Healthy Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins

So I had a huge bag of strawberries that were going to go bad if I didn’t do something with them quickly. I decided to search Pinterest for a healthy recipe that called for lots of strawberries and found these healthy strawberry cheesecake muffins. I altered the recipe a tad to make them even HEALTHIER! They turned out great and I want to eat them all…

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/8 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/8 cup canola oil
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 cups chopped strawberries (I used about 6 large ones)
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Whisk together the egg, egg white, milk, oil, applesauce, honey, and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in the strawberries and the lemon zest, reserving a tad to garnish later.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Stir into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Whisk the ricotta in a small bowl until smooth. Add the ricotta to the muffin batter, using a rubber spatula to gently fold it in. Do not over mix! The ricotta should be in swirls
5. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray (or use liners) and fill the tins, leaving a 1/2 inch space at the top.
6. Bake for 2-0 minutes, or until a pick inserted in the muffin comes out clean. Garnish with remaining lemon zest