Friday, March 28, 2014

Skinnier Lemon Zucchini Muffins

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Maybe eventually I'll find the time to actually POST here. Maybe. I hope so!
Today it is dreary and grey in small-town Canada. Spring break is almost over, summer will be here before we know it.
Until then, the sunshine will have to be improvised.
These muffins here? They TOTALLY did the trick. I slightly tinkered around with another blogger's recipe and came up with these.
They're already gone. Seriously. My three kids were kind enough to let me have one.
Generosity, thy name is NOT J, Q, or S.
In any case, here's the recipe. I imagine it could be improved upon by swapping lemon yoghurt for the vanilla, by adding a tbsp of instant lemon pudding, etc.




 Skinnier Lemon Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

Muffins
   2 cups all-purpose flour
   2 tsp baking powder
   1/2 tsp salt
   1/2 cup sugar
   1/2 cup nonfat milk
   2 eggs
   2 tbsp canola oil (coconut oil would work beautifully)
   2 tbsp lemon juice
   1 tsp lemon extract
   1/3 cup fat-free vanilla yoghurt
   1 cup zucchini, shredded

Glaze
   1 cup powdered sugar
   2 tbsp lemon juice
  
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray or grease lightly and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine eggs, yoghurt, oil and sugar and blend well.  Add the milk, lemon juice, extract, and stir to combine.  Fold in the zucchini.
Add wet to dry and blend gently; don't over mix!
Divide evenly Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full and bake approximately 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to rack, cooling completely.
Meanwhile, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice to make the glaze, adding more juice if necessary to reach the right consistancy.
Glaze when cool.

***I've included nutritional information for both glazed and unglazed muffins. At under 200 calories there's really little reason to not indulge in the glaze, unless sugar is a huge concern for you, in which case, do what you must and go without.
But I recommend the glaze!

Makes 12 muffins

Nutritional Information

*Glazed*

Amount Per Serving
  Calories     192.7
  Total Fat     3.5 g
          Saturated Fat     0.5 g
          Polyunsaturated Fat     1.0 g
          Monounsaturated Fat     1.7 g
  Cholesterol     36.4 mg
  Sodium     200.9 mg
  Potassium     117.4 mg
  Total Carbohydrate     36.7 g
          Dietary Fiber     0.9 g
          Sugars     19.6 g
  Protein     4.1 g

*Unglazed*

Amount Per Serving
  Calories     153.6
  Total Fat     3.5 g
          Saturated Fat     0.5 g
          Polyunsaturated Fat     1.0 g
          Monounsaturated Fat     1.7 g
  Cholesterol     36.4 mg
  Sodium     200.6 mg
  Potassium     115.9 mg
  Total Carbohydrate     26.7 g
          Dietary Fiber     0.9 g
          Sugars     9.8 g
  Protein     4.1 g
 

Adapted from Lemon Zucchini Bread SRC