This is the Stay Healthy recipe as featured in the September 2013 issue of Natural Muscle Magazine. I like to start with a fun story before getting into my recipe: Fabulous cherries from the local farmers … sweet, juicy, and so fun to eat right out of your hand … spitting the pits to the farthest point in front of me … great childhood memories. I still do that … the kid in me will always remain.
A fabulous client gifted me a cherry pitter last week … I never knew such a thing existed … well the excitement to try out my new gadget was a MUST, so off to the store to purchase my cherries and start creating in the kitchen. I put together a healthy chocolate cherry muffin that can be a breakfast, dessert, or even a snack item, and let me just share that this will not disappoint. It turned out perfect in consistency, super moist, chocolaty and the fresh cherries … FABULOUS!!! Using the pitter reduced the prep time considerably and no more cutting the pits out with a knife … I did use rubber gloves to not stain my hands. The exciting thing about creating healthy foods that taste absolutely out of this world is that there are so many fabulous nutrients power packed in this anytime meal. I enjoyed one fresh from the oven and of course the next morning for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Ready to give them a go … simple, no mixer required, easy bake, easy clean, and absolutely taste-good healthy.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Scottish Oatmeal (oats fine ground to flour consistency)
- ½ cup of oat bran
- ½ cup vanilla whey protein (you can use chocolate as well)
- ¼ cup flax meal
- 1 cup Cocoa Powder
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¾ cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup non-fat milk
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (plain canned pumpkin..no spice)
- 1 whole egg & 2egg whites, beaten
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup pitted Fresh Cherries — Chopped Chunky
- Optional: Add ½ cup of extra dark chocolate chips!
Preparation
- Combine the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and fork through until finely mixed and no lumps remain from the cocoa powder. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Pour the liquid in the middle and spoon mix all the ingredients well. Once everything is almost mixed add the chopped cherries.
- Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pans with liners, foils, or oil muffin pans well. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. You can also spring test the muffin for doneness by pressing lightly on the muffin top and if it bounces back, they are done. If your fingerprint remains, they are not done. This recipe makes 24 smaller muffins!
Nutritional content?
Hi Kelly
Sorry for the delayed response. Unfortunately, I do not provide nutritional content breakdown with my recipes. There are several great online nutrient calculators where you can plug in the info.