Stuffed Acorn Squash

 Hi Friends-

Today I had one of those 5 o'clocks...you know the kind- you get home from work/school/whatever and you're hungry, cranky, and have a headache but you're SO tired that all you can even THINK about doing is taking a nap. Generally when I'm kinda tired and want to relax I'll read a book or turn on the tv...but sometimes I'm just so tired that I don't even want to turn on the TV because I know some stupid show will catch attention and keep me awake when all I really want to do is sleep!

So I faceplanted into bed for an hour. And then I felt much better :) The plan for dinner was supposed to be to make Squash and Chickpea Curry...but a) we have a lot of leftovers in the fridge and b) for some reason, I couldn't get stuffed acorn squash out of my head. But I was also craving sweet potatoes. So then I thought, would it be weird to stuff squash with sweet potato? Hmmm....anyways, I revisited the two stuffed squash recipes I'd found lately and neither of them was getting me excited enough to jump up off the couch and start cooking. So I thought I'd just wing it. Here's what I came up with:

Take an acorn squash and stab it with a sharp knife all over (this is very fun! but be careful!). Put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Take it out and cut it in half vertically.

Scoop out the seeds and then place the halves face down in a microwave safe dish with a little water on the bottom. Cover the dish with saran wrap and microwave for 5 more minutes.

While the squash is cooking away...dice up some veggies. I used a sweet potato (Side note: the sweet potato is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat and if you leave the skin on, it has more fiber than oatmeal. I've always peeled my sweet potatoes, except when using them for chips, so I wasn't quite sure how it would be if I left it on in this dish. As a compromise, I peeled part of it and left part of the skin on...you know, to ease into it. I couldn't even tell it was still on there when I was eating it...so I will no longer be peeling my sweet potatoes)

Anyways, I diced up a sweet potato, 1/2 an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a few mushrooms, 1/2 a zucchini and a small apple After sauteing them for a few minutes, I added some veggie broth and let them keep cooking:

As they cooked, I seasoned them with cayenne pepper, paprika, a little bit of cumin and a dash of cinnamon! When the sweet potatoes were almost tender, I added some quinoa:

Stir it all together and scoop it into the squash halves:

Into the oven they go for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Then top with a little Parmesan cheese, if you'd like, scoop a little of the squash and a little of the filling onto your fork and dig in!!

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but this was probably the best thing I've made in a while ;)


In other news:

Do you buy organic fruits and vegetables? Check out these lists to see which ones are worth spending your money on and where you can save money:
The Dirty Dozen & The Clean Fifteen

You can even print out a little wallet sized card to take to the store with you! This list gets updated every year so make sure to keep yours current!

Enjoy!
--Lindsay--