Ok – sorry I slacked out there for a couple days – the MovNat experience workshop on Saturday, and general craziness on Sunday made for a little interruption on the posting here. I apologize for that, but it seems like many of you were outside and enjoying the great weather many of us had this weekend. As one to never skip out on my duties or promises, here’s the last little bit of Winter Squash goodness to finish out the first ever GiryaGirl.com (Winter) Squash Week:
Squash Week Day 6 – incredibly unglamorous edition – during times of extreme tiredness or busy schedules I like to have ingredients in the fridge either pre cooked or prepped in some way which are ready to be made into a hot meal at a moment’s notice. This approach will be further discussed in a brief section of my upcoming cookbook (start getting excited now), but it is a great way to stay on budget in lean times or to fight the temptation of getting takeout when pressed for time. I tend to track time and money on the same vector, but that’s another discussion for another time. As usual, I had made and pre cooked 4 burger patties made from 1 lb of grass fed ground beef the previous day. I used to weigh this out to make sure they were all 1/4lb, but having done this millions of times, I can now do this visually without much problem. This is a great way to portion meals too, I consider a “serving” of ground beef (depending on what I’ve done to myself that day) to be between 1/4lb and 1/2lb – so 1 or 2 cooked patties fits the bill there. Also on hand was pre cooked and shredded spaghetti squash strands, Whole Foods brand frozen organic cut leaf spinach, a slice of “criminally thick” bacon from Meat House of Winter Park, and a selection of spices. Keep in mind, in terms of spices, if you don’t want to get overly crazy, good old high quality salt and pepper will also do well. Basically all you need to do is cook the bacon in a medium hot cast iron skillet until browned and crispy – then set it aside – toss in approx 1-1.5 cups of dry spaghetti squash strands and a crumbled up pre-cooked burger patty – add a fist full or two of frozen spinach and heat everything through, stirring constantly – add in your spices of choice or a little salt/pepper. To bring it all together with added nutrition, pour 2-4 beaten eggs over this mixture and flip like an omelet when the bottom has browned. Alternately you can broil the top in the oven. Unglamorous, but quick and seriously nutritious! I eat things like this all the time – its a great way to finish off leftovers or little bits of veggies etc. Occasionally I’ll toss in some feta or goat cheese towards the end.
Final Squash Week entry: – Day 7 – Sunday – I concluded with a very typical GiryaGirl HQ dinner of grass fed sirloin steak, skillet cooked of course – topped with Montechevre goat blue cheese and served with a side of the last of the Swiss chard and skillet fried pre-cooked spaghetti squash threads – I tossed them around in the still hot pan after the chard – which lightly colored the noodles – looked great for the 10 seconds before I ate it all. Again pre-cooking squash and having it ready is a real time saver. Alternately I could have prepared thin slices of butternut squash and pan fried them like hash browns, or baked an acorn, delicata or other small sweet tasting squash as a side dish – the possibilities are endless!
Keep your eyes open for a MovNat Experience recap coming either tonight or tomorrow morning – and let me know about your favorite squash recipe!
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