{"id":15194,"date":"2013-10-14T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T05:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15194"},"modified":"2013-10-13T15:26:40","modified_gmt":"2013-10-13T20:26:40","slug":"stuffed-acorn-squash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/14\/stuffed-acorn-squash\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuffed Acorn Squash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here on our Monday installment of <strong>At Home w\/ GCH<\/strong>, we are continuing to focus on <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Fall in-season fruits and veggies<\/span>.\u00a0 This week, our recipe features <span style=\"color: #008000;\">Acorn Squash<\/span>.\u00a0 Ok, ok, I am sure you have noticed that I have a \u2018thing\u2019 for winter squash.\u00a0 I love \u2018em all&#8230;but my fav\u2019s are Butternut, Spaghetti, <span style=\"color: #008000;\">Acorn<\/span>, Delicata, and Sweet Dumpling.\u00a0 Check out this<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Winter_squash\" target=\"_blank\"> link<\/a> for lots more info on winter squashes and details on the incredible nutritional value they have.<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s recipe fits into our <strong><em>healthy but-oh-so-yummy! category<\/em><\/strong> since it is full of lucious veggies, uses low-fat ground chicken, and almost no added fat.\u00a0 Also, this could easily become a vegetarian meal by leaving out the meat.\u00a0 Also, you will have some leftover stuffing so you could enjoy it in a different &#8220;container&#8221; i.e., portabello caps, or zucchini; thus getting two meals for your effort!\u00a0 Enjoy!<a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.06.00.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-15195\" alt=\"2013-10-09 19.06.00\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.06.00-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.06.00-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.06.00.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Stuffed <span style=\"color: #008000;\">Acorn Squash<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Ingredients:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n2 acorn squash, rinsed<br \/>\n1 tablespoon butter<br \/>\nsalt and pepper<br \/>\n1 cup water<br \/>\n1 cup chicken or vegetable broth<br \/>\n1 cup quinoa (I used red quinoa)<br \/>\n1 medium-sized sweet onion, chopped<br \/>\n4-6 large Baby Bella mushrooms, cleaned and chopped<br \/>\n3 tablespoons chopped garlic<br \/>\n2 large handfuls baby arugula (or spinach) 2-3 ounces, roughly chopped<br \/>\n3-4 tablespoons pine nuts<br \/>\n1\/2 cup dried cranberries<br \/>\n2# ground chicken<br \/>\n1 teaspoon thyme<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon ground sage<br \/>\n1 teaspoon each, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper<br \/>\n4 slices (1 ounce each) of smoked gouda (or muenster, or swiss)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Directions:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Preheat oven to 400.<\/li>\n<li>CAREFULLY cut each squash in half lengthwise; scoop out seeds and strings. Season the inside of each squash well with a bit of butter, and lots of freshly ground salt and pepper.\u00a0 Place each half, cavity side up on a baking sheet and roast \u2018til tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.<\/li>\n<li>Reduce oven temperature to 350.<\/li>\n<li>Cook quinoa according to package directions, using water and broth. When done, pour into a large bowl; set aside.\u00a0 (NOTE: the squash and the quinoa can be prepared ahead of time.)<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, in a large saute pan over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil; then add the onion and mushroom pieces.\u00a0 Stirring often, saute \u2018til just turning slighty brown and caramelized.<\/li>\n<li>Add the chopped garlic and stir constantly for one minute.<\/li>\n<li>Reduce heat and toss in the chopped arugula.\u00a0 Stir frequently and cook just \u2018til the greens are getting wilty; approximately 5 minutes or so.<\/li>\n<li>Add this mixture to the cooked quinoa along with the pine nuts and dried cranberries, and stir \u2018til all is well-combined.<\/li>\n<li>Using the same pan, add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and the ground chicken and seasonings.\u00a0 Cook over medium high heat, \u2018til the chicken is completely cooked through.\u00a0 Break up the meat as it cooks.<\/li>\n<li>When the chicken is done cooking, add it to the mixture in the large bowl and combine.<\/li>\n<li>Fill each squash half equally with veggie-quinoa-chicken mixture and bake, uncovered, \u2018til filling is slightly browned on top about 15 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Lay one slice of cheese on each squash half and bake just \u2018til cheese begins to melt.<a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.11.52.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-15196\" alt=\"2013-10-09 19.11.52\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.11.52-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.11.52-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.11.52.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">\u2665\u00a0 \u2665\u00a0 \u2665\u00a0 \u2665\u00a0 \u2665<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>God loves you<\/strong>! <span style=\"color: #008000;\">\u00a0\u2665<\/span> \u00a0(Don\u2019t <strong><em>ever<\/em> <\/strong>forget that!)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">\u2665<\/span>\u00a0 coleen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here on our Monday installment of At Home w\/ GCH, we are continuing to focus on Fall in-season fruits and veggies.\u00a0 This week, our recipe features Acorn Squash.\u00a0 Ok, ok, I am sure you have noticed that I have a \u2018thing\u2019 for winter squash.\u00a0 I love \u2018em all&#8230;but my fav\u2019s are Butternut, Spaghetti, Acorn, Delicata, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":15196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[4087,2924,3038,4089,235,4086,425,4084,483,4090,1652,4083,4088,1101,4085],"class_list":["post-15194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-at-home-with-gch","tag-acorn-squash-recipes","tag-arugula","tag-at-home-w-gch","tag-baby-bellas","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-dried-cranberries","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-ground-chicken-recipes","tag-healthy-but-oh-so-yummy","tag-onion","tag-pine-nuts","tag-quinoa-recipes","tag-stuffed-acorn-squash","tag-vegetarian","tag-winter-squash-recipes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-19.11.52.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3X4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15216,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194\/revisions\/15216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}