It was a Saturday morning, I had the house to myself and it was raining. Any of these things alone might elicit the need to bake, but collectively they left no doubt.
I pulled up a recipe on Shape magazine’s website that had caught my eye earlier in the week, rolled up my sleeves and got busy. One of the changes I made to their version was using a banana instead of the eggs originally called for to keep this as a vegan option.
A short time later the house smelled warm and fantastic and just then my husband and a friend arrived home. Even though the cups should have cooled a little more, the steamy pastries sitting on the rack were too much for any of us to resist. I was well into my second one (at less than 150 calories that’s shame free!) before I realized,
“Hey! There’s no sugar in these!”
I ran back the recipe to make sure that I hadn’t inadvertently made an omission and sure enough, no sugar. Pretty amazing if you ask me.
Next time, I think I’ll throw in a few chopped nuts and some raisins for my new anytime healthy version of carrot cake!
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 2 Tbsp flaxseeds
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 4 medium carrots, grated
- ½ cup crushed canned pineapple, drained
- Cooking spray
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine oats, flour, flaxseeds, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. In another bowl mash the banana and mix with the oil and vanilla extract. Slowly combine wet mixture into dry mixture. Fold in carrots and pineapple until combined.
- Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or use cupcake liners. Pour batter evenly into each cup. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.