Low Fat Greek Yogurt and Apple Sauce Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I love this recipe for low-fat banana chocolate chip muffins for so many reasons:

1) I saw it on Pinterest and for once, it didn't suck!
2) It is low-fat but actually tastes delicious
3) It uses both apple sauce and low fat Greek yogurt in place of butters and oils
4) It is moist (I hate that word, too;) and springy

What You'll Need:

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/4 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
• 1 Tbsp soy butter (or regular butter if you don't have this handy)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup Ideal white sugar substitute (or white sugar substitute, like Splenda)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (you can cut back according to your taste)

What You'll Do (for about 24 muffins):

• Pre-heat your oven to 190C (370F)
• Line your muffin tins with muffin cups (cuter the better!)
• In a small bowl, mash your three bananas
• In your mix master, or using your hand blender and a larger bowl, mix together your apple sauce, dollop of soy butter, low-fat Greek yogurt, brown sugar, Ideal (or other white sugar alternative, like Splenda) and vanilla
• Blend well - for about 2 minutes or until very smooth
• In a separate bowl, add in your whole wheat flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda
• Mix thoroughly
• Separate your eggs, keeping the egg whites and adding them into your banana mixture
• Pour your banana mixture into your wet mixture and blend until mixed
• Add your wet mixture into your dry mixture, stirring until combined but not smooth, leaving some lumps for good measure!
• Fold in your chocolate chips
• Fill each muffin cup just over 1/2 way full 
• Bake for around 15 minutes or until the tops are lightly brown and when you stick a toothpick in, it comes out clean
• Place on a wire cooling rack and enjoy!

 If you are more of a loaf over muffin fan, this recipe can easily be turned into two lovely banana chocolate chip loaves. Just bake for around 35-40 minutes instead.

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1.5 - nothing to write home about
Taste: 2 - for a low-fat baked good, this is the stuff!
Ease: 2

Dukan Sugar-Free Chocolate Fat-Free Yogurt Muffins

A key to success on the Dukan diet is always having Dukan friendly snacks at hand. A perfect little snack that soothes the sweet tooth is the muffin.

Easily transportable, not messy, simple to make.

This is a recipe for one of my favourite Dukan diet muffins - the sugar-free chocolate, fat-free yogurt muffin.

This recipe couldn't be any easier, take my word for it!

What You'll Need:

• 8 Tbsp of oatbran
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sugar substitute, like Ideal
• 3 Tbsp of sugar-free chocolate powder (I use the Ghirardelli kind you can get in the Netherlands)
• 1 cup of non-fat Greek yogurt (you can also sub in non-fat quark, or vanilla-flavoured non-fat yogurt. I use non-fat Greek yogurt as it is usually thicker and makes the muffins a little firmer)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs 

What You'll Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 180C (or 350F)
• Get two medium-sized bowls ready
• Line 12 muffin tins with muffin cups (make sure they're cute so Martha would approve)
• In one bowl, mix together your dry ingredients until fully combined - oatbran, baking powder, sweetener, chocolate powder
• In the other bowl, mix in your yogurt/quark, vanilla then your 4 eggs (I will usually crack them one by one in a separate little container, like the measuring cup I just used, to ensure each egg is good before I add them into the larger mixture)
• Mix the liquid mixture thoroughly until it is a consistent colour and texture
• Add the liquid mix into the dry mix and stir until smooth 
• Pour the combined mix into the lined muffin tins, filling to about 3/4
• Let bake for 12-18 minutes, or until cooked through - my oven runs hot, so 15 minutes works for me, but start checking in on them at the 12 minute mark
• Let cool
• Devour 

These little babies are great snacks and will keep for one week if you keep them refrigerated. They also freeze like little stars.

I like to heat mine up and add a dollop of fat-free plain cream cheese on top (then I imagine I am eating a fancy cupcake).

You can also make these more interesting by:

• Add in cinnamon, or nutmeg, or both!
• Use orange extract instead of vanilla and toss in some orange zest
• Top them with Dukan whip cream (which I will post for your shortly)
• Add in red food colouring and top them off with non-fat cream cheese (kinda just like a Red Velvet Cupcake!)

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2 
Ease: 2