Attempting to stay healthy while begining to attack finals...

Dinners are looking more like this  : roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli along with a sweet potato and less like this:

Not that Indian food is unhealthy, but that I've resolved to only eat either potato, brown rice, whole wheat pasta or whole grains ( like barely and quinoa) as my source of carbs with meals.  As much as I like regular basmati rice and grew up on it, I will have to stay away in the interest of my waist line...

As most of you know, I am engaged but I havnt set up a wedding date -- and I refuse to do so until I am below a certain dress size. Motivation? I hope so!

 Some of you may know that Eastern Europeans often bake an Easter bread. The one Armenians make is called "Paska" and one of the most prominent flavors is that of orange. ( I should have taken a picture of one when I went home from Easter since I can't seem to find any accurate ones online).  Anyways, I wanted to make a healthy fat-free muffin that would evoke a similar flavor but me much more guiltfree than the original.

The resulting product was this batch of muffins which I made using Sweet Potatoes. When I told my dad about these, he made a face and was confused as to how a vegetable could be in a sweet dessert item, but I explained it works just like pumpkin and bananas.

They came out so cute and perfectly shaped. I was ecstatic.


The Ingredients:

1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
The Zest of one orange
2 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 1/3 cup cooked sweet potato ( I roasted it in the oven until it began emitting a sticky syrup)
3 large organic eggs ( yolks and whites separated)
1/3 cup plain fat free organic yogurt ( organic helps give it the tart bread-like flavor)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla bourbon extract
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients ( flour, spices, baking soda, and baking powder)  In another small bowl, place the egg white and keep them refrigerating. Finally, in a large bowl:
1) combine the egg yolks, sugar, orange, orange zest
2) Mix in the sweet potato
3) Stir in the applesauce and yogurt
4) Add the vanilla extract

Next, I chose to mix in the dry ingredients before folding in the whipped egg whites. This turned out fine, you could try folding in the egg white before adding the flour, or not separates the eggs at all -- I'm just letting you know how I made them this time :)

 Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes in a lined muffin tin pan.

I loved these. Not only was the flavor exactly what I was looking for, but each one is fat free and less than 150 calories each. Best of all, they were very filling!! Sometimes, one muffin was even too much.