Healthy Muffins

So I really like baking. Last night I decide to make some muffins for breakfast. I looked in the cupboard and there was no sugar! It was too late to run to the grocery store and I had already started the process of making them so I looked it up on the internet. As I started making these I realized that these can be some pretty healthy muffins. I modified the recipe and now am publishing it so you can enjoy :)

Lemon Zucchini Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (I have to be honest. I didn't have that either, but next time I will try it. If you use all-purpose flour, use 2 cups)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup grated zucchini

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the muffin tins (or use paper) and set aside.
2) In a large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt
3) In another bowl, beat 2 eggs. Then add applesauce and honey and blend well. Add buttermilk, lemon juice and zest and blend together. Fold in the zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture.
4) Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix together with a spoon.
5) Pour batter into the muffin cups and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean.

Enjoy :)

Substitute fat with yogurt

Lately I have been doing a lot of baking. That means that I have been eating it. Too much of it is not a good thing. However, I found this article of how to substitute yogurt for the fat in your recipes. I thought I would share. Here is the whole article if you are interested.

1) Replace sour cream with equal amounts of yogurt. So if your recipe calls for 1 cup sour cream, use 1 cup yogurt.

2) Cut your butter in half and substitute the other half with 1/4 cup of yogurt for each cup of butter cut. So if your recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, use 1/2 cups butter and 1/4 cup yogurt.

3) Cut the suggested oil or shortening in half and substitute 3/4 cup of yogurt for every cup of oil or shortening you remove from the recipe. So if the recipe calls for 1.5 cups oil, use 3/4 cup oil and a little bit more than 1/2 cup yogurt.

4) Substitute 1/4 of milk in your recipe with yogurt. So if your recipe calls for 4 cups milk, use 1 cup yogurt. 

I used #2 in these Rhubarb muffins. Ok, so they aren't exactly the healthiest, but they are really good and moist and you make them healthier :) I didn't have plain yogurt, so I actually used a raspberry flavored yogurt (because I didn't want to run to the store). Here is the recipe if you want:

1 cup buttermilk (or you can be like me and use 1 milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil (i actually didn't want to do the math so I did 1/4 cup yogurt and less than 1/2 cup oil)
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour (I didn't have whole wheat, but next time want to try that!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped rhubarb

1. Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans (or muffin pans). In a small bowl, stir together buttermilk (milk & lemon juice) and vanilla; let stand for 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, oil and egg. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda, stir into sugar mixture alternately with milk mixture (ending with dry ingredients) just until combined. Fold in rhubarb. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle (muffins get done sooner).

4. Enjoy!

Challenge: Try one of these ways to substitute fat in your food. If you don't like it, at least you tried :)