Baked Whole Butternut Squash - Who Knew?

I live on the lakeshore in beautiful Grand Haven, Michigan.  The summers here are so lovely, with the beach and the water and the tourists, live music, festivals...

...but the winters are NO joke.  "Harsh" is an understatement. Historically, I turn to "comfort food," which translates to anything warm and cheesy, warm and sugary, or warm and carby.  
I've been working hard on a healthier lifestyle and have long been a vegetarian.  When the weather changed from tropical to TORRID...I began to crave my delicious comfort food, and had to find an alternative.  I love squash!  :)

I found this GIANT butternut last week and was dreading trying to split it.  I figured, hey..why not?  SO I took a leap of faith and did something DARING......I cooked it whole!  (I know, crazy.)

This was the easiest thing EVER. I did not prepare the squash in any way at all.   I laid it on an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet, set the oven to 375 and waited, hoping it wouldn't burn my house down or explode.  Neither happened, but in about a half hour, my house smelled just heavenly.

I cooked this for about ah hour and a half...I knew it was finished when I could poke a fork in the thickest spot with no resistance. When it cam out, I noticed, to my DELIGHT, that the skin had pulled form the meat and it...omggg it caramelized!

I impatiently let it cool a little and split it open...ohhhhh, hello, lover.

I scooped the seeds and removed the skin, which was so easy.  Zero waste.

And .....here's my yield.

That's a LOT.  Because I didn't split or prick the squash, the inside steamed perfectly in its own juices.  The caramelization of the skin gave it a wonderful, rich flavor  It was perfect and now this my go-to technique for squash!   This is loaded with nutrients and was good enough to eat plain, no butter, salt, nothing. I've always been reluctant to buy/cook butternuts because I have an awful time splitting them and I hated peeling them. 

I ate almost all of it *haha*..and froze some for later.  Later..tomorrow. :)



Enjoy!

Delicious Butter Baked and Broiled Cabbage Slabs.

OH my heavens.

I'm a vegetarian.  I don't know how or why this even happened, but over the course of a year, maybe two, I found myself really loving a meatless lifestyle.  I do love animals, but I'm not going to throw ketchup on your furs, I'm just feeling a lot better going veggie. AND I get to eat dishes like THESE for BREAKFAST!

SO here's how its done..and there's nothing complicated about this at ALL so please tweak my recipe to your liking.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Your cabbage:  I cut mine into 1/2 inch slabs. I like my cabbage "al dente"..not slimy and flaccid. (giggle)

Prepare your cookie sheet by brushing it with some olive oil.  give it a good coat.

Now. lay down your cabbage slabs and just smear the heck out of them with REAL, salted BUTTER.  OH yeah, baby....I said it.  BUTTER.  It's good for you.  Get that butter all over the place.  Grind some sea salt and some fresh peppercorns on top of that.  OH MY GOSH.

NOW we COOK!

Put. It. In. The. Oven.  Now set your timer for 20 minutes, but check at about 15 minutes.  When the bottoms are becoming brown and the cabbage is turning translucent, flip 'em...let them bake for 15 more minutes.

Now turn your oven to broil and give them a nice brown.  The tops will caramelize with the butter and THAT'S what we're looking for.  My oven took about 7 minutes, yours might take more or less time, so keep your eye on it.

Here's what we want to see:

LAWD ALMIGHTY.

You're almost done.  You can eat this as is and its delicious.  If you're a carnivore, add some bacon bits.  I love to serve mine with some good marinara, and a sprinkling of parmesan....whatever you decide, I promise, that caramelized cabbage, butter and salt and pepper is absolutely to die for. 

Here's mine, seconds before I devoured it. (at 10am)  haha!  Enjoy! 

Tell me how you tweaked this to you or your family's liking in my comment section!  

Thanks for visiting!

Karen

This girl right here will NEVER stop dancing, singing (poorly), being enchanted, or give up, never. ever.ever.

My Personal Bill of Rights.

I have the right to ask for what I want.
I have the right to say no to requests or demands I cannot or am unwilling to meet.
I have the right to express all of my feelings, positive or negative.
I have the right to change my mind.
I have the right to make mistakes and not have to be perfect.
I have the right to follow my own values and standards.
I have the right to say no to anything when I feel I am not ready, it is unsafe, or it violates my values.
I have the right to determine my own priorities.
I have the right NOT to be responsible for others’ behaviors, actions, feelings or problems.
I have the right to expect honesty from others.
I have the right to be angry at someone I love.
I have the right to be uniquely myself.
I have the right to feel scared and say, “I’m afraid.”
I have the right to say, “I don’t know.”
I have the right not to give excuses or reasons for my behavior and choices.
I have the right to make decisions based on my feelings.
I have the right to my own needs for personal space and time.
I have the right to be playful and frivolous.
I have the right to be healthier than those around me.
I have the right to be in a non-abusive environment.
I have the right to choose my friends and be comfortable around people.
I have the right to change and grow.
I have the right to have my needs and wants respected by others.
I have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
I have the right to be deeply centered and peaceful.
I have the right to be happy.
I have the right to exercise these rights without retaliation.

My Latest Favorite Snack...

Isn't this just lovely?

It's so simple, just fresh blueberries and good, tangy feta cheese.

Doesn't that seem like an odd combination?  I've been addicted to this since we moved here to 

Grand Haven, Michigan,  Blueberry USA. :)

Anyhow, I encourage you to try this and let me know what you think

Namaste.

Karen

Buh Bye Negativity.

YEP!  104 miles, to be exact! 

Rainbow Cupcakes!

Rainbow cupcakes!  These are fun and easy to make if you follow a couple of helpful hints!  REALLY!  They look like a mess, but trust me, if I can do this so can anyone!

First: Use a white cake mix, any type will do, but be sure to not add the egg yolks, egg whites only, we're going for bright, vibrant color here.

Second:  

Have on hand 6 small (sandwich size) Ziplock bags..you will mix your batter and colors in these.

OK....Mix your batter according to the directions on the box.  (these are far from gourmet..if you prefer a homemade from scratch recipe, wellthen rock and roll.)...the kids were fine with the box recipe.

Divide, (we just eyeballed it)...your batter into 6 somewhat equal parts and put them into your Ziplock bags. 

Here's your color recipe:

RAINBOW COLOR	DROPS OF FOOD COLORING
Purple	9 red and 6 blue drops
Blue	12 drops
Green	12 drops
Yellow	12 drops
Orange	12 yellow and 4 red drops
Red	18 drops

Add to each ziplock bag and squish with your hands....don't worry, this doesn't effect the batter at all,  I was worried, but it didn't.

Using your scissors, cut a wee corner out of each Ziplock bag.

Squeeze just enough batter to cover the bottoms of your lined cupcake pan....keep adding layers until you have used each color, in rainbow order....be careful not to overfill your cupcakes, as I did a few times...be very gentle here, don't disturb the batter at allll...you will end up with mud cupcakes, not rainbow cupcakes, and that would be tragic.

Bake according to package directions....voila. 

Frost with your choice of frosting, we chose vanilla with sprinkles and they turned out darling.

Have fun with this!  We sure did,  We'll be making these again for sure!

Namaste.

Karen