It’s Tuesday, and that means I’m over at Feel More Better. Today I’ve written a little love letter to Licorice, because that’s what my life has come to. Love letters to my dog. (Normally I just sing to her, you understand. You are my pupshine, my only pupshine / You make me happy, when skies are gray. / You’ll never know, pup, how much I loooooove you / Please stop snarfing butter, okay?) (I’ll be here all week!)

If you’ve ever loved a pet the way I love her (that is to say: beyond reason), you should definitely come check it out.

Yesterday several of you asked for the chocolate muffin recipe, and because I am a smart and logical person I know that if I share it with you, it exponentially reduces the number of calories in the muffins in my freezer. That’s SCIENCE. Recipe after the jump.

Relatively Healthy Gluten-free Chocolate Oatmeal Muffins

1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 c. milk (I used almond milk, because I’m a damn hippie)
1/2 c. vanilla yogurt
1/2 c. Pamela’s Baking Mix
1/2 c. teff flour
1/4 c. chia seeds (because I add them to everything)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tbl oil (I used canola; coconut would be good, too)
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
5 tbl unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. add-ins (nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, whatever)

Combine oats, milk, and yogurt and let soak for an hour.

Preheat oven to 400. Grease your muffin tins. Add egg and oil to the oat mixture; mix well. Combine dry ingredients (except the add-ins) in another bowl, then add to the wet and mix until just combined. Fold in your add-ins. Scoop and bake; I made 24 mini-muffins and they were done after about 20 minutes.

A few notes:

1) Yes, some people who can’t eat gluten cannot tolerate oats. I know. I, personally, can eat oats without a problem. Please do not send me hate mail.

2) I used half Pamela’s and half teff flour because I don’t own any plain xanthan gum and I knew I needed a little to help the muffins bind. (There’s xanthan gum in the Pamela’s mix.) I really like the taste of teff (introduced to me by Chris; it’s kind of nutty, and very nutritious), so mixing it with the Pamela’s seemed like a good compromise. But my point here is that you need a cup of some kind of flour. Use whatever you like, combine different flours if you want, but probably either use at least part of a GF mix with a binder like xanthan gum in it, or add some binder separately. (Alternatively, if you don’t need ’em to be gluten-free, just use a cup of regular wheat-based flour. Magic!)

3) Regarding the add-ins: Use whatever you like. I used dried cherries, because when I’m eating my high-fiber, not-that-terrible-for-me muffins, I like to pretend I’m eating cherry cordials. Shut up.

4) No, you can’t taste the chia in the finished product. Or the oats, really, for that matter. Both of them are good for you. If you’ve never had chia, don’t be afraid. DO NOT FEAR THE CHIA. I seriously add it to everything I bake; it tastes like nothing and adds lots of happy nutrients.

5) These freeze well. They also taste pretty good mostly frozen. Ahem.