Before you know it, they'll be making pumpkin toothpaste.

I love fall.

Loooove the leaves.  The colors.  The smell of chimney smoke.  The temperatures that allow for wearing thick sweaters.

Loooove pumpkin too.  Apparently I'm not the only one, and Target knows this:

But I don't want to O.D. on pumpkin either, so when I found a recipe for sweet potatoes, I had to try it.

Sweet Potato Muffins
-1 medium sweet potato
-2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (reg flour would be ok too)
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
-1/4 cup vegetable oil
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2/3 cup honey
-1 6-oz container nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt
-1/2 cup oatmeal
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup almonds
-1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners (all I had were balloon print ones.  I'm sure Williams-Sonoma has some beautiful fall motif metallic ones.  Go be an overachiever if you'd like).  Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork and place onto a baking sheet.

Bake the sweet potato until easily pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes.  When cooled enough to handle, peel and mash really well.  Reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.  Stir in the vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, honey, yogurt, and mashed sweet potato, stirring just until moistened.  Spoon batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups.

Blend oatmeal, almonds, brown sugar, and remaining 1 tsp cinnamon in a food processor until coarse.  Sprinkle generously over muffins.  Bake in the oven until golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean- about 12-15 minutes.

They're a little sweet and nicely spiced- really similar to a pumpkin muffin.  The topping is optional, but that's what makes it a stand-out. 

So there you go- pumpkin detox for those of you who may have also seen this Target ad and consumed the pumpkin PopTart...and pumpkin yogurt...and pumpkin ice cream...