Favorite Fall Meals : Squash Bowls

A great way to prepare squash for those who love squash and those who might not love it as much.

The colors of fall bless us in so many ways, the food of fall blesses our tummies!

When in doubt, get creative.

Fall is here, and with it comes the changing of colors and changing of the seasonal meals. Squash is easy to grow in a garden and easy to process in the kitchen (a little messy but that comes with the territory). I myself am not a big fan of squash. The texture for some reason reminds me of baby food and so eating it plain is just a no go for me (insert tears here). However, Squash is good for you and good for gut health, so I grew some this year with no real end goal of how I was going to eat it. My husband was the one that recommended we try to do a squash bowl of some sort, so I looked up a recipe for zucchini bowls and just went from there. A few ingredients that may surprise you are the potatoes and the olives but just trust me on this one. I went kind of wild and just grabbed what I thought would be tasty. This recipe is husband approved and they turned out so good he ate them three times in a row.

Squash Bowls

Don't forget that this recipe is just a guideline, how my husband and I like cooking them. If there is something you want to add to it or take away, go for it! That's the awesome thing about cooking, we can change things.

Ingredients

This is a list of the ingredients that I like to add, but getting creative with your ingredients is the most fun part. If you keep your base of squash, hamburger, rice and potatoes you can build off that:

• 4 Medium Summer Squash

• 2 lbs Hamburger

• Rice (roughly 2 cups made, we used white rice and a pilaf another time but I think many types of rice would be delicious)

• Potatoes (3 or 4 medium)

• Olives

• 2 fresh tomatoes

• Fresh Garlic

• Medium Onion

• Salt

• Pepper

• Muenster Cheese (or some type of melting cheese)

Directions

1. Dice onion and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and sauté together.

2. Cut tomatoes and olives and set aside.

3. Once onions and garlic are sautéed well, remove from cast iron and set aside with the tomatoes and olives.

4. Brown hamburger in the same cast iron you sautéed the onion.

5. Dice potatoes and fry in bacon grease (or slice thinly).

6. Combine the potatoes, olives, tomatoes, burger and onions and garlic into one cast iron and let cook together for a bit until everything is warmed and cooked through. Add salt and pepper and other seasonings you may want now.

7. Cook the rice and set aside but keep warm.

8. Wash and boil squash for 10/15 minutes (just until it's tender).

9. Let the squash cool, then cut in half (lengthwise) and scoop out the seeds

10. Place squash on a baking sheet or in a deep baking dish, with a little bit of olive oil.

11. Layer the rice and hamburger mix into bowls. (If you did potatoes in slices layer those next) Top with slices of muenster cheese.

12. Cook in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15ish minutes or so until the cheese is melted (we like it when the cheese is browned and slightly crispy).

13. If you are concerned about the cheese getting done before everything is warmed together, wait 10 minutes and then add the cheese.

14. Serve squash bowls by themselves or with a mild side dish like a salad or corn.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did. If you try the recipe and like it or have an ingredient you think others would like, drop a comment so we can all share together!