conquering the acorn squash

If I ever have anything remarkable happen to me medically, it will probably be due to the fact that I eat obscene amounts of salsa. No, really. It's true. Tortilla chips and salsa are my go-to snack. Sometimes I melt a little cheese on top, but more often than not I just pop the container of salsa and pig out (straight from the container, of course). I figure if I'm going to pig out on something, it might as well be relatively healthy. So if I make it to 100+, I'm totally going to have my gravestone read, "Eat your salsa, yo!" Or something like that. 

But I digress. I have nothing cool to tell you to do with salsa at the moment, so instead I'm going to tell you three awesome things you can do with an acorn squash. Omnomnom! I really like figuring out how to make totally underrated vegetables totally scrumptious. Acorn squash is a lovely fall squash that, while hard to cut open when all you have are cheap knives with three-inch blades (guess what's on my Christmas list?), is worth the effort. And once you do get it cut open, it practically makes itself. I can't take credit for the first two acorn squash options (that goes to my lovely former neighbors, with whom I spent Saturday afternoon making acorn squash and yummy banana nut bread), but I do take credit for the seeds.  

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then cut the squash in half along one of the grooves. Be super careful! It's even more difficult to cut open than a pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds (don't throw them away!!) Now you have two options:

1. Fill the fruit about halfway with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to your taste.
2. Fill the fruit about halfway with maple syrup and add brown sugar to taste (I used a generous teaspoon).

Bam! You're done. Place the halves (rind down) on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven for about 40-45 minutes. When they're done, mash up the fruit so the olive oil or maple syrup mixture gets evenly distributed in the flesh. It should be soft, about the texture of baked sweet potato. Then eat it! Straight out of the fruit if you like - it's a nice natural bowl. 

maple syrup/brown sugar on the left; olive oil/salt/pepper on the right

Now, back to the seeds. While the fruit is in the oven, wash the seeds to get any stringy fruit off of them. Mix a teaspoon of maple syrup and a teaspoon of brown sugar in a Ziploc bag and throw the seeds in there, mixing it together until the seeds are pretty evenly coated. Spread them in a round, 8-inch cake pan and cover with aluminum foil. Why? Acorn squash seeds pop! Or at least they did when I roasted them. Those suckers hadn't been in there for ten minutes before they started popping all over my oven. So yeah. Cover them up. After the fruit is done, put them on the top rack for about 15 minutes (still at 375). Let them cool and crunch away! They're pretty similar in taste to pumpkin seeds. You could also roast them with olive oil and salt. 

pretty, no?

All smiles, 

b

kitchen experiments and other things

Okra is possibly the most underrated pizza topping of all time. No, really. I mean it. I don't think I've ever heard of okra as a pizza topping, but I had some that I needed to use, and so voila - my okra-mushroom pizza creation. Flatbread spread with chipotle salsa and topped with cheddar-jack cheese, okra, and slices of portobello mushroom. Baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Super easy, fast, and yummy! 

Didn't do anything to the veggies except sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt!

Grad school has officially started and I am most definitely going to be the busiest I've ever been in my entire life. But that's fantastic for me, because I love being busy. I thrive on busy. I breathe busy. I'm so excited to be busy! Yes I know how ridiculous that sounds. 

Today I'm thankful for: Ten Have, fresh vegetables, and an awesome run (3 miles with a 9:47 average pace!). I also thought it was Monday for a second...which is a good thing, right? My week will seem like it's over faster? Something like that. 

Oh and this is an awesome blog full of inspirational photos and quotes, so go check it out for some happiness! 

All smiles, 
b

spicy peanut kale bowl

I rarely buy fresh greens because I live by myself and it's damn near impossible to consume a bag of greens by yourself before it spoils. However, this recipe for a spicy peanut kale bowl sounded too good not to attempt. It also sounded like a perfect healthy detox lunch after consuming copious amounts of fried food at the Wilson County Fair last night. I had already started the day with a mango-carrot juice-coconut water-mint smoothie (highly recommended), so kale seemed like a reasonable next step.

Mmm, the fried fair fantasticality of a funnel cake.

I made my way to Whole Foods this morning and bought what I needed for this attempt, including my first-ever bunch of fresh kale (omnomnom!). If there's one thing I've learned since I've started to make lots of different dishes from scratch, it's that cooking can seem expensive. This is especially true when you're trying a new genre of food that uses oils, butters, and spices that you probably don't have sitting around your kitchen. But in reality, if you're cooking a lot of different kinds of food, you're going to need things like rice vinegar, tahini, and cayenne. So it's usually worthwhile to buy it, because once you have things like that you won't have to restock for a looong time.

I made a few modifications to her recipe, out of a mix of cheapness and personal preference:

• nixed the tamari and just used soy sauce (it calls for both)
• only used fresh ginger instead of both fresh and pickled
• bought rice vinegar but subbed safflower oil for sesame oil
• subbed dried cilantro for fresh cilantro
• subbed maple syrup for the agave
• for the rice bowl part of the recipe, I sauteed some garlic in the pan before adding the onions and mushrooms.

mise en place (cue dramatic music)

sauté-ing away!

Both the salad by itself and the portobello-infused rice bowl were delicious! I kept nomming on the salad while I was preparing the rice bowl...it's a miracle there was any left to put with the rice, it was so tasty!

the finished product

I'm not sure there's much I'd do differently here! I forgot to add the little bit of lemon juice to the spicy peanut ginger sauce, but I'm also not sure it made a whole lot of difference in the end product because it's infused with so many spices! Speaking of that sauce, it's so tasty that it'd be worth whipping up a bunch to use as a salad dressing or maybe even a marinade! 

ready for its close-up!

Happy nomming, 

b

sweet potato-avocado veggie burgers

These veggie burgers made life fabulous this evening. Dinner was scrumptious (and easy!). I added chipotle mustard to the seasoning mix and grape tomatoes on the side. Went great with a glass of dry white wine! Recipe here.

All smiles,

b