Last year in my garden I had quite a few winter squash volunteer from my compost. I also bought several at the farmers' market, and there are still a few hanging around on my counter. Since I don't want it to keep looking like I'm decorating for halloween, I wanted to think up some recipes to use them up. Maybe you're like me and you still have pumpkins hanging around, or maybe you have a leftover can of pumpkin puree in the cupboard. If not, don't worry since this will work with whatever fruit you have that needs using up. I think it would be awesome with bananas and that is actually what I am going to try next since I am one of those people who have a shelf full in the freezer.

I also had some vanilla flavoured kefir that needed to be used up, so I used that, but milk or even yogurt would work just as well.

Pumpkin Apple Blender Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup roasted pumpkin
1 apple
1/4 cup oil
1 large egg
1 cup vanilla kefir (can sub yogurt, milk, or sour cream)
1/2 cup brown sugar (increase to 1/2 cup if using unsweetened dairy)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (fresh or ground)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups flour

Takes 35 min, yields 1 dozen muffins.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Starting with the liquid ingredients, put all the ingredients except the flour in the blender and blend on high until everything is one cohesive liquid.
Pour the blended mixture in a bowl, and gently mix the flour in until just incorporated.
Fill muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.