'Cupcakes' for Portion Control

After a few indulgent weeks, I need to get back to the diet (and let's be totally honest, I haven't really been on the diet since January). My biggest problem has always been portion control. I've always thought the trend of using cupcake pans was a fun one - so today, I cooked for the week (and then some) using muffin pans.

I found a neat blog called Emily Bites - which has a tagline of "lightened up comfort food". She has a whole section dedicated to these portion controlled bites. Today I made Hawaiian BBQ Cupcakes, Enchilada Cupcakes and Lasagna Cupcakes. The last recipe is from Hungry Girl - another great website for low calorie dishes.

The filling for the BBQ cupcakes. I was feeling adventurous and made my own BBQ sauce. The cupcake recipe suggested a spicier sauce, so I added a chipotle pepper since I didn't have smoked paprika.

All the cupcakes have 2 layers of the wonton wrappers.

Before the oven - these are the enchilada and Hawaiian BBQ cupcakes.

After the oven - I did the full 20 minutes.

Hawaiian BBQ cupcakes - hard to tell the difference by look between the two...you can see the pineapple in this one, so it's Hawaiian.

Enchilada cupcake.

This is a series of pictures for the lasagna cupcakes - these were more involved than the chicken cupcakes. Ricotta, spinach and egg.

Ground turkey, mushroom, onion, crushed tomatoes.

Cheese, of course.

After the oven.

Some thoughts - the chicken cupcakes were not as moist as the lasagna cupcakes - which made them easier to get out of the pan. Plus they were very simple to put together, especially if you had chicken already cooked. That would make it an easy weeknight meal - particularly since it only takes 15-20 min for them to cook. Add a salad and you have a rounded meal.

Now, to figure out what to do with all that BBQ sauce, and a half can of enchilada sauce, and green chiles. That's one of the down sides to all this portion control, you only need a little of this or that. If I do, I'll let you know!