Week 5- What I Made and Ate This Week

My apologies for this post coming almost half a week late but I have several great excuses. 1) I had company in town this week, 2) I'm sick, and feeling pathetic (and whining a lot), and 3) I had this post completely typed out and then my dog... (you know the rest). So two of these excuses are true and while the third is false, I'm hoping the first two are compelling enough for you to forgive me. I could have just skipped this week but I really cooked and ate some delicious things that were too good to not share.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday: Leftovers, seriously I think we ate chili for what seemed like forever. But in the food world 5 days is pretty much forever (and touching on the verge of food so spoiled you just need to throw it out).

Thursday: Stuffed buttercup squash (V)
It's about time I cooked something this week. I had a buttercup squash sitting on my counter which made me think about the year we made stuffed squash for Thanksgiving. And I was still thinking about cranberries after the Indian shepherd's pie from last week. I didn't follow a recipe for this and surprisingly it still turned out really good!

Stuffed squash:
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water (or veggie stock)
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 buttercup squash (or you could use two acorn squash)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First, in a medium saucepan place the quinoa over medium heat. Toast the quinoa for 3-5 minutes until it is light brown. Add the water or stock to the quinoa and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, turn the heat down and simmer the quinoa for 20 minutes (exactly, so turn on your kitchen timer). While the quinoa is cooking, prepare your squash. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. If you When 20 minutes is up take the pan off of the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before uncovering. After 5 minutes you can fluff the quinoa with a fork if you like. Into the quinoa add the cheese, toasted pecans, cranberries, and salt and pepper. Just heat until the cheese starts to melt. Now take the quinoa mixture and divide evenly among the squash, smooshing it into the spots where the seeds once were. Place each squash in a shallow pan with a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Cook until the squash is tender, mine took about 40 minutes.

Saturday: Butternut squash soup and Spinach, tomato, and gruyere crepes
Saturday morning I had some very special visitors come over for brunch. And given that it was rainy and cold outside, I thought some warm fall soup would be just the thing to serve. A perfect pairing on the side seemed to be a savory crepe and of course a mimosa to wash everything down. The soup recipe called for a roasted red pepper puree and after tasting my soup both with and without the puree, I was more a fan of the soup without the puree. And the recipe I linked to for the crepes is just a basic crepe recipe so you can put whatever you like into these crepes. Because you know that a crepe filled with Nutella would be incredible! Especially when eaten on the streets of Paris!