This recipe makes easy, low sugar pistachio mini muffins that are only 23 calories each! You seriously can’t beat that with a muffin! Am I Right?
Muffins are meant to be sweet, and these pistachio muffins are no exception. But, when you are counting calories like me for weight maintenance or weight loss, every calorie counts! {see my weight loss story here}
So, because I love muffins, and I want to keep the weight off, I made this recipe both low in sugar and low in calories.
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox.
How to make these muffins low calorie and low sugar
To do this, I made three, very important substitutions.
The first substitution was to switch the sugar in a muffin recipe for zero calorie sugar. I like the Lakanto Monkfruit Baking sweetener. You can get it at Costco, and it’s a 1:1 swap, meaning, for every cup of regular sugar, you can just use 1 cup of the Lakanto sugar.
The second thing I added was some sugar free pistachio pudding mix! This gave the muffins the pistachio flavor, without adding pistachios, which are high in calories.
The third low calorie substitution is applesauce in place of oil or fat. This works well for me every time, and saves a lot of calories!
I also made them into mini muffins so that they come already portion controlled. A mini muffin vs. a large muffin can range greatly in calories.
Also, a muffin from a bakery or Costco can be extraordinarily high in calories. These two muffins, a 520 calorie muffin from a bakery, and a 600 calorie muffin from Costco were outrageous. I know cookies with less calories than this!
So, a mini pistachio muffin with zero calorie sugar is the way to go! You can still enjoy your treat, but also have enough calories leftover to eat actual meals the rest of the day.
This recipe for low sugar muffins makes 30 mini muffins, when you use 1 tablespoon of batter in each.
Ingredients for healthy Pistachio Muffins
The ingredients for this healthy breakfast muffin recipe, I used:
1 1/4 cup self rising flour- I like the self rising flour these days! That way, you don’t have to use baking soda or baking powder to get a rise. It’s been making terrific baked goods for me!
1/4 tsp salt
2 tablespoons sugar free pistachio pudding mix. I love this pudding mix!! I buy several boxes at a time. If I have any on hand, I will stir it in to nonfat plain greek yogurt and it’s my favorite afternoon treat!
1 teaspoon almond extract. The almond extract tastes like pistachio to me. It’s better than vanilla extract for the flavor of these sugar free muffins.
1/4 cup applesauce. Instead of oil, I like applesauce. I’m not afraid of fat in food, but it does make calories higher, and I like to keep the calories low!
1/2 cup buttermilk. Buttermilk is great for baked goods like muffins. It makes a tender baked good, without the fat and calories. If I don’t have any buttermilk, I’ll make the same thing with 1/2 cup 2% milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let it sit for 10 minutes. It curdles just a little bit, and then it’s ready.
Then, if you have some, you can crush some pistachios for top. It’s not necessary, but they are pistachio muffins after all!
So, the total for each mini muffin comes to Calories 23, 1 g protein, 6 g carbs, 0 g fat
Hi! I’m Amy Roskelley, a health & fitness professional and the owner of Health Beet website and blog. I have a Bachelors of Science in Community Health from BYU. Masters of Business (University of Utah) Certified Personal Trainer (ACE), RRCA Running coach, Certified Personal Chef (IAP), and Certified as a Nutrition & Wellness Consultant (AFPA), Certified Mind, Body, Eating Coach. (IPE).
I’m the creator of many low calorie recipes author of weight loss books. Mother of 3, runner, and NPC Fitness competitor.
Jeannie notes.. Above is curated for evaluation and recommendation from healthbeet.org
Leave a Reply