Roast Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice, Sausage, Cranberries and Hazelnuts,

This one is really yummy. Chris says it's one of his new favorites. I made it with brown rice, because that's what I had, but I think wild rice would make it waaaay better. I added sausage and Parmesan for a little more substance, but this would be a great side dish to roasted or grilled meat if you didn't want to just make this. I used a mild sausage, but again, I really think this would be better if you used spicy Italian. I'm going to make this for my Grandma on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, since she tends to be overwhelmed with cooking afterward... It's such a perfect fall recipe.

Ingredients
2.5 Cups Cooked Wild or Brown Rice
3 small acorn squash (each about 10 to 12 ounces), cut in half, seeded, or 1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 finely chopped onions
2 teaspoons crumbled dried sage leaves

1 lb spicy Italian sausage (remove casings)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons dried cranberries (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons chopped toasted hazelnuts (about 3 ounces)
1/4-1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Directions
Cook Rice. Transfer rice to large bowl.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Oil baking sheet. Place squash, cut side down, on sheet. Bake until tender, about 40 minutes. Cool. Using spoon, scoop out pulp from squash, leaving 1/4-inch-thick shell; reserve shells. Transfer pulp to medium bowl. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

I did the first part of this while the squash was cooking to save time....
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until very tender, about 15 minutes. Add sage; stir 2 minutes. Add rice, squash pulp and lemon juice; stir until mixed, breaking up squash pulp into smaller pieces. Mix in 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 cup hazelnuts and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide rice mixture among reserved squash shells. Place in roasting pan. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.

Bake squash until filling is heated through, about 25 minutes.

Turnip and Onion Au Gratin

This is a pretty good approximation of potatoes au gratin, without the potato. If you have somebody who doesn't eat potato (freaks), make this for them. It's tasty! Not much else to say on it. Going to be a little of a recipe hiatus, since we're starting the cleanse Monday. I've started a separate journal geared toward that. Comment with your email address if you would like access. I'll continue to post on this journal as well, just in a limited way.

Bottom Line 4.3 Stars (Turnips just aren't potatoes)

Roast Chicken with Parmesan Garlic Rapini

I figure you can't really go wrong with parmesan and garlic. I'm not terribly comfortable with cooking rapini (broccoli raab), I've only done it once or twice in my life, but this looked simple enough. It was and it was suuuuuper tasty. The cheesey garlicky flavor mixed with that slightly spicy quality that rapini has was really good. Chris always looks a little nervous when there are veggies that he's never seen before but he really liked this. Although sometimes I think I could sautee a paper bag and as long as it had garlic on it he probably wouldn't complain too much. :P

My roast chicken is my Mom's recipe and it turns out pretty awesome every time. I'll include the recipe just in case anybody wants it.

Bottom Line: Rapini gets a solid 4 stars, good but not life changing.