Sunday, March 13, 2011

Low-Fat Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Confession: I used to eat the lemon pound cake (with over 500 calories for one small piece) at Starbucks at least twice a week. I also used to eat McDonald's every other day in high school. Not only was I unhealthy from doing the above, but also poor.

I sure am glad that stage of my life is over. And although it is extremely hard to force myself to order a skinny vanilla late instead of a piece of lemon pound cake at Starbucks some days, I always feel better passing on the fat and calorie filled dessert. However this morning, I wanted some. I wanted something lemony and refreshing. I quickly found myself at the grocery store buying lemons and poppy seeds. Can you guess what I made?


Ingredients: (adapted from here)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • zest and juice of 2 small lemons
  • 3/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a muffin or bread pan.

-In a large bowl, start by mixing the sugar and lemon zest together until it turns a yellow color and you can smell the strong scent of lemon.

-In the same bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

-In a medium bowl, mix the lemon juice, Greek yogurt, eggs, vanilla and canola oil and mix well.

-Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and with a large spoon or spatula mix well (do not over mix). Finally, stir in the poppy seeds!

-Using a ice-cream scooper, divide the batter evenly in 12 muffin cups. Bake for 18 minutes or until browned.



For the glaze, I simply mixed 3/4 cup of confectioners sugar with 2 tablespoons of milk and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. If it seems to thick, keep adding milk until your liking.


After a morning of baking for me and studying for Jeff, we decided to get out of the apartment for a while. We left Ollie to sleep and went on a little 2 hour date (since we can only leave Ollie for about 2 hours). First stop was Panera, our favorite lunch restaurant.


The usual for both of us-Fuji Apple salad and black bean soup for me. Panini and chicken noodle soup for him.


We realized that we finished lunch in less than a half hour, and since we wanted to stay out of our apartment for the full 2 hours we headed downtown to shop around and get some treats! We went to a little candy shop and bought 2 chocolates, one for each of us. Each little chocolate was 70 cents! That's how much a bag of skittles or M & Ms are. Of course we bought them regardless of the price...


Good thing my raspberry filled chocolate and his coconut filled one were both worth it!


Our date ended at Starbucks! Jeff wanted something warm to drink so he bought himself a caramel macchiato. And guess who didn't even think about buying lemon pound cake? Me! Not with all of these lemon poppy seed muffins sitting around our apartment now :)

19 comments:

Selina. said... Best Blogger Tips

wow you literally read my mind! i have been thinking about starbucks lemon and poppyseed muffins for days seeing as they don't have starbucks in this country yet :( and now i can just make my own yay! do you roughly know the calories of them?

Cait @ A Bicycle Built for Two said... Best Blogger Tips

Hi Selina,
I unfortunately don't know the calories behind them, but will do some research and if I can figure it out will post is as soon as I do! Thanks for reading :)

Claire said... Best Blogger Tips

You guys are too cute! I love lemon poppy seed muffins, so I'll have to give this a try :)

Jocie's Mom said... Best Blogger Tips

Looks like a pretty much perfect date to me :) Thanks for sharing those scandelicious muffins!

CarinE said... Best Blogger Tips

Cute couples...hehe. btw you are so pretty.

Erin. said... Best Blogger Tips

Just Curious...did you really only use one cup of flour...or was it 2?

Cait @ A Bicycle Built for Two said... Best Blogger Tips

Erin, def used 2!!! Thanks for catching that...not sure how I missed that! Fixed :)

Katie said... Best Blogger Tips

I'd be willing to risk a false pregnancy test to eat poppy seed muffins! haha. Is that still true...?

Patricia @ ButterYum said... Best Blogger Tips

Yummo x10!! Again, fab pic!!

:)
ButterYum

Patricia @ ButterYum said... Best Blogger Tips

PS - the black bean soup at Panera is my fav.

Jenn said... Best Blogger Tips

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are one of my absolute favorite type of muffins and that glaze just puts them over the top. If only I had some lemons and yogurt, I would seriously jump up and make these right now. Your pictures are perfect and by the way, you are beautiful! I have always wanted to do my hair in curls like yours, but I have never been able to figure it out?

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

Hi Looks amazing...we are making them now...wondering the calories??? and or WW points for one....thanks Dorrie

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

These look great! Going to make them on the weekend and looking forward to it!
I plugged the ingredients into a recipe calculator I use and these are the results I got (not including glaze):

Calories: 234
Fat 10.8g
Saturated Fat: 1.0g
Sodium: 99mg
Total Carb: 29g
Fiber: 0.7g
Sugar: 12.4g
Protein: 5.3g

Jill said... Best Blogger Tips

I love using greek yogurt when baking! I'm making these tomorrow-they look amazing!

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

The WW points for these Lemon Poppy Seed muffins are 6 points each.

Healthy Grocery said... Best Blogger Tips

Can look at my blog and see nutritional facts of healthy, low fat food at grocery stores.

Hayley Focsan said... Best Blogger Tips

These look so good, lemon and poppy seeds is such a good combination.

http://www.nourishyourglow.com/recipe/skinny-lemon-muffins/

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