Thursday, April 18, 2013

Lower Sugar, Higher Protein PB&J Muffins



Every single night Nick eats bread for a snack.  I don't just mean a piece of bread, I mean two pieces, toasted, with lots of peanut butter (and as of lately, jelly).  When I saw this recipe on a favorite blog of mine, I figured maybe I could modify it a bit and make it Nick's new favorite nighttime snack.  I was happy with the turnout, but was terrified that Nick would hate them (I mean, I suppose I could have eaten them, but I had made them for him!).  Thankfully, he loved them.  Who needs boring bread when you can have (gluten free, lower sugar, and whole grain, shhh, don't tell) Peanut Butter and Jelly muffins instead?!



Lower Sugar, Higher Protein PBJ Muffins
Gluten Free, Whole Grain, low FODMAPs
Makes 12

Ingredients
2/3 cups peanut butter 
2 tsp. vanilla stevia drops
3/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond)
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or regular yogurt)
1 tsp. baking soda
1.5 cups brown rice flour (or oat flour)
3/4th cup frozen berries (I used blueberries) + 3 Tbsp. milk, blended together to make a "smoothie"

~1/4 cup jam for topping
1/4th cup powdered peanut butter (like PB2) for topping


Directions
Combine peanut butter, vanilla stevia drops, milk, yogurt and "smoothie".  Sift flour and baking soda into the mixture.  Stir together to form a thick batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin tins with liners or cooking spray.  Fill muffins 3/4 full and top with a dollop of jam and a sprinkling of powdered peanut butter.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.




So pretty. No??




Estimated Nutrition Facts for 1/12th of batch

Nutrition Highlights:  Good source of fiber, only 3.4 grams sugar (not bad!) and almost 7 grams of protein (14% Daily Value!)



Ok, so these muffins weren't as pretty when out of the oven.  The blueberries blended with the milk gave them somewhat of an ugly blueish, green/brown color.  I was terrified Nick would not eat these, but, he did, and he had no idea how low in sugar they were (among the other great qualities).




If I make these again, which of course I will, I will maybe add a bit of real peanut butter on top, instead of powdered peanut butter (or perhaps I would mix the powdered peanut butter into the batter).  The powdered stuff didn't really do much and sort of sat on top of the muffins.  I guess it gives them character, right?!  Yeah, sometimes I go a little too far to reduce calories and add protein.  What can I say, I love experimenting in the kitchen!



QUESTION: Do you like to modify recipes to make them healthier, or lighter?  What's your most memorable success story?


Thanks for reading.

The Candid Rd




9 comments :

  1. I think PB makes anything look good ;) And I've definitely done that before with the blueberries turning baked goods blue/green. I actually kind of like the way that looks - it means they're deliciously fruit-sweetened!

    Nick sounds just like Peter - Peter used to eat an English muffin with PB&J every night. At least I've finally switched him to whole grain alternatives ... sometimes :P

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    1. Yep, I think Nick and Peter are very similar in regards to their eating habits, I always think that when I read your posts!

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  2. So wait, whoa you don't need to berate your husband's eating habits (Nick btw loved the same "snack" as my 9 year old) you can help them make a healthy change? you're a good woman.

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  3. I've been a modifying machine recently! Mostly due to recently starting to follow a low FODMAP lifestyle. Even before that my attempts to reduce added sugar in my life left me altering a number of recipes.

    I've definitely had some wins but also some major fails. I still have a lot to learn about the function of certain ingredients in recipes. Sometimes simply ommitting them isn't the best idea. Trial and error I suppose!

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  4. I love these. But, you called this a "good source of fiber". At not even 3g I think it is horrible. I would add flax meal or wheat bran to it to add some fiber. You would probable need more almond milk though. I'm going to play with this. Great recipe. I'm loving this. Great blog.

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    1. Hi Angelo,
      If a food has 10% of the Daily Value of something, it's considered a good source, and if it's 20% or more it's an excellent source. Therefore, this is a good source of fiber. I do agree, however, it could always use more! Flax or chia would be a good addition, or perhaps more blueberries? Or even walnuts or almonds. I might even experiment with almond meal or something like that.
      Thanks for reading, and for your kind words about my blog :)

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  5. I don't get powdered peanut butter. I have seen it on blogs for forever, and finally found a health food store that carries PB2 here in Canada, and frankly, I wasn't impressed with the fact that it is sweetened and has salt added to it. I'd rather have the naturally occurring, good for me fat than worry about a few extra calories.

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