(Healthy) Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

The season of "everything pumpkin!" is here! I love this time of year.  I live in New England, so the fall is beautiful here and there are so many fall festivities going on.  With the chill in the air, I love baking as well.  I love just about anything with pumpkin.  Pumpkin itself is a healthy ingredient full of vitamins and fiber, but a lot of fall recipes include butter, sugar....all kinds of delicousness that makes me fat by Thanksgiving.
This recipe tastes like a combination of pumpkin pie and blondies.  They aren't super sweet, but the cream cheese frosting makes up for that.  
This recipe uses soy flour.  I like soy flour because it's low in carbs, high in protein, and not as expensive as other specialty flours. You could try using regular flour or wheat flour. I haven't tried that yet.

For the bars:
2 large Eggs
1 cup Pumpkin Puree (canned or fresh)
1/2 cup Honey
1/4 cup Coconut Oil, warmed
1/4 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce 
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup Soy Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Powder
**If you like things on the sweeter side, add 1 packet of Natural Stevia Sweetener to the batter.

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the eggs, pumpkin puree, honey, coconut oil, apple sauce and vanilla extract in a medium sized mixing bowl and either beat with an electric mixer on low or by hand until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, and mix just until well combined.

**If you like things on the sweeter side, add 1 packet of Stevia sweetener to the batter and mix well.
3. Pour the mixture into an 8x8 baking pan (coated with Cooking Spray) and Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center it set. Remove and allow to cool completely before serving. 

For the Cream Cheese Frosting: 

1 Package (8oz) Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) Light Butter or Reduced Fat Margarine

2 Tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

16 oz Powdered Sugar

 

Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer (or by hand if you’ve got the energy).  Slowly add powdered sugar on low speed so you don’t make a mess. If the frosting is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. If it’s too stiff, add a little more milk.  You can adjust these until you have the desired consistency.

Put it all together: 

 

Once the bars have cooled, frost however you like. Cream cheese frosting is a little more thin than buttercream, so it doesn’t mold well.  I put some frosting in a plastic lunch bag and cut the corner off.  I made line design on top of my bars.

Enjoy!

Healthier (and YUMMY!) Red Velvet Cake

I love cake.  It is definitely my favorite food, always has been.  Cake is one of those things that I can't live without, but I try to eat healthy as much as I can.  This cake is absolutely delicious and SO much less fat than the original.   The cake leaves out Eggs, Oil and Water and only uses 1 cup of Diet Dr. Pepper. Seriously! I'm sure you could use Root Beer or Coke or whatever you want, but the diet makes it so the only calories are the cake mix.  The frosting is delicious too, has all the flavor of regular cream cheese frosting, but a fraction of the fat.  Now you can have your cake and ENJOY it too!

For the cake:

1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix

8 oz (1 Cup) Diet Dr. Pepper

 

Stir cake mix and Dr. Pepper until combined. Don’t over mix.  Spray pan of choice with cooking spray ( lined muffin pans (2/3 full), 1 13x9 Pan, or 2 Round Cake pans). I made this in the 2 cake round pans.

Bake at 350 ~15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Put cakes on cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting: 

1 Package (8oz) Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) Light Butter or Reduced Fat Margarine

2 Tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

16 oz Powdered Sugar

 

Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer (or by hand if you’ve got the energy).  Slowly add powdered sugar on low speed so you don’t make a mess. If the frosting is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. If it’s too stiff, add a little more milk.  You can adjust these until you have the desired consistency.

Put it all together: 

 

Once cake has cooled, frost however you like. Cream cheese frosting is a little more thin than buttercream, so it doesn’t mold well.  I put a layer of frosting in between my two round cakes, then added a layer of frosting to the top of the cake. I thought it looked pretty, but you can do the sides if you want to as well.

Enjoy!