Muffins & Cupcakes Archives - 12 Minute Athlete

Easy Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups Recipe

If you’ve never made your own nut butter cups, you’re in for a serious treat.

Not only are they super simple to make, they’re fun because you can put different types of nut butters in then and use high quality chocolate so they taste even more amazing than the store bought ones. Plus, you barely need to add any extra sweetener, making them healthier and lower calorie than traditional packages ones.

This recipe for homemade dark chocolate almond butter cups is one of my favorites. Give it a try and never buy plastic-y store-bought ones again!

How Electrolytes Can Help Your Workouts (+ A Healthy Muffin Recipe!)

As athletes, dreamers, and go-getters, we always want to be at the top of our game.

We want to constantly crush our workouts. We want to get as many new PRs as we can. And we want to keep getting fitter, stronger, and more awesome as often as we can.

In order to do this, not only do you need to work hard, stay consistent, and fuel your body properly, you also need to prioritize getting in enough water.

Yes, we all know water is important, but few of us actually make it a priority.

But without enough of it, you’ll be constantly walking around dehydrated, meaning your workout performance will suffer, you’ll have trouble thinking, you’ll get headaches, muscles cramps, not function at full capacity… you get the idea.

One way to make sure you avoid this is to drink water that includes electrolytes, minerals including calcium chloride, potassium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride that carry an electrical charge, which makes them good at transferring electricity in the body.

Apple Banana Chia Protein Muffin Recipe

Chunky apple muffins have always been one of my favorite treats.

Yet while seemingly healthy, the apple muffins you get at Costco or any regular store are often loaded with sugar and crazy amounts of butter and less-than-wholesome white flour. These chia protein muffins are a much healthier take on the classic apple muffin, with healthy additions like oats instead of regular flour, bananas for added moisture, and chia seeds for an omega-3 boost.

They’re perfect for breakfast or a snack anytime of the day!

Here’s your apple banana chia protein muffin recipe:

Lemon Chia Seed Protein Muffins

Confession: I have never made anything using lemon zest before.

Any time a recipe would call for it, I’d end up skipping that recipe altogether and making something else instead. It just seemed so hard.

Turns out, testing a lemon is really easy and takes less than a minute to actually do. All you have to do is take a regular grater or zester and use the smooth grates to get the very outer part of the lemon off. If you’re worried you won’t know what the actual lemon zest is and just end up grating the entire skin, I was the same way—trust me, you’ll know.

Anyway, the point is don’t be intimidated by the lemon zest aspect of these muffins! It’s really easy to do and absolutely worth every second of effort because they are SO. GOOD.

Here’s your Lemon Chia Seed Protein Muffins recipe:

Double Chocolate Banana Protein Muffin Recipe

Bananas are amazing to bake with since they add both moisture and sweetness to whatever you’re baking.

These muffins have both bananas and Greek yogurt to keep them moist (use extra banana for a vegan option), as well as ingredients like oats to keep you energized and protein powder to keep you full. They’re awesome as a pre or post-workout snack!

Here’s your Double Chocolate Banana Protein Muffin Recipe:

Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins

Apparently I’m on a chocolate chip kick lately.

But chocolate is just so, well amazing! And luckily it has some health benefits as well, so as long as you’re eating plenty of other high nutrition foods as well, it’s a perfectly healthy addition to your diet.

These high protein banana muffins have just the perfect amount of sweetness with added chocolate chips, and are packed with protein to actually keep you full for more than a half an hour. Make a batch and eat them for breakfast and snacks throughout the week!

Here’s your Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe:

Giant Happiness-Inducing Blueberry Protein Muffin Recipe

The other day I had a giant container of blueberries, all of which were right on the verge of going bad. Throwing away delicious fruit makes my heart cry, so I was determined to make something out of the berries. Blueberry muffins it was!

I was pretty hungry at the time so when I saw the rarely used giant muffin cups in my cupboard, I got pretty excited and started whipping up some giant blueberry muffins. I ate one right out of the oven, topped it with some almond butter, and mmmmmm.

Packed with healthy carbs and protein, I’ll take these giant homemade blueberry muffins over those cake-like Costco ones any day! They’re easy to make and store well—whip some up whenever you have some extra blueberries around and want a happiness-inducing snack.

Healthy Oatmeal Blackberry Muffin Recipe

I love a good muffin just as much as the next person.

In fact, I very clearly remember the elation I felt as a kid when my mom would give in and get us those giant Costco blueberry muffins, they were so good and huge!

But these days, I don’t love the sugar and high calories that come with regular muffins.

Because let’s be honest with ourselves: most muffins are really just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast.

And that’s why I adore these healthy blackberry muffins—made from super healthy ingredients like oatmeal, cottage cheese, and protein powder (to help keep you full), they’re both satisfying and guilt-free, which is perfectly fine with me.

Make a batch to have around for breakfast, eat them as a pre or post-workout snack, or have them as a treat any time of the day!

Here’s your healthy oatmeal blackberry muffin recipe:

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Protein Muffin Recipe

As much as I’d like to deny it, I can no longer pretend that fall isn’t officially here (although fall where I live feels more like summer than actual summer does).

But as with all change, there’s usually an upside—and in this case, it’s the start of pumpkin season!

If you hadn’t already guessed, I love all things pumpkin. Not only is pumpkin a great source of antioxidants, vitamin A, E and C, it also adds a fantastic source of moisture and creaminess to recipes. So to start off pumpkin season, I thought it’d be fun to make some chocolate chip pumpkin protein muffins. They’re easy to make, great for when you’re in a hurry and really tasty!

Vanilla Spiced Peach Protein Muffin Recipe

In case you couldn’t tell, I’ve been on a bit of a muffin kick lately.

Ever since I realized after gaining the freshman 15 in college that regular muffins are no better for you than eating a slice of cake (especially the giant Costco ones), I’ve pretty much avoided ever eating them just in case I let myself get too used to including them in my regular coffee order.

So when I realized that it’s actually possible to make muffins healthy, you can imagine I was pretty excited about it. After all, muffins are great to grab when you’re in a hurry or need a quick breakfast or snack option—and since these ones use fresh, in season peaches, are packed with protein and will actually fill you up, you can actually feel good about eating them.