Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

Hi friends! My name is Stephanie and I have a little food blog called Part-Time Hippy.  I consider myself a part-time hippy and a full-time foodie. I'm very excited to introduce myself and share a recipe here for Danielle. 

I'm originally from Idaho and currently live in Salt Lake City with my husband Dan. I recently switched from running a piano and voice studio to working as an enrollment counselor for a university. In the little spare time I have, I love hiking, backpacking, biking, thrifting, finding vintage treasures, and of course, eating delicious food. 

I love food, pure and simple. I love blogging about everything from super healthy food to food full of butter and sugar. I'm so excited to share this post here on Blissful and Domestic. I have this awesome cookbook from the 80's that says "Updated for the 90's" on the front cover. It's called "Recipes to lower your fat thermostat." Who doesn't want to do that??? 

This recipe is wholesome, filling, tasty, and very inexpensive to make. This Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash is a great way to use up squash from your garden that's been sitting all alone on your counter.The filling reminds me of Thanksgiving stuffing and can be made with Quinoa or brown rice. Besides the baking process, this came together in about 10 minutes.

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash, serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C cooked quinoa or brown rice (Quinoa cooks like rice- simply rinse your quinoa, add 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn down to a simmer and cover for about 20 minutes. The quinoa will be transparent and glassy when it is cooked)
• 1/2 C dried whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 egg whites, slightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 2 tsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 3 acorn squash

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients except squash.
2. Cut squash in half. Clean out seeds and discard them.
3. Fill each squash half with quinoa or rice mixture, heaping slightly.
4. Place squash in a nonstick casserole dish. Seal with foil. Bake at 350 until squash is tender, about 1 hour. Serve.

You might also like my blueberry blue cheese spinach salad, Chicken Roll Ups, Black Bean Flourless Brownies, Red Velvet Brownies, Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken, or my Warm Quinoa Salad with Tofu and Asparagus.
 Printable Version

Thanks again for letting me share today on Blissful and Domestic! 

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Green peppers are really cheap at the farmer's market and of course my sense of reality gets fuzzy when I go to the farmer's market which basically equates to me thinking I can consume 16 peppers in one week. What better way to devour a green pepper than when it's stuffed with other veggies from the farmer's market??? No "wasted produce" guilt here. This recipe originally calls for couscous but I swapped it for quinoa. They were delicious, filling, and very healthy.

Adapted from ChangeOne for Diabetes

Ingredients:

6 large bell peppers (any color)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small zucchini, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 C cooked couscous (OR use cooked quinoa!)
1 can (15 ounced) chick-peas, drained and rinsed
1 ripe tomato, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 C crumbled feta cheese (I used shredded parmesan bc that's what I had)

1. Slice the tops off the peppers to make lids. Scoop out the membranes and seeds and discard. Simmer the peppers and lids, covered, in a large saucepan of lightly salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 and heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

(This is a plug for my favorite kitchen gadget, the Vidalia Chop Wizard! See how finely chopped the zucchini is?)

Add the zucchini and garlic and saute' for 2 minutes Stir in the lemon juice. Cook for 1 minute and remove from the heat. Stir in the couscous, chickpeas, tomato, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir in the cheese.

3. Fill each pepper with the couscous mixture and place upright in a shallow baking dish. Cover with the pepper tops and bake just until the filling is heated through, about 20 minutes.

Printable Version

Mystery Squash Rainbow Surprise and Warm Quinoa

Fall is an exquisite season. It is my favorite time of year and my favorite time to zip up my fleece jacket and head to the farmer's market on Saturday. I love seeing the old pickup trucks overflowing with pumpkins, gourds, and 3 foot long mystery squash. I picked up some mystery squash a couple weeks ago and they have been staring at me for days. I started chopping and sauteing my farmer's market veggies in some olive oil and what happened next really surprised me. I stopped eating it so I could take a picture because this dish suddenly became blog-worthy. I thought my invention would be one of those times where you eat something because it is SO good for you, not because it tasted good. This was delicious and I ate every last morsel. This is a serving for one, so adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized mystery squash. I believe mine was of the zucchini family.

1/2 C chopped red cabbage

1/4 C finely chopped onion

1 Leek

1/2 C grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 tsp minced garlic

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 C water

1/2 C cooked quinoa 

1. Wash and scrub all vegetables. Starting with the zucchini, cut lengthwise and remove large seeds. Cut each length into thin slices. Next chop the leek into thin slices, making sure to only use the white bulb and stem until you reach the long sprouting leaves.

2. Heat olive oil on medium heat and add the garlic and onion until fragrant, about a minute. Add zucchini, red cabbage, and leek and saute until soft, about 6 minutes. Add the water a little at a time while sauteing to make sure it doesn't burn. 

3. Add the cherry/grape tomatoes and the juice of the lemon and simmer covered for about 2 minutes. Allow excess liquids to reduce before serving.

6. Serve atop 1/2 C warm Quinoa 

*Quinoa cooks like rice. In a small saucepan, cover 1 C quinoa with 2 C water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes. Don't peek at it or you'll let the steam fairies escape. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Warm Quinoa salad with tofu and asparagus

Asparagus is by FAR my favorite vegetable. When Sunflower Market had it on sale for only $1.27 a pound this week, I bought 8 bunches because I know I will probably have to wait until next Spring before it goes on sale again. I would also classify quinoa as one of my favorite grains so a salad with both my favorites foods and a few other star foods like sun-dried tomatoes, lemon, garlic, and tofu is the best thing I've eaten in a long time. I used my Whole Foods cookbook as a guide but since I deviated from the original so far, I had to rename the recipe! This recipe is for a single serving so adjust accordingly.

Printable Version

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 C frozen peas
5-8 spears of asparagus, woody ends discarded, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 C cooked quinoa (May be cooked in chicken broth for extra flavor)
1-2 tsp minced garlic, the fresher the better!
1-4 tsp lemon zest, you decide
1-2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 block of extra firm tofu, diced. 1/4 block should equal 1 serving according to the package
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. To cook your quinoa, rinse your quinoa thoroughly to get rid of the bitter coating. After rinsing, place in a pot and cover with double amounts of water. It cooks similar to rice so if you have 1 C of quinoa, cover with 2 C water. Bring to a boil then turn heat down to low and cover for 20 minutes and don't peek or you'll let the precious steam out! This recipe works well with savory quinoa, so cooking in chicken broth instead of water would work too.

2. In medium skillet, saute the garlic in the olive oil on medium-high until fragrant. Add the sun-dried tomatoes. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice, cook 1-2 minutes.

3. Add chopped tofu and cook until almost browned, about 4 minutes.

4. Reduce heat to medium-ish and add the chopped asparagus and frozen peas. Cover and let cook until the asparagus is tender but not wilted.

5. Add cooked quinoa and stir until all combined. Continue cooking for about 1 minute. Salt and Pepper to taste and serve immediately.