Healthy Fall Food Favorites
Halloween is only weeks away and festive fall treats are popping up everywhere. All though the various sweet and sugary temptations are hard to resist, you don’t have to break your diet to enjoy the seasonal fare. Certified nutritionist, personal trainer and exercise physiologist, Franci Cohen, has provided recipes for fall foods that won’t break your belt.
Pumpkin Cranberry Mini Breakfast Muffins:
(Image credit: Franci Cohen) Ingredients:
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– 1 cup oat flour (or fresh oats finely ground into a flour)
– 3/4 cup sugar
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp nutmeg
– 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
– 1 large egg, lightly beaten
– 1/4 cup canola oil
– 1 cup nonfat milk
– 1 cup fresh cranberries
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
4. Combine pumpkin, beaten egg, oil and milk in a separate bowl.
5. Make a well in dry ingredients and ddd pumpkin mixture and stir until combined. Lastly, fold in cranberries.
6. Fill muffin cups and bake for 17-22 minutes.
Lowfat Individual Apple Pies in their own shell
(Image credit: Google images)
Ingredients:
– Pie crust
– 6 Granny Smith apples
– 1/4 cup sugar
– 1 Tbsp brown sugar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
For the filling:
1. Pre heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut off the top of 4 apples and remove the inside with a spoon or scooper. Be very careful, as to not puncture the peel!
3. With the 2 additional apples, remove the skin and slice very thinly. These apple pieces will be the filling for the mini apple pies.
4. Throw the apple slices in a blow and mix with sugars and cinnamon. Scoop mixture evenly into each of the 4 hollow apples.
For the topping:
1. Roll out pie crust and slice into 1/4 inch strips. Note: You can also add a strip of pastry inside the top of the apple almost like a liner to add a little more texture andsweetness to the pie.
2. Cover the top of the apple in a lattice pattern with pie crust strips.
3. Place apples in an 8×8 pan and add just enough water to the cover the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.
4. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and sliced apples are soft
Ghostly Chocolate Pretzel Rods:
(Image credit: Google images)
Ingredients:
– 1 box salted pretzel rods
– 16 oz fine white baking chocolate
– An edible ink black baking marker
– Wax paper
Directions:
1. Melt chocolate in double boiler or on the stove.
2. Dip 1 end of a pretzel rod into melted Chocolate to cover pretzel approx. 2" down
3. Lay chocolate covered pretzels on wax paper-lined tray
4. Repeat with remaining pretzels until all are covered in chocolate
5. Place baking tray in freezer for 5 minutes until chocolate hardens
6. Remove pretzel tray from freezer and using baking markers, draw scary ghostly faces on the pretzels.
Your ghostly pretzel rods are ready to eat!
Disclaimer: I received no compensation for this post.
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