Category Archives: Healthy Baking

Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal

Posted on March 11, 2014 by four sweetie pies

Good morning friends,

As we sit and wait for our umpteenth snow storm of the season, may I suggest a recipe that I’ve devised for my family incorporating some of our favorite ingredients? Tomorrows forecasted cold and snowy start might be more bearable with some warm Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal, and it can even be made the night before to save time.

Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal

1-2 bananas (ripe, sliced for bottom)

2 cups of old-fashioned oats

1 generous tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk (half the calories of skim) but you can use any type of milk desired

1/3 cup of peanut butter, softened in microwave, plus additional for serving

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 egg whites (I keep the liquid ones on hand for things like this when Im trying to do low-fat baking)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Spray deep pie dish with non-stick spray

3. Slice and layer the bananas on the bottom of the dish

4. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and place in pie dish.

5. At this point you can refrigerate overnight or bake immediately for about 30-35 minutes or until set, but not over baked or it will be dry.

6. Serve with warm milk of your choice, sliced bananas if desired and drizzle with a bit of additional peanut butter (non-negotiable ;).

* A couple of side notes-if prepared as above, this recipe has 5 WW PointsPlus (when the dish is cut into 8 servings and not including how much peanut butter you add to the top ;). Sometimes I make this recipe with 1 1/2 times the ingredients to make it a bit thicker, this would however increase the points value.

Enjoy! My family gobbles this up and requests I make it often :)

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Posted in Breakfast, Healthy Baking, Weight Watchers and tagged baked oatmeal, Peanut butter, PointsPlus, Weight WAtchers. Bookmark the permalink.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

Posted on March 7, 2013 by four sweetie pies

Who doesn’t love peanut butter and jelly?! We LOVE the combination at our house. A peanut butter jar does not last long here. We like to smear it on everything :) As you all know, I love to bake after school snacks for my kiddos on a pretty regular basis…this muffin recipe is what I came up with earlier in the week. It’s a recipe that I added to my collection from Cooking Light Magazine long ago, 2007 to be exact. www.cookinglight.com You can use regular or crunchy peanut butter and any flavor of jam that you wish. They are fairly low-cal, coming in at 185 calories per muffin and over 5 grams of protein each. I hope you enjoy as much as we did. When I asked Kyle, my oldest son, his opinion, he told me “Mom, I ate 4 at one sitting.” I guess I’ll take that as a compliment!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 TBL baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup skim milk

1/3 cup peanut butter- creamy, crunchy, natural or regular

1/4 cup egg whites

2 TBL butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup jam- strawberry, wild berry, your choice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, combine milk, peanut butter, egg whites, butter and vanilla. Add to flour mixture. Stir only to combine.

3. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups. Fill each cup halfway with batter. Top each cup with 1 teaspoon of jam. Spoon remaining batter on top.

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes or so until set.

Makes 12 muffins

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Posted in Breakfast, Healthy Baking and tagged Baking powder, breakfast, Butter, Cooking, Flour, Home, Ingredient, Low-fat Muffins, Muffin, Peanut butter. Bookmark the permalink.

Morning Glory Muffins

Posted on February 25, 2013 by four sweetie pies

Happy Monday Morning friends,

As promised, here is the recipe for these super yummy and very filling Morning Glory Muffins! I love this kind of muffin and I’ve revamped this one to make it a healthy, low-fat 4 PointsPlus per muffin option! You could easily add nuts to this recipe, but it will raise your PointsPlus numbers, and since my daughter has a serious tree nut allergy, you’ll notice I do not bake with any nuts in my recipes. My next endeavor is re-working a nut-free granola recipe…stay tuned for that!

If you need a hearty, wholesome treat, I would recommend this choice:)

Dry Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup uncooked old-fashioned oats

Wet Ingedients

2 TBL applesauce

1/2 cup skim milk

1-2 mashed bananas

1 egg

1 TBL canola oil

Add-in Ingredients

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 dried cranberries

Directions

Mix the wet ingredients together and add the dry ingredients. Do not overmix. Stir in the add-in ingredients. Line 12 muffin cups with liners. Divide batter among the cups. Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 23-25 minutes or until set. Makes 12 muffins.

Recipe adapted from www.marthastewart.com

***Disclaimer- PointsPlus numbers are simply my own calculations, not officially from Weight Watchers.

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Posted in Breakfast, Healthy Baking, Weight Watchers and tagged Low-fat Muffins, Morning Glory, Muffin, nut-free, PointsPlus. Bookmark the permalink.

Pumpkin Spice Baked Oatmeal

Posted on January 15, 2013 by four sweetie pies

Good morning friends,

I love a warm breakfast on a cool morning and this one will make you feel like your indulging, but without any guilt. The recipe is a slight variation of the Blueberry Baked Oatmeal I made on Saturday, this one is equally as good, especially if you like pumpkin! I really enjoyed it as did my kiddos and I think you will too :)

Dry Ingredients

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup dried cranberries (could use regular or golden raisins if preferred)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 generous tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

Wet Ingredients

1 1/2 cups skim milk

1/3 cup of applesauce

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

2 egg whites

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray 8×8 baking pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine dry ingredients.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry, mix until combined.

4. Pour into baking dish and baked for about 25-30 minutes or until set.

5. Serve warm with steamed milk and if desired a drizzle of maple syrup. My kids also sprinkled with “Maple Sugar” from the Savory Spice Shop.

This recipe serves a 9 and is 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus if you’re counting :)

(The calculations are my personal calculations, not endorsed by Weight Watchers)

Bon Appetit!

Recipe adapted from http://www.mintdesignblog.com

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Posted in Breakfast, Healthy Baking, healthy eating, kids, Weight Watchers and tagged baked oatmeal, baking, Baking powder, Cooking spray, Egg white, healthy breakfast, Ingredient, Maple syrup, Measuring cup, Oatmeal, Pumpkin, Weight WAtchers. Bookmark the permalink.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cinnamon Glaze

Posted on November 11, 2012 by four sweetie pies

Greetings friends! I discovered a yummy pumpkin muffin this morning that is pretty healthy and a huge hit with the kiddos, especially because it had frosting! It goes right along with my love of everything pumpkin flavored and would be most wonderful with a Pumpkin-Spiced Latte. Hope you enjoy this treat as much as we did!

This recipe makes only 12 muffins, but they are BIG muffins, the kind that overflow from the tin :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 TBL baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 heaping tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, plus 1 egg white

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 skim milk

1/4 cup fat-free half and half (or regular cream)

1 cup pumpkin puree

Glaze ingredients

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 ounces low-fat cream cheese, softened

dash of cinnamon

dash of milk, if needed to thin for drizzling

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin, even the top since muffins will overflow, with non-stick cooking spray or add muffin liners.

Using mixer, cream butter and both sugars, add eggs, vanilla, milk, half and half and pumpkin puree. Combine dry ingredients, flours, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon.

Divide batter among 12 muffin tins. They will be very full. Bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked through. Cool in pan about 20 minutes. Move muffins to a rack to finish cooling.

Mix glaze ingredients and drizzle over muffins.

I calculated each muffin to be 7 PointsPlus.

Recipe adapted from RecipeGirl.com

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Posted in Breakfast, Healthy Baking and tagged muffins, Pumpkin. Bookmark the permalink.

Healthy Apple Crisp with Cranberries

Posted on October 24, 2012 by four sweetie pies

Yesterday after school, Carter said “Mom, what did you make us today?!” Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good answer for him, but today I will! I needed to use up the remainder of the apples from our haul at the apple orchard this fall. We picked nearly 50 pounds and after only 2 batches of applesauce and 1 pie we had eaten the rest until today…Im trying a healthy version of Apple Crisp for my sweetie pies today, hope you enjoy :)

9-12 small apples, peeled, cored and sliced (the handy-dandy peeler slicer is amazing here)

2 TBL lemon juice

2 TBL white sugar

1/4 cup dried cranberries

2 cups of old-fashioned oats

2 TBL Smart Balance Canola oil spread (or whatever blend/spread you desire)

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss apples, lemon juice and sugar together in a large bowl. Spread in a greased 9×13 pan.

In another bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, canola spread, and cinnamon together with a pastry blender or fork. Sprinkle over the apple mixture.

Bake until crisp is bubbly and golden brown, 50-55 minutes.

Serves 12 and is 4 PointsPlus per serving.

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Healthy Pumpkin Bread

Posted on September 26, 2012 by four sweetie pies

Healthy Pumpkin Bread.

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Healthy Pumpkin Bread

Posted on September 25, 2012 by four sweetie pies

It’s officially autumn and that means I’m baking a lot with one of my favorite ingredients…pumpkin! The house right now smells warm, inviting and full of pumpkin cinnamony yumminess! I’ve created a low-fat, healthy pumpkin bread recipe that I’ll share today, because after all recipes are meant to be shared aren’t they?!

In the picture below, you’ll see some great ceramic mini loaf pans I found at Michael’s for $1!!! Such a cute an inexpensive presentation for quick bread gift giving.

Healthy Pumpkin Bread

1 whole egg and 3 egg whites

1 regular can of pumpkin

1/3 cup of water

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (replaces oil)

1/3 cup non-fat plain greek yogurt (replaces oil)

1 cup of sugar

1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 generous tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

To add some extra yumminess, add mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries, raisins, etc

Beat egg and egg whites, add pumpkin, water, applesauce, yogurt, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients together and add slowly. Spray pans with non-stick cooking spray, makes 2 large loaves. Bake large loaves for approximately one hour at 350 degrees or until there is no gooiness on the top of the loaf.

If you’re into counting “points” and you make 2 large loaves of this bread and cut each loaf into 12 pieces, each piece is worth 3 points (with no add-ins)! More on that later…

Enjoy!