Keto Blueberry Muffins

As you can tell from my previous post, we had some good eatin'. Not to mention we did our part in supporting the girl scouts and bought a few boxes of cookies. And let me tell you, the lemon ones are AMAZING.

Needless-to-say, we were ready to get into shape by eating differently and exercising more. We started by adding yoga and walks to our week. Tyler is very good at making sure our posture is correct during yoga and loves walks.

As for a 'diet,' Scott had done some research and thought we should try juicing. We made it 3 days and I called it quits. My stomach was not happy for 2 of those days and Scott said he wasn't going to do it alone. I don't blame him. So he did some more research and thought we should give Keto a try. We were afraid of starting as not wanting to screw it up but one day we went for it and learned what works and doesn't as we went along. We each have an app on our phones that helps us track net carbs, fat, protein and calories and helps me create recipes and calculates all that good stuff. 

Keto is "...a very low-carb, high-fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low-carb diets. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis." I've been losing an averaging of 1-2 pounds a week since we started about a month ago.

The first 'KETO' recipe I tried was for blueberry muffins. Usually one is told to be cautious with fruit on Keto because of the high sugar content meaning high carbohydrates. But everything in moderation. 

Keto baking is obviously much different than regular baking because there's no AP flour or even rice flour. I use either almond flour or coconut flour.

Keto Blueberry Muffins (Serving size: 6)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of monk fruit or preferred sweetener
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/8 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix together the almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, monk fruit and salt.
Mix together the almond milk, 1/8 tsp vanilla and the 1 egg.
Combine wet and dry ingredients.
I let it sit for a few minutes to let the almond flour absorb some of the liquid.
Spray 6 & fill 6 cups of the muffin baking pan.
Cook for 20 minutes.

The texture kinda reminds me of cornbread as it's not as fine as regular flour. But I like it and have made it a few times now. I've substituted the blueberry for raspberry and added chia seeds and sprinkled sliced almonds on top for a change. They made for good breakfasts.

Chocolate Mint-Chip Muffins

I received a gift card to King Arthur’s Flour back at Christmas and ordered mint chips. They’ve been sitting on the kitchen table ever since staring at Dean saying “eat me!” I saw a recipe on tv for chocolate chocolate-chip muffins and figure I could easily add my mint chips. I seem to need a reason before baking and this time they are for my Aunt Dawn. She won’t actually see these until she gets back from Lodi over the weekend, so hopefully it’ll be a nice birthday surprise for her when she gets home. (The formatting is not cooperating with me today.)

Chocolate Mint-Chip Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• pinch of salt


• 3 tablespoons best quality cocoa powder


• 3/4 cup superfine sugar


• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus extra for sprinkling on top


• 1/4 cup mint-chips


• 1 cup milk


• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons olive oil


• 1 egg


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

• Special equipment: Muffin tin with paper muffin cases


• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.


• Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, salt, sugar, and all the mint & chocolate chips into a large bowl.


• Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug.


• Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. (It's ok if the batter is lumpy).


• Spoon into the prepared muffin cases.


• Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top and then bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

I added mint chips to the top as well but the color bled and even though it tastes great, it looks a little weird. They taste lovely so I hope she enjoys them. Happy Birthday Dawn!