Chocolate Pumpkin Protein Muffins #BlendsBash

 *Disclosure: I received a product to sample from ­­­­Book Blends: Spices for Book Lovers.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

 

About a month ago, Judy from the Book Club Cookbook contacted me wondering if I wanted to participate in this year’s #BlendsBash!  The concept was simple, sample some of their fabulous spice blends and share a recipe.

I’ve always loved book blends.  The spice blends are your typical kitchen spices with a fun book, tv, or song twist! Plus, the spices are high-quality and delicious!

For my first post, I sampled Game of Scones, a Book Blend inspired by the popular book series, Game of Thrones.  What is it?  Black Onyx Cocoa Powder!  I love the tag line!

I love it! I’ve read the Game of Thrones book and was enthralled with them and I am equally in love with this cocoa powder!

I decided to make Chocolate Pumpkin Protein Muffins.  Sound familiar?  Protein muffins have made appearances on this blog several times before, but I am constantly tweaking and perfecting the recipe.  

This latest version was created for Dude, who likes these for breakfast.  He was over the moon for my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins when I packed them as breakfast for our road trip last summer, so I decided to make those pumpkin muffins even healthier, with more staying power so he can last until lunch time.

In that original Pumpkin Chip Muffin recipe, I had already cut down the sugar significantly and added whole wheat flour.  This time, I cut the sugar even more (but left the chocolate chips for a little sweetness), plus added oats, flax, greek yogurt, and protein powder!  And for my little choc-o-holic, I added the cocoa powder (he loved chocolaty breakfasts!)

The Black Onyx Cocoa Powder was exactly what these muffins needed to make my no-so-little Dude smile.  He even whipped up a batch of these himself last weekend!  I daresay, even men of the night's watch would like these muffins!

Chocolate Pumpkin Protein Muffins

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup vanilla protein powder

2 tablespoons black onyx cocoa powder

¼ cup ground flax

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

1 (5.3 oz) container plain Greek yogurt

1/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

½ cup mini chocolate chips

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, protein powder, cocoa powder, flax, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, yogurt, sugar, and eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until mixed.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Divide the batter evenly between 24 muffin cups.  Bake in the preheated oven for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.