Bacon Butternut Squash

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Contrary to what my previous two blog posts about food would indicate, we actually eat pretty healthy as a family. We tried the Zone diet last year and there was a little too much thought and (imo) the portion sizes were too small. Next we tried the Paleo “diet.” There are just too many things that we missed eating to adhere to that plan strictly so now we mostly follow a hybrid where we eat strict Paleo meals 3-4 times a week, a Zonish meal 1-2 times a week, meaning we’ll allow some cheeses, nuts, and a   piece of bread here and there and then the remaining 1-2 days are complete junk- pizza, French toast, pancakes, muffins, cookies and taco dip. Yes we could make Paleo or Zone pizza, and there are recipes for Paleo pancakes, muffins and cookies, but the truth is we’ve tried them the healthy way and we just prefer the unhealthy way. If you’re going to cheat it should be satisfying!

Anyway, since trying Paleo we have tried several new vegetables like eggplant and spaghetti squash and I have used many new ingredients like almond flour, coconut milk and ghee, but the truth is most nights we have a boneless, skinless chicken breast with a steamed vegetable. Not very exciting. So I was looking for a way to make some jazzier side dishes when I came across a recipe from Sarah Fragoso, a super-mom and Paleo recipe blogger, for skillet butternut squash and greens. I didn’t follow her recipe, although it’s similar, so I will just post what I did. I used:

1 package of turkey bacon

1 butternut squash
½ onion, chopped
1 9oz bag of spinach leaves
2-4 tbs Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Start by softening the butternut squash. These guys are very hard so you will want to stick with a fork a few times and put it in the microwave for about 6 minutes which will get it soft enough to peel and cut open. Next scoop out the seeds (you can save these and put them in an after workout shake) and cube the squash. Then put the squash into a pan of boiling water for a few minutes until it is tender, not squishy and drain. Meanwhile cook the bacon until crispy and set aside. Next sauté the chopped onion in oil until tender. Add the drained butternut squash and crumble the bacon.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle 2-4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar over the pan and cook on medium heat for a couple minutes. Finally add spinach leaves and fold everything in the pan together until the spinach leaves are wilted.

We have added cubed chicken into the mixture to make a meal or served this along side chicken for a yummy side dish. In this picture we had our bacon butternut squash with a dill/dry mustard rub baked chicken.