Roasted Acorn Squash

Hello Mr. Lil Acorn Squash!
 

Hello Hello! How is everyone? I must say I'm excited that Wednesday was the first full day of Fall and the Las Vegas weather has been very nice! 90's all week and a few days of 80's. It is much nicer then 100+ degree weather that's for sure! It definitely has been motivating me to sleep in now that the mornings are cooler (okay 7:30 is sleeping in for me!), but I'm more motivated now to wake up and work out outside! It is so refreshing and the time goes quicker when you're having fun working out outside. Plus being outside is a different feeling then inside a sweaty gym. You must try it!

Dinner last night was delicious. I'm hooked on the almond breaded chicken I made last week. I believe this is my 4th time making it last night. I told you it was delicious! I'm running low on my cranberry apple butter that I top it with, so hopefully Trader Joe's will get it in soon!! I need to stock up. Now that Fall is here all the wonderful squashes are out in the grocery stores. They are rather small now, but in a few weeks their size will be much larger! I picked up several squashes the other day. To start the season I baked up acorn squash last night to go with my chicken and another favorite of mine, tomato cucumber salad.  

Acorn Squash, my way! By Fallon
Ingredients
Acorn squash (DUH!)
Butter
Cinnamon
Agave syrup (or any sugar of your choice, just none of that "fake" stuff please!)

This was an amber agave, giving it more 
of a molasses taste to the squash.
 

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Foil and lightly spray a baking sheet with olive oil so the squash won't stick when cooking. The squash are a bit hard to cut so make sure to use a strong knife and have a towel on hand to hold the squash down. Be careful not to cut off a finger!! If you have a strong man in the household, I'd recommend you have him cut the squash, unless you're stubborn ;).

Cut the squash horizontal, meaning from stem to tip, and not through the middle. Once you halve the squash clean out the seeds with a spoon. Next put a small dollop of butter in each squash. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with agave syrup. Squash is ready to go in the oven. Let it cook for a good 30 minutes before checking up on it. Even if it looks a bit "brown" on the top, make sure it is fully cooked by checking with a fork. If it is a bit hard to pull out, still needs more time to cook. Allow 5-10 more minutes and afterward take the squash out of the oven and cover with foil for a few more minutes to help soften. Then it is time to enjoy!

Ready for the oven.
 

Close up of the agave. I must admit the agave that leaked on the foil, after 
I took them out of the oven, it harden up like burnt sugar
and was hard like a sugar candy. It was good :)
  Yum yum almond breaded chicken. The perfect start to a Fall meal!
  My favorite go to tomato cucumber salad! Always a winner.
 

Have you ever had spaghetti squash? Acorn squash is similar by stringy texture, but it tends to be made with brown sugar and butter, while spaghetti squash is used for savory dishes like with butter, garlic and white wine. Also it used has a pasta alternative and you can top it with red sauce, another one of my favorites for the fall! I do have a question though. Is squash considered a fruit since it contains seeds inside? I should probably google this but I love reading my comments!

My dinner was delicious, I still love the almond chicken and haven't tired of it yet! My mom and I talked about making chili next week. She has an awesome recipe for Turkey Chili. My mouth waters as I type this out 9:00am this morning. LOL. My plans for this week? Well I have a can of pumpkin in my pantry. Which I feel the need to use. I want to make some more energy bars by using the pumpkin in them. I've been enjoying my primal energy bars from last week, but now it time to adapt my own version. I also have a graduation dinner tonight and a wedding tomorrow night. I'm glad my weekend won't be busy so I can relax!!

It is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday. Can't get any better then that!!

Always,
Fallon