It’s almost Halloween!
If you’re basic like me, that means you can’t get enough pumpkin everything. But loading up on pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin muffins isn’t such a good idea if you’re trying watch what you eat. So, what do I do? Make your own macro-friendly treats! I wanted to use my new mini pumpkin mold (yes, I am at that level).
I found a great recipe on one of my favorite recipe blogs, www.themacroexperiment.com, White Chocolate Marshmallow Pumpkin Protein Muffins. The ingredients were simple:
Ingredients (via http://www.themacroexperiment.com)
- I scoop of cellucor cinnamon swirl (any whey would work though)
- 21g coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 84g canned pumpkin
- 10g mini marshmallows
- 20g white chocolate chips
- 46g liquid egg whites
- pumpkin pie spice
- cinnamon
- stevia
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in bowl. For the pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and stevia — I just eyeballed the amounts. I’d say 1/2 tsp is probably good for the spices, but you can do whatever tastes good to you! I used a LOT of stevia, probably a couple tablespoons, but I recommend sweetening to your own personal preference.
3. Add water to desired consistency. I’d say 3-4 tablespoons is good. You are wanting to achieve a cake batter consistency.
4. Spray muffin tin with pam, spoon in the batter, and place in oven.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then check at 5 minute intervals with a toothpick. When the toothpick comes out clean (not gooey), you know the muffins are done!
I modified this recipe a bit by using my own Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder, and found a great coconut flour at Wal-Mart.
I also wanted to a little something extra for sweetness, so I decided to add a couple tablespoons of my Kroger Apple Butter, otherwise, I followed the recipe.
The result was great! A gooey pumpkin-tastic protein bite, perfect for pre and post work-out, or to satisfy any hardcore pumpkin craving. Not to mention, the recipe is gluten-free too! They didn’t look completely like little pumpkins, but who cares when they taste great?
But since I also made 12 little bites instead of 6 muffins like the recipes says, and used some other ingredients, how do you figure out the calories and macros of each one? Well, thankfully, there’s an app for that. In order to keep track of my macros (carbs, fats, protein), along with overall calories, I use a food tracking app on my phone to log all the nutritional information of my diet. My favorite so far is called MyFitnessPal.
It’s great because it has a huge data base that contains whatever you’re eating or at least something close to it. If what you’re eating has a bar code, you can scan the barcode to log it too!
It’s so simple and easy and takes the guess work out of tracking. It’s also very eye-opening to see what you eat- a lot of times we don’t pay attention to our portions, and more quickly than we realize the calories add up!
The great thing about the app as well is that it allows you to enter and log recipes.
You give the recipe a name and the number of servings, and just like your normal diary.
From there, find and add the amounts of each ingredient.
When done, the app will calculate the specific macros and calories of each serving.
It’s great for what I do, since I create my own recipes and modify what I find online. Whether the recipe is macro-friendly or not, it keeps me accountable to what I’m putting in my body, and that mindfulness is the most important thing of all in my book. So go ahead and make that batch of cookies, if you know the macros of each one, my guess is you’ll be more likely to eat two instead of the usual five!
