Midweek Snack // Paleo Chocolate Espresso Muffins

Last week, I recapped an entire day of eating via my instagram feed. Whew!!! It was easier than I expected it to be, except for remembering to take pictures. I was almost always a few bites into it or in the case of breakfast... berries all gone. I always feel very highly focused on my food!

That is a pretty typical day of eating for me- with the exception of "cereal". Usually in the morning I will have a protein shake or acai bowl - fast absorbing, easily digestible, blended raw nutrients.

I eat 3 main meals a day, but they are relatively small, with snacking in between. I find that I do better energy-wise personally if I have a steady drip of calories coming at me. Not everyone is this way. I find that if I try to pack in all of my calories and nutrients into three large(r) meals, I end up snacking in between meals anyways. So... it makes no sense for my main meals to be over the top.

I also get full really fast. I don't think this is a genetic thing - it's something that has happened over time because I generally don't eat a lot of food at once and stretch out the size of my stomach via all-you-can-eat or binging sessions. Yes, that is something that actually happens when you eat more than your stomach capacity - it stretches. And like anything that stretches too much too often, it can eventually stretch out permanently. Fortunately, the stomach has the ability to also shrink (over time), as mine as done over the years. So now, if I try to drink a large coffee and a protein shake directly afterwards and then pop some berries in after, I feel pretty sick.

Meals you expect to spend some time on the make healthy choices- and there are plenty of ways that we can make that easier, like making double (or even triple) batches at once, or pre-prepping ingredients, or purchasing prepped ingredients so we don't have to go to the trouble. But snacks... snacks are something that we associate with convenience and the quick-grab. We don't think of snacks as something we have to spend time on or cook.

But if you're willing to spend the time, even just a little, and want something super tasty that can double as dessert, these Paleo Chocolate Espresso Muffins are amazing. I'd also make these to take to a brunch!

Ingredients:

+1 cup Barney Butter Espresso & Vanilla Bean Almond Butter (regular creamy almond butter + 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1 tsp or more of your favorite ground coffee or espresso can substitute perfectly)

+ 4 eggs, room temperature, whisked (I separate my yolks from my whites and hand whip the whites to soft peaks to give these muffins a little more fluff - paleo recipes can leave breads awfully dense)

+ 1/3 cup maple syrup

+ 1 tsp vanilla extract

+ 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

+ 1/4 cup coconut flour

+ 1/2 tsp baking soda

+ 1/2 tsp baking powder

+ 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I give it an extra hard shake, I love more cinnamon)

+ 1/2 tsp sea salt

+ 1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips (plus some extra to top)

Directions:

+Preheat oven to 350

+Grease or line a muffin tin (large or small, depending on how big you want them - I usually make minis, so I can have one if I just want something chocolatey or I can have two for a satisfying snack)

+In a large bowl, mix almond butter, egg yolks, maple syrup, and vanilla

+Add cocoa powder, mix

+Add coconut flour, mix

+Add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, mix

+Fold in chocolate chips and fluffed egg whites

+Spoon batter into muffin pan, about 3/4 of the way to the top. My mini muffin pan has 24 available spots, and I usually fill about 20 of them with batter

+Sprinkle (or place, as I did in the picture below) extra chocolate chip(s) on top. You can add a tiny extra sprinkle of sea salt on top too. mmmmmm

+Bake for 15-18 minutes for mini muffins or 20-25 minutes for large muffins

+Remove muffins from pan and let cool on a cooling rack

These are my new favorite dairy free chocolate chips. I also like the Enjoy Life brand, which is the sort I used to top each muffin off with in this pic:

I die

All done!

#Nourish #Snacks