French Toast Muffins

French Toast Muffins

A new muffin recipe to add to the list and a major bonus, they are only 2 points as compared to most of my muffins which are 3 points each! These were very good, but I will say that they had a little different texture than a normal muffin. No flour in them, but with the 4 egg whites, they had just a bit more of a souffle-esque kind of feel, very much like french toast...that kind of eggy-bready kind of taste. I really enjoyed them. I re-heated one this morning for my breakfast and it was just as good today as it was yesterday. If I wanted to use an extra point, they would be really good dipped in a little warm maple syrup. Yum!! Don't be scared by the ingredient list, I was a bit intimidated myself, but I found everything (except the sugar free syrup) at Aldi...even the Stevia packets and almond milk. And here's a little fun tip, the almond milk comes in a bigger carton, and you only need a half cup, so if you aren't going to use the rest of it (my husband loves it and was more than willing to finish off our carton) but if your family won't drink it or put it on cereal, pour it into ice cube trays, then when frozen, toss them in a freezer bag and you'll have them ready for the next time you need almond milk, then you won't have to buy it again! I do that with buttermilk and other liquid ingredients that I don't use too often.

Ingredients:

½ c. unsweetened almond milk

½ c. unsweetened applesauce

½ c. sugar free maple syrup

4 egg whites

1 tsp. vanilla (or maple…I just couldn’t find maple) extract

2 c. old fashioned oats

12-14 packets Stevia

2 tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon 

Directions:

1.   Heat oven to 350. Spray 14 muffin cups with cooking spray.

2.   Put all liquid ingredients in a blender and blend well. Then add all the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

3.   Pour into 14 muffin cups, dividing batter evenly. Fill each cup a little over halfway full.

4.   Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  

Yields 14 pieces – WWP+ 2 per muffin

Banana Chocolate Chip Donuts

Banana Chocolate Chip Donuts

My sweet girl and I made these for breakfast this morning and they were delicious! I bought a donut maker at Target a couple weeks ago and am always searching for yummy donut recipes. These turned out so good! I would have loved to have eaten 3 or 4 for breakfast, but I restrained myself to only 1. I wanted to make the recipe (mostly) as it was the first time, however, next time I think I'm going to try and couple of tweaks to see if I can bring the point value down to 2 instead of 3. Not sure if they'll taste as good with the changes, so I'm posting the original recipe for now, and will post the changed one after I get a chance to try it and see how they taste. These are great for a quick breakfast or a yummy after dinner dessert!

Ingredients:

1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 medium bananas)

½ c. raw cane sugar

½ c. fat free Greek yogurt

¼ c. butter, melted

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt.

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Topping:

2 T. raw cane sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1.   Heat donut maker and spray each donut iron spot with cooking spray.

2.   Using an electric mixer (preferably with a whisk attachment) add the mashed bananas, sugar and greek yogurt. Mix well. Add melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until blended. Do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips. In a separate bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon for topping.

3.   Put all the dough in a large Ziploc bag and seal shut. Cut the corner out so you can pipe the dough into the molds. Fill bottom half of donut molds. Sprinkle just a little cinnamon and sugar on top and close donut mold. Cook 6-7 minutes then put on a cooling rack to cool. Spray pan again and repeat process until all dough is used.

 

***Can also be baked in the oven in a donut pan (or so the original recipe says) 325 for 12-15 minutes. 

Yields 24 servings – WWP+ 3 points  

Recipe adapted from Janie's Kitchen

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

I love blueberry muffins! In my day, I would have been known to make a batch for breakfast and eat probably a half dozen of them myself. They are just such a yummy breakfast and a great snack for the rest of the day. I also really love lemon desserts...cake, bars, cookies, anything...so when I found this lemon blueberry muffin recipe, I knew I couldn't lose. They are made with cream cheese and part all-purpose flour and part whole wheat flour and with fresh blueberries. They were absolutely delicious with my cup of coffee this morning. Granted, I only had one, which took some restraint, but I knew they would be waiting for me tomorrow morning too! This recipe made 2 dozen muffins, so they'll be yummy breakfasts and snacks for my whole family for several days!

 

Ingredients:

5 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese

3 T butter, softened

3 T unsweetened applesauce

1 ½ c. sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

1 large egg

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. white whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ c. low-fat buttermilk

5 T. lemon juice

2 c. blueberries

 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 350. Spray 24 muffin tins with cooking spray or line with cupcake papers

2.   With electric mixer, combine cream cheese, butter, and applesauce until well blended. Add sugar, mix well. Add vanilla, egg, egg whites and mix very well.

3.   In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients, then gradually add to mixer while on low speed. Then add lemon juice and buttermilk. Fold in blueberries.

4.   Divide batter evenly among 24 cups, about ¼ c. batter in each.

5.   Bake 25 minutes.

Yields 24 servings – WWP+ 3 per serving.

Recipe adapted from Emily Bites

Party Appetizers!

Last night, we had a Lee family game night, which is something that we try and do every month or every other month. My husband's side of the family all gets together and we eat and play games, typically Rook is our game of choice. *There's an odd chill in the air...beware the eerie black bird...Caw! Caw!* Sorry, a little joke in our family. Since I was hosting game night at our house this month, I decided not to do a full on dinner, but just do appetizers and have everybody bring snacks and stuff. I figured this would be the best way for us to eat carefully. His family brought veggie trays and fruit salad and pita chips with hummice and and I made my yummo glazed brownies (which everyone LOVED, even those not trying to eat healthy...which goes to show those brownies are yummy to all!) I also made three different recipes of savory cupcakes, but made them half the size as the recipe calls for and cooked them in mini muffin tins!

They were so yummy! I'll admit, it was a lot of work trying to make three totally separate recipes of savory cupcakes all to be ready at the same time, and I didn't manage my time the best, thankfully, most of them were late getting to our house, because I certainly wasn't ready when I said I would be. :) But with my helpful hubs as a sous chef who did all my cheese and veggie grating and measuring stuff that he felt he could be trusted with, we got them all done! I made mini french dip cupcakes, mini white vegetable lasagna cupcakes (for the vegetarians in our family, which I totally loved as well!) and mini taco cupcakes. The picture doesn't show all that I put out, just what fit at one time on my serving tray. A normal cupcake recipe makes 8, so in a mini muffin pan, each made 16, take that time 3 recipes and I had 48 mini cupcakes set out for snacking! I think we had maybe 4 or 5 left at the end of the night, I'd say they were a hit. And each little cupcake rang in at 2 points a piece! It was a fun and kinda fancy looking appetizer to put out...highly recommend it for your next party!

The French Dip cupcakes recipe can be found right here: French Dip Cupcakes. To make them as minis, you use a mini muffin tin, and instead of double layering all the incrediants, you just single layer them and spread them out evenly among the 16 muffin cups. First down is the wonton wrapper, then evenly divide the roast beef mixture, then evenly sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Pop them in the oven at 375 for 12-14 minutes.

I will be getting the taco cupcakes and white vegetable lasagna cupcakes recipes up sometime this week!

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

This was my yummy breakfast this morning! I usually don't eat a whole lot for breakfast, I drink my coffee, have a banana or some yogurt with fruit and granola or maybe an egg. It's very important to eat breakfast, but compared to what I used to eat for breakfast which was twice as much food that left me hungry way earlier, I don't eat as much now, but make better choices. These muffins were delicious! Even my three year old ate hers in the car on the way to ballet! They were a quick breakfast at only 3 points, but would also be a great mid-morning or afternoon snack. No flour, lots of oatmeal and some sweet chocolate chips to top it off!

 

Ingredients:

3 c. old fashioned oats

½ c. packed brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 egg whites

1 egg

1 ¼ c. skim milk

¾ c. mashed bananas

1 tsp. vanilla

¾ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 350 and spray 18 muffin cups with cooking spray

2.   Combine the oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir well.

3.   Combine all liquid ingredients in a separate bowl, egg whites, egg, milk, mashed bananas and vanilla. Whisk together well.

4.   Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients bowl and stir really well to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

5.   Divide mixture evenly among 18 muffin cups. I used a 1/3 c. measure, and came a little short and had to take some out of others to make 18 muffins, so probably a ¼ c. would work perfect!

6.   Bake 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (mine were done at 20).

 
Yields 18 servings – WWP+ 3 per serving.

Recipe from Emily Bites