Dad's Butternut Squash Muffins!

One of my favorite things to do in the Fall is to get into the kitchen and BAKE! The Fall season is chock-full of some of the most delicious foods---apples, squash, root vegetables, galore! What's more? I'm super lucky to have a father who is a gentleman farmer! Every Fall, we are greeted by him with abundant deliveries of the finest organic fruits and vegetables: Asian pears, butternut squash, beets, turnips, eggplants, green beans. You name it, he grows it! And, we're not talking about your average backyard veggie garden, folks. We're talking about quantities that will carry our entire family through the winter months--with plenty of home grown fruits and vegetables.

Determined not to waste anything, Dad has become a mastermind of canning and freezing his harvest. This week, I had a bit of extra time, and decided to experiment in the kitchen with some butternut squash. The goal? To come up with a delicious, nutritious treat that I can put into my son's lunch box---in hopes of replacing some of the pricey convenience "veggie muffins" that I've been foolishly buying at the store (pictured right).

The result? These fantastic Butternut Squash Muffins. Including powerhouse ingredients like Dad's home grown butternut squash, plain greek yogurt, ground flax, and whole wheat flour---this recipe is a WINNER!!!
Try them out!

Dad's Butternut Squash Muffins

Ingredients:

1.5 cups butternut squash (peeled, cubed, steamed and mashed)

3 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp ground flax seeds

1.5 tsp. baking powder

1.5 tsp. baking soda

1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

**Feel free to toss in 1/2 cup of your favorite chopped nuts or dried fruit!

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. If your squash is not already cooked, you will need to peel, cube and steam the squash for about 10-15 minutes, or until the squash can easily be pierced with a fork. Otherwise, skip this step.
3. Measure 1.5 cups of squash into a large bowl. Mash eggs, water, yogurt, and sugars into the squash. add in the flours, baking powder, baking soda, flax and all spices, until the batter is well mixed. The batter will be thick and a bit lumpy. If using nuts or dried fruit, fold them into the batter as a last step.
4. Spoon batter into 18-20 prepared muffin cups. They should be about 2/3 full of batter.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean--about 15 minutes. 
6. ENJOY after cooling on a wire rack for about 10 minutes....or put them into an air tight container and FREEZE for future delight. Frozen muffins should microwave or toast quite well!