Chocolate for Breakfast? Yes.

Man I love food. I'm fairly non-discriminating, too; breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, brunch...I mean, I would make up meal times, just as an excuse to eat more. Time for lupper? Well, I do say so myself, yes.

Although as an adult I love traditional breakfast foods, I would not go near anything breakfast-related with a ten-foot pole when I was younger. Fortunately, my mom had a very liberal breakfast rule: you have to eat something for breakfast. Yes, she built in that loophole just so I wouldn't go off to school starving. Baked potato for breakfast? Yes please. Spaghetti with marinara? Why thank you, I'll have another helping, please.

In that spirit, I often find myself waking up wanting something very sweet to eat first thing in the morning. Although I can usually knock out this craving with chocolate chip pancakes or waffles, sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. When I was studying for the bar exam, I was confident I could not begin my bar review course without a cream cheese brownie first. Gross you think? How is dessert for breakfast different from a donut? I'm not judging, I'm just curious where it becomes socially permissible to draw the line.

I do realize, however, that one cannot healthfully live on a diet of cream cheese brownies and cookies (whoops, did I fail to mention that, too?) for breakfast. So thank you Bethenny Frankel of Naturally Thin fame, your recipe for Joyful Heart Muffins have saved me again. They have chocolate, and I modified the recipe to pump up the protein and fiber, and I added fruit - perfect for a girl who has sugar that perennially runs through her veins.

Joyful Heart Muffins
Yields: 8 Muffins

Ingredients:
1 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c. raw sugar (you can use white granulated, if need be)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. canola or vegetable oil
1/4 c. soy flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Dash of cinnamon
3/4 - 1 c. oats (this is basically a preference call)
2/3 - 3/4 c. sliced, pitted cherries (also a preference call; I bet chopped dry cherries would work, too)

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees; either spray or add cupcake papers to add muffin cups of a muffin tin.
2) Mix together applesauce, sugar, vanilla, and oil. Set aside for a minute or so, so the raw sugar crystals can dissolve.
3) In a separate bowl, mix both flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gradually add the dry ingredients to wet until just mixed.
4) Stir in oatmeal and cherries.
5) Divide batter between the cups; fill 2/3 full.
6) Bake for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch (the batter won't rise much, if at all).
7) Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack, then remove from tins and cool completely on rack.