Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hold on, hold on... I know what you're thinking: "Chocolate chip muffins, Thelma?  What happened to healthy?"

Bear with me here.

I got a new cookbook.  My parents presented me with Jillian Michaels' 'Master Your Metabolism Cookbook' on the last day of camping, with a beautiful inscription on how they hoped that the recipes and knowledge contained within would give me what I needed to reach and blow past the milestone I've been working towards.  I was very moved, and have been poring over the book ever since.  I've tried a recipe or two, but now that I have more time on my hands, I'm excited to try out more and augment our regular menus.

And really, part of a menu includes snack food.  Healthy, hearty snacks that satisfy hunger and, when the need arises, that relentless sweet tooth.

Enter these nubby little muffins.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin

Part of the fun with this cookbook is learning to bake with items I would never have dreamed of baking with.  Coconut milk, for example.  I tried to find the dark chocolate chips that the recipe calls for but couldn't locate any, so just used regular semi-sweet instead.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
(Recipe from Jillian Michaels' 'Master your Metabolism Cookbook')

1 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large egg
Zest of 1 orange
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup 70% cocoa chocolate chips

1. Assemble your ingredients.

2. Place an oven rack in the center of the oven, then preheat the oven to 425F. Lightly spray a 12 cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.  (Or, alternatively, whip out the new silicone liners you got, and use those instead!)

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  (I couldn't find white whole-wheat flour, so I ended up using 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all purpose. Clearly I need to go shopping stateside to find some of these ingredients.)

4. In another bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, honey, olive oil, egg and orange zest.

5. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir until just moistened.

6. Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips.

Burnt my arm to get this photo!

7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin.  Place the tin in the oven and reduce the temperature to 400F. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack.  Serve warm.  (For longer storage, let cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.)

The flavour of these was amazing!  Not at all sweet like you would expect a chocolate chip muffin to be; just a wonderful blending of flavours and a good filling snack. My batch ended up making about 18 muffins, since I made them smaller than suggested, and I think they'll be the perfect 120-150 calorie snack when I'm looking for that little bit of chocolate.

To keep me honest, I packaged them in individual snack bags and popped those babies into the freezer.  Now I can just grab a bag for my lunch... healthy snacks at my finger tips!

Enjoy!