Stuffed Squash - A Party in a Bowl

There were two little confetti squash sitting on my counter saying "Eat me, you know you want to." But what to do with them? After a very short search, this recipe jumped off the screen.

http://www.epicurean.com/featured/pecan-and-wild-rice-stuffed-squash-recipe.html

Oh how exciting! Instead of my usual vegan dinner of brown rice and stir fry vegetables, I was making a party in a bowl! No hum drum boring routine dinner here! Where's the confetti?! (I SEE you two, I meant the paper confetti).

Using what was available without a trip to the store, here's the new version:

2 small organic confetti squash
1/2 cup wild rice (I used the organic Harvest Medley mix from Costco)
1 1/4 cups water
3-4 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 stalks organic celery, minced
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 large button mushrooms, chopped
a few sprigs fresh thyme, taken off the stem
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 toasted sunflower seeds
handful of toasted walnuts
1 tablespoon hemp seeds
1/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup leftover cooked quinoa and lentils

The leftover quinoa and lentils was cooked together with a clove of garlic and some thyme sprigs in water - ratio of 1:2.

Simmer the rice in the water for 25 minutes. Cut squash in half and bake at 350 in a bit of water with the cut side down. Do some web surfing.

Turn all the heat off, take the squash out of the oven. Toast the sunflower seeds, then the walnuts, dump into a big bowl with the rice. Break up any big pieces of walnut with your fingers, or mortar and pestle. Saute onion and celery. While cooking, dump in the mushrooms, some raisins, hemp seeds, all the herbs and spices into the bowl while talking on the phone. This will ensure some mistaken spice gets added. Mine was ginger. Try to take as much out as you can. Dump in the onion and celery when done. Scrape some of the squash flesh out, add to the bowl and mix well. If the squash is still a bit hard, chop it a bit, or smush it up with your fingers. Add in the leftover quinoa and lentil mixture to make sure you have leftovers for lunch. Stuff the squash and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Put the extra rice mix into an ovenproof bowl.

When cool, put the leftover rice mixture into a lunch box for work the next day.

So yummy and exciting!! With fanfare I presented it to the children, much to their dismay. The ginger and nutmeg were too warm in their mouths to enjoy it. They loved poking at the squash though!

Both my husband and I loved the dinner. Next time, I think I'll skip the phone conversation and put in a pinch of nutmeg with a half teaspoon of cinnamon, and no ginger. There will definitely be a next time. This dinner was EASY to make, and could be made in advance too. Just make the rice, quinoa and lentils, and bake the squash in advance. Then saute the onions and celery and add the remaining ingredients before you stuff and bake for 45 minutes.