acorn squash stuff with quinoa

in anticipation of our unprocessed october, i got started a little ahead of schedule. my girls had a slumber party at nana's house saturday night, so M and i had dinner with just the two of us at home. we had an acorn squash arrive with our weekly bin and i planned our meal around it.

to accompany a skillet cooked steak and bright green salad, i made the recipe below which looks a lot like this image, but like a fool i didn't think to take a photo of my pretty dish.

photo credit cookingiwthmykid.com

roasted acorn squash stuff with quinoa

ingredients: 1 acorn squash, 1/2 cup quinoa, 1 cup of water plus more for roasting, 4 roma tomatoes seeded and chopped, 1 small cucumber sliced thinly and chopped, 1/3 of a large red onion diced, 1/4 cup of feta cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper. serves 2

1. pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. scrub, halve and seed the squash. place face down in a rimmed baker (i used a pyrex 13x9 pan) with about 1/4 inch of water. bake until cooked through, about 45 minutes.

2. saute the onion with a little olive oil until just soft. add quinoa and stir through quickly to toast. add water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cooked with the cover on until quinoa is done. about 15-20 minutes.

3. after quinoa has cooled slightly, mix in tomatoes, cucumber and feta. adjust seasoning to taste.

4. place cooked squash face up, scoop the quinoa mixture into the squash and serve.

this would have been even better if i had remembered to add fresh parsley to the mixture and some on top, but i forgot. oh well. it still tasted awesome.

unprocessed in october

the blog eating rules is hosting "october unprocessed" next month. our family has been toying with the idea of eating only real (whole or without added preservative ingredients) since i did the 5 day detox earlier this month.

october 1st seems as good a time as any to make the switch. however, when i went to make our grocery list for the upcoming week, i realized that we had all kinds of stuff on the list that wouldn't work. specifically, ketchup.

so, yesterday, i made ketchup. and of course, V flatly refused to eat it. but, i have to imagine that at some point if she really wants ketchup she'll give in and hopefully like it. i was missing a couple ingredients, but it turned out ok nonetheless.

this morning, after our trip to the market, we made apple butter. M has never had apple butter which i find to be a bit sad. we're all ready to change that.

do you have any processed foods that you'd like to learn how to make?

until i met M, i didn't actually know that you could make salad dressing. i assumed it was terribly complicated which is why it came in a bottle. here's my favorite go to salad dressing:

1/4-1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp diced onion (optional)
salt and pepper
about 3/4 cup to 2/3 cup olive oil

1. whisk all the ingredients except the oil together
2. slowly add the oil, whisking the whole time until thoroughly mixed