Vegan Thanksgiving: Mashed Acorn Squash

A few years ago I would have no idea what to do with a squash. A coworker told me how good roasted squash is. She bought me a delicata squash and told me to just cut it in half and roast it. I was so intimidated by this new food that I never made it and the squash went bad sitting in my kitchen. Something clicked in me though, and not long after that I went and bought another squash, took it home and roasted it. I've been hooked ever since! It's so easy, versatile and delicious - I can't believe I was afraid of it!

This is my own creation, and I'm really sure where I came up with the idea. It's a super easy to make dish. I cut an acorn squash in half and scraped out the seeds. (Just about any winter squash will work.) I placed the pieces cut side down in a baking dish filed with a little water and roasted in the oven for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. I also roasted a few garlic cloves by sprinkling them with olive oil, wrapping them in foil and placing then placing them in the oven. Once it was cooked, I scraped all of the squash out of the skin and placed in a bowl. I added the roasted garlic cloves some olive oil and salt and pepper and mashed it all together with a potato masher. Mmm, mmm, good!

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Ratatouille Salad

I bought a round zucchini and a round eggplant at the farmers' market thinking I would make more veggie stacks.

And I bought these little tomatoes because they're so cute!

But then I saw this blog post on Organically Me with a recipe for ratatouille salad and decided to make it instead. Sadly, when I cut the zucchini open, it was very spongey, and I didn't think it would taste too good. So I ended up using some of the yellow and green squash I had instead. I chopped up the eggplant, squash, some mushrooms and some basil, added the cherry tomatoes and minced garlic and drizzled the whole mix with olive oil. I spread the veggies out over two baking sheets and cooked them for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Yes, I turned the oven on after saying I was going to do so this week, but it was totally worth it!

I also made the balsamic reduction mentioned in the post. It went really well with the veggies. This was super tasty and really pretty! Despite the fact that the oven had to be on, this was the perfect dish for the  summer veggies that are now in season.

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