My ups, my downs...my baking healthy day update

Finished Banana Muffins

I decided to make some healthy baked goods to eat on this week. I have a 5K walk this coming weekend and I really want to eat better this week, walk everyday and show myself that eating/and moderate exercise is what I really need.

My first attempt was to use some of the ripened banana I have to make banana muffins. I made prune puree to replace the oil. Go here read more on fruit puree. Making puree is not difficult...FOR NORMAL PEOPLE! I thought to myself, "use the blender instead of the food processor. It says puree on it for goodness sake." Long story short I made the stuff but it took longer, and just plain looks like baby crap. Doesn't that sound extra yummy?

Next I decided to use honey instead of sugar. I did the conversions, used a little less honey and added a tinsy bit of baking soda as suggested. Nothing hard there. Hey I have a college degree, so what if I had to look up what 1/2 of 1/3 cup would be when I was doubling the recipe. Follow me here folks...1/2 of 1/3 cup when I was doubling the recipe would be 1/3 cup...DAH, I scare myself sometimes.

I used oat flour (I usually do when making muffins, it works great) and I also used whole oats as well. The muffins mixed up nice, browned wonderfully and taste kinda blah to me. No worries though they will get eaten up in no time around here. I am not going to post the recipe because I don't think it worked well enough, I need to work on it a bit more.

Next I decided to use my tried and true Pumpkin Muffin Recipe. I have made this a million times and I figured I can make some conversions on it to see how that turns out. I used the prune puree instead of oil. Then I usually use splenda brown sugar but I am trying to work my way towards better sweeteners. So I used half splenda and half honey. I had to use whole wheat flour because I was out of oat flour and then I did use whole oats. I only had enough for the muffins so I couldn't make flour out of the oats. I was tired of muffins by now so they went into oven all at one time. I like to make them this way too. The original recipe comes from Quaker oats but I have changed it over time. I have used and frozen these bars/muffins many times and love them because they are filling. It is a dense type of muffin. If you like light and fluffy this isn't for you. These are dense, moist and filling.

This is the Pumpkin Muffins before they went into the oven, Guess they turn into Pumpkin Bars

The ingredients in purple are the streusel topping. I just put a handful of oats, mix with a few pinches of splenda and sprinkle over muffins/bars. I spray it lightly with Pam spray.

• 1/4 cup Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, melted
• 1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• Muffin ingredients
  
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use oat or whole wheat flour)
  
• 1 cup Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)(I use reg oats or Steele cut)
  
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I use splenda brown sugar use less when using splenda and or honey)
  
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 3/4 cup milk (I use skim and sometimes reduced fat buttermilk)
  
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used prune puree)
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
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The Finished Pumpkin Muffins. Overall I was happy with them. You could not tell the difference in the prune substitution. They had a sweetness but not much. I am not a huge sweet person but I think I might have to get used to using honey. The consistency was off a little but I think that was whole wheat verses the oat flour. Whole wheat tends to be a tad drier.