Healthy Trail Mix Muffins

Ok so sue me, I've hopped on the healthy wagon. Unfortunately I'm not one of those girls that is just naturally skinny, especially with all these yummy sweets around. I've tried cutting my portions in half, the 3 day diet, the grapefruit diet (talk about gross!), I've even tried the Atkins diet, way back when. None of them work! What I've found to work, and this is for me, is to cut my calorie intake, and throw in some daily exercise to tighten things up. Now this doesn't mean I am depriving myself of food, by not eating enough or by not eating what I like. I do this by taking a recipe I like and replacing it with healthier options. Now I'm not gonna lie! These muffins are not as good as their full fat, full sugar, all white flour counterpart, but they do the job by cutting the craving and cutting the calories. If these sound good and you're not watching your girlish figure feel free to use the good stuff! If you could use a few more of these "healthier" versions, then you are in luck! I've got this beautiful, talented friend, Randi, that cooks like this as her way of life. The other half and I usually go to her house for dinner every weekend. :) Anywho, she just started her own blog where she will be posting her yummy recipes along with her crafts and tips to get through the day as a busy mama. She even makes her own wreaths and will be selling them on etsy soon.

Isn't it beautiful!? Go visit her! 

Don't fret it won't all be the healthy kind around here, it's all good in moderation right? At least that's what I keep telling myself. Happy baking!

PS. If any of you guys have a good low cal recipe send it my way, I'd love to try it, and I'll be sure to give you all the credit. Email Me! 

PSS. I'd like to apologize if you don't see a comment that you may have left. I accidentally deleted a few of them one night while I was playing on my iPad. Unfortunately I wasn't able to recover them. So sorry!

Now onto what we're here for.....

Healthy Trail Mix Muffins 

Makes 12 muffins 

Ingredients 

· 1/4 cup ripe banana mashed 

· 1 tablespoon canola oil 

· 3/4 cup Splenda 

· 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend 

· 2 eggs 

· 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour 

· 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 

· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

· 1/4 teaspoon salt 

· 1 teaspoon vanilla 

· 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

· 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

· 3/4 cup nonfat yogurt 

· 1/2 cup trail mix (I used a raw granola trail mix from Spouts) 

· Extra Splenda brown sugar blend and chopped pecans for topping (optional) 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper muffin liners and spray them with cooking spray. 

2. In a large bowl, stir together the banana, sugars, vanilla, yogurt and eggs. Combine the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; add to the wet mixture and mix well. Then fold in the trail mix. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Cups should be at least 3/4 full. 

3. Then sprinkle with Splenda brown sugar blend and chopped pecans. 

4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until muffins spring back when touched lightly.

135 Calories - 4g Fat - 6g Sugar

Fruit & Honey Bars

So I was flipping through a weight watchers magazine that mysteriously showed up in my mailbox, (really, I didn’t order it, maybe someone is trying to tell me something), and I found an interesting recipe for fruit and honey bars. I changed things up a bit and added a couple things and this is what I came up with. These are very versatile, you could really use what ever kind of fruit and nuts you like; in the first batch I used dried apricots instead of pineapple and didn’t use the pecans or cashews. These little guys are low in calories, and sweetened only with natural honey. The nuts in the bar have so many benefits to your health, like heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids, and the dried fruit are full of fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants. Keep in mind that when buying your ingredients to stick to unsweetened fruits and unsalted nuts to keep the calories and sodium down. Enjoy.

Health Kick

Well unfortunately I haven’t been doing a whole lot of baking lately. You see I’ve been eating really healthy lately and exercising six days a week, so I just can’t bring myself to indulge in those little sweet pieces of heaven like I used to. After about 4 weeks at the gym, I started a program called Insanity that I’ve been doing for about 2 weeks now, and the results give me the extra motivation to keep going. I have been baking a few healthy treats though to fill the need. I made many batches of muffins, a few good, and a few not so great. I made a really great whole wheat angel food cake, which got eaten so fast I didn’t even get a photo. But the other half says his favorite is the fruit and honey bars which I’ll post about later. In short, I’ve been a bad blogger, but I’ll be getting back to it soon. :)

There's a first time for everything

I actually had to throw out a batch of blueberry muffins last night! They were not tasty at all! This is because I have been on the search of a perfect healthy baked good. (I know, I know, it’s kind of an oxymoron) I’ve realized this is a very hard task. You guys know I love my sweets, but the other half has been dieting and going to the gym along with P90X and I can’t leave him out. Why deny him of my tasty treats, although so far not so tasty. The first batch of muffins I made were whole wheat pumpkin muffins, they weren’t so bad, just not real sweet and pretty dense because of the whole wheat flour. This last batch of whole wheat blueberry muffins were awful, pretty inedible. So what’s a girl to do? Well I’m going to continue my search and keep experimenting, but I thought just maybe someone reading this might just have a good recipe.

This is what I’m looking for…

Sugar free (Splenda or honey)
Multigrain or whole wheat (No white flour)
Low to no oil
Dried fruit or nuts are good
Under 200 calories per serving
Fewer than 4g fat per serving
Low salt
High fiber

If anyone has any ideas, please email me. And I’ll keep everyone updated on the search. Now if we can all just share a moment of silence for the poor blueberry muffins…