Cherry Chocolate Muffins
Serves: 2
Happy Friday Fit Ingredient friends! I hope you had a great week and are looking forward to a fun-filled weekend! I amveryexcited for the weekend. The boyfriend and I are going up to my home grounds of Boston, MA until Sunday. Of course, being the DIE HARD sports fanatic that my boyfriend is, he bought tickets to the Celtics/Heat game for tonight….look for me on t.v. ? Saturday will be a day of fun and food in the city of Boston, so I’m sure you will see some food find posted next week and Sunday is my youngest cousins high school graduation! How the years fly by! So even though I will be away for a few days, don’t forget to check in!!
Growing up as a kid I hated, maybe even loathed, cherries. I don’t know why I just didn’t like them, especially maraschino cherries. Then somewhere during my early teen years I became very found of fresh cherries (I still despise maraschino cherries), I love them actually! As we approach summer we are beginning to see them pop up in the store. The first time I saw them was at Whole Foods about a month ago. They looked amazing, but they were $10.99/lb!!!! I don’t care how much I love any fruit, I will NOT pay $10.99/lb!! So, I waited and waited and now I am finding them for around $3.99/lb. Although still fairly high in price, they looked amazing, so I had to buy some! Besides just popping them in my mouth 
what was I going to make with them?? YES!! Cherry Chocolate Muffins…..two ways! They are quick, easy and healthy. Each recipe makes 2 muffins (I am cutting back on the size of my recipes since the boyfriend and I can only eat so much!), but feel free to double, triple or quadruple the recipe for your needs!
Applesauce version
Fit Ingredients
This is the base for each recipe. These ingredients and amounts will be the same:
- 49g (6 tbs) whole wheat flour
- 2 tbs truvia (or sweetener of choice)***
- 1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla if you don’t like almond)
- 2 tbs coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 70g cherries (fresh or frozen and thawed)
- 14g cacao (or chocolate chips)
Now, you have two options**:
A) 2 tbs coconut oil
B) 56g unsweetened apple sauce (I used baby food apples because I feel like they make them more moist)
**Pick ONE!! Do not use oil and applesauce
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- muffin tin
- non stick spray
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Directions
Pre heat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray your 2 muffin cups with non stick spray. Mix all your base ingredients together. Then add either your coconut oilORyour apple sauce, NOT BOTH!! Mix together. Divide batter evenly into each of 2 muffin cups. Bake for 18 minutes!
***I thought these muffins had just the right amount of sweetness. However, I don’t like things overly sweet, so feel free to adjust your sweetener as you see fit!
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Nutrition: (per 1 out of 2 muffins)
With Coconut Oil:
*Pictured in the feature image
Calories: 272.5, Protein: 4.3g, Carbs: 27.1g, Fat: 17.7g (14g Saturated), Sodium: 2mg, Fiber: 6g (Net Carbs: 21.1g)
With Applesauce:
*Pictured below
Calories: 160.5, Protein: 4.2g, Carbs: 31.6g, Fat: 3.7g (2g Saturated), Sodium: 1mg, Fiber: 6g (Net Carbs: 25.6g)
The choice is yours as to which version you make! Either is still low in calories for a muffin (they are a good size too)! If you are trying to lose weight or are watching your fat intake (which don’t forget, you DO need fat in your diet and coconut oil is VERY healthy) then I would go with the second version. I tried both and to be perfectly honest, I thought the applesauce version was way better!! Go figure!
Applesauce Version
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