Roasted Acorn Squash

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is only 4 days away? I'm certainly struggling to believe that is the case. In fact, it was just over a week ago that I realized it was almost past time to firm up my time off from work for the holiday. In my mind I still had plenty of time. I feel like each and every passing year goes by more quickly than the one before it. Maybe that's just part of growing up.

Many of you will be tasked with cooking and planning a menu for Thanksgiving dinner in just a few short days, and for some of you it will be your first time in charge. Keeping that in mind I would like to present you with this recipe for Roasted Acorn Squash, a side dish that is relatively healthy, takes only 10 minutes to prep and leaves your hands and mind free to work on more hands on dishes during it's hour roast in the oven.

So if you've been tasked with bringing a vegetable side, look no further than this quick, elegant, and tasty dish for your choice. You will certainly impress your family and friends that you chose to think outside of the green bean casserole, candied yams, etc that, while classics, can be a bit tired and certainly rich for those trying their hardest not to gain that extra pound this holiday season.

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Roasted Acorn Squash


Ingredients
1 acorn squash
1 tablespoon softened butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup water

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the acorn squash in half and discard the seeds and strings.

Rub the butter over each squash half.

Place in a baking dish and top with brown sugar and cinnamon and add the water to the bottom of the dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.

Ginger Soy Vegetable Stir Fry

Growing up, vegetables almost always played a secondary or tertiary role to meat, predominately beef, and starch, usually potatoes. Even with this limited exposure, I have always been a vegetable lover when fresh vegetables are served to me. However, when I'm planning out our weekly menu, I can sometimes fall back into the habit of forgetting to include a sufficient amount of veggies in a meal or week of meals.

Robert regularly asks for me to cook more veggies, and I am just now starting to discover meals that meet his request. Of course I'm benefitted by a husband who is willing to forgo meat from time to time if the vegetarian meal I place before him is flavorful and filling. This stir fry meets both requirements. The ginger soy and low-sodium soy sauces provide the veggies with a great flavor without compromising the health benefits and the veggies and rice are more than enough for a satisfying dinner.

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Ginger Soy Vegetable Stir Fry


Ingredients
1 small yellow squash, sliced
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets
1/2 of a red onion cut into thick slices
3/4 cup sugar snap peas
1 package sliced mushrooms
3 green onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons of low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon ginger soy sauce
1 small can water chestnuts, drained
cooked brown rice

Instructions
In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium high heat.

 Add the squash, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, snap peas and onions.

 Saute for 9 minutes then add the garlic and green onions.

 Saute for 2 minutes more then add the water chestnuts and stir to warm through.

 Pour in low sodium soy sauce,

 and ginger soy sauce.

 Stir well to combine and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over a bed of brown rice for a healthy vegetarian meal.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Brown Butter Sage

While I have loved the yellow squash and zucchini of summer for a good portion of my life, I am completely new to the acorn and butternut squashes of the winter. I got my chance this week when a beautiful little butternut squash appeared in my produce share. As I searched for recipes this one caught my eye because of the use of brown butter sage, which I have heard of used with both sweet potatoes and winter squash.

I have a confession to make. Tonight, while making this squash to go with our baked chicken, I let myself get distracted and completely burned the sage. It happens to all of us at one point or another. Luckily for Robert and I, once the burnt to a crisp sage leaves were picked away, the squash was still delicious boasting the nuttiness that brown butter provides. When making this dish, save the brown butter sage until the squash and main course are ready and watch it closely. It doesn't take long to go from perfect to ruined.

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Brown Butter Sage


Ingredients
1 butternut squash
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
6 leaves of fresh sage, chopped

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Cut the ends off of the squash and discard.

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the skin from the squash.

 Slice the squash in half lengthwise,

 and remove the seeds and strings with a spoon.

 Cut into 1/2 inch strips and place on a baking sheet.

 Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

 When the squash is done, chop the sage leaves.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add the butter.

 When the butter is golden and smells nutty reduce heat to medium and add the sage until it turns dark green and crispy.

 Drizzle over the squash, season with salt and pepper and serve.

Source: PBS Kitchen Explorers

Spaghetti Squash with Braised Greens and Sausage

There's a new recipe website called Gojee that lets you enter in the ingredients you have on hand, the ingredients you dislike and any ingredients that you crave and populates recipes based on those variables. Given the variability of the items in my produce share every two weeks, this site is great for helping me figure out how to best use those items before they spoil.

Last weekend my share included both kale and swiss chard, two veggies I have a hard time using on their own, but both in one share usually results in one spoiling before I figure out how to use them. Enter Gojee. I visited the site, entered in kale as an ingredient I craved and the first recipe to pop up was for Braised Kale and Spaghetti.

I looked over the recipe and quickly decided to try substituting spaghetti squash for the pasta and using the swiss chard instead of double kale. The results were absolutely delicious! We will definitely be making this again, and I can't wait to see what else I can do with spaghetti squash.

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Spaghetti Squash with Braised Greens and Sausage


Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
1 bunch kale
1 bunch swiss chard
1 medium yellow onion, minced
8 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 Italian sausage links (I used chicken sausage)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the spaghetti squash on a baking sheet and bake in the oven whole for an hour.

While the squash is baking, cut the kale and chard leaves from the thick stems and cut into one inch strips. Rinse thoroughly and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.

 Add the onions and saute until soft, about 6 minutes.

 Add the sliced garlic and cook until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes.

 Remove the sausage from the casing and break up into little pieces and brown the sausage.

After the sausage is browned, add the kale and chard to the pot and the final tablespoon of olive oil and toss to coat. The greens will be at the top of the pot to begin, continue to stir until the leaves are wilted.

Cover and cook on medium for 20 minutes, stirring occaisionally. If the contents look dry at any point, add a teaspoon of water.
When the squash is done, remove from the oven, let cool and cut in half. Remove the seeds and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and begin to scrape the contents out with a fork.

Place the squash in a large bowl and set aside. When the greens are done add the contents of the dutch oven to the squash along with the Parmesan and lemon juice.

Toss to combine and flavor with salt and pepper to taste.

Source: Adapted from Mehan's Kitchen

Corn and Squash

As a child I had a healthy appetite for vegetables. In fact, if you were to ask 7 year old Staci what her favorite food was, I would have answered "Collard greens!" My mother also loves veggies and was very pleased to have a daughter who shared this interest, especially since my father did not. Whenever Dad was out of town for a weekend or week, at least one night Mom and I would declare to be veggie night and our entire meal would be based around the fresh veggies that we loved.

Corn and squash was always an essential component to those special mother-daughter veggie nights. This recipe is a Thrasher family original passed down from my grandmother to my mom and then to me. It's always made in a cast iron skillet (although a regular skillet will also work if a cast iron skillet is not available) and typically bacon grease is used in place of the healthier coconut oil listed in the recipe below.

As I made this dish to compliment a lovely rotisserie chicken purchased at Eatzi's the other night, the smells quickly brought me back to the days of my youth, standing by my mother's side as she prepared veggie night dinner for us both. Fortunately for me, Robert also loves vegetables and who can resist this delicous corn and squash side when made with fresh corn and squash direct from the farm in my produce share? Certainly not me, that's for sure.

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Corn and Squash

Ingredients
4 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob
4-5 small yellow squash, sliced
1 1/2 cup milk (I used 2% since it's what I had on hand)
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (plus more to taste)

Instructions
Heat the coconut oil in the skillet over medium high heat.

Add the corn and saute until the kernels have absorbed most of the oil, about 5 minutes.

Add the squash,

 milk and salt and pepper.

Bring to a low boil.

 Cook, stirring frequesntly for about 20 minutes until the corn and squash have cooked through and the milk has reduced in half.

Serve with your favorite protein and enjoy. While this may not be the prettiest side dish, it is absolutely delicious.