Acorn Squash with Apples and Ground (Beef)

We've been expanding our horizons quite a bit with food the past few months, and this week was no exception. After completely going anti-paleo over the weekend at Ray's MTB Indoor Park in Cleveland (think potatoes, Chipotle, rice, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory) we got back to it this week, and tried out something new: acorn squash.

Justin and I both looked up recipes online and came up with two that were similar.

Ingredients (at least this is what we had):

1 acorn squash
1~lbs ground sirloin
1/2 sweet onion
clove of garlic
2 apples
Cinnamon/brown sugar to taste




While I was on the trainer (notice a pattern??) Justin cooked.

Slice the acorn squash in half, removing the pulp and seeds. Place cut sides down and bake @400F in a shallow baking pan with a little water covering the bottom for about 30 minutes, or until tender.

Once the squash was in the oven he sliced and diced the onion, pressed the garlic, and sautee'd both in a little extra virgin olive oil.



Once warmed, he browned the sirloin in the onion/garlic mix, draining the fat once done.

Remove this from the heat and add in your seasoning and the diced apples. When the squash is cooked, remove to a platter to cool so you can scoop out the squash pulp.

Be sure to leave 1/4-1/2" thick "shell" with the outside of the acorn squash.

Mash the pulp and stir in with the beef mix.



Return the "stuffing" to the acorn shells and bake uncovered 20-30 minutes or until apples are tender.



Serve!



Our one acorn squash made dinner (with grilled asparagus) and lunch leftovers.

It's pretty sweet and savory all at once. I really enjoyed the apples in with this!