Coconut Chocolate Chip Muffins

For some reason I have been craving COCONUT desserts. I'm not sure why. Coconut just sounds really REALLY good! Anyway, I thought I'd try cutting a few calories and instead of making a DESSERT that is probably laden with lots of YUMMY frosting, I'd try the breakfast route instead. Sooooo, here is what I came up with! :)

Coconut Chocolate Chip Muffins
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 small box coconut creme instant pudding mix

1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup toasted coconut, divided

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and prepare a muffin pan with nonstick spray.

In a bowl, beat together the milk, butter, and egg. Stir in the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Next stir in the dry pudding mix. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and about 1/3 cup of the coconut. Evenly divide the thick batter into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining coconut over the tops. Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool a few minutes in the pan, then enjoy!

TIP: You can add more coconut to the batter if you want. I was trying not to use too much because I wanted my 2 year old to eat them. (She loved them by the way!) My husband said he would have preferred regular-sized chocolate chips. And I would have LOVED the toasted coconut on top of the muffins to be coconut streusel instead, but I was trying to be good and cut calories! Click here for my coconut streusel topping if you want to try it. :)