Healthy Baking Substitutes

One of my favorite Hobbies is cooking and baking, mostly baking, which can be a problem.... I usually find myself scarfing down the majority of what I've baked!  Then I feel sick....and guilty.  Well I've found some solutions to this problem.  Theres a way to enjoy what you bake with out filling sick or guilty with some simple tricks in the kitchen.  Here's some of my favorite healthy swaps to use while baking:

1. Unsweetened apple sauce for sugar: (cuts a ton of calories, and makes for a delicious moist product.  Can use 1:1 for sugar, but can cut liquid down about 1/4 for the recipe depending on consistancy)

2. Mashed bananas for fats or sugars: (make sure your bananas are very ripe.  adding nutrients and cutting calories)

3. Coconut milk for cream

4. Greek yogurt for sour cream, mayo, or cream: (adding protein, and reducing calories and fats)

5. Agave Nectar/honey for sweetener:  Still sugar but not empty calories, more nutrients that white sugar.

6. Black Beans for flour: (cuts out gluten, adds protein.  Best in my black bean brownies that you can find on my website.  Can sub 1:1 ratio)

7. Oat flour, or whole wheat flour for white flour: (adds nutrients, fiber, texture, and cuts out gluten if using gf oats.  for every cup of white flour, sub 7/8 cup of whole wheat/oat flour)

Here's a delicious muffin recipe that uses some of these substitutes, and you can enjoy without the guilt!  Maybe save a few for someone else ;)

Carrot Ginger Protein Muffins

INGREDIENTS

1 mashed banana (about 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 cup grated carrots, chopped

2/3 cup egg whites, or from the carton I used 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites

3/4 cup oat flour (just pulverized oats!), I used whole wheat flour

1 cup oats (I used quick cooking but it doesn’t matter!)

1 Tbsp Coconut Flour

1/4 cup low fat Cottage Cheese

1/4 cup nonfat Greek Yogurt (You can probably sub cottage cheese for greek yogurt, but I used what I had)

1/2 cup baking stevia/splenda/sweetener

1/2 cup vanilla protein powder, I used Whey

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

dash of salt (optional)

optional add-ins: walnuts raisins

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. Divide batter into muffin pan (sprayed with olive oil cooking spray).

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

This recipe yields 16 muffins.

NUTRITION per muffin (1/16 of recipe).

 70 calories

 9.5g carbs

 1g fat

 5g protein

Lean and Green for Dinner, and Why....

When you wake up and look at your day think of it like an ALLIGATORS mouth like this > start your day off with the biggest meal and slowly decrease in size. Think about this, you wake up, your rushed dont eat breakfast, maybe grab some lunch on the go then you get home and you are 1. Tired and Exhausted, 2. ready to just relax and wind down 3. you are STARVING! you then continue to eat a huge meal and fall asleep. Its the way we grew up, dinner- big meal. Your body is beginning to slow down at night, when you eat a lot and go to bed, yes your body continues to burn calories even while you sleep but not as much as durning the day. Therefore, most of it will be stored and little will be used for energy (mostly likely stored as fat). So, begin to eat a bigger breakfast. Stick with your snacking all day long. You wont be ‘STARVING’ at night for dinner. And, try and eat little or no carbohydrates for dinner. (these carbs include- potatoes, pastas, breads, crackers). Why no carbs? The reason is this, Your body does not need the carbs for fuel. So omit them, you will wake up hungry in the morning and you will devour a breakfast of champions. balance your meals with 3 parts: protein, healthy fats, and carbs (mostly from fruit/veggies). sum it up: Dinner = protein & greens! > alligator mouth. & continue to eat 6 meals a day. drink a lot of water.

This salad is a great dinner option!  It keeps you full and satisfied without weighing you down.  Quinoa is a complete protein and a clean carb.  The Garbanzo beans also add protein and fiber.  The vegetables are full of vitamins,  Fiber, and all sorts of good stuff.  You can add grilled chicken also for some added protein.

Balsamic Quinoa Vegetable Salad

-1 C dry Quinoa, (cooked in 2 cups water, add salt & pepper to taste)

-1 1/2 C chopped carrots

-1 1/2 C chopped broccoli

-1 can low sodium Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

-1 C sliced mushrooms

-1/4 chopped red onion

-1 large cucumber sliced, and quartered

-1 bell pepper chopped 

-2 celery stocks, sliced

-1 Cup cherry tomatoes, halfed

-Homemade Balsamic Vinegar dressing (1/3 balsamic, 1/3 C apple cider vinegar, 2 Tbs olive oil)

Directions:

Mix all vegetables in large bowl, add cooked Quinoa.  Pour dressing on (as much flavor as you like) and stir around to coat entire salad.  Can add to spinach or lettuce or just eat as is.  Could add cooked chicken for some extra Protein.