 3.7

12 oz Dahlia Bakery Pecan Flax Bread

(2oz Cal: 166 Carb: 23.4 Pro: 4.9 Fat: 6.4)

1 Apple

1/4 Cup Simply Orange Juice

1 Tbsp. Smart Balance with Flax Oil

1 Tbsp. Buckwheat Flour

1/4 Tsp Allspice

1/2 Cup Egg Beaters

1/2 Cup Deluxe Trim Fat Free Milk

4 Tbsp. Dark Rum

2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

The oven should be preheated to 350°F. I used an 8" round cake pan but I think something square may have been a little better for portioning but either way a pre-greased pan is the best solution. I like to use the pam- butter flavored spray. No calories and it works well. Once the pan is greased you chop up the bread and the apple and mix them in the pan together.

Next, you're supposed to make a roux for the bread pudding. It didn't really do what its supposed to. But, either way, I used the smart balance margarine and the buckwheat flour to make the recipe was trying to get me to do was make a roux. It didn't brown because of the dairy free "margarine." The idea is that you melt down the Smart Balance in a sauce pan on medium and stir in the flour. Add the milk and stir constantly for 5 mins. Its supposed to thicken, but it didn't with me. In a small bowl combine the orange juice, egg, sugar, rum and all spice. (The original recipe called for egg and egg whites so I just added all egg whites. Also it called for something called a "three-fruit speed," well I had no idea what that was so I added extra rum.) Add that to the milk mixture in the saucepan and stir until its well blended. Once its finished pour the milk mixture over the bread and apples.

Bake for 40 to 45 mins until brown and enjoy. The best way to get the right calorie count is to divide what you make into 12 pieces.

I forgot about putting a sauce on top of it... So I quickly improvised and added ice cream for the boys and I added a little greek yogurt with a little truvia in it to make it like a whip/creme..... It tasted great with it!

I made a double batch because I was entertaining and splitting it into two pans mistakenly. It should defiantly be in a deeper pan with more liquid. It was way drier then I wanted. I think that maybe I would add more egg beaters or perhaps add some water and protein to it to make it a little thicker and soupier, or to make a better custard. I made this recipe before I started adding protein to things in place of sugar. Perhaps I should try it again and see what happens. Ill re-post new details when I prefect it the next time.

Source:

http://recipes.prevention.com/Recipe/fall-bread-pudding.aspx

I guess it would just be called pain (in french), my attempt at French Toast.

I've actually tried French Toast before this, but I just tried this one and I think its the best.

French Toast Third Try (1 Slice per serving)

Calories: 76.4 Carbohydrates: 7.7

Protein: 9.8 Fat: .5

10 Slices Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat Bread (45 Cal each)

3/4 Cup Egg Beaters

1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

2 Scoops Muscle Gauge "Ice Cream Sandwich"

I take the Egg Beaters and use a hand held shake blender and mix in the protein powder. It was much thicker then I planned on because I got a little over excited with adding the protein (but hey I got the protein up pretty high so I think it worked out!). Either way it was so thick that I added enough water to make the liquid equate about 2 cups. Plus, of course, the cinnamon and vanilla. The mix seemed a little thin once I started dipping the slices of bread but all together they turned out really well. I just make sure that all the pieces are pretty soaked and I cook them on medium low heat for a minute or two until they are browned. I flip them and they're done.

I use a sugar-free syrup on my French Toast but I find that I always want just a little more…. So I've been adding a little sugar-free coffee syrup that I get from cash and carry to supplement the syrup. So I add a little English Toffee flavoring and stir it up and pour it on top….. It stretches the syrup a little and adds a nutty element to it with out adding the fat!

I hope someone else can enjoy this as much as I did!

I borrowed ideas from Kristen to get this recipe together.