Fix Approved Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling (Gluten Free)

My husband loves carrot cake, and I wanted to try to make a clean version.  A typical carrot cake is loaded with fat and calories.  It seemed like I ought to be able to make it healthy.  Carrot cake has a ton of carrots in it after all!  In the 21 Day Fix Fixate cookbook, there is recipe for a pumpkin muffin with cream cheese filling.  I realized that I could use the same concept for a carrot cake muffin.  These turned out so good!  (With only 84 calories per muffin!)

Servings:  5 (2 muffins per serving)

Muffin Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats (make sure the container says gluten-free)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup baking stevia or 3 tablespoons stevia
• 1/4 cup brown sugar baking Truvia
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups of carrots
• 20 pecan halves

Muffin Filling:

• 2 oz fat free cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1/2 yellow
• 1/2 green
• 1/2 blue
• 1/2 teaspoon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare muffin tins with cooking spray, paper cups, or silicon cups
3. Put all filling ingredients in a small bowl and whip with fork until blended, set aside
4. Put all muffin ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth
5. Fill 10 muffin cups halfway with muffin batter
6. Spoon one teaspoon of cream cheese mixture in center of each muffin cup
7. Spoon remainder of batter evenly over each muffin cup
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean!

Nutritional Information:  Calories 168, Fat 5 g, Cholesterol 84.4 mg, Sodium 406 mg, Potassium 166 mg, Carbs 36.6 g, Protein 6.6 g, Vitamin A 53.2%, Vitamin C 4.6%, Calcium 5.6%, Iron 8.2%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.

21 Day Fix Approved Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle (Gluten-Free)

I developed quite a liking for brownie brittle before starting the 21 Day Fix and was really craving it today.  I decided to run by the grocery to pick up supplies and try to make my own clean, Fix-approved version.  This is what I came up with, and it was great!  You also can’t beat 70 calories per serving!

Servings:  6

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats (make sure the container says gluten-free)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cups baking stevia or 3 tablespoons stevia
• 2 tablespoons unsweeted cocoa powder
• 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon caramel extract
• 1 tablespoon almond milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1 tablespoon miniature chocolate chips

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1/2 yellow (oats)
• All other ingredients less than 1/4 of a container

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet
3. Put all ingredients except for salt and chocolate chips in blender (oats, baking powder, stevia, cocoa powder, applesauce, vanilla, caramel extract, almond milk, egg whites, and paprika)
4. Blend ingredients until fully mixed with no large oat pieces (will be very runny)
5. Pour batter into middle of prepared baking sheet
6. Use a spoon or spatula to spread batter as thin as possible
7. Sprinkle top of batter with salt and chocolate chips
8. Bake for 20 minutes
9. Remove from oven and pick up paper by corners transferring baked brittle to countertop to cool
10. After cooling for 2-5 minutes, the brittle should be cool enough to touch and easy to tear into bite-size pieces; you will notice that at this point the brittle is a soft, chewy consistency (because of the nature of the oat/applesauce base, the brittle will not get super crunchy)
11. Optional:  While you are tearing your brittle into pieces, increase your oven temperature to 400 degrees
12. Optional:  Place the parchment paper back onto the baking sheet and spread brittle pieces evenly on top
13. Optional:  Continue baking for 5-10 minute intervals checking the “crunchiness” of the brittle until it is the consistency you desire; the edges will begin to curl as the brittle hardens

Nutritional Information:  Calories 70, Fat 1g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 115 mg, Potassium 68.4 mg, Carbs 13.5g, Protein 3.7 g, Vitamin A 5.2%, Vitamin C 0.1%, Calcium 0.2%, Iron 5.2%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.

Pumpkin, Gingerbread, Chocolate Waffles (Gluten-Free)

I really wanted 21 Day Fix approved waffles or pancakes this morning but didn’t have all of the ingredients for any of my existing recipes.  I decided to experiment with what I did have, and the outcome was delicious!

Servings:  2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• 1.5 tablespoons unsweet cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons 0% fat Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• chocolate chips (a few)
• Honey or maple syrup for topping

21 Day Fix Containers (per single serving):

• 1 yellow (oats)
• 1 red (eggs, egg whites, yogurt)
• 1/4 green (there’s so little pumpkin you don’t really have to count it unless you really want to…)
• teaspoons (depends on how much honey/syrup you use)

Directions:

1. Turn on your waffle iron and allow it to preheat
2. Add all ingredients except chocolate chips and honey/maple syrup to blender (oats, eggs, pumpkin, cocoa powder, Greek yogurt, vanilla, salt, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and nutmeg)
3. Blend ingredients until fully mixed with no large oat pieces
4. Separate batter into two equal amounts (I like to measure it in two measuring cups)
5. Pour 1/2 of the batter into your iron; depending on the iron size, it may not fill the entire iron
6. Put a few chocolate chips on top of batter and close iron
7. Cook waffle according to your waffle iron instructions
8. Repeat cooking process with second waffle

Nutritional Information (without topping):  Calories 310, Fat 9.8 g, Cholesterol 211 mg, Sodium 726 mg, Potassium 207 mg, Carbs 38.4 g, Protein 17.8 g, Vitamin A 4.9%, Vitamin C 0.4%, Calcium 8.0%, Iron 20.6%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them.  Feel free to contact me in the comments below.  Check out my story here.