Let Me Twist Your Arm

I may be mild-mannered in most respects, but I do possess one skill which borders on super-hero quality - I'm really good at rationalizing. If you're on a budget, you don't want to go shopping with me. I have freakish powers of persuasion when it comes to getting friends to buy things they want but know they shouldn't spend the money on. I can set out a line of reasoning which, when followed to the end, leads to the inevitable conclusion that to buy the dress (purse, shoes, handbag, or 20 lb. brick of chocolate) is not only reasonable, it's downright sensible.

I know that I must use my super-power only for good, so I try to reign it in when I know friends are really attemptin to watch their pennies. But my super skill is not limited to shopping; it carries over to eating.

I was the first person I knew to propose that chocolate is actually health food. Long before there was all this talk of antioxidants, I held that chocolate came from beans, and everyone knows beans are an important component of a healthy diet. Therefore, it was prudent to include chocolate in your diet every day.


Everyone knows muffins are healthy, right? Cupcakes are decadent treats, but muffins are just bundles of nutrition, appropriate for any time of day. But if you add chocolate to the muffins, you're making it super food, the dietary equivalent of a bullet train, speeding nutrition and antioxidants to your body. And if you add chocolate in three forms, plus buttermilk, plus whole wheat flour, well, don't walk to the kitchen to make these - RUN!

Double Chocolate Chocolate Muffins
- adapted from The Complete Muffin Cookbook

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
1-1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped milk chocolate

1-3/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1- Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F. Grease a muffin tin. This recipe yields 12 big muffins or 18-24 average size muffins.

2- Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate and sitr to combine.

3- Whisk the wet ingredients in a medium bowl or blend in a food processor. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Stir just until mixed. Do not overstir.

4- Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin. Fill each cup nearly to the top.

5- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

6- Cool the muffins at least 10 minutes before removing from the tin.