My favorite fall meals!

I found this roasted butternut squash delicious and healthy dish on Pinterest and hit SAVE right away. What surprised me was how easy it ended up being to make. AND I was also surprised at how well the fresh herbs blended with the different tastes. They really set the dish off in a surprising, flavorful way. Julia’sAlbum.com on Pinterest is where I found this scrumptious dish…

Could this woman make food more beautiful? I think not. Even if you don’t like squash, you’ll want to eat it after looking at her Pinterest page.

I digress…the biggest surprise was how easy this came together. I also found that I LOVE these roasted pecans, and I’ve been throwing them into everything! Who knew that air-fried pecans would taste so GOOD!

Click here for the recipe from the creator herself. Below is a breakout from her recipe with my changes!

Fall Salads

Among the fall recipes, I found fall salads enticing this year. I’ve been working with a combination of blanched kale (just throw that kale in a colander and pour hot water over it from the tea kettle. It softens perfectly. I’m not a fan of raw kale.)

I’ve been taking my chicken breasts to the food processor and dicing up the chicken nicely. It’s almost a crumble of chicken over the salad and I’m finding the difference delightful.

You can include diced, roasted sweet potato, diced or sliced apples, gorgonzola or feta cheese, pecans, pumpkin seeds or walnuts.

One thing I stay away from are raisins or craisins. They are tiny sugar bombs and though they taste delightful, I use them sparingly or not at all.

This is simply a different way to prepare a ‘salad’ that is full of protein and nutritionally dense veggies!

Roasted Butternut Squash Ingredients

Roasted Butternut Squash

• 2 butternut squash medium or large

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• ¼ teaspoon salt or more

• black pepper freshly ground

Sausage filling

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 onion small, diced

• 14 oz Italian sausage spicy, crumbled

• 4 cloves garlic minced

• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

• 4 oz spinach fresh

• ½ cup dried cranberries

• ½ cup pecans chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions 

How to roast butternut squash

• Preheat oven to 400 F.

• Prepare the butternut squash. Slice each one in half lengthwise. Keep fingers away from the knife to avoid injury. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and fleshy strands tangled with the seeds.

• Place butternut squash cut sides up on a baking sheet. Drizzle the cut sides of the butternut squash halves with olive oil and rub the oil into the squash. Season generously with salt and pepper.

• Turn the squash halves over, and place it cut sides down on a baking sheet.  Tip: you can line the baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean-up.

• Roast in the preheated oven at 400 F for 30 or 40 minutes.

Make sausage filling

• Make the sausage filling while the squash is being roasted in the oven. (I used a mix of mild and spicy italian chicken sausage with chick peas, and once I used beef italian sausage, and once I used pork. I loved them all!)

• In a large skillet, heat olive oil, add diced onion, and cook it on medium-high heat for about 2 minutes until cooked and a bit charred.

• Add crumbled sausage, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning and cook for about 5 minutes or more on medium heat until the sausage is completely cooked through.

• Add fresh spinach and cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat until the spinach wilts.

• Add dried cranberries and chopped pecans and mix everything. (I used VERY FEW of these or left them out. I just can’t. Too much sugar for me. I might throw them in on a weekend for a little ‘extra’.)

• Season with salt and pepper. Probably not necessary since the sausage is already usually salty (unless you use sweet sausage which I do not recommend).

Assembly

• By this time, you have roasted the butternut squash for 30 or 40 minutes. Remove them from the oven and turn the cooked squash halves cut sides up.

• Let it cool slightly. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh leaving about a 1-inch border along the sides. (I scooped most out and mixed with cinnamon and butter, and I added back into the ‘butternut squash bowl’.

• Reheat the sausage mixture in the same skillet in which you made it to warm it up.

• Divide the sausage filling among the 4 halves and stuff the squash until the mixture is leveled or a little bit higher.

• Top with freshly ground black pepper and fresh thyme.