Butternut Squash Smoothie

Saturday meals are weird for us.  We love to sleep in and make a big, hearty breakfast.  Unfortunately that means we finish eating around 10:30 which isn't quite late enough to get us through until dinner time without eating something.  Around 2:30 or 3:00 we're all feeling hungry but I don't want to do an entire meal and push dinner back another 4 or 5 hours.  So smoothies are the perfect solution.  Today I had some butternut squash I roasted yesterday sitting around so I decided to get creative with it.  What resulted was a sort of pumpkin pie style smoothie that both kids and husband loved.  I'll definitely be making it again!

Roasted butternut squash.  Such a brilliant orange color!

   

Mine and the husband's.  Cool straws make everything taste better. 

   

Butternut Squash smoothie

Serves 4

Ingredients

Half of a cooked, peeled butternut squash
1 cup almond milk
1 cup water
1 frozen banana (if it's not frozen, add a few more ice cubes)
1 apple (I used a Fuji)
1 date, pitted (add more if you like it sweeter or omit if you want less sweetness)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Handful of ice cubes

Throw it all in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!

Chicken and Kale Pasta Bake

This is a recipe loosely based on a vegan recipe from Dr. John McDougall called Baked Penne Florentine found in one of his most recent books, The Starch Solution.  I like Dr. McDougall, but we have no problem with eating animal foods, hence the addition of the chicken.  If you wanted to keep it strictly vegan, omit the chicken and add more veggies or more beans, or both!

some beautiful locally grown kale

This fed my family of 4 for dinner with enough leftovers for lunch for 3 the next day.

Ingredients

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken tenders

8-10 oz. penne pasta (we use brown rice pasta)

1 large bunch kale

For the Sauce:

1/2 cup raw cashews

1 1/2 cup water

1 Tbl sweet white miso

1 Tbl lemon juice

2 Tbl soy sauce

1/4 tsp mustard powder

1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped

1 can white beans, divided

Set your oven to 350 degrees and bake your tenders until no longer pink, about 30 minutes.  While this is happening, de-stem, rinse and chop your kale.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta and the kale.  Allow to cook together as long as the pasta needs to until done.  Drain and set aside.

To make the sauce:

Blend the cashews and water on high speed until smooth.  (A Vitamix works great for this).  Add the rest of the sauce ingredients, including half of the can of white beans to the blender and blend again until smooth.  

Now toss together the cooked pasta, kale, chicken that you removed from the oven and chopped into bite size pieces, the other half of the can of white beans and the sauce.  Mix well and pour into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the top is hot and bubbling.  Serve hot with fresh parmesan and a side of sliced heirloom tomatoes.