"Healthy" Chocolate Chip Muffins

I have many fond memories of chocolate chip muffins: getting them while living in the dorms at Illinois State University, hot from the oven, and stopping by Einstein's bagels in uptown Park Ridge to get one for breakfast before leaving with my family on our summer trips to Glen Arbor, Michigan.

So a few days ago I had a sudden craving for a good chocolate chip muffin. But as I'm trying to eat healthier, I added 'healthy' in front of my recipe search for these delicious muffins. I'm not sure how healthy you can actually get with a muffin (unless you are eating bran, which I've never had, and don't ever want to have,) but decided it was worth a try.
So, here is recipezaar's take on "healthy" chocolate chip muffins.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder1 banana
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips1/4 cup almonds

*A quick note before I continue: our milk went bad this morning, and as I didn't feel like rushing to the grocery store and was halfway through mixing ingredients, I substituted half and half. I'm sure this added to the caloric intake, but I didn't taste a difference. I also didn't have almonds on hand, so omitted those. But I do think they'd make an excellent addition.

1.) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

2.) In a small bowl, sift together whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and baking powder. Set aside.

3.) Mash together the banana and brown sugar. Mix well.

4.) Add the melted butter, eggs, milk and vanilla into a bowl. Beat together until well blended.

5.) Stir the flour into the wet ingredients, including the banana and brown sugar mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips and almonds.

6.) Pour the batter into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until done.

Here they are:
They were very good- they seemed more filling then a regular muffin, I think because of the addition of whole wheat flour. There was also a nice banana flavor, which was a sweet surprise. I know that tomorrow I will be enjoying one of these with my morning cup of coffee.