Breakfast Muffins

    Last month, I was able to spend some time with two of my sisters, in-between a hurricane and subsequent loss of power. I still had to work, so I missed most of the fun, but they came over for breakfast on Saturday.

   I'm not a huge breakfast person. The "most important meal of the day" just isn't appealing to me until later in the day. I do like to have a small bite of something, though, with my lifeline... I mean, coffee.

   My sisters are very diet-conscious, and, well, I should be. I love to feed people, and it's hard to when I hear "I can't eat X, Y, and Z."

  I made breakfast muffins using alternative flours. They are gluten-free, low carb, and pack a decent amount of protein. I served them with a schmear of white chocolate ganache I had left over from Jane's cake.  Lea sent me a recipe for an "Espresso Cream Cheese" that sounds heavenly!

                          Breakfast Muffins 

Preheat oven to 350

1/2 cup ground flax seed

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup Splenda Granules (or sweetner of choice)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup chopped crispy bacon (approx. 6 slices)

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

8 eggs

4 oz. Cream cheese, softened

Optional: "Brown sugar blend" sweetner sprinkled over each muffin as topping prior to baking.

Spray a "12 cup" muffin tin (or 2 "6 cup") with cooking spray.  My muffin tins are an older model, not like the newish super-sized versions that create monster muffins you have to hold with two hands. Mine came from Aunt Toodie. She found them at an estate sale. Each "well" holds 1/4 cup of batter, which I think make a normal sized muffin. If you want more, eat two. Each muffin (and I did the math) has 1.8 grams of "net" carbohydrate and 9 grams protein.

 Mix all ingredients. Batter will be thick. Divide batter into prepared muffin tins and bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12. Refrigerate any left over in a sealed container. Reheat in a microwave 25 seconds.

   If you are concerned about fat content you can substitute a 5.3 oz carton of plain Greek yogurt for the cream cheese and omit the bacon. You could also add blueberries or cranberries. 

Espresso Cream Cheese

Stir to combine:

4 oz softened cream cheese

1 tbsp sweetner

1/2 tsp instant coffee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract.