Thursday, April 7, 2011

Nature's greatest veggie?

I love squash. I have only recently discovered this love, but it is enduring, and will be with me forever.   That was depressing.

Anyways, squash is great, and I only recently discovered a new variety...ACORN! For acorn squash, moreso than butternut, or even spaghetti, the name directly refers to its shape.  It looks just like a big green acorn, with some orange streaks throughout.  My mother is the one who introduced me to the squash, and we got some at the vegetable market right before I left a couple weeks ago.  I've been longing for a new, warm, dessert that I don't have to budget for all day long.  Unfortunately, acorn squash is more like a sweet potato and would be a very good side for a dark meat, like a tuna steak or prime rib.  Paula's acorn squash (with butter of course) is the recipe I followed, I did make a few changes though.  I used a water bath like I use for the spaghetti squash, substituted one of the tablespoons of brown sugar for a sugar substitute, and added cinnamon.


Yummers Acorn Squash

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash, halved
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp splenda (or another low-calorie sweetener)
1 tsp cinnamon/ more if you like the taste
2 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp syrup (I don't have maple, so I just used regular pancake syrup)


Preheat oven to 400.  While oven is preheating, cut squash in half carefully and dispose of seeds and stringy insides (I like to scrape them out with a spoon.)   Then, mix together margarine, sugars, syrup and a dash of salt and pepper.  Spread mixture on both halves of squash and then put squash into water bath, squash side up.  Cook for about 45 minutes or until squash is tender to the touch.  Take squash out, let rest, and enjoy! 

I probably could have made this a little more dessert-y by scooping out the insides and putting in some granola and topping with a dollop of cool whip or something like that.   How delicious does that picture look though! Even on my shitty camera phone! 

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