This is a good way to start, don’t you think?

Hello again friends!!

It’s me, Kelly. I hope you’re doing wonderfully. Perhaps you remember me as a hungry fourteen year old with a bizarre love of coconut flour who exuberantly abused exclamation points and spent all her time either testing recipes or washing clothes into oblivion because she refused to wear an apron.

That was either twenty minutes ago, or twenty years. I’ve honestly lost track of a lot, but some things just don’t change.

I am incredibly grateful to those of you who reached out in my absence (which was almost 5 months long–eek!), and long story short, I’m not dead. So that’s the good news!

The bad news is that my mother’s health has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse. I discussed reasons for a hiatus in more depth back in October, but this year has by far been the most difficult one of my life for a number of reasons. Since my most recent post, which was in March, I finally had to face the weight of the events that were going on around me and deal with them best I could. Sometimes this meant taking my mother to a doctor’s appointment and spending the rest of the day in bed.

I eventually came to grapple with the question of how I should approach returning to this blog, or whether I should return at all. Like all soul searchers, I considered why I was here at all.

I started Foodie Fiasco (as a hideous site on Blogspot no less, and no, I will not give you the link) on June 10, 2011, which was shortly after my mother had received her first diagnosis. Side note I also graduated high school on June 10, exactly five years after starting my blog, because that’s how the universe works.

My mom could no longer cook so, as a spunky 13 year old who had just lost 40 pounds, I set up a blog to keep track of the healthy recipes I made for her. I just wanted to contribute and know that I was helping someone, and this was how I did it. Five years later, this still could not be more true. If you are here reading this, sharing in my little corner of the world that unabashedly celebrates food and the joy it can bring, then you have personally made a wonderful impact on my life and I am forever grateful for you. And now I want to keep sharing my favorite recipes with you.

That is why I am taking a year off between high school and college to work on the blog, and am proud to say that I will be posting new recipes every Monday and Friday!

I’ve spent over a month testing recipes, and now I’m beyond thrilled to share them with you. I posted a teaser collage on social media, but for those of you who don’t follow me on Facebook or Instagram, please enjoy this snippet of coming attractions:

We’re talking single serving snickerdoodle cookie dough for 60 calories a batch. Super healthy and high protein red velvet truffles. Brownie batter bites that got eaten in five minutes at the party I brought them to. Decadent caramelitas made healthy. Quiche with an almost unholy amount of cheese (all natural of course and still low calories because the cheese saints were smiling on me, also please appreciate the ‘holy’ pun).

So the point is that we’re going to have a lot of fun together.

And we’re going to start with muffins! Because muffins are fun. And you’re fun. So we all have a lot in common.

Also I could talk for hours specifically about how much I love these muffins. They’re kind of my pride and joy. Each muffin has only 86 calories (!) and 2g net carbs (!!), but packs 11g protein (!!!)!

Now a note on protein powder.

I used the chocolate protein powder from Quest, but any whey/casein blend or baking-intended protein powder will do just fine. (I don’t like making brand-specific recipes, as I want as many people to be able to make them as possible and not everyone has access to certain ingredients.)

I’m head-over-heels for some vegan protein powders, namely Sun Warrior, but I’m not sure vegan powders will work here. You’ll have my eternal love and gratitude if you try this with a vegan powder and/or vegan egg replacer and report back, but proceed with caution as I have absolutely no idea if that will work. Meanwhile, please enjoy this single serving cookie dough, these protein-packed coconut macaroons, this protein ice cream, and these chocolate peanut butter protein bars, as they all call for vegan-friendly protein powder. Meanwhile, the quest for truly vegan protein muffins continues. Stay tuned kids.

So anyway I’m basically in a relationship. When I say my love is rich, tall, dark, and handsome, who says this fairy tale hero couldn’t be a muffin?

Well, my hero is. *swoon*

^See these are things only a food blogger could remotely get away with saying.

So it’s good to be back.

Nutritional Breakdown

Calories

4 scoops protein powder (440) + 1/2 cup erythritol (0) + 1/4 cup coconut flour (80) + 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (40) + 1-1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk (38) + 10 squares sugar free dark chocolate (333) + 4 egg whites (100) / 12 servings = 86 calories per muffin

Net Carbs

4 scoops protein powder (8g) + 1/2 cup erythritol (0g) + 1/4 cup coconut flour (6g) + 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (4g) + 1-1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk (1g) + 10 squares sugar free dark chocolate (6.7g) + 4 egg whites (0g) / 12 servings = 2.1g net carbs per muffin

Protein

4 scoops protein powder (92g) + 1/2 cup erythritol (0g) + 1/4 cup coconut flour (4g) + 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (4g) + 1-1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk (1g) + 10 squares sugar free dark chocolate (3.3g) + 4 egg whites (25g) / 12 servings = 11g protein per muffin

Inspired by Quest

4.3 from 7 reviews High Protein Double Chocolate Muffins Save Print Prep time 10 mins Cook time 20 mins Total time 30 mins Author: Kelly Morrison Yield: 12 muffins Ingredients 4 scoops chocolate protein powder* (1-1/3 cups)

½ cup erythritol

¼ cup coconut flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, divided

10 squares sugar free dark chocolate, chopped and divided

4 egg whites (or 4 eggs’ worth of egg replacer or flax eggs)

4 teaspoons vanilla extract Instructions Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or coat a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, combine protein powder, erythritol, coconut flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and mix until uniform. Combine 1 cup of the almond milk with 6 squares of the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Microwave for 1 minute and stir until smooth. If the chocolate has not completely melted, continue microwaving in 15 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is uniform. Add remaining ¼ cup almond milk, egg whites, and vanilla extract and stir well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until completely combined. Scoop half the batter into the prepared muffin tin (so the cups are half full). Sprinkle 2 squares’ worth of the remaining chopped chocolate onto the batter (so sprinkle some chocolate onto the batter in each of the cups). Cover each of the cups with the remaining batter (so the cups are now full), then sprinkle the remaining 2 squares of chopped chocolate on top. Bake in the oven at 350°F for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (disregarding the melted chocolate of course). Let cool and devour. Notes *See note in post regarding protein powder. Nutrition Information Serving size: 1 muffin Calories: 86 Net Carbs: 2g Protein: 11g 3.4.3177

Update: A lovely reader named Andrea made this recipe successfully with vegan protein powder. This is her comment:

“This recipe works fine with vegan protein powder. I used chocolate SAN plant fusion, added a banana, and baked an extra 5 min. What didn’t work was the amount of salt. These are way too salty, so I recommend 1/2t instead.”

Apparently the ideal salt content decreases with vegan protein, so I would use 1/2 teaspoon of salt instead per Andrea’s suggestion. Happy baking!

Other High Protein Favorites:

Protein Ice Cream

Protein Chocolate Mug Cake

Protein Packed Coconut Macaroons

How have you been? Please update me, share something you’d like to see now that the blog is back, give recipe requests, etc.

Or just say hi! My favorite part of being here is talking to you. 🙂