Baked Acorn Squash with Sauteed Mushrooms, Onions and Garlic

 Squash sounded good.  Trying to eat somewhat healthy, I decided on stuffed squash.  Yep, had to add just a little bit of butter.  What is squash without butter?  Not sure, maybe I'll try that next.  Had a bag of quinoa in the cupboard.  Bought an Artichoke Garlic Paste from an olive and vinegar shop in the mall so I thought I would try that in this dish.  Measurements, of course, are estimates and cooking times are pretty close.

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 Acorn Squash

1 TBSP butter, unsalted

Olive oil

2 TBSP garlic

1 small onion

1 TBPS Artichoke and Garlic Paste

2 medium to large Portobello mushrooms

Cook 1 cup quinoa per directions on bag or box that it came in. (I cook quinoa in a rice cooker)

Preheat oven to 400.  Fill 9 x 13 glass baking dish with enough water to fill about ½ inch from bottom.  Cut acorn squash in ½, lengthwise.  Clean scoop the middle out.  Put in glass baking dish cut side up.  Add ½ tbsp butter to each ½.  Stick in the oven for about 40 minutes.

While the squash is baking, sauté garlic until it starts turning brown.  Add onions and sauté until they start softening.  Add Artichoke and Garlic Paste and Portobello mushrooms.  Sauté until everything is softened.  Of course, I tasted it and decided it was cooked enough, so basically sauté to taste.  Add cooked quinoa to the sautéed mix. 

Take the squash out of the oven, the top will be starting to brown and the water is probably pretty much gone.  Add sautéed mix to the pan and flip squash, cut side down onto the sautéed mix.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and about 1 cup water.  Put back into the oven for about 15 more minutes. 

Shrimp Mushroom Dish

Since I liked the mushroom snack from the other night, I went to the store and bought more mushrooms, more cilantro and of course some other things since I went to the store hungry.  Here's the result.

8 oz Arriba Medium Fire Roasted Mexican Chipotle Salsa Made from Smoked Jalapenos.
1-16 oz frozen package of edamame shelled soybeans
1-16 oz package of gourmet stuffer mushrooms, sliced (minus a few slices to snack on while making the dish)
½ Cup cilantro, chopped
½ lb cooked prawns, chopped into bite size (minus a few bite sizes snacked on while making the dish)
1 avocado

Pour salsa in a sauce pan and turn burner to medium.  Pour soybeans over salsa.  Simmer on medium while cleaning and slicing mushrooms.  Clean and slice mushrooms and add them to simmering soybeans.  Wash and chop cilantro and add them to simmering mix.  Remove tails from prawns, rinse and chop into bite size and add to simmering mix.  Simmer a little longer until.  Serve with sliced avocado.

Simmered Mushroom Snack

Trying to stay healthy with snacks lately. 
One packet of mushrooms (those little blue containers of mushrooms)
Roasted Chipotle salsa
Cilantro to taste

Rinse mushrooms and slice (not too thinly).  Throw into small saucepan with just enough salsa to keep mushrooms from sticking.  Simmer until mushrooms are warmed through.  Add salsa and simmer a little longer until mushrooms are cooked to taste.  Some people like mushrooms cooked until reduced.  I like mushrooms that are still a little firm.  Enjoy!

Juicing - Grapefruit Juice

Decided to start juicing again.  Lupus decided to give me a bad time this winter.  This is a simple grapefruit juice that I like. 

3 red grapefruits - peeled
1 red delicious apple

My juicer does not have one of those nice large mouth openings to put a whole grapefruit or apple in so I have to cut them into just the right size to drop in.  I put the fruit through the juicer.  After juicing, I pour the batch into an airtight container for no more than 48 hours.  Usually I drink a batch within 24 hours.  I like tart grapefruit juice.  You could add more apples for a more sweeter taste.

Chicken Chili

Finally a new post!  I haven't posted since I decided to go back to school.  Yes, back to school!  Enjoying it almost as much as I enjoy cooking!  Really...no joke! :)  I've decided to cook some meals and freeze them so I have something to pull from the freezer during the school quarter.  I've done a great job procrastinating until the day before school starts.  

Normally I make turkey chili.  Today I have extra chicken that needs to be used so my niece and I will have chicken chili.  Side note while the garlic and onion are cooking, don't get side tracked by Words with Friends, the garlic and onion might get a little over cooked.  I probably used about 2 TBSP minced garlic.  I used Canola oil instead of olive oil because it was in the cupboard.  I didn't use pepper since I didn't have any, but I did use salt.  

1 pkg chili powder (I used McCormick Chili Seasoning Mix – 30% less sodium)
1 TBSP garlic or more if you love garlic
2 small onions
Olive oil
3 ½ cups diced cooked chicken

dash of salt and pepper
1 large 28 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
cilantro
sour cream
shredded cheese

Saute onion and garlic in canola oil. Add chicken, brown, and season with salt and pepper. Pour into a crockpot.  Add the chili powder to the crockpot and follow directions. Open all the cans and pour it in the crockpot. (I drain corn but nothing else). Season and cook on high for 30 minutes then turn to low for at least an hour. Serve with cilantro, sour cream and shredded cheese. 

Ground Turkey Tater Tot Casserole

There are so many versions of this recipe online.  I’ve decided to take the general idea and put together one with ground turkey instead of hamburger and use items that are in the cupboard and fridge already.  If you are kind of bored and really don’t have much to do the rest of the day, line the tater tots up in single lines.  Using a food processor makes grating cheese so easy!

2 1/2 lbs ground turkey

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp garlic powder

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cans of green beans

2 1/2 lbs of tater tots (1 two lb bag plus part of another bag)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown ground turkey, drain.  Add soup and green beans, mix together.  Pour mixture in 11x13 glass baking dish.  Sprinkle 4 cups of the cheese over mixture.  Place tater tots on top of the cheese.  Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the tater tots.  Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Before Cheese.

 After Cheese.

Pasta with Pesto and Shrimp

This is another modified recipe.  The original recipe came from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook.

Decided not to use pine nuts, instead used sliced almonds.  Since my friends and I like garlic I added 2 cloves instead of 1 clove.  Since we didn’t have angel hair pasta, I used garden rotini pasta.  The original recipe didn’t call for shrimp, but it sounded good so of course I threw it in.

Pasta and Shrimp

1 pkg Garden Rotini pasta

2 cups shrimp

2 TBSP Butter

¼ tsp salt

Pesto

1 ½ cups packed fresh basil

2 cloves garlic

1 TBPS olive oil

½ cup lightly toasted sliced almonds

Toppings

Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Ceasar

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cooked the pasta according to package directions.  When I drained the pasta, I drained the liquid into a bowl and set it aside.  Cooked the shrimp in butter.  Finely pureed pesto ingredients in a food processor.  Re-added the pasta back into the pan, added the pesto and the shrimp in addition to 6 TBPS water from the cooked pasta.  Serve in bowls and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.  One person added a few teaspoons of Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Caesar salad dressing and it ended up tasting pretty good.