Pumpkin {sweet meat} Muffins

Do you know what a Sweet Meat is?? Well me neither; except I now have 22cups pureed of it in my freezer, 18muffins on the counter, and two bowls of it (one chunked, one pureed) in the fridge.



This last weekend Devin's Aunt and Uncle came to visit with their 12year old son who needed to do a Boy Scout overnighter survival thing (basically he had to build a shelter and sleep outside). Devin was kind enough to do it with him; he's such a softey! :-)
While Devin did that I was introduced to this Sweet Meat... by his Aunt Joni who had no experience either. The reason? Aunt Cecelia had planted it in Grandpa's garden and true to the Idaho Farming way we were NOT going to let it go to waste.
Cecelia had told us that she had the best pumpkin pie made from this Sweet Meat so with that in mind Joni and I baked it, pureed it, made three pies, and froze six cups. Then, as Joni left she pointed to a LARGE Sweet Meat and happily informed me it was mine.... hence the additional 16cups of puree, bowls in the fridge, and muffins!
Considering it replaced the pumpkin in the pie I used it in my FAVORITE Fall muffin recipe:

recipe from HERE  and sadly mine don't look that great!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1 cup natural sweetener

1/2 cup canola oil

2 large eggs

1/2 (15-oz) can pumpkin puree (about 7/8 cup)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and set aside. Whisk the sweetener, oil, eggs, pumpkin puree, and applesauce. Add in the dry ingredients and fold with a spatula until the flour has been absorbed. Place in muffin tins and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.   

It was a messy, grateful work and I would have felt productive if I had actually gotten dressed before 2pm! But hey I did get in a facial (aka the squash splatter on my face from the blender! oops).

HAPPY AUTUMN!!!

{Owen enjoying the leftovers from the pie crusts... you can add two pies to the list}