Roasted Butternut Squash and Cauliflower with Spinach

Even though it's been SO warm here in the Philadelphia area, I've still been in the mood to make one of my favorite fall roasted veggie dishes. I found a huge local butternut squash at our grocery store the other day, and decided to make roasted butternut squash and cauliflower with spinach and Craisins. YUM.

The beauty of this dish is that:

1. You can really roast whatever you want based on your favorite veggies or fruit! Sweet potatoes?  Good. Carrots? Great. Apples? Yum!
2. You can serve this as a side dish or even make it a meal. I like to eat this with a veggie burger plopped on top for a quick meal. Or add chicken, chickpeas, black beans or any protein you like.

Here are the ingredients I used:

• Butternut squash 
• Cauliflower
• Fresh spinach
• Craisins or other dried cranberries

I peeled the butternut squash using my favorite butternut squash secret and my favorite Oxo peeler.

I chopped the butternut squash and cauliflower into similar sized pieces.

Then I used my favorite Misto Olive Oil Sprayer to spray the baking sheet and spray a little more olive oil on the veggies.  I use this sprayer SO often. For roasting, cooking in a pan, baking, etc. It saves calories and it sprays pure olive oil unlike other store bought sprayers pre-filled with "unreal" ingredients.

I roasted the veggies at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. I find my oven to be quicker cooking than some recipes call for, so adjust this for your oven. Ovens will definitely vary.

Once veggies are roasted to your liking, immediately add the hot veggies to a bowl pre-filled with a large handful of fresh spinach.  Add about 1 cup (or more or less as you prefer) of Craisins or other dried cranberries.

The warm veggies wilts the spinach a little and makes a nice warming dish of goodness!!

This would be a great side dish for a holiday meal. It's so tasty and colorful too.

Here are some of my other favorite ways to eat well by roasting!

Rosemary thyme oven baked fries

Sausage, potatoes and brussels sprouts

What tasty roasting recipes do you like to eat!?

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Butternut Squash Secret

So I learned something revolutionary from my aunt recently.  It's one of those kitchen tips you might find in Real Simple magazine and you say, "Well, that's easy. Now why didn't I think of that"?

What is this amazing secret?

You can PEEL a butternut squash with a regular old potato peeler. 

If you already knew this, then hats off to ya. This was news to me though.

I've been using a knife to cut those darn butternut squashes for years. I even resorted to buying those really expensive, and seemingly less fresh, pre-cut butternut squash.  I felt like I just don't have time or energy to cut a butternut squash right now!

However, I used my handy OXO potato peeler on this squash and it worked like magic. I believe the way to make this successful is to have a nice/sharp peeler.

Peel a butternut squash!

Look a those beautiful butternut squash peel ribbons!  I love this method because it's easier of course, but also because it doesn't waste any squash.

Even though we're finally coming out of winter (AKA butternut squash season for me!), I was recently in the mood for it and tried a fun new allergy-friendly butternut squash soup.

I followed this recipe to make this butternut squash, white bean and kale soup. Boy was it good. It was allergy-friendly for Little Guy, but he's still not a fan of soup. Who knows why!?

White Bean, Kale and Butternut Squash soup

I also roasted some butternut squash with a little olive oil sprayed on the pan and on top of the squash. I baked it at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or so.

Roasting is my current favorite cooking method as I mentioned here and here.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Little Gal is now 7 months old (I can't believe it!), and she's trying all sorts of different fruits and veggies right now. I just mashed up some of the roasted squash for her, added some water to make it less thick, and voila - I made baby food :)

Easy butternut squash baby food. Just mash it!

I encourage you to try the butternut squash peeler secret if you haven't before. What's YOUR your favorite way to prepare and eat squash?

Here's the OXO peeler I use (affiliate link) I was not paid by OXO to mention this peeler...I really do use and like it! 

Rosemary Thyme Oven Baked Fries

My new cooking obsession is roasting.  I LOVE roasting everything...veggies, potatoes, sausage, chicken, you name it!  

I think I love it so much because it's EASY.  It doesn't require me to stand over the stove and monitor a pot (or three pots).  

My family also likes the TASTE of roasting.  It's sometimes difficult to get children to eat their veggies, but I find that Little Guy eats most veggies I give him that are roasted. Example #1: My roasted sausage, potatoes and brussels sprouts recipe. Who knew a kid would love brussels sprouts!?

I would say I roast at least twice a week, and make some kind of french fries at least once a week. Here's an easy recipe for my current favorite french fry recipe:

Rosemary Thyme Oven Baked Fries

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Olive oil
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Sea salt

Directions:

• Cut potatoes into french fry sized pieces
• Spray roasting pan with olive oil and scatter fries on it
• Sprinkle sea salt, rosemary and thyme over the fries - to your liking/taste
• Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, turning at least once

There are so many yummy french fry options...what's your favorite kind of seasoning for french fries?

How I Got My Toddler to Eat Brussels Sprouts

So how did I get my toddler to eat brussels sprouts?  All it took was a little olive oil and salt.

Yep, thankfully it wasn't so difficult. Brussels sprouts are not a normal food for us to have around the house as I didn't think my husband liked them, and I didn't think my toddler would eat them right now. Boy was I wrong!

The three of us all LOVED this easy dinner I whipped up this weekend that included roasted brussels sprouts, chicken sausage and red potatoes. One of my favorite cooking methods is roasting. Mainly because it's SO easy and doesn't require me to stand over the stove cooking.

Here are the "ingredients" for this great meal. Sorry for the dark photo....the ingredients are brussels sprouts, organic red potatoes and chicken sausage.

Brussels sprouts make for beautiful photos!

I love the color of the sprouts and red potatoes together. Wish I had more time to spend making and taking pretty food photos.

Directions:

• Chop the small red skinned potatoes into quarters or even smaller depending on size
• Chop the ends of the brussels sprouts, take off any old leaves, and cut them in half 
• Chop the sausage into pieces appropriate for roasting - I just slice them into round "dollar" pieces (The key to good roasting is cutting everything about the same size.)
• Put everything on a cookie sheet already sprayed with olive oil
• Spray a little more olive oil on top of the food, and add a bit of course sea salt (I like using the larger sea salt for roasting so you can actually see the salt, but regular old Morton's salt will work too).
• Put in oven that's been preheated to 400 degrees. Roast for about 20 minutes, but keep your eye on it and "stir" ingredients a few times for even roasting.

After roasting, the brussels sprouts turn a beautiful rich green color. I scooped up all of the roasted goodness, put it in a bowl, and added freshly ground pepper. Simple, easy and GOOD.

I think this would be a nice meal to make for friends or family (who also like brussels sprouts). Just add a nice loaf of warm bread with olive oil for dipping, and some sort of rich chocolate cake dessert (recipe yet to be found!).

Here's my son's plate. He was actually most interested in the potatoes and brussels sprouts, and even asked for more brussels sprouts.

I will definitely add roasted brussels sprouts to our menu every few weeks, especially since everyone in the house will eat them! I knew they were healthy, but here are 5 things I didn't know about brussels sprouts:

1. These healthy veggies have more vitamin C than an orange
2. They are rich in antioxidants and may help prevent certain cancers
3. One serving of brussels sprouts (only 4 sprouts!), offers 2g of protein
4. They're an excellent source of vitamin D and folic acid
5. "Brussels" is spelled with an "s" at the end!

Does anyone have other favorite brussels sprouts recipes?  I'd like to try making them in other ways too so let me know if you have any good ones!