Low-Carb Chocolate Chunk Coconut Muffins

The last couple days I have been doing some batch cooking to fill up my freezer with tasty, low-carb meals and snacks.  Since mornings can be a hectic time for many people, my family included, I decided to start with a breakfast recipe.  Before I started this low-carb WOE, I would spend a day baking a bunch of different muffins to freeze and they worked great as an on-the-go breakfast when paired with some fruit.  Because this worked so well in the past, I wanted to create a muffin recipe that was tasty and still low in carbs.  I came up with this chocolate chunk coconut muffin:

These muffins are not that sweet, but they were approved by all three of my kids 🙂  Each muffin has 7.8g. net carbs, compared to the 49.74g. net carbs that a medium sized commercially-prepared chocolate chip muffin contains!  The recipe makes 12 muffins but can be doubled if you want to freeze some.

Low-Carb Chocolate Chunk Coconut Muffins

• 1 cup Hazelnut Meal/Flour
•  1/3 cup Coconut Flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Coconut Flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 4 squares 70% cacao dark chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and oil a muffin tin or line with muffin papers.
2.  In a medium bowl, sift together the hazelnut flour, coconut flour, coconut flakes, salt, Splenda, baking soda, & baking powder.
3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the coconut oil, apple sauce, & almond milk.
4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. On a cutting board, chop the chocolate squares into small pieces, about pea size.
6. Add the chocolate chunks to the batter and stir until mixed throughout.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling 3/4 full.
8. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes or until tops are springy when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.
9. Cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes.
10. Enjoy

Nutrition Facts*

• Serving Size 1 muffin
• Calories 153, Calories from Fat 97,
• Total Fat 10.8g, Saturated Fat 8.1g, Trans Fat 0.0g
• Cholesterol 55mg, Sodium 190mg, Potassium 80mg,
• Total Carbohydrates 10.2g, Dietary Fiber 2.4g, Sugars 6.8g, Protein 3.0g

 * Nutritional Information provided by caloriecount.about.com

Hunger and Cinnamon Almonds

Day two is almost over so I feel that it is ok to go ahead and say it has been a success.  One thing I noticed, this morning I woke up an hour and half before I normally do because of hunger.  I was so hungry that it woke me up!  This is not normal for me, I do not usually even eat within the first couple hours of waking up because I’m just not hungry.

So while munching on my cheesy, scrambled eggs and tomato, I did a little research and found that during the first two weeks of starting a low-carb lifestyle this is normal due to the body going into ketosis.  Ketosis is when the body switches from using carbohydrates as its main fuel to using fat as the main fuel.  While this happens during the first two weeks of starting low-carb eating, a person may feel extremely hungry, but once ketosis is attained he or she tends to get hungry less often.  So I guess my hunger is a good sign.

My children ate cinnamon-covered cereal for breakfast today and I wanted so badly to make myself a bowl, too, because it smelled so cinnamon-y and good.  I did not eat any of their cereal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day so for my evening snack I sprinkled cinnamon and a packet of Splenda on some slivered almonds.  This did the trick!  If I had any almond milk I would have added some and ate it all like a bowl of cereal, sadly I was all out.  I think this will be my go to cereal substitution for now though.

I have not ate supper yet as I am waiting for my husband to be off work so we can eat together, but I do know what I am making.  While browsing recipes on Pinterest, I found a recipe for hamburger stroganoff from Easy Low Carb Cooking.  My husband has been asking for me to make something with ground beef in it for dinner, so I will be making this tonight and as suggested by the author, I will use french cut green beans instead of noodles for the dish.  I will be serving this with a side of roasted califlower and I think it all sounds delish.

The last thing worth mentioning for the day is my water intake.  Yesterday, I noticed that I had not been drinking enough water and I decided that today I would pay more attention and make sure I was drinking plenty.  So today, I carried a 1 liter bottle everywhere with me and this definatly helped.  So far I have refilled it 5 times and I still have a few hours before bed.  I would call that a success!