I had a meeting with our banker yesterday morning to show me how to do online banking – love it! I slept in a bit so only had time for Cheerios!
So when I got back, I made Tony and I breakfast sammies! Mine – 2 oz. sesame bagel, 1 egg, 1/4 cup egg white, chopped baby spinach, 2 pieces of bacon and 1/2 ounce American cheese – splashed with Tabasco! 😀
So carrots were the BSI ingredient this week – happily an ingredient I like! Joanne was the hostess this week – she is going to school to be a doctor with plans on doing cancer research – I have no idea how she finds time to cook!
I make a mean carrot cake – only problem? It calls for a cup of oil and has cream cheese in the frosting! So I was determined to see if I could come up with a flavorful, yet low fat. The verdict? SUCCESS!
Biz’s Low Fat Carrot Cake Muffins with Cinnamon Frosting
Ingredients
1 | cup whole wheat flour |
1/2 | cup flour |
1 | teaspoon baking soda |
2 | teaspoons baking powder |
1 1/2 | teaspoons cinnamon, divided |
1/4 | teaspoon nutmeg |
1/2 | cup brown sugar |
1 | egg |
1 | tablespoon oil |
1 | teaspoon vanilla |
1/2 | cup skim milk |
1 1/2 | cups carrots |
6 | ounces plain yogurt |
Directions
- Set oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with Pam.
- In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (save 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon .
- Mix both together and let batter sit 15 minutes. Stir in carrots. Divide between 12 muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Let cool. Mix plain Greek yogurt with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon agave nectar. Frost muffins and enjoy!
So how can you have a muffin that’s low fat if it has frosting? Well it all starts with this!
Biz’s Mock Cinnamon Frosting
- 6 ounce 0% Fage
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix well. Obviously since this frosting has dairy in it – you have to frost as needed – but it turned our really good!
The best part? With “frosting”: 122 calories, 2.2 fat, 22.1 carbs, 1.1 fiber and 3.5 protein 😀
Last week when I brought my Tikka Chicken Masala, I felt bad that I didn’t have enough for my other boss – I had no idea he liked Indian food! So I am going to make it again for lunch this week, and decided to make naan bread to go with it!
I got the idea from Shutterbean (great blog by the way!) – followed her recipe to the T, except that I only ended up using 4 cups of flour before I got the right consistency. you know when you have the right ratio of flour/water when nothing sticks to the bowl!
After it rose for an hour, I kneaded fresh garlic into the dough. I let them rise another 30 minutes while the oven came to temp. I love this tiny grater – Hannah actually got it in a hot chocolate package – to grate chocolate over her hot chocolate – but it’s nice to grate fresh garlic – the perfect size!
I separated into golf ball size balls – 20 in total.
I melted 1 tablespoon of butter for the whole batch and just dotted the tops before grilling.
I ended up making 8 pieces of naan – each naan comes in at 112 calories, 1.2 fat, 21.9 carbs, .8 fiber and 3.1 protein. Then I decided to mix all the rest of the balls together to see if it would work as a loaf of bread! I left it on the counter overnight, just covered in plastic wrap. I used the same technique – cooking in the cast iron dutch oven!
I was out of parchment paper, but foil worked just as well. After the dutch oven heated to 500 degrees, I reduced the heat to 425 and transferred the dough to the oven – be very careful! I burned my finger while putting it in the oven! 🙁
Okay – now I need to make breakfast using that bread! 😀 Hope you enjoy your Sunday! 😀
Try doing the naan in the authentic tandoor oven – your taste buds will feel the difference. A very large collection of these is available on http://www.hometandoor.com I got my first one all the way from london but did not like the naans from it. Then someone from a restaurant guided me to use the authentic one so ordered it from New Jersey.
Its been more than a year now and i try to do it every second weekend – even when i do not want to the folks or the family plans a get-together.
I love that you made your own naan! So fun. I should really get into baking my own breads more.
Biz, the muffins look amazing! I would so make this!
Great job on the naan!
wow! I’m so impressed! That naan looks amazing!
You made your own naan! I am so impressed! Congrats on your success!
Biz, that has to be the pretties chicken pot pie I’ve ever seen! I am making those carrot muffins this afternoon…can’t wait, but I ahve to do my blog visits first!
Muffins look DELISH. Thanks for the recipe!
I love online banking. Nice of them to show you how. Thanks for another great healthy recipe. I just had carrot cake but it wasn’t even close to as healthy as your muffin, i couldn’t even finish it without getting sick to my stomach, and now i have a healthy alternative to one of my past favorites. Thanks
Carrot cake muffins and fresh homemade bread?!? Mmmm – they both look addicting!
Oh, Emm, Gee! I am drooling here…it all look so amazingly delicious!
The carrot cake muffins sound amazing! I love the frosting!
Oh my goodness! There’s so much amazing looking food here: naan, carrot cake cupcakes… I’m putting these on my “must try” list for next weekend. The carrot cake, especially looks ingenious with your low fat/low sugar subs. Yum!
Ohhh yum! I love garlic naan. I bet it was delicious.
Carrot cake is a definite favorite of mine, mainly for the cream cheese frosting. But I’m a huge fan of greek yogurt with cinnamon so I know I’d love that!
Man, I wish I’d read this entry before I went to the grocery store tonight because I really want to make those muffins now.
All the pics look beautiful Biz!!
Love the teeny grater! I used to have a teeny 3 sided one – maybe 3″ tall. My grandma got it for me b/c she was so sick of me dirtying the huge one and taking up a ton of space in the dishwasher w/ it (I lived w/ them a few years as a teenager). Unfortunately I left it at my old house when I moved in w/ J! It’s probably packed up in storage somewhere.
Those muffins look soooooo good 🙂 I just need to convert them to gluten-free! I am really interested in trying your mock frosting…never even knew that was an option 😉
carrot cake muffins look awesome!
No way! Naan and carrot cake muffins? Thanks for the recipes they look fantastic!
When I was a kid we used to northern MI every summer and my breakfast of choice was always cheerios with hand picked (as in I picked them myself) blueberries. You breakfast is so summery!
I’ve made naan before and it turned out pretty good, but not as good as at Flat Top Grill!
as always.. great use of the calories!
And I could not have made the temp move without online banking… we do everything right from my easy chair (and actually, I got a sprint wireless connection, and more than once I have done my banking outside on a beach chair…
What a world
Oh, your carrot cake muffins look wonderful. Great idea to use fage to make the icing!!
I love making naan in the summer on the grill! It goes great with grilled veggies and chicken!
Fantastic post!!! The muffins look perfect with the healthy twist and I have a weekness for Naan! Yum. ~LeslieMichele
Great adjustments to carrot cake to make a healthy version. Cute looking muffins.