I forgot to update the Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies post after Mom and Fred tasted them. The final verdict—everyone liked them. We all (Mom, Fred, Joe, and I) thought they would be better with fewer chocolate chips (I dumped the whole bag in and it only called for 3/4 cup. I did it because I knew if I didn’t use them, I would eat them. Lesson learned). We also speculated that they might be great with shredded coconut instead of chocolate chips. So I’ll try that next time!
My second coconut flour endeavor was to make muffins. And it was supposed to help me stop craving things I’m not eating right now due to the elimination diet. It helped!
I found the recipe here.
I made the following changes:
- I left out the cranberries because I didn’t have any
- I tripled the amount of lemon juice (it ended up being more than 1/4 cup but less than 1/3)
- I used erythritol and stevia to sweeten instead of maple syrup (maple syrup would probably be better, but I wanted them to be sugar free)
- I made them into mini muffins instead of big ones (because I found the mini muffin pan first)
They smelled good, and tasted awesome!
I just sent my mom home with a few, so hopefully I’ll get some feedback from them too.
My suggestion: Taste the batter so you can adjust the sweetener to the level of sweetness you like. Mine weren’t sweet—but I didn’t add extra sweetener to compensate for the extra lemon. (note: there are 7 eggs in this—you have to use tons of eggs if you bake with coconut flour otherwise it won’t work. I know, it’s a lot. But eggs are cheap and they fill your baked goods with important brain health promoters and protein!).
Today was such a great day–I spent ALL day talking to people about food and exercise, and it was just one of those days when everything was positive, people were motivated, and I felt like they were leaving with some great action steps to take this week. The path toward readiness can be long and is sometimes frustrating. But once it clicks for a person that the benefits of an improved lifestyle outweigh the costs, the path is pretty simple–strategy, determination, and effort. Being stuck in the “life’s not fair” or “this is gonna be hard” mentality…well, it doesn’t get anyone anywhere. Side note: if that’s where you are, focus on becoming ready…and not on the fact that you haven’t changed yet.
I’m hoping for a very productive morning tomorrow, so I can spend the after school hour with my favorite third grader and his homework…and then visit my other favorite kiddos too.
What does the rest of your week look like? Just work, or some play too?
Have you made baked goods with coconut flour? How’d they turn out?
How do get/stay empowered to make healthy choices? How much evidence does it take for you to value a healthy lifestyle as “worth the effort?”
Gosh, I really hope to spend my days talking to people about motivation and exercise someday. As for evidence-needed to value a healthy lifestyle as “worth it”, it’s really all about the feeling after a great work out or an especially nutritious meal. Although it was definitely a journey to get to that point.
And you make me want to pick up some coconut flour next time I’m at the grocery store – both the muffins and cookies sound delicious. 🙂
I like your reasoning – “because I found the mini muffin tin first” – sounds like me. these sound really good, but I doubt making an egg substitution that large would work?
I LOVE the sound of your day, and glad it was so! I’m sure you do get a fair amount of resistance, so when everyone you talk to sounds on board and committed, that must be SO exciting!
hope the rest of the week is just as good!
I love recipes the make the house smell so good! I am going to check it out!
I have always just wanted to be healthy. it’s not even a battle for me anymore. For me, if I make a “so-called bad choice” like eat a few chocolate chip cookies, I know my diet overall is great. I know I don’t eat fast food, processed food, etc. So for me, healthy choices is just making sure I feed my body and feed my soul with good food! I feel great and really it comes down to that. I pride myself on the fact that my body is a temple and my stomach is not a wastebasket! Food has a purpose…
…whether it be to nourish me, or to feed my soul [<–cookies 😉 ]
we have a love hate relationship with coconut flour. sometimes it works beautifully in a recipe then other times it the recipe comes out like sh!t haha but most of the time we do enjoy baking with it and different texture if brings to a baked good!
I’ve never used or even looked for coconut flour. I guess since I don’t care for coconut, I never think to use it. Though, I do like coconut milk for curry dishes or to make a soup creamy. Makes perfect sense right LOL
Haha!! I can definitely see the potential for terrible-ness with coconut flour! I still don’t really understand it, so I haven’t ventured to trying to come up with any recipes…just following ones that have good reviews. I’ll leave the recipe creation to the masters—like you two! 🙂
That could be an interesting experiment with the egg substitution…..My vote would be for chia! It could be a total disaster…or not 🙂
ah! enjoy your auntie afternoon, lisa! i’m off to see the nieces today, too!
so glad you had such a productive and satisfying day, yesterday. that is great that you had interactions with people who are motivated and working towards lifestyle changes. you are so right – a negative mindset does not help, at all, and it must be frustrating for you when you run up against hearing excuses, whining…
laughing at TOO MANY choco chips in the cookies!! haven’t heard that very often! 🙂
These look great Lisa. I think I’ll try making them soon with fresh blueberries added to them!
Nothing exciting planned for this week besides work really. By the time I get home, cook dinner and clean up and I only want to lay on the couch with a book or watch tv!
Looking forward to another low key weekend where I’ll hopefully get a lot done around the house!
Those look wonderful!
These look incredible! I have a bag of coconut flour in my pantry that I’m always looking for new ways to use — thanks!
I was wondering, can you recommend a good unflavored (sugar-free) protein powder that works well in shakes? Any help is greatly appreciated — thanks Lisa! 🙂
Love coconut flour… definitely my favorite!! I made a vegan glute-free lemon cake w/ coconut flour and millet flour and it turned out yummy =)
How pretty! I love anything muffin, though I’ve never tried baking with coconut flour before. It’s amazing to me just how many different kinds of products coconut can turn into!
How wonderful to spend all day talking about health and have it click. Congrats on your hard work and success!
I love lemony baked goods, and I’ve super loving on some coconut flour right now, so these are definitely on the list to make. 🙂
Yum! I looooove lemon, the muffins look good! Honestly, I can’t imagine not having a healthy lifestyle … just looking at the ingredients in things in the store sometimes is what empowers me to make healthy choices! lol!
I’ve never experimented with coconut flour but I’d definitely like to! Almond flour too…
Almond flour is SO great!!! It’s expensive, but if you make almond milk and then dry out the pulp for flour, it’s really cost effective!