Squash Quinoa Stew

Here is another recipe that you can use your winter squash for. I really liked this stew, I say stew because it was very thick like a stew is supposed to be. It didn't have a lot of broth like a soup has. I love the quinoa in it, so it is very filling. It has a very nice, almost sweet flavor to it. I used some left over butternut squash that I had already cooked. So I pureed it into the broth, which is why it is more like a stew than a soup. If you want to, you can follow the original recipe and use chunks of butternut squash. Add it at the same point you would the other squash, just not pureed with broth before hand. Then add more cooking time before you add the rest of the veggies. I personally liked it better more thick and it cooked much more quickly this way. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Squash Quinoa Stew

Ingredients

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

3 1/2 cups water

3 1/2 teaspoons 'better than bullion'

2/3 cup apricot nectar

1 lb. cooked and smashed butternut squash

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 small yellow squash, halved lengthwise and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 teaspoon salt, then to taste

Directions

In a small bowl mix water and better than bullion until dissolved to make a broth. Then pour into blender or food processor and add butternut squash. Puree until smooth.

In saucepan cook chicken and onion over medium heat until chicken is cooked completely, stirring occasionally. Add broth with squash, apricot nectar, quinoa, and cumin. Bring to boil; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Add zucchini and yellow squash. Cover and cook 10 minutes more or until squash and quinoa are tender. Add salt and black pepper to taste. As it cools the quinoa will soak up most of the liquid. Can top with Parmesan cheese, my kids did and loved it. Serve warm and enjoy!

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

All I have to say is where was this recipe when I was experimenting with all of the other butternut squash soups that were horrible?! This one takes the cake by far! I like it better than the last butternut squash soup I posted. My children loved it and even asked for seconds. My daughter ate it for lunch for three days in a row after we had it for dinner. Then when it was gone my youngest cried because he wanted the "smooth" soup. I laughed at that. :]

This soup is very creamy, has a very nice texture, and the flavor is a nice comforting flavor just like soup should be.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 pound butternut squash, either precooked about 2 1/2 cups; or peeled, seeded and cubed
5 cups water with 5 teaspoons 'better than bullion' or 5 cups chicken stock

4 small red potatoes, cubed

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 cup almond milk

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 teaspoon salt, then to taste

pepper to taste

Directions

In a large pot on your stove top on medium heat, melt the butter add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, until onions have softened. Add potatoes, squash, chicken stock and paprika. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer gently for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft. Using either a drink blender or an immersions tick blender, process until smooth. Return soup to the pan and stir in the almond milk and salt. Season with pepper and more salt if you need. Reheat gently. Stir in chopped chives or add separately to each bowl, and enjoy!

Butternut Squash Breakfast Muffins

Since I suggested that you go out and take advantage of the great sales on winter squash, I thought it would be good for me to share with you some more recipes containing squash. :]

I love these muffins!! I didn't have to change very much from the original recipe. They are delicious, surprisingly sweet but not too sweet, and they are packed with great nutrition! They are the perfect quick breakfast to start your day off on the right foot. And the best part is my kids love these and will eat tons if I'm not watching.

Butternut Squash Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup spelt flour

1 1/2 cups oats (I used gluten free oats)

3/4 cups organic brown sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 1/4 cup roasted butternut squash, mashed

2 eggs

1/2 cup all natural applesauce

1/4 cup orange juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease muffin pans. Run 1 cup of the oats in a food processor or blender until it's ground to a coarse cornmeal consistency.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Mix well. In a small bowl, combine all the wet ingredients using a hand held blender. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Make sure all of the flour has a chance to absorb some of the moisture. Use either a 2 inch scooper or a large spoon to fill the muffin pan. Fill close to the top. These are dense muffins and don't raise as high as cupcakes do. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the spring back if slightly pushed on. If baking small muffins only bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm or let cool, place in a bag and have them for breakfast the next day. The become more moist each day. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup

If you have been following my blog you know by now how much I love butternut squash. I have experimented with several different soup recipes. Not one of them has turned out. I don't know what it is. I have even tried to follow the directions and the ingredients of recipes exactly. But not one of the butternut squash soup recipes could I even stand to give to my children let alone share it with you! Well today we have a winner. This soup is extremely smooth and creamy. I had no idea how well beef broth could be with butternut squash. It really is tasty. Now it's not my favorite way to eat butternut squash, but it was good, and extremely simple. When you see what is in it you will want to try just to see for yourself. Well at least that is why I decided to try it anyways. :] Hope you like it, and happy eating!

Butter Squash Soup

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash

1 can reduced fat beef broth

salt to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 400*F. Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet inside down. Bake until a fork and be inserted in squash easily, about 20-30 minutes. Remove squash from the oven and scoop out the insides with a spoon (you will need 2 1/2 cups of squash for every 1 can of broth). Place in a pot on stove top and add the broth. Use a hand mixer, or transfer soup to a blender to puree smooth. Cook until heated through, and enjoy!

Yep that's it, it's that simple!!

original recipe found here.

Garlicky Butternut Squash

How is your garden doing? Mine is doing awesome! I have so many squash that are coming, but not quite ready. I'm getting so excited for more experimenting with them! I loved this recipe. My kids liked it too. My little 2 year old would ask for more and more. I was reluctant to give him more because I wanted to have left overs. :] I took it as a compliment that he liked it so much, and yes I did give him as much as he wanted. This really does have a perfect blend of garlic without taking away from the squash itself, and very easy to make for a side dish. You can cook your main dish while this is baking. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

Garlicky Butternut Squash

Ingredients

2 tablespoons dried parsley leaves

3 tablespoon butter, melted (ICBINB)

1 tablespoon dried minced garlic

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes, 1 medium or 1/2 of a large squash

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 400*F. In a large bowl, combine the parsley, butter, garlic, and salt. Add squash and toss to coat. Transfer to a shallow parchment lined 2-qt. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes. At 20minutes remove from oven and stir gently. Put back in oven and continue cooking for remaining 20 minutes or until squash is just tender. Top with cheese, serve warm and enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Sauce

My oldest son loves spaghetti squash. He is the reason I'm growing it for the first time in our garden this year. He asks for it all the time. So I decided to try something new with it. I love this tomato mixture from the Chicken Parmigiana recipe I posted a while ago. So I decided to make just the sauce and put it on top of spaghetti squash. It was to die for! So extremely tasty! And yes ever since I made it this way he has asked for it even more. :] I hope you like it as much as we and He did.

Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

1 medium size spaghetti squash

1/2 medium onion, copped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons butter (ICBINB spray)

2 cans garlic and onion diced tomatoes, undrained

2 teaspoons evaporated cane juice

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 to 4 tablespoons dried basil leaves

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 400*F. Cut spaghetti squash in half length wise and remove seeds. Place round side up on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until a fork can go easily into squash.

While squash is cooking, make sauce. In a medium sauce pan cook onion and garlic in butter until onion is tender. Carefully stir in the undrained tomatoes, evaporated cane juice, salt, and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce heat, and add dried basil. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes or until desired consistency, stirring occasionally. Then add Parmesan cheese and cook until cheese is well incorporated into sauce.

When squash is finished cooking remove from oven. While using a oven mitt, take a fork and scrap out the inside of the squash. Put some on plate, top sauce, top sauce with cheddar cheese and enjoy!

Soy-Glazed Squash

If you haven't noticed yet, I love squash. I am always looking for new ways to cook it. When I found the original recipe here, I thought it looked yummy and reallya different way to cook it. I'd never had squash in this way before. It was very yummy and I like the changes I made to it. I hope you do too, happy cooking!

Soy-Glazed Squash

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel

Orange juice from one orange

3 tablespoons all natural bragg liquid aminos

1 tablespoon organic brown evaporated cane juice

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 425*F. Place squash in a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking pan.

In a small bowl combine orange peel, orange juice, braggs, brown evaporated cane juice, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Drizzle over squash, tossing to coat.

Roast, uncovered, in oven for 20-25 minutes or until squash is tender, stirring twice. Stir cubes again before serving. Serve warm.

Spaghetti Squash

Winter is over, well at least the calender says it is even though there is still snowing, and I've been craving more and more of the fall harvest foods. So I've been eating a lot of squash! When I read about spaghetti squash there were so many negative things about it. I've had it before, it had been a really long time, and I didn't remember it tasting that bad. And really it doesn't taste bad at all. It doesn't have that much flavor to it, but it does absorb flavor really well! I've cooked it a few different ways. It's really good in stir fry! Other say it is a great noodle replacement. But I haven't tried it in spaghetti or alfredo yet. This way is my favorite so far. I didn't write down a recipe for it, I'll just tell you what I did for this time, for this picture. You can always add or take away any veggie you want to. Really the possibilities are endless! Be creative!!

Spaghetti Squash Chicken and Veggies

Ingredients

2-3 T butter (ICBINB* spray)

3 cloves garlic minced

1 cup cut up zucchini

Fist sized group of broccoli, cut up

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1/2 yellow bell pepper sliced thin

1/2 orange bell pepper sliced

3 cups cooked spaghetti squash

1 1/2 cup cooked carrots**

1-2 already cooked chicken breasts, cubed

Onion Salt

Directions

Saute butter and garlic in sauce pan on medium until garlic is tender. Add zucchini and broccoli and cover, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. If veggies start to stick too much to the bottom of pan reduce heat to medium low. Add Spaghetti squash and stir, then put peppers on top of squash and cover for another 4 minutes. Add chicken and carrots and stir all together. If it seems a little dry then add a little more butter and stir in. Finish off with a little onion salt for extra flavor. Ready to serve when chicken is heated through and veggies are done to your liking. Top of with parmesan cheese if desired.

*ICBINB -'I can't Believe it's Not Butter' spray

**I cooked the carrots before I added them because they take so long to cook. If you have the time I would add them with the zucchini and broccoli. It will add more nutrients to the dish. When you boil or steam veggies, some of the nutrients leaches out into the water.

Butternut Chicken Stew

The Stew is pictured on the left with the GF bread from here. The other is banana bread pudding made in the crock pot (I can post about that later if you want the recipe).

I got this recipe from http://www.simpledailyrecipes.com/. It is so yummy and I didn't have to change very much at all! The butternut squash was like candy! My favorite way to eat this is with out the corn, you can decide for yourself. I've also made this with extra bell peppers, red and yellow ones. My oldest son said it was rainbow soup when we were eating it.

Butternut Chicken Stew

Ingredients and Directions

1 small onion, chopped

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 T 'I can't believe it's not butter' spray (you can use butter or olive oil)

--------cook in a large pot over medium heat until onion has softened.

1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and onions

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (I have used left over chicken)

1 can kidney beans, slightly drained

1/2 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed to make 1 1/2 cups

1 can beef broth

1 can chicken broth

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1/4 to 1/2 tsp pepper

---------Add the next ingredients to pot, bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

1 can corn

---------Add corn and cook another 15 minutes and then serve.

I didn't add all of the broths at once. I waited to see how soupy it would be. I like my stews to be really thick. Also as I said before I liked it better without the corn. If you're not putting in the corn just cook it for the additional 15 minutes or until the squash is as tender as you like it.