Watch Out Top Chef!

Just a cute pic from the hay maze on a gorgeous, fall day!

See these cupcakes? October is the month of Willie's birthday AND Halloween. Normally around 3 o'clock or so, this is what I would have a hankerin' for. Not today. Last night my wonderful babysitter made halloween colored cupcakes with my boys. As much as I want them to eat healthy, they are kids. I have seen those kids whose parents restrict them from things and it is not good. I ate like crap when I was a kid. I saved up my coins to ride my bike up to PDQ to buy as much candy as I could with my money. I remember drinking 12 cans of pop at a slumber party. I ate donuts before track races. Look at me now...I survived. My hope is that eventually with constant education, our kids will make good choices about what they put in their bodies. For now, they will eat cupcakes, pancakes and waffles - oh my! I will also force them to eat their veggies. Okay, more like bargain with them but I can usually get some past their lips. Just introducing them to different foods and hoping they will like something that actually resembles food is a victory in itself!

WATCH OUT TOP CHEF!! Actually, I am no chef. My confidence in the kitchen is lacking, but tonight I took control and whipped up something with no recipe - totally winged it. I figured we'd either love this or be going out to dinner in short order.

We bought several acorn squashes from a farm this past weekend. I had remembered someone cooking up some stuffed acorn squash but I knew it had bread and other taboo stuff in it but I liked the idea. So, I cut 2 acorn squashes in half and cooked them open side down for 40 minutes at 350. While the squash was baking, I sauted up some sliced apples(3 honeycrisp) in coconut oil, and added some cinnamon and nutmeg because I just thought that sounded yummy. After the apples were ready, I put them aside and browned 1 lb ground spicy turkey sausage that we purchased from Whole Foods this past weekend with some onion. Once that was ready I mixed in the apple. When the squashes were done I turned them upright and stuffed as much of the meat/apple stuff in as I could, covered with tinfoil and baked for another 15-20 (til squash was ready).

Can I say yummy? YUMMY! I would cook this again in a heartbeat. Maybe add some diced red pepper to add a crunch or possibly some spinach sauteed into the mix to give it more color and nutrients. Thoughts on what else could be added?

This is the finished product pictured to the left. I scraped every last bit of squash off that skin. AND, guess what? I get to eat the other half tomorrow!