healthy treat – meg.antinucci

Vegan Blueberry Muffins…

So these are a variation of my banana muffin, but I changed a couple of the ingredients to use up some blueberries that I had left over from this week. They tasted great and have slightly fewer calories than the banana muffins.

The main ingredient that I substituted was oat flour for the regular flour. I felt like it had more nutritional properties than regular white flour and I wanted to see how it would hold up in baking. Oat flour is literally just finely ground oats personally I think that it is a coarser texture than regular flour but I didn’t notice it at all when the muffins were done. Some benefits of oats/oat flour are, good sources of vitamins, minerals, protein, helps stabilize blood sugar, good source of fiber, and heart healthy.

I also substituted the walnuts for pecans but you can use almonds or completely skip the nuts all together if you don’t like them.

These are a perfect grab and go breakfast especially since they have heart healthy whole grains they will keep you full for a couple of hours and are a nice change to your standard bowl of oatmeal.

Recipe

1.5c Unsweetened Sugar Free Vanilla Almond Milk

2t Apple Cider Vinegar

2 & 2/3c Oat Flour

1/4c Coconut Flour

1.5t Baking Powder

1/2t Baking Soda

3/4t Salt

2t Ground Cinnamon (or to taste)

1/3c Unsweetened Apple Sauce

5T Truvia Baking Blend

1t Vanilla Extract

1.5c Fresh Blueberries

1 Ripe Bananas

Crumb Topping

1t Cinnamon (or to taste)

1/4c Chopped Pecans

1T Splenda Brown Sugar

Calories– 104 Per Muffin (Batter makes aprx. 18 muffins)

*Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, in a small bowl mix together the almond milk and vinegar and let sit for a couple of minutes until you start to see the texture change. Next Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mash up the banana and then combine all of the wet ingredients and stir well. Next step is to combine all of the wet with the dry and stir until well combined. Fold in the blueberries and then scoop into a bread loaf pan or muffin tins and then start your crumb topping. In a small bowl combine your cinnamon, brown sugar, and crushed pecans. Stir mixture together and top each muffin with desired amount. Pop them into the oven for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Since the texture of the oat flour is coarser I would recommend sifting the flour or using a whisk to make sure that you get most of the lumps out before adding the wet ingredients. I think that these turned out great with the blueberries and I loved how they tasted with the oat and coconut flour combination. I will deff be using oat flour for the rest of my baking I ordered mine off of amazon and it came in a pack of four but I am sure that you could find it in your local grocery store with the rest of the Bob’s Redmill products!

xo Meg

February 7, 2014 by bellanoochi

Vegan Banana Muffins…

I am so excited about this recipe! My husband asked me to make him banana bread the other day and since I am on this Vegan kick I couldn’t have any of it and I really wanted a piece! So I decided to break out one of my vegan cook books, Skinny Bitch, Ultimate Everyday Cookbook by Kim Barnouin. I was looking through and came across a banana walnut muffin that look delicious! I had most of the ingredients already so I figured I would give it a try. This is a great cookbook with a variety of different recipes ranging from breakfast to sweet treats, I would deff check it out if you are interested!

I however did want to make some substitutions to save on the calorie count. Her recipe will make each muffin about 300 calories depending on the brands of ingredients. Mine came out to around 115 each for 15 muffins! Simple things that I always sub are butter or oils with unsweetened applesauce, sugar for Truvia, and I completely omitted the soy yogurt it called for. I have to admit I wasn’t sure how the texture would turn out but surprisingly they were so good, my husband and daughter loved them!

Muffin Recipe

1.5c Unsweetened Sugar Free Vanilla Almond Milk

2t Apple Cider Vinegar

2 & 2/3c Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1.5t Baking Powder

1/2t Baking Soda

3/4t Salt

2t Ground Cinnamon (or to taste)

1/3c Unsweetened Apple Sauce

5T Truvia Baking Blend

1t Vanilla Extract

2 Large Ripe Bananas

Crumb Topping

1t Cinnamon (or to taste)

1/3c Chopped Walnuts

1T Splenda Brown Sugar

*Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, in a small bowl mix together the almond milk and vinegar and let sit for a couple of minutes until you start to see the texture change. Next Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mash up the bananas and then combine all of the wet ingredients and stir well. Next step is to combine all of the wet with the dry and stir until well combined. Scoop into a bread loaf pan or muffin tins and then start your crumb topping. In a small bowl combine your cinnamon, brown sugar, and crushed walnuts. Stir mixture together and top each muffin with desired amount. Pop them into the oven for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I think that these turned out really good, the texture is not very crumbly like a traditional corn muffin, but they are moist and have a great flavor. I have been eating two of them for breakfast, or they are even great for dessert! I hope that you try them out!

xo Meg

January 15, 2014January 15, 2014 by bellanoochi

Lemon Blueberry Banana Cake…

I got the idea for this cake from an old recipe that my mom had given me when my husband and I got married plus I had two very ripe bananas that needed to be used right away. I have been obsessed with lemons this summer, from juicing them, to marinating chicken and shrimp, plus I just bought a new zester so I figured I would throw one in. Blueberries just seemed to round it out and bring everything together so they were on the list to use as well. I personally love the very tiny frozen blueberries for baking and for in smoothies, I think that they still add great flavor but they are tiny enough that they don’t take over the entire dessert.

The original recipe while very tasty calls for shortening, sugar, and white flour, none of which I have in the house (sorry mom!) or wanted to use anyway. So I took most of the proportions and substituted them with healthier more nutrition dense ingredients. Here is a breakdown of my choices.

For the flour I chose to break it into three ingredients, Whole Wheat Unbleached all purpose four, Coconut Flour, and Oats. I substituted the shortening for all natural no sugar added applesauce and a little coconut oil. For the 2/3 c of sugar I chose to use the Splenda Brown Sugar mix, which I really like and you only have to use about 2 tablespoons compared to almost a cup of regular sugar. This can vary as well depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have but by using the applesauce, bananas, and blueberries it is already naturally sweet! I also used two egg whites instead of the two whole eggs it originally called for.

Making all of these substitutions made me a little nervous that it wouldn’t actually turn into a cake or even taste good at all, but I was very pleasantly surprised it was delicious! The cake turned out very moist and extremely flavorful! Both my husband and brother-in-law loved it and couldn’t tell it was full of healthy substitutes!

Start with two bowls, one for wet and one for dry ingredients

Mash banana with a small fork or you could throw it into the food processor

Serve with a little light whipped cream, blueberries, and lemon zest!

Recipe

2 Ripe bananas

1 Lemon Juice & Zest

8 oz All Natural Applesauce

1/2 c Whole Wheat Unbleached All Purpose Flour

1/2 c Coconut Flour

3/4 c Oats (ground in food processor)

2 T Baking Powder

1/4 t Baking Soda

1/2 t Sea Salt

2 T & 1 t Splenda Brown Sugar (or any sugar substitute you prefer)

2 Egg Whites

2 T Coconut Oil

*Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. I used a 9×9 brownie pan with coconut oil so that it didnt stick.

Calorie Breakdown- Cut into 12 pieces only 108 Calories per slice! If cut into 9 pieces 144 Calories per slice!

I am so excited about this recipe and I can’t wait to make it again! Don’t be afraid to take old classic recipes and put your own healthy spin on them! I cant wait to make this for the rest of my family I know that they will love it!

xo Meg

September 10, 2013 by bellanoochi

Banana Bites…

This is one of my fave recipes that I have thrown together lately. I came up with this specific variation the night before we were going on vacation with my family. My mom makes the most delic homemade chocolate chip cookies on the planet they seriously are to die for! There is no way that you can eat just one or two at a time it is seriously impossible unless you have amazing self control which I do not! They are a gateway to eating bad for me because I know I will eat four of them plus you have to dunk them in milk and then I feel like my whole day is shot! So anyway I wanted to come up with something that was pretty healthy and had some chocolate in them so that when everyone around me was indulging in delicious homemade treats I didn’t just immediately burst into tears out of pure jealousy! I have heard of banana and oat cookies and thought that they sounded pretty good and there aren’t that many ingredients in them. The great thing about these type of recipes is that you can alter them to your specific taste and dietary needs. You can remove or add whatever you want to the base of bananas and oats. For me these were an absolute lifesaver! My sister and my daughter really liked them too! Not only can you eat these for a sweet treat but I will sometimes eat a couple as part of my breakfast instead of making a bowl of oatmeal. Its great because they give you energy and they taste great too!

Recipe

1 c Oats Blended into oat flour

1/4 c Whole Oats

2 Ripe Bananas

2 T Coconut Flour

1 T Sugar Free Chocolate Chips

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

4 oz Natural Apple Sauce

1 tsp Cinnamon or to taste

1 tsp of Honey or to taste

*Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 mins

Nutritional Breakdown

1 Bite- 46 Calories

3 Bites 137 Calories- 2.3g Fat- 3.4g Protein- 3.6g Fiber (my serving size)

The first thing that I did was take my 1 cup of oats and throw them into a food processor so that the consistency was more like flour. You will deff want to do this, I have made them without doing this and the texture was more like a chewy granola bar. I then took my chocolate chips and blended them as well, this allows you to use less product but still taste them throughout the entire batter. The last time I made these I just put one or two on top and that worked well too. Then I put all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and just used my hands to mix everything together. This nice thing about this mix is that everything is edible so you can taste the batter as you go a long and tailor it to your own taste.

After I had the consistency that I liked I used a smaller cookie scoop and a mini muffin pan and filled it up and put it in the oven for about 15- 20 mins just keep an eye on them so that they don’t overcook and turn into mini hockey pucks! Its also a good idea to use a non-stick spray on your pan I used coconut oil but whatever you have will work!

I hope that you enjoy these and don’t forget you can add blueberries, walnuts, almonds, peanut butter, or even coconut. The possibilities are endless!

xo Meg

September 7, 2013September 7, 2013 by bellanoochi

Chocolate Cheesecake with fruit…

This was one of the best treats I have come up with in a really long time! I make these protein muffins for my husband all the time and he seriously loves them! This is shocking because he usually thinks I am crazy for some of the protein powder treats that I try. I think he doesn’t really get it because he just drinks protein powder the way it was intended to be used with water and good old fashion blender bottle! Anyway I got him to try one a while ago and now he wants me to make them pretty much every week for him!

I originally saw the recipe from a YouTube video a while ago on Leanbodylifestyle for a high protein chocolate protein cheesecake. I thought could this be real? So I tried the recipe and ended up tweaking it to my personal taste. I find that in a lot of high protein recipes they call for a lot of added truvia and other types of sweetener, but personally I don’t have that big of a sweet tooth, I would rather have something salty! So I usually skip the extra sugar substitutes. I highly recommend checking out the video if you want to see the original recipe, and he has a lot of other amazing treats on his channel as well!

Here is my version of a cheesecake protein muffin…

1 Package Fat Free Cream Cheese

3/4c Fat free Vanilla Greek Yogurt

1 Egg

1 Scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (you could use any flavor you like)

1 T Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

*Use a muffin tin and bake for about 20 mins @ 350F mine usually make about 9 muffins at around 105 calories each depending on what type of protein powder you use it will vary.

What I love about these types of recipes is that you can really use whatever you have on hand and customize the flavors to your taste-buds! One time I only had black cherry yogurt and used that instead of plain and my husband loved them! Another good combo would probably be lemon yogurt with vanilla protein powder and a little lemon juice. The possibilities are really endless and completely up to you!

I love to eat these when they are still warm but we usually keep them in the fridge so when I ate them I tossed them into the microwave for about 30 seconds and then topped them with fresh fruit and a little light cool whip. This was seriously out of this world delic!

xo Meg

August 8, 2013August 7, 2013 by bellanoochi

Mango Smoothie…

So we were outside a lot this weekend and it is so hot where we live and my husband and I were craving a cool treat. I really wanted a mango smoothie that you would get from a smoothie place but there is no where like that around where we live so we decided to make one ourselves.

This seriously turned out so good I could drink it everyday! If you love mango’s you will deff love this smoothie! If not you could easily switch out the ingredients to another flavor like blueberry, orange, or even mixed berries.

Mango Smoothie

1c Frozen Mango chunks

1/2c Frozen Strawberries

2oz Naked Mighty Mango

1 Lime (juice only)

1/4c Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

3-4 Ice Cubes (vary depending on how thick a smoothie you prefer)

Total Calories– 141

I have started tracking everything that I am eating again using the My Fitness Pal App so I wanted something that was pretty low in calories, but still delicious. Side-note- if you are trying to tone up or watch what you are eating I highly recommend this app, I love it so much! It really opened my eyes to what I was eating and it helps you realize that there are calories in everything and even if you are eating healthy foods its not good to overeat them! This app is so easy to use and since you have it on your phone you can take it everywhere with you and it has most major restaurants already programmed into the search engine so no matter where you are or what you are eating you can track your progress! Another great feature about the app is that you can actually scan the bar-codes of a foods packaging and it will bring up the item with the serving size and calorie count so you don’t even have to search for it. This makes it super easy to calculate calories if you are making something at home or if you are eating a quick snack!

I tried this smoothie first on Saturday and didn’t really use much of the Mango Naked drink and used water instead of the Almond milk and it was just too watery. I found that 2oz is the perfect amount without adding too many calories. I thought that it was super flavorful and the almond milk was perfect instead of the water, and you really cant taste it at all. I am so excited for how delic this turned out and I cant wait to make it again!

xo Meg

July 22, 2013 by bellanoochi

Skinny Scones…

Happy Fathers Day weekend to all the Dads out there! My husband is obsessed with Panera Bread orange scones so I thought what a better treat for Fathers Day than some homemade treats! Now I have never made these before and had to look up a recipe luckily I found one and it was out of a Vegan cookbook so that’s a bonus! Skinny Bitch-Everyday Ultimate Cookbook written by Kim Barnouin is a book I have had for a little while now but actually never made anything out of.

Recipe: Makes 10 round Scones

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon (I used Truvia Baking Blend)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I substituted Cinnamon instead)
1/2 cup orange juice, plus 1 tablespoon (I juiced two fresh oranges)
1 teaspoon orange extract (I skipped this and opted for more orange zest)
1 tablespoon orange zest, grated
1/2 cup vegan butter substitute, room temperature (I used Earth Balance)

Here is the nutritional comparison…

Panera Bread: Calories- 540 Fat-20g Sugar- 38g (Contains milk and wheat)

Skinny Scone: Calories- 104 (1scone) Fat- 4.4g Sugar-4.2g (Vegan and Delicious!)

Its not that my husband needs to watch what he is eating at all he is in awesome shape, I just try to cook as healthy as I can for my family. I think that this version is great. It still is not really healthy and I don’t think you should eat these everyday, but for a treat they are perfect! I was nervous for him to try them because he usually doesn’t like my “healthy creations” but he actually loved them! He did think they would be “even better” with orange glaze icing which I later made for him! (confectioner sugar, orange zest, and fresh juice to your desired consistency) I am so excited that they turned out so good and my daughter loved them too! The cookbook says that the recipe yeilds 4 scones, but I split the dough evenly into ten which equaled around 100 calories a piece you of course can eat as many as you like at a time! I can’t wait to make some more recipes from this cookbook!

xo Meg

They made the whole house smell delicious!

June 17, 2013June 17, 2013 by bellanoochi