Skinny Dark Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

November 21, 2014 by Christine Skari

Let’s play a game.

The game involves stuffing as many of these skinny dark chocolate strawberry muffins into your mouth in one day as possible.

I challenge myself.

I win 😯 .

Don’t you like games like this? I sure doooo. But really, I think I have a new favorite healthier muffin! I’ve tried a good number of “healthy” muffins in my time, and I’ve found a lot of them to be disappointing. Dry, lack of flavor, general “meh”-ness. These are anything but that! Prepare yourself because these pretty little gems are fluffy, but dense at the same time and perfectly sweet with bites of dark chocolate and strawberries.

My heart is pounding in my chest and I’m pretty sure it’s the sugar rush, but I’m going to play it off as infatuation with all the flavor and those bites that are perfectly studded with chocolate chips (as in a ratio of 5 chips per inch of muffin, please). I mean, COME ON PEOPLE. AHH.

I think I tortured my housemates with this recipe. Oftentimes I’ll make a recipe at night and photograph it the next day since my class schedule is all over the place and I need certain natural lighting for my photos. My friends know this and won’t touch what I make without the ready… set… EAT from me. I left these out and was gone for most of the day, and came back to a living room full of girls saying “CAN WE EAT THEM”. I gave the green light and they were promptly demolished with plenty of yums and happy filled stomach noises. Woo! Success!

These muffins are made without any butter (coconut oil and greek yogurt replace it), and have a combination of whole wheat flour and white flour to balance health and flavor. Each one comes out to just under 230 calories and are just plain delicious <3. These will be your morning coffee’s best friend and will satisfy any sweet tooth craving that hits!

Skinny Yogurt Muffins with Sunshine Glaze

June 2, 2014 by Christine Skari

Let me just start by saying BEST MUFFINS EVER. Glad I got that off my chest, whew.

I’m a chocolate-girl down to my bones. Take me to a bakery and I’ll always pick a chocolate croissant or fudgy brownie over anything else. Fruity flavors have always been the side show. Kinda like the previews before the movie actually starts. You eat them and are like okay… this is tasty, but where’s the real stuff? Bring me the real stuff!

That’s why I’m completely shocked myself that this recipe is perhaps one of my favorites ever. Bold claim, no?

Oh, and funny story about this next picture. It turns out getting the perfect action shot of drizzle is a lot harder than it looks. Initially I had Kyle on spoon duty, but the boy just cannot drizzle for the life of him. The first round of pictures came out looking like a bird had decided to take a huge dump on my fluffy muffins… yeah, not too appetizing. After a few more unsuccessful poo- photos, I handed my DLSR camera to Kyle and took matters into my own hands. It turns out that he can handle a fancy camera on manual settings, but can’t put glaze on a muffin. But you know what? Everyone has flaws and I guess I can maybe still like him. Maybe. After all, isn’t that what love is? Accepting each other regardless of their baked-good topping prowess?

I’m a cheater. A lot of people think that having a food blog translates to me being a food snob, but the exact opposite is true. Feed me all the packaged Kraft mac and cheese and you know what? Turkey and stuffing microwavable dinners might actually be one of my favorite things ever. When recipes tell me to sift in the flour (ain’t nobody got time for that) or let butter comes to room temp over night (nahh, it’s going in the microwave 3 seconds before I use it), I scoff.

While I love Ina Garten, the idea of having to make my own chicken broth by scratch to use for gravy is just a romanticized idea of cooking for me 😯 . That’s why, I’m a cheater. These muffins are the product of a cooking lie. They’re made with *gasp* the help of a baking mix.

But YOU GUYS. They’re SO GOOD!!!!

Big, fat berries in every bite and the most delicious glaze you’ve ever tasted. You can even throw in a handful of nuts for some extra goodness. The glaze tastes like sunshine and is bright and lemon-y and perfect. Along with being my shmookie pookie poo, Kyle is my guinea pig when it comes to my recipes. After these came out of the oven, I asked him if he wanted to try some sunshine. Luckily, the boy doesn’t question me anymore and just opens his mouth. In goes the sunshine and out comes the oohhs and ahhs. His response? “Sunshine is the perfect name for this!”

Also, let’s pretend I didn’t just refer to him as my schmookie pookie poo. Let’s also disregard that I googled “the most disgustingly cute names to call boyfriend” to find it. Go big or go home.

Also! No butter! No oil! Just greek yogurt and eggs to help bind everything together into one amazing batter that is mixed together in just one bowl. My apartment has the smallest kitchen the world has ever seen and dishes add up reeeaal fast in our sink. Things get out of hand and it seems like the minute I start cooking or baking my kitchen turns into a place of chaos and dish-anarchy. One bowl recipes are my saving grace. Especially when one bowl leads to this.

Be still, my heart.

Healthier Glazed Chocolate Muffins

February 9, 2014 by Christine Skari

On a rainy day, there isn’t anything more comforting to me than a morning spent with a hot cup of coffee, a sweet treat, and a good book. There’s a sort of magic to it. I sit at the kitchen table by a closed window, watching droplets race down the glass, and sip on a strong brew punctuated with bites of its soulmate, chocolate. It’s the kind of peace that makes your heart sing and overflow with a simple and quiet sort of happiness. I’m perfectly content and want nothing more than to hold on to that feeling of a seemingly slowed-down world, where nothing matters but the dripping of both the rain outside and the coffee brewing in its pot.

And that’s where these Healthier Glazed Chocolate Muffins come into play:

I love them because they let me savor those types of mornings and play the important role of balancing that bitter sip of caffeine with a perfectly sweet bite of chocolate-glazed deliciousness. They have a fluffy inside that Kyle raves about and they give you a satisfying chocolate-y kick without leaving you with an aching sweet tooth.

Not to mention they’re made with whole wheat flour, no butter, and greek yogurt! Delicious and healthier for you than a giant grocery store muffin. Yum.