Hey guys! It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve sat down to write a post and so much has happened… the most exciting thing is that I’m a GRANDMA! I was able to spend a bit of time with the new parents and I got quite a few snuggles in with the little one before I had to come home. Mr. Awesome and the kids did a great job holding down the fort although the goats did get out and they ate my blackberry bushes. When I asked my husband about it he looked to where I was pointing and said ‘What blackberries?’… they have had quite a hard pruning but I’m hoping they’ll come back better than ever.

We’ve been busy before and after this little ‘vacation’ trying to get our winter gardens in place… the chickens had eaten some of our plants and then someone forgot to water them for a few days so we had a little bit of triage to do and we did have to replace s few things. While planting we are also harvesting what we can from what plants are remaining. I know we really enjoyed the Rosella greens last year so we definitely wanted to give them a go again. I also wanted to try to use some sweet potato leaves as a spinach alternative. I had read something the other day about how it wasn’t always hard to grow different foods but we need to learn to eat what we grow… I really want everything we put our time and energy into to provide us with something whether it’s just nice to look at, to smell, or to eat.

Rosella leaves are not for everyone as they can be a bit on the ‘tangy’ side but when paired with a milder green they balance out and the sweetness of the squash in this recipe definitely works well with them.

We happened to be at Aldi’s and saw a frozen package of ‘Butternut Squash Blend’… it looked pretty good and I thought I could probably recreate it at home. I’m so glad we tried this out… I wrote down what I did so I could make it again and I wanted to share it with you and have a safe place to put the recipe in case I need to refer back to it in the future.

I also needed to use up some things in the fridge so I just pulled out different items and got to work. This combination would also work great on a salad with or without some meat… I’m eating some of the leftovers right now and it’s even better than it was last night!

If you give this a try please let me know in the comments!

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Butternut Squash Medley or Salad

This could probably be made on the stovetop or in a crockpot but I haven’t tried that yet.

Ingredients:

Roasted Squash:

• Butternut squash, peeled and diced
• Olive oil or other oil for coating the squash
• Garlic salt and pepper to taste
• Onion, diced

Sauteed Spinach:

• 1- 2 c. spinach, Rosella, or sweet potato leaves, washed and chopped –you can use any combination or use all spinach
• 6 pieces of bacon, chopped and cooked

optional add-ins:

• Dried cranberries or raisins
• Feta or other cheese
• Pecans or other nuts
• Cooked and crumbled sausage or other meat

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 9×13 pan, set to the side.

Toss the squash and onions with olive oil and season to taste.

Spread in an even layer in the pan and bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes.

Fry the bacon in a skillet and then lower the heat. Add the spinach and gently sauté until wilted. The spinach could be left uncooked, and this could be eaten as a salad.)

Combine the cooked ingredients and gently toss, sprinkle with add-ins and enjoy!