Lemon Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Want to make these deliciously fluffy lemon muffins with chocolate chips? It's so easy! Just use the recipe from the Lemon Muffins with Lemon Glaze and take out the glaze part and add some chocolate chips!

I have a friend who always give me a bag full of lemons from his lemon tree. It's amazing how different the lemons look compared to the ones at grocery stores. The shape is not "perfect" but what's so great about perfection right? And no joke, those lemons are juicier and the scent is incredible! Times like this is when I appreciate gardening and those who garden. It's truly amazing how something that grows in your own backyard can taste and smell so good. So if you have a lemon tree - I highly encourage you to take advantage of it ;)

Lemon Muffins with Lemon Glaze

When I think of lemons, it reminds me of the time when my sister used to enjoy nibbling on a lemon wedge when she was a little girl. I don't remember this but I constantly hear this story from my family - one time at a restaurant, my sister was nibbling on a lemon wedge (no sugar, no added flavor!). Since she was eating the lemon so pleasantly, this little boy who was sitting in the booth next to us begged his mom that he wanted to eat a lemon wedge as well. Apparently, the mother warned him that it's going to be very sour. Obviously, he didn't listen and took a huge bite of the lemon. The result? He started crying because it was sour (just like his mom warned him - so listen to your mom!) The mom said "I told you so!" but he was upset, pointing at my sister saying, "But hers look so good!!" because my sister was minding her own business eating her "delicious" lemon. That story is always a fun one to bring it up especially when we're at a restaurant that serves water with lemon wedges!

When it comes to lemons, you either love it or hate it. For me, that sour taste gives that particular flavor and scent of lemon that I absolutely love. Especially when I bake, I try to make sure that flavor and aroma is still contained within the baked goods - it's my biggest pet peeve when extracts, sugar, and "other" ingredients ruins the natural flavor of certain ingredients.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Although I enjoy creating my own recipes, I also love to look at other bakers whom I admire and try to add my own "twist" to make it "No Butter Baking". I also alter some of the amount of ingredients so that it won't be too packed with sugar and oil! Today's recipe reference is Averie Cooks. I've been an active follower of Averie Cooks because her recipes are amazing and it actually works!

As many of you are aware, I'm a complete sweet tooth - especially chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite classic dessert. I've actually never heard of chocolate chip cookie cups so it's kind of a dense version of a chocolate chip cookies in a muffin form. So it's cookie + muffin = absolute heaven! 

Diabetic-Friendly Banana Muffins with Mini Chocolate Chips

Sadly to say, I know many people who are diabetic. Diabetes has become such an epidemic in many different populations. In fact, diabetes has become a very popular type of conditions on not only older adults but for children as well. There are many different causes of diabetes from genetics, to lifestyles. Once you have diabetes, it is very difficult to regulate your blood sugar and there are many limitations on what you eat. When you already have the chronic condition, the only thing that you can do is to manage it well so that the condition will not get worse.

What's unfortunate about the condition is that the limitation, that can be difficult, especially for those who are new to the condition. But, what's great about today's world is that there are so many resources available for diabetic individuals!

Vegan Matcha Muffins with Chocolate Chips

This is from my personal experience - but whenever people hear the word 'vegan', they run away. I don't know why...maybe because they think I use some funky ingredient instead of using any animal product? And I do agree that some vegan recipe uses weird stuff like "margarine" - now I call that a weird ingredient because it's made out of hydrogenated oil. Now hydrogenated oil (aka Transfat) is something that you should be avoiding because this was chemically made so that it makes the oil less likely to spoil. And another bad news is that it can raise your LDL ("bad") cholesterol and lower your HDL ("good") cholesterol.
Well, the good news is that I don't use any of those. I think I'd rather use butter than use  margarine; however, since this is a Nobutterbaking blog, I won't be using butter but moreso something natural like regular canola oil, yogurt, apple sauce, pumpkin puree...etc. So I hope you enjoy what real ingredients I use to make your everyday desserts (:

Let me explain a little bit more about "Matcha". Matcha is basically a finely powdered green tea. This was originally used during traditional Japanese tea ceremonies but now in the modern world, this green tea powder can be used as flavoring, food coloring, or even decorations. I really like using this for cupcakes, cookies, and even for mochi. There's many ways to use this powder and hopefully in the future I will be able to show you all the many ways that I use Matcha (: