Just a few bites of this Vitamin A rich food provides a plethora of health benefits, including:  prevention of cancer, cataracts, gall stones, and hypertension.  Sounds like reason enough to keep munching on these bright bites.  I have a reason for being MIA so soon, I have been on a squash binge.  Let me share with you my newest dishes.

#1: Butternut Squash (breakfast following the roasted butternut squash side-dish from dinner on the prior post)

simple egg recipe:  heat a non-stick pan on HIGH for a few minutes, add olive oil or avocado oil in a pan, season with salt & pepper, pour in beaten eggs and quickly begin folding eggs with spatula as they will cook extremely fast at this temperature, keep them slightly wet, they have more texture and flavor – don’t cook them well done as they’ll be extremely dry.

#2: Spaghetti Squash

This is a magnificent dish – it is modified from Anne Burrell’s recipe {Braised Short Ribs}.  We bought the boneless short ribs (instead of bone-in, which the recipe calls for) at Costco and placed them in my husband’s new Le Creuset Dutch Oven which we picked up at the Williams Sonoma Outlet the night before.  We enjoyed this cut very much as it was less work to cut the meat away from the bone, it cuts the cost and tastes exactly the same!  Another modification we made was placing the dish over spaghetti squash instead of over mashed potatoes (as Anne Burrell pairs with this meat) or polenta (a variation my mom is fond of).  To cook the spaghetti squash, my husband cut the veggie in half length wise (I’m scared of cutting any large object).  The messy inside was scrapped out, we left the skin side facing upward on the cooking sheet, placed the tray in the oven and baked the squash for 40-45 min at 400 degrees.  This meal takes a while to prepare as the meat is braised (4 hours give or take), however, it is totally worth the wait!!!

#3: Acorn Squash

              

I’m sure some of you are wondering what the heck the contraption in the image on the left side of your computer screen is.  Let me introduce you to a new gadget in our kitchen – a dehydrator, yup probably one of the best items purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond.  We attempted to dehydrate acorn squash, however, we were unsuccessful – we are working on the best timing.  We cut the squash in half, scrapped out the seeds, placed guts side down on a cooking sheet, and baked it for approximately 30 min at 350 degrees (we also washed the seeds, placed them on the cooking sheet, as well, salted and cooked them).  Once removed from the oven we sliced the halves in half again and sliced the quarters into “chip” size pieces.  Each piece was placed on a tray and they sat in the dehydrator for approximately 8 hours – our mistake… too long!! The fibers in them were dried too much it was impossible to chew the “chip,” they ended up in the trash; a very sad moment for all.

As the weekend comes to an end, meditate on:

peace. love. paleo.