Pineapple Muffins - No Guilt Snack

I call this a no-guilt snack. Why? Because I used a few ingredients that are really good for your health, so you don’t have to feel bad about eating something sweet.

First, I used whole wheat atta instead of all-purpose flour (APF). I used extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) instead of butter, low-fat yogurt instead of full-fat sour cream, egg whites instead of two whole eggs, and xylitol instead of sugar. You can read about the goodness of this sweetener here.

My husband recently read a book and came across xylitol as a sugar substitute. He told me it’s a lot better than cane sugar and brown sugar, which I usually use for baking. So I thought I’d try something with xylitol, which I bought from the Sprouts store.

I looked through several blogs for recipes and finally found one in my kitchen recipe collection. I adapted it from a book called 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats, which I bought from Barnes & Noble. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1.  Ashirwadh whole wheat flour - 2 cups
2. Olive Oil - 6 tbsp
3. Low fat yogurt - 3/4 cup
4. Pineapple - 1 1/2 cups (finely chopped) - I used fresh pineapple
5. Pineapple Juice - 2 tbsp (grind few pieces with a tbsp warm water. Filter and take the juice)
6. Baking powder - 1 tbsp
7. Salt - 1 pinch
8. Sugar/Xylitol - 1/2 cup
9. Egg - 2 ( I used egg whites - follow the instruction in the box for 2 eggs) 

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin pan and set it aside (I used a mini muffin pan).

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, and mix well. In another wide, deep bowl, add the egg whites and beat them lightly. Add the olive oil, yogurt, and pineapple juice, and mix well.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Mix gently. Add the chopped pineapple pieces and fold them in. Scoop the batter into the muffin pan.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins are well-risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Let them cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm.

I asked my girls to eat a mini muffin with their breakfast today, and they were so happy that I gave them muffins for breakfast.

Notes:

Original recipe called for:

1. 2 cups APF
2. 2 large eggs
3. 6 tbsp butter
4. 1/2 cup sugar
5. Pineapple juice from the can.
6. 3/4 cup full fat sour cream.

Plantain podimas - Thanjavur style

This is another one of my favorite recipes. At my mom’s place, I’ve never seen her make podimas with plantain (vazhakkai). But at my in-laws’ place, they make this plantain podimas. The main ingredients are as follows:
Ingredients:-

1. Plantain(vaazhakkai) - 2
2. Oil - 2 tbsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
4. Urid dal - 1/2 tsp
5. Fresh coconut - 1 tbsp
6. Green chillies - 2
7. ginger - a small piece
8. Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
9. Salt to taste
10. Curry leaves - 10 nos
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
12. Asafoetida powder -

There are two ways to cook vazhakkai. One method is to remove the skin, cut it into small cubes, and pressure-cook it with salt and turmeric powder for up to 2 whistles (do not mash the cubes). The other method is to cut the vazhakkai into two pieces (after trimming the ends) and pressure-cook it with salt for up to 2 whistles. After removing it from the pressure cooker, peel the skin (it will be easier) and mash it. You can choose either method.

Now, take a wide pan and heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the urad dal, green chilies, curry leaves, asafoetida powder, ginger, and turmeric powder (if you chose the second method of cooking). Fry until golden brown. Add the vazhakkai cubes or mashed vazhakkai and mix everything thoroughly.

Turn off the stove and let it cool. After 10 minutes, add the lemon juice and mix well. Sprinkle fresh coconut on top. Vazhakkai podimas is ready to serve. This should be a wonderful side dish for vatha kuzhambu or any kind of kuzhambu.

Eggless Dates & Nuts Cake

I made this cake after reading the post from Sony's Kitchen.  I almost followed the same recipe except I used dark brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar.  When we melt the sugar in milk/oil, it will ooze out little bit more water than the regular white sugar.  So I had to add more flour to this cake than the original recipe.

Spicy & Salty Potato Crackers

I made these crackers today for evening snack.  As usual got the recipe from Priya's blog. I almost followed the same recipe except included Ashirwadh atta along with APF.  Here goes my version of spicy crackers.