Hi friends! Have you been experiencing a heatwave in your neck of the woods?
It has been hot and also unusually humid here in the San Diego area, and while I know that many of you have no sympathy for Southern Californians complaining about weather since we have it so good overall, let me tell you… having no air conditioning is not fun when a heatwave rolls around! I wouldn’t mind it being hot out if I had some coolness to retreat to inside.
Yup, you heard me right! My house has no air conditioning. This concept is pretty foreign to most Americans, but living near the coast in San Diego usually equates to cool breezes and mild temperatures. I don’t think anyone in my neighborhood has A/C, and it’s pretty manageable except for the couple weeks out of the year when it’s over 90 degrees – as was the case last weekend.
When that happens, I try my best to resist getting cranky, and I stay under my ceiling fans at all times. We find excuses to hop in the car to blast the A/C, and we always bring my pup along because she’s inevitably panting doing nothing. Poor girl!
I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m hot, I don’t crave a lot of different foods. Mainly I just want to drink smoothies, eat ice cream & nosh on refreshing fruit!
One summertime fruit that I adore is raspberries. This antioxidant-rich fruit is also high in fiber and vitamins & minerals, including potassium, folate and calcium.
Despite my limited appetite in the heat, I still like to make sure that I’m getting enough protein in. Today’s raspberry lemon protein muffins are a fun way to sneak in a little bit of extra protein. They’re made with fresh raspberries, Greek yogurt, lemon juice and zest, are sweetened with brown rice syrup, and have a base of almond flour + whole wheat flour.
With 7 grams of protein, these babies are lightly sweet and perfect to grab on-the-go. I also like to toast them and top with a bit of nut butter. I’ve been eating them as a quick snack or alongside a protein-rich smoothie for lunch.
And while I know that turning the oven on in the heat isn’t top priority, once you whip up a batch of these, you have them around for a week or two to enjoy.
On the plus side, the bit of coconut oil I needed to use for this recipe was already melted when I pulled it out of my kitchen cabinet, so that was one less step needed due to the heat! 😉
Raspberry Lemon Protein Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour regular whole wheat or white flour works too
- 1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt coconut milk yogurt works as well to make the recipe dairy free, it will just contain less protein
- Juice from 1 medium lemon
- Zest from 1 medium lemon
- 1 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup brown rice syrup maple syrup or honey works too!
- 2 TBSP melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup + 2 TBSP almond milk
- 1 TSP vanilla
- 1 TSP baking powder
- 1/4 TSP salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cups.
- In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the raspberries. Process until it forms a mostly smooth mixture.
- Add in the raspberries and pulse for just about 5 seconds, until the berries are incorporated into the batter but still in chunky pieces.
- Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until the muffins pass the toothpick test.
- Allow the muffins to slightly cool in the pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Tell me.. What’s your favorite fruit lately? Has there been a heatwave happening where you live?
Somehow I have not cut into a watermelon yet this summer. That needs to change ASAP!
That was the craziest thing about living in SoCal for me – A/C was hard to find! It gets HOT! That said, it’s nice and cool in Sonoma this morning. 😉
Love these muffins! I wish I had some for breakfast today. I’ve been up since 5 am with nothing to do. Guess I’ve adapted to that East Coast time zone again. Sigh.
Ugh, jet lag can be such a pain in the butt.. but your Tahoe trip looked amazinggg! Wish I’d have gotten there in the summer while living out here, but I’m sure I’ll be back.
We had a heat wave last week but it is nice this week!
I love these muffins! Greek yogurt is such a great healthy baking ingredient.
Indeed it is! I’m a big fan of using Greek yogurt in my baking recipes.
Living in hot weather with no A/C is no joke — I feel for you! These muffins look amazing with all the fresh raspberries and I love that they’re packed with protein from Greek yogurt. They look so good!
Thanks, Marcie! And yea, luckily it’s been in the low 80s so not too terribly hot in the house. But the portable AC we bought one particularly unbearable week last summer is coming in handy!
It’s been mighty hot here in the northeast this year, too…and it was mighty cold this past winter. Apparently, we’re all about extremes this year! I’ve been staying in the basement here as much as possible as it stays nice and cool…but outside is just downright hot. Reminds me of living down South! And we’ve been eating fresh summer fruit like it’s going out of style, too. Love the idea of making protein muffins…and love the raspberry flavor here, too!
I feel like the last several years, the weather has been more extreme in the northeast than I remember it being growing up. My family members kept telling me last Christmas that winters have been worse than ever… so that’s what I have to look forward to in moving to CT! Ha.