If squirrels ate vegetables…

They’d eat acorn squash! OK, I know, cue the shepherd’s hood, lol.

I give you, acorn squash!

Today, thanks to an recipe from $5 Dinners, I decided to try a new veggie. You can visit her page the full, original recipe for Honey Roasted Chicken and Acorn Squash (and some other yummy ones). Here’s my acorn squash experience.

The first step was to cut it in half (lengthwise). That was the hardest part! My tip is to use a very big knife and don’t try to cut through the stem. Once you get it open, scoop out the seeds (which you can keep and roast if you want).

Guts 🙂

Then cut it into sections along its seams and put in a baking dish. I used a Pyrex glass pie dish since the round shape worked with the wedges. Here they are baking alongside the chicken.

While they are baking for 20 minutes, I whisked 1/4 c. butter, 1/4 c. honey and a couple dashes of ground ginger and cinnamon. My tip on this is when the recipe says softened, make sure it’s softened! Otherwise when you try to whisk, you get this fun globule inside your whisk instead. Live and learn…

Take out the squash and pour the honey butter mix on the wedges then bake for 20 more minutes. When that timer goes off, you’ll know they are ready because they will slightly browned and glistening and your house will smell delicious.

Jeremy wasn’t home yet so I asked Alaska if she wanted to try acorn squash.

She's intrigued

She sniffed at it and then gently took some courtesy bites before inhaling the whole piece!

Yum! One happy taste tester

It was defintely a success. The flavor was wonderful but sadly, a texture issue prevailed and so we each only had one piece. It’s quite thick and mushy…Jeremy compared it to yams or sweet potato mash. Maybe I’ll peel the rinds off and actually mash them? Oh well, I served it with the chicken (marinated overnight in the honey, ginger, cinnamon combo) and Uncle Ben’s 90 second whole grain brown rice (it’s the jam and ridiculously easy).

Overall, I’m glad I tried it. And I’m sure there are lots of ways to try it–anyone have stories to share? Have you tried any new foods lately?