Squash Three Ways

I was so blessed the other day when my friend from work gave me both eggs (my very favourite food!) and squash from her garden. 

I was quick to roast them up at 425 with avocado oil and pink salt. It took just over an hour. (Before roasting just chop in half and scoop out any seeds. IF the squash is organic you can save the seeds, let them dry, and plant them next year!)

Now with 8 halves of roasted squash I needed to really get cooking. I still have about 2/3 of it in my freezer but here are three ways that I used the freshly roasted squash.

Spiced Butternut Squash Dessert Smoothie 

If you check out the top of this photo you can clearly see Dakota was loving it! Right behind my mason jar you can get a hint of the glass that belonged to her, about halfway done. I guess she realized mine still had all the whip on top and would be a more lucrative option. 

Recipe: Blend about 1/2 cup roasted squash with 1/2 cup cashew milk. Sweeten to taste with maple syrup (maybe 2 T). Shake in your favourite fall spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger.

Squash Mac n Cheese

I put some of our leftovers from this recipe into Ollie's lunch the next day and apparently he was the king of the lunch room. 

Recipe: To start I put about 1 cup of squash and 1/2 cup chicken stock in a mixing bowl and pureed it with a hand blender. Then I mixed in a simple cheese sauce (1 T flour, 1 T butter, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, salt.). I poured this over cooked macaroni and there you have it. Mine bowl has habanero sauce just so the kids wouldn't steal any.

Fried Rice, Fall Style

If a friend described this meal to me, I'd guess they were surely not sober at the time of making it. But truth be told I'd just gotten in from work and was starving so I basically just starting throwing leftovers into a skillet. It was heavenly. 

Recipe: I began crisping up leftover hickory ham in the skillet. Then I threw in at least 3 cups of cooked rice (cooked with stock instead of water). As it cooked I chopped up 1 gala apple, and about 1 cup of roasted squash. I tossed those in as well as a little aged white cheddar. I finished with a squeeze of lime and splash of soy sauce to lend some acidity to a pretty heavy dish. It was delicious.