Banana Beet Chocolate Muffins

My little guy was in the mood for muffins, and he wasn't thrilled with my banana muffin experiment that contained crystallized ginger, and he was most definitely in the mood for chocolate.  So I decided to see what I could do to make a mostly healthy chocolate muffin.  I searched the internet for ideas, and ended up only using the basic ratio for dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  Everything else came from my imagination, so you are getting a baked-once-tried-once recipe.  Feel free to tweak it as desired.  I bet you could hide a LOT of veggies in here.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 c. ground Flax seed
1/2 c. Quick Oats
1 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1 c. Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 c. Sucanat
1/4 c. Brown Sugar
3/4 c. Cocoa
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
3/4 c. Chocolate Chips
3 Eggs
1/2 c. + 2 T. Plain Yogurt
1/2 c. mashed Banana (one medium-large banana)
3/4 c. pureed Beets
3/4 c. Milk
1/3 c. Canola Oil
1 tsp. Vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease 2 muffin tins (enough to give you 24 muffins).

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix:  flax, oats, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined.  Then stir in chocolate chips.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs.  Add mashed banana, pureed beets, milk, oil, yogurt, and vanilla.  Stir well to combine.

4. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredient mix, and stir gently until ingredients are completely combined.  Using a large cookie scoop, fill muffin tins.  (You'll probably fill them 1/2 to 2/3 full.)

5. Bake muffins 15-18 minutes, or until they begin to smell good and a toothpick comes out clean.  (A good tip is that they are most likely ready just 2-4 minutes after they start smelling delectable.)  Cool in pan for 3-5 minutes, and then gently remove and place on cooling rack.  Enjoy!

*May be wrapped and frozen for 3 months.
*I used beets harvested from last summer's garden.  You can too!  Just roast peeled beets and puree them using a bit of water, if needed.  Freeze in 3/4 cup portions in plastic bags to throw into any recipe you like!
*Next time, I'm totally throwing in some zucchini.  You could also use mashed sweet potato in place of the banana.  And I may even decrease the sugar a bit.  It's perfectly yummy as-is, but if it's possible to reduce the sugar while keeping the yumminess factor, why not?!