All Natural, Low-Fat Deceptively Delicious Brownie Cupcakes!

These brownie cupcakes taste so decadent and so rich, yet you don't have to hit the treadmill for hours afterwards to burn off the calories. The only fattening items in the entire recipe are the mere 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips and dash of oil olive (which is spread amonsgt 8 cupcakes). They're low-fat, dairy-free, and gluten-free!

Adapted from Bethenny Fankel's "Naturally Thin"

Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 cup oat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of cinnamon
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (vegan if you want to stay dairy free recipe)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a regular sized muffin pan with cooking spray. You will only use 8 of the cups.

2. In a small bowl, combine the applesauce, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, and olive oil. Stir and set aside to allow the sugar crystals to dissolve.

3. In a large bowl, sift together the oat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. If you don't want to take the time to sift, mix them well with a wire whisk to aerate the dry ingredients.

4. Add the applesauce mixture to the flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide the batter between 8 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are firm to the touch.

6. Cool completely before popping the muffins out.

* Grocery stores around me rarely carry oat flour. Making your own is extremely easy though. Just buy a package of dry rolled oats. Then using a food processor or blender, pulverize the oats to a powder.

Yummy Healthy Berry Muffins!

I am in LOVE with Bethenny Frankel's book "Skinnygirl Dish." I highly recommend buying it for anyone who enjoys eating healthy, natural foods. There are so many healthy, delicious versions of some of my favorite, typically unhealthy, food. I made one of them yesterday and found it so delicious I have to share!

Recipe (adapted from Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl Dish):

INGREDIENTS:

 1 ¼ cups Whole Wheat Flour
 ¾ cup raw sugar
 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
 ¼ teaspoon salt
 ½ cup soy milk
 2 tablespoons olive oil
 ¾ teaspoon real vanilla extract
 ¾ cup fresh blueberries

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with liners.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients except for the berries in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the berries.
4. Using an ice cream scoop, drop the batter into the muffin liners. Bake for 20 minutes. When done, let stand for 15 minutes.