Fat Free Butternut Spinach Soufflé Muffins

 

Original recipe from Melissa Placzek at www.ChinDeep.com

…tweaked to fat-free by Melinda Perino Bebb, The Fat Free Gourmet

Okay, first let me start by saying that Melissa has an awesome website! She writes and shares ideas about everything I love, especially FOOD!  From crafts to photography, gift ideas to homemade bath salts, what to put on your iPod or in your tea – I know she has an awesome idea for you…she calls them ‘simple pleasures’.  Please visit her on Facebook, or on her website, she will not disappoint!

I found her recipe while perusing or, as my daughter would call it “stalking”, one of my Facebook ‘likes’ pages.  Her recipe stood out as good fat-free candidate and it is!  Flavorful and healthy ingredients make these muffins hard to resist, and they smell…so…Italian!!!

Thanks for sharing Melissa and I hope you don’t mind that I tweaked it for those of us cutting the fat!  My heart thanks you!

Here is the recipe:

This recipe bakes 12 lovely muffins, in either a regular sized pan or a large-sized muffin pan, the difference being the height of the muffin, both sizes are shown in the pictures.  Both sizes cooked beautifully in just 20 minutes.  I did not use liners, just cooking spray, and the muffins came out clean, no sticking.

2 cups steamed, cubed, butternut squash (a 2.5 to 3 lb squash will yield approximately 5 to 6 cups)

3/4 cup 1% buttermilk

½ cup fat-free egg substitute

1 cup chopped spinach

1 1/4 cup fat-free feta cheese

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

¼ cup fat-free mayonnaise

1 teaspoon minced garlic

 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons parmesan herb seasoning (you can find it in the spice isle of you grocery store)

1 tablespoon dry Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

 

Cooking spray

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix by hand the first eight wet ingredients.  In a separate bowl, blend the remaining dry ingredients.  Add wet to dry stirring until just evenly incorporated and moist.

Spray muffin tin(s) generously with cooking spray.

Spoon the muffin batter into the cups.  Sprinkle the tops with a little more cubed squash, feta, salt, and pepper.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until set and a toothpick comes clean when inserted in center of a muffin.  Remove from oven.  When cool enough to handle transfer muffins to cooling rack.  Serve warm.  Store the muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Note: Cool completely before putting into airtight container