Skinny Chocolate Muffins

I've been seeing a lot of these "substitute this for that" recipes lately. You know, use applesauce instead of sugar, greek yogurt in place of butter... that kind of stuff. So I decided to try it with some chocolate muffins. Overall the result was better than expected. I will admit they are not as good as original but I will make these with the substitutions from now on because the benefits far outweigh the slight drop in taste. These things are still super delicious and I'm trying not to nom them down all at once!

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 3/4 c. oats
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 c. plain greek yogurt 
• 3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 c. baking stevia 
• 1 c. hot water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

How To Cook It: 

• preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• line a 12-cup muffin pan with foil cupcake liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray
• blend all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips
• blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth
• gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips (set the rest aside)
• scoop mixture into prepared muffin pans, filling to about 3/4 of the cup (they don't rise very much)
• place muffins tins in the oven for 15 minutes
• after 15 minutes, remove muffins from the oven (but don’t shut oven off), and distribute the other half of the chocolate chips on top of each muffin
• place the muffins back into the oven and bake for an additional 2-5 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean