Roasted Acorn Squash with Sauteed Tatsoi Greens

I really cherish my days off. Not only because I don't have to work, but at the end of the day I have a little extra energy to be more adventurous in the kitchen. Yesterday was another wonderful 78 degrees and sunny, which made it an even better day! I also mailed off my big grad school project, so now I wait to see if the committee passes me or gives me feedback to make changes. Yippie! I also started packing up the apartment because we move into the new house on December 3rd--and.i.cannot.wait! I can't believe we are packing up again, but this time it seems to be going a little easier, mostly because I don't think we ever settled into this place like our condo back in the 'Burg.


I had originally planned for the butternut squash dish to last us two nights, but you all know about the starving man living with me, so that just didn't work out as planned. While at the farmers market yesterday, I picked up an acorn squash because I wanted to try cooking it. I had a couple of ideas in mind, but ended up using this recipe that I found at www.simplerecipes.com :

 

Source: simplyrecipes.com via Megan on Pinterest

I served it with some sauteed tatsoi greens that I also found at the farmers market and a rice and orzo pilaf from Trader Joe's. It was another dinner full of the fresh, healthy flavors of fall.

Roasted Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, cut in half from stem to end

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Place the acorn halves in a baking dish and pour in about 1/4 in of water to keep the skin from burning and to help in the cooking process.

Coat the insides of the squash with butter. Add the dash of salt to each (if you use no salt butter). Sprinkle 1 tbsp of brown sugar into each half and then drizzle 1 tbsp of maple syrup over each half.  

Bake for about 1 hr.

With 20 minutes to go on the squash follow the box directions for this delicious rice/orzo pilaf:

Once you have that simmering on the stove, rinse the greens and de-stem them. Tear them into smaller pieces. On the stove, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil to medium heat in a medium skillet. Then add my no-fail-delicious-greens ingredients: cracked red pepper (2 pinches) and a whole garlic clove (you can kind of pop it open with the side of your knife first).

When the oil is hot, remove the garlic and add the greens. Cook until tender. By the time the greens finished up the pilaf and squash were ready, so I plated the three and added a dash of parsley left over from last night's meal. 

This was very filling and totally delicious. I actually would scoop out a 1/2 spoon of acorn and eat it with a 1/2 spoon of the rice--the sweet and savory combo was amazing. Those greens were great too. You can do the same with spinach or any other dark, leafy green!

Who is ready for Thanksgiving??? We are hitting the road tonight on our trip to PA with a little lay-over in VA to pick up my beautiful sis-in-law. What are your travel plans?