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……