Ramble On

I've been making stew that features butternut squash as a sub for potatoes and it's a pretty dang good one. The recipe only calls for half a butternut squash so I always have some left over which I chop up and store in one of my beloved lock n' lock containers in the fridge until I'm ready for a snack. I think this would be really good for breakfast along with some over-easy eggs. Yum.

Oven Roasted Butternut Squash Home Fries

1/2 of a peeled, de-seeded and chopped butternut squash
tablespoon olive oil
sea salt & pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Toss the squash in the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread out on a jelly roll pan and place in your oven for about 45 minutes  to an hour. It's going to depend on how thick your pieces of squash are. I actually sort of prefer them on the burnt side cause I like the crunch.

The thrid batch of cupcakes are in the oven to take to school tomorrow I'm sitting in the kitchen and I am hungry. Not a good thing in my condition. There is nothing I can just snack on that doesn't have to be prepared. Thank goodness Baby Girl and I made applesauce the other day.

How do you make applesauce? I had never made it before until I started this diet and at first, I boiled apples in honey and water then mashed them with my stick blender. After doing that a few times I started just making it in the oven, it requries less attention that way and since it's been really cold here, heats the house up a bit. So here's how I do it now.



First, I force my 2-year-old to peel all the apples. Not really but she does help. Hubby bought me this apple peeler/slicer/corer after hearing my whine about how much of a pain it was to peel/slice/core by hand. I end up having to do this about once a week so it was total worth the 16 bucks it cost. So after they are peeled I pile them into a pan and bake them at 350 for an hour. No liquid, no honey.


After I pull them out of the oven I hit them with my stick blender. Done. I usually just eat it plain, chilled, or heated. Sometimes I add honey and cinnamon, sometimes I don't.

After these cupcakes are finally done I'm going to bake a butternut squash and make a custard hopefully before Project Runway comes on, however it's already 8:20, the squash bakes for an hour, then another hour for the custard if I'm super fast about putting it together. I'll just stop when I'm tired.

seems to be a theme isn't it?

I got some news, some bad news, which has really changed my perspective about somethings. So I've been dealing with that at some point I might talk about it but for now I'm processing. My youngest has also started to walk so it's been...interesting around here to say the least.


Yesterday we made pickles ala the Toby Show. We tried them this afternoon and they are YUMMY I was very nervous because I do not generally like pickles but everything tastes better when it's home made (and home grown).

The cucumbers were from my uncle's garden. I want to share a jar of the pickles with him, hopefully he'll enjoy them.

We also made woopie pies (if you're not from PA you might not know what I'm talking about)

they are cake-like cookies filled with cream. I made them gluten free and filled them with my grandma's fruit dip (YUM). I'll be posting the recipe soon.


Also, I've been knitting. For a long time I've been wanting to create some Christmas stockings for my family but I've been too intimidated to even start. However due to my news I decided I better just get started so I picked up some cheap yarn from Joann's and just jumped in with both feet. It turned out SO WELL.

I followed this pattern. Now I'm planning on ordering some yarn from knitpicks and knitting five more. My kids want to pick their own colors but the snowflakes are going to remain white. I think they'll turn out well *crosses fingers*

I also want to do this.