Do you know the muffin man? He might want this recipe.

When we went to the farmer's market in Summerlin, I had picked up some sweet potatoes. Usually I use them to make sweet potato fries which Todd and I totally love, but it has been too hot to run the oven at dinnertime and these potatoes were a little short and squatty--not really good for cutting into fries. I browsed several recipes but I couldn't find one that worked for the ingredients I had on hand or they just had some ingredients I didn't want to use. Feeling particularly adventurous, I made up my own recipe that was loosely based on some of the others. Unlike yesterday's granola bars, these were a hit. I think we have 3 of the 12 leftover as of right now. Next time I make them, I will throw the shredded sweet potato in the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften it up. Some of the shreds still had a little crunch to them in the finished muffins. Yes, I know there are chocolate chips in them. I used them to lure my kids to eat them. If this grieves your conscience just buy the best organic chocolate chips you can or use carob chips. Remember, this is a gradual transformation for our family, we aren't there yet!

For dinner, we had Taste of Home's Southwestern Spaghetti with whole-wheat pasta and zucchini from Lissa's neighbor's garden. We have no leftovers which is always a good sign. This is a tasty and quick skillet meal if you would like to try it yourself.

MFOM Sweet Potato Muffins

1 1/8 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups stone-ground whole wheat flour (I used Bob's Red Mill, it was the cheapest at Sunflower Mkt)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups peeled, shredded sweet potato

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease.

2. Mix together brown sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl.

3. In medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, spices and salt.

4. Gradually add dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredient until just mixed.

5. Fold in sweet potato and chocolate chips.

6. Spoon the batter evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Take the muffins out of the pan and serve warm.