Sautéed Butternut Squash with Lemon & Pine Nuts

How did it get to be November already?!?  Wasn’t it  just last week it was getting dark at 8 p.m. and it was 75 degrees out?  Alas, summer is over and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

As the leaves fall in my front yard, (and no, I haven’t gotten around to raking them yet) I took the time to prepare this butternut squash recipe for my family.  I wanted to share it with you now because this is a very pretty presentation for squash and a great side dish for Thanksgiving.  I modified the original recipe (like I do with most recipes) to eliminate tree nuts because my husband is allergic.

This is a pretty easy recipe, but if you can get someone else to cut up the squash I recommend it because it can be a workout!

This recipe can be made ahead for Thanksgiving and reheated for 30-45 minutes prior to eating.

Sautéed Butternut Squash with Lemon & Pine Nuts

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley, chopped

3 oz pine nuts, toasted

1-1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil and butter in a pan over medium-high heat.  Add squash and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 8-10 minutes until squash is lightly browned (the edges will start to soften).  Add pine nuts, lemon zest and parsley and transfer to oven safe bowl. Bake squash for 25-30 min until hot and tender. 

If making this dish ahead for Thanksgiving dinner, sauté squash but do not bake it until just before you are ready to eat, and if it has been refrigerated it will need to bake for 30-45 minutes.

Tomato, Cannellini Bean and Tuna Salad

My tomatoes are finally starting to ripen in our garden. Hooray!   I feel so spoiled this time of the year with fresh picked tomatoes every day, and I love coming up with recipes to use them in. 

This is a quick, easy salad that makes a great lunch or light dinner.  I have also added (and will once my are ripe) cucumbers to it and it’s quite good.  I will admit that this recipe originally came from somewhere, but I can’t find it to give credit to the original authors (or tell you the original ingredient list)!  I am not this creative J

Tomato, Cannellini Bean and Tuna Salad

*Note: This portion size is for one person

1/2 can tuna

1/2 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup of tomatoes, chopped

3 or 4 sprigs parsley, chopped

Juice from 1/2 lemon (I like mine with a lot of lemon, use less if you don’t want it as tart)

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients. Toss and enjoy!

Spinach Pie

I love it when the first thing gone on my son’s dinner plate is the vegetables.  I’ve been working hard to ensure that my nineteen month old toddler has a wide variety of veggies in his diet, and let me tell you, it can be challenging!  So I pulled this recipe out of the drawer and decided to try it. 

Spinach pie is so easy, but I haven’t made it in years.  My husband and I both discovered we are allergic to poultry eggs about five years ago.  However, I have since discovered that duck eggs don’t bother us, which is exciting for baking and cooking.  While they can be hard to find, duck eggs have provided me the opportunity to share this recipe with my son. Looks like I will have to try to find them more often!

Spinach Pie

2 pkgs frozen spinach

2 eggs (or duck eggs)

Dash nutmeg

½ cube butter, melted

Parmesan to taste (I used about 1/3 cup fresh grated)

Thaw and drain spinach well.  Mix all ingredients. Place in greased pie dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until the edges turn light brown.

Broccoli Casserole

I am on a quest to get my toddler to eat more veggies. 

I have been trying to make interesting, tasty dinners that have veggies in them, so he doesn’t necessarily get an option of eating them.  One of the vegetables that he doesn’t particularly care for is broccoli.  He will eat the stems in my Pan Roasted Broccoli recipe, but he won’t eat the florets, and that’s were all the good nutritious stuff is stored.

I can remember eating broccoli and cauliflower as a kid with a white cheese sauce on it, but then I think about the toddler running in circles around me at 5pm while I’m trying to make a rue at the stove and realize that white sauce is not a happening thing in my house, at least for next few years.

This recipe is an easy make-ahead casserole that is a complete meal.  I admit it’s not low cal, but I served it for the first time tonight and munchkin actually ate it. And he never eats things the first time I serve them, so I think it’s a winner!

To cut down on the prep time, I have often cooked chicken the day before or cooked, cubed and frozen the chicken.  Then when I have leftover rice, I use it up in the casserole.  This recipe also does well with the chicken omitted as a vegetarian casserole.

Note: If you’re gluten free, you’ll want to use a GF cream of mushroom soup. I like Pacific Foods, shown here.

Broccoli Casserole

2 packages of frozen chopped broccoli

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 or 3 cups of cooked brown or white rice (optional)

1 lb cooked chicken breast, chopped (optional)
Cheddar cheese to taste (I use 8 oz of extra sharp cheddar and 4 oz medium cheddar, use less if you don’t include the chicken and rice)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Pour into a 9 x 13 casserole pan and level.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until edges are brown and it is hot in the center.

Broiled Asparagus

I have asparagus in my garden, finally!  We planted asparagus three years ago, and finally this year I am able to harvest a little to eat. Of course I had to broil it because it is (in my opinion) the best way to eat asparagus.  This is a super easy recipe that our whole family, including my one-year-old son, loves.  Asparagus can take a lot of seasoning, so don’t be bashful with the salt and pepper.

Broiled Asparagus

1-2 lbs asparagus

Olive oil

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Rinse asparagus and trim ends.  Lay asparagus in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Brush lightly with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper, turning to coat all sides.  Move oven rack to top shelf.  Place cookie sheet on oven rack and broil, turning asparagus at least once, until asparagus turns lightly brown, or approximately 6-8 minutes. Cooking time may vary depending on the thickness of asparagus.

Pan Roasted Broccoli

This is my husband’s favorite way to eat broccoli and I haven’t made it since our son was born more than a year ago.  Tonight I decided to make it as a treat to my husband, and I discovered that not only my husband likes it, but my 15-month-old likes it too!  He particularly liked the stems (who wouldn’t with salt and pepper on them?).  Guess I have to make it more often. 

This recipe is originally from Cook’s Illustrated.

Pan Roasted Broccoli

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/4 lb broccoli, separated into small florets, and stems, sliced

3 tbsp water (I find with my Le Creuset cookware this is enough water, if you’re using a pan with a lid that doesn’t seal as tightly add 1 tbsp more)

In a small bowl, combine water, salt and pepper until salt has dissolved.  In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add the broccoli stems in a single layer.  Don’t stir. Cook for 3-4 minutes until browned.  Add the florets and toss to combine. Don’t stir.  Cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add the water mixture, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cook for 3-4 minutes. Enjoy!