It can be really hard to go grain-free, and a low carb diet is a grain-free diet. But, happily for me, I just started experimenting with adding nut and seed flours to my repertoire, and it turns out that they can produce some delightful approximations of forbidden grainy goodness.

For a long time, I abstained from nut and seed flours because I thought they had too much of a mixed carb/fat ratio to be suitable for a strict low carb diet (as dictated by the rules of Somersizing). But after looking at nitty gritty of their net carbs, I think they are fine to use, at least in reasonable amounts. After all, the net carb-count in one of these muffins is less than what’s in a tomato or a serving of broccoli.

The recipe I first started using was for only one muffin at a time. It works fine, but I soon realized I would be making these every day and it’s a pain to measure out several tiny amounts for just one muffin. Therefore, I turned the recipe into a mix that you can keep in your fridge and just measure out one scoop at a time.

Muffin mix ingredients (should be enough for 16 muffins):

2 C Almond Flour

2 C Golden Flaxseed Meal

8 tsp. cinnamon

8 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all the mix ingredients and combine them very evenly.  It will be easiest if you combine everything in a large bowl and then transfer the mix to the container you want to use to store it. Keep the mix in the fridge.

Frosting ingredients (enough for 8 or so muffins):

6 oz. softened cream cheese

8 T. (one stick) unsalted butter

1 pinch of salt (1/16th of a tsp)

1 tsp vanilla

44 drops EZ Sweetz or 22 packets Splenda

Combine all the ingredients and whisk until the frosting is smooth. It is easiest to use while it’s softened, so when you store the frosting in the fridge, you may want to take a little out at a time to soften before you make a muffin.

Ingredients for one muffin:

1 T. melted butter

1/4 C. muffin mix, firmly packed

3 drops of EZ Sweetz or 1 pkt splenda

1 egg

Spray a ramekin with some non-stick cooking spray. If you don’t have any ramekins, a large ceramic mug may work.

Whisk all the muffin ingredients together, and pour into the greased ramekin.

Microwave the batter for 60-80 seconds. It will double in size while it cooks. If it seems dry to you, you’ve microwaved it too long, and if it’s tacky or gooey to the touch, you haven’t cooked it long enough.

Tip the muffin out onto a plate and slice it in half, horizontally.

Frost each half and enjoy.

If you’re not sure if you want to go all out and make up enough mix for 16 muffins, the ingredients to make a mix for just one muffin are:

2 T. Almond flour

2 T. Golden Flaxseed Meal

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

tiny pinch of salt