The secret lives of vegetables-Butternut Squash and Applesauce Muffins

I wanted to share a recipe today that is one of my favorites. It is one of our family favorites, just in time for the fall season. These muffins come from a book, given to me by a friend, that teach us as parents to hide vegetables in our children's food. Now, as far as philosophies go, this has its pros and cons. I think its great to incorporate vegetables into everyday eating, like shredding zucchini into meatballs, pasta sauce, or hamburger, to increase our intake of vegetables. Breading foods in egg mixed with veggie puree is also a phenomenal idea, if you have the veggies on hand, etc. There are lots of ways I had honestly never thought of to incorporate fruits and vegetables. The author also encourages us as parents to offer vegetables at dinner, even if there is a hidden veggie in the meal. Its a great idea, and it really gets you thinking on how to get some of the more difficult things into your kids mouths.

That said, these muffins are ridiculously good. I make them for people, let them devour them, and then tell them there is butternut squash in them. There is also applesauce and oatmeal in the muffins, but I think butternut squash is the big surprise. Oh, they also have an oatmeal streusel topping that makes them to die for.

If you like roasted butternut squash soup, these muffins will be your best friend, because you can roast the squash for your soup and then just set aside the squash you aren't going to use for the soup and whip up a batch of these babies. They are incredibly tender, no doubt from the applesauce and butternut squash, and really, the crunchy, brown sugar and oatmeal topping is great. They also have a bit of extra fiber with the oatmeal also in the batter. This also gives the muffins a bit of chewy texture.

Roasted Butternut Squash Muffins
Topping
2/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Batter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pureed butternut squash
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper baking cups. Make the topping: Stir together the oats, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in the butter.
Make the batter: combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir to mix. In a second bowl, mix the applesauce with the milk, vegetable puree, sugar, oil, and egg with a wooden spoon. Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just moistened. Do not over mix-the batter is supposed to be lumpy.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle with the streusel topping. Bake until the topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the muffins, 18 to 20 minutes. Turn the muffins out onto a rack to cool.

My obsession

I have noticed, as I have perused magazine articles, cookbooks and blogs, that those who find food more than just fuel tend to move from one recipe induced obsession to another. This is the pattern that most often occurs in my experience:
Step 1. I read about a new recipe (or see it when I am lucky enough to have time to watch Food Network). I think, 'I should try that. It's different, I have most of the ingredients or could come by them easily enough and it sounds so good.'
Step 2. I pull the recipe out of a magazine and place it in my 'to make' pile. (PS I would not recommend doing this as I have found that they get lost and/or misplaced. It is easier to just leave it in the magazine) After reading and rereading the recipe several times over so I know what I need for it, how much time it will take, etc. it somehow makes its way to my menu sometime in the next month. That, or, if I am especially excited about this particular recipe, I just randomly decide one night to make it. So I go out and buy any ingredients I need and make a night of it.
Step 3. We decide that it was decadent. So much better than a restaurant. So much cheaper than a restaurant, and just absolutely delicious.
Step 4. Repeat with minor alterations.
Step 5. See step four.
Step 6. See step five.
You get the idea.
Take for instance, gnocchi with peas and chanterelles. In case you are wondering, chanterelles are mushrooms (you know who you are out there). I look at the recipe and decide to leave them out, because my husband is not a big fan of mushrooms. Now, he would eat them if I made this dish, and he probably would really like it, but I don't keep mushrooms around all that much because they are not that popular with the family (oftentimes our dinner party includes my mom, dad, and teenage sister). So, I would probably substitute something safe, like proscuitto, ham or bacon, that has been fried up real crispy and tossed in with the peas and cream sauce.
The possibilities are endless. It is great with tuna in place of the meat. No truffle oil? I use plain extra virgin olive oil. I had extra gnocchi, so I threw them in the freezer before I cooked them and just threw them into the boiling water frozen. 
The next time I went to make gnocchi, a sad thing happened. I couldn't find the recipe I had pulled out of the magazine. So, I looked up the recipe online, and lo, and behold, discovered a recipe for gnocchi with butternut squash, mushrooms and sage in brown butter. Again, we omitted the mushrooms, but I had a butternut squash sitting on my counter, waiting to be roasted and pureed for muffins and soups. I cut up the leftover and reserved it to use in this recipe.

The recipe also called for purchased herb gnocchi, but part of the joy of eating it is making it from scratch. So I continued searching until I found the recipe I had used before. I found it, and combined the two. I heated olive oil and some butter in a saucepan and cooked the sage in it. I then removed the sage with a spatula and dumped the roasted squash in. I had cut it into about 3/4 in. pieces, and I sprinkled the entire thing with salt and pepper. I waited until a nice crust had formed and then turned them in the pan. The aroma was delightful. The sweet, mellow flavor of the roasted squash combined with the browned butter and some freshly grated Pecorino Romano is absolutely seductive. Sprinkle the crispy sage leaves on top and you have a comfort meal to cozy up with on a cold winter night.

The funny thing is, gnocchi won't be my favorite for long. As a matter of fact, I feel it being slowly replaced by something else...