Mom's Spinach Stuffed Squash

I must have spinach on the brain. I do love spinach but I realized I've had it a lot this weekend. I ate it in salads and I ate it in my breakfast this morning. I had it tonight in my mom's stuffed squash.

I found this recipe a long time ago and stashed it, so sure I would make it quickly. But I never did. I always flipped through to it, stopping for a brief second, before moving on to something else. I'm not sure why it took me so long, but I'll guarantee that I will make it again-very very soon.



Like everything else I made this weekend, it was easy! It was creamy, it was flavorful, and it was everything I needed in a side dish. Pair that with some fresh haddock I got on sale at the supermarket yesterday and a barley risotto I made this morning, and there's one stupendous meal. Hell, I could have made this squash dish all by itself and I would have been happy. I have a feeling I'll make this meal again and again, and in the meantime I'll have plenty of time to enjoy the leftovers.



Mom's Spinach Stuffed Squash

4 summer squash
melted butter
salt and pepper
grated parmesan

Spinach stuffing:
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. butter
2 10 oz. packages of frozen spinach, cooked and drained
1 t. salt
1 c. sour cream
2 t. red wine vinegar
bread crumbs

(**note: the squash I had were little, being that they're not really in season right now. As such, I modified the amounts: instead of 2 packages of spinach, I used just one, and I also halved the sour cream and the vinegar. As for the butter, I instead used olive oil to saute the onions and butter to top the squash. The rest stayed the same-especially since I love sauteed onions.)

Cook whole squash in boiling salted water for 10 minutes or until tender. Very carefully cut into halves and scoop out seeds (though it doesn't say it in the recipe, I used the seeds in the stuffing). Sprinkle each shell with butter, salt, pepper, and cheese (a step I forgot. It tasted just as good without it). Saute onion in butter (or olive oil). Add spinach, salt, sour cream, and vinegar to pan. Stuff each squash. Sprinkle each with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs (I used whole wheat); dot with butter (honestly, I probably used less than a tablespoon's worth-the squash were tiny!). Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until hot enough to serve. Serves 8.


Or, if you're like me, it'll serve one, several times over and over.

Breakfast!

Let's talk Breakfast. Breakfast with a capital B. Breakfast is my all time favorite. I love going out to breakfast, I love making breakfast, I love sharing breakfast with friends and/or family. I would love nothing more than to have breakfast all.the.time.

Today, I had some friends over, and enticed them to join me after a good morning after the gym with the idea of waffles (they were also coming to do me a gigantic favor, which I'm very thankful for). Yesterday, while I was cleaning up the downstairs, I decided that I'd make some breakfast in preparation for today. That's the other thing I love about breakfast-the make-ahead factor. The idea that you can make a meal the day before, and then the day of you simply heat up or griddle. Perfection.

I knew I wanted some sort of waffle concoction, having gotten a brand-new waffle maker for Christmas. I'd also seen a recipe for a crustless quiche, and decided to make that too. My friends who came over are trying to eat somewhat better (and I am too, I can't lie) so I decided that although breakfast isn't necessarily a health food that this wasn't too bad to try.

I decided to make whole grain waffles from a recipe I found on the food network (and as an FYI, read the comments and based on suggestions took out the peanut oil and altered the butter intake to have 2 Tbsp. butter and 6 Tbsp. applesauce-and also changed the flour to whole wheat instead of regular) and proceeded to make such good waffles that I'm not sure I can call them healthy without thinking that they're not. At any rate, checking out this recipe is totally for you if you'd like to try a waffle recipe that's not bad for you and tastes good all on its own. An even bigger plus: I ate them without my standard real maple syrup and instead used a different one, a homemade raspberry syrup I made with frozen raspberries, frozen lime juice concentrate, and a bit of sugar. I loved these waffles with this syrup. I came quite close to actually licking the plate.



On to the eggs. I've been wanting to try this crustless quiche since a few weeks ago when I stumbled on the recipe (also on foodnetwork.com). I went ahead last night with it, and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was. I was even more surprised to find how tasty it was today. It almost tasted like a souffle, but without all the work. It was a spinach quiche, and was made with ricotta and gouda, two eggs and two egg whites, and a few other good things. It was light, fluffy, and most of all, so tasty I went back for more. I paired this off with some sweet potato latkes I made this morning, and instead of pan frying them, I instead made them by baking them in the oven. So superb.



I am even more excited by the prospect of having leftovers, and so I can even enjoy parts of this particular breakfast all week!

Curried Squash and Chicken soup

I know, I know...for all of you (okay, does anyone actually read this? Identify yourselves! At least send me an email so I can make sure to write more frequently :) )who have been chomping at the bit about my breakfast post (because I'm certain you have been sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting to hear anything about how my scones came out)...patience, dear friends. That post is coming (likely tomorrow).

Today, I want to talk about soup.

I love soup. I love all kinds of soup. It's fair that I'll often double a batch, just so I can have extra to have for the week. My mom's chicken soup (mentioned in an earlier post) is by far my favorite-a creamy base with a ton of chicken, rice, and baby carrots. So simple, yet out of this world. I was certain that there was never a soup that could compare.



And then I found this soup. Oh, this soup. Full of chicken, winter squash, and spinach. Three of my favorite things. When I stumbled upon the recipe a few months ago, I printed it out, sure I'd try it quickly. And I did. And then I made it again. And tonight, I made it yet again.


The thing about this soup is that not only is it tasty and so different, but it is so easy. The kind of easy that I was able to make it while my landlord was underfoot tonight, trying to chisel a coffee cup lid off of the bottom of the dishwasher coils, and we were never in the way of each other (the dishwasher is saved, by the way. After a knife, a screwdriver, and a pair of pliers. I digress.). And a bigger bonus, I was nearly finished by the time he left (and he was here for twenty minutes).

This is so very good. I can't say that enough. It's even relatively healthy, which is more than I can say for my mom's chicken soup (the base for her soup begins with butter and gravy thickener. Need I say more?). I was pleasantly surprised by the little extras-the coconut milk and the thai red curry paste, especially. It gives the soup a sweet kick of flavor. You can make this in the time it will take you to read this post. Just make sure you make enough to last you a few days-I have doubled this recipe to make it last!



Make it today. Make it tomorrow while you're making breakfast so you have it for dinner (you'll have time). Then sit down with a nice bowl and a glass of wine and relax.

Curried Squash and Chicken Soup (from eatingwell.com)

2 servings, 1 3/4 cups each

**Note: This is the actual recipe. I double all the amounts in order to have more soup, which is also what I advise you to do**

Active Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

* 1 10-ounce package frozen pureed winter squash
* 1/2 cup lite coconut milk
* 1/2 cup water
* 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
* 1 6-ounce bag baby spinach
* 2 teaspoons lime juice
* 2 teaspoons brown sugar
* 1/2-1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
* 1/4 teaspoon salt


Preparation

1. Heat squash, coconut milk and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the squash defrosts, about 10 minutes. Add chicken, reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Stir in spinach, lime juice, sugar, curry paste to taste and salt and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes longer.

Stuffed squash and Breakfast

It is absolutely no secret that I love breakfast. Lovelovelove breakfast. So much so that my collection of recipes is overflowing with breakfast stuffs. Egg bakes, pancakes, sweet breads, different potato recipes, chicken hash, and I could go on and on. This weekend is going to be the weekend of GSD (or, Getting Shit Done) and I am planning to be able to relax by Sunday afternoon with a nice hot cup of coffee and a late brunch. Therefore, this weekend I'm planning to try a crustless quiche and a baked sweet potato latke (which, admittedly, I tried once before last month, and loved it so much I wanted to do it again), and if I have time, I'll try a lemon cranberry scone recipe I've been eyeing or maybe make a different kind of sweet bread. This will be done on Sunday.

Saturday, I'll be trying a recipe I have been wanting to do for awhile (and bonus! It's one in my mom's handwriting-but the negative is that her handwriting was like chicken scratch sometimes, so this could get interesting), which is stuffed squash. It's got all my favorite stuff in it (spinach, squash, and onion, plus other stuff I can't recall right now) and it just sounds so tasty, and relatively okay for you. I'll likely pair it with some baked chicken that I love, marinated with some light herbed dressing and baked with bamboo shoots and mushrooms.

Let's hope I can get everything organized in the meantime-and by that I mean do all the laundry, the dishes, and take the Christmas decorations down (and start figuring out stuff for the big family trip to Florida at the end of the month)!

If anyone's interested in any of that, feel free to let me know. Hopefully by Sunday night I'll have a new post and pictures to update!

Shrimp jambalaya and New Year's...

Okay, I didn't make that jambalaya on New Year's Day. I hadn't made it to the store and I'd had such a week that I didn't even make it there until Saturday afternoon. Thursday night I could have gone but I was rushing so much that I didn't even make it to the New Year's party I was invited to until it was an hour past the start time (and picked my friends up late too, natch). The good thing about parties though is that no one really cares when you show up-just that you made it. It was a fun party though, and I'm told we got home around 3 AM-the last few hours are a little blurry (as New Year's parties ought to be). Special thanks to M & K for throwing a great bash.

Unfortunately, the key to a great bash is how you feel the next morning. I slept until noon (which never happens) and I stayed in my pajamas all day at my friends' house until we decided we needed more to eat than pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs, so we decided collectively to go and get burgers-although I was excited to try jambalaya on Friday I was in no mood to go to the store and then sit for 8 hours while it cooked in the crockpot. Burgers and beer was a much more desirable option. :)

So on Saturday, after the gym I rushed off to the store. I bought stuff for jambalaya and for the week (since I had slim pickings in the fridge). I got home, threw it together in the crockpot, and ran to my sister's to babysit. This was helpful because I had dinner there and when I got home I had everything almost ready to go. Hot diggity.

I had it for lunch yesterday (because Sunday was out for dinner and the Amazing Race to 2010 with friends) and it was good, but it didn't blow me away. I'd have it again (I have to, what with an entire pot of it in the fridge to go through) but I don't know I'd crave it that much. Not like something like chicken pot pie or something chocolate. But it was tasty. It had some good spice to it, and it was meaty, though it had the consistency of soup-I'm not sure that's what was supposed to happen. Maybe I'll try a different one next time. But if you're looking for something quick, easy, and, for the most part, pretty tasty, give this one a shot.

Crockpot Shrimp Jambalaya (obtained from www.cdkitchen.com)
Ingredients:
1 pound boneless chicken breasts -- cubed
1 pound smoked sausage -- sliced (I used turkey sausage-pretty decent)
1 pound cooked shrimp
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion -- chopped
1 green pepper -- chopped (I used a green and a red pepper because I wanted to use both)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons parsley
2 teaspoons cajun seasoning (I didn't have cajun seasoning so I used a combo of red pepper flakes, spicy salt, and extra cayenne)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups rice -- cooked (I used brown rice)


Directions:

Place all ingredients except shrimp and rice in crockpot. Cover; cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Stir in rice and shrimp; cover; cook on high for 15 minutes.

Up next...what to make this weekend!