Roasted Acorn Squash & Dehydrated Seeds

How's Thursday going for you?  I am doing good, just got home from freezing my butt off outside trick or treating, suburbs style.  Our neighborhood put on a Trunk-n-Treat last night which I mentioned at the end of the Raw Vegan Pumpkin Spice Donut Hole post.  Ironically, there has been a 25 degree temperature drop in the past 24 hours and needless to say, my body is in cold shock right now.  Brrrr!

About 50 cars all handed out candy so all the kids had to do was walk from trunk to trunk and collect their candy.  Tons of parent presence so everyone was safe from strangers.  Just not safe from all the HFCS.  But once a year, my attitude is whatever, let her enjoy being a Fairy Princess, while eating HFCS-laden candy and all.

Here's a couple cute I took of my Fairy Princess.  For new readers, she's 2.75 years, the perfect age to really savor the Magic of Halloween!   Here she is waving her light-up magic wand wildly!

Note the Princess Candy Collection Bag.  I envision this being filled with Barbie clothes by the weekend. 

 

Moving along...I am really glad you enjoyed the Raw Vegan Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes - 5 Minute Recipe from yesterday.  They are soooo easy, and so good, you've just gotta try them.  Let me know what you think.  I have a feeling you won't be disappointed, at all.

So in the spirit of keeping things a light today I thought I'd show you a few surprises.

Good Surprise = 2 pints of Raspberries for $3 at the mainstream grocer.  Not at all seasonal or local, but they looked so good, and I bought them anyway.

They looked even better after I got home, and flipped the carton over and saw they were organic.  Love that.

Bad Surprise = Taking a shower and coming out to find that Skylar the Fairy Princess had taken apart the contents of Scott's desk and put them on the guest bed.  Those business cards that were organized neatly and in file folders, heck, that'll only take a couple months to get back together.  No biggie.

Good Surprise = Scott finding 11 packages of my favorite gum.  Chemicals and fake sweeteners and all, I love this stuff.  Sangria Fresca and it's been discontinued.  A couple weeks ago I went to try and buy it and it had vanished from every grocer's shelf, from Target's shelves, you name it, I have looked.  But appparently not good enough, because Scott found a random low budget gas station that had a case left.  Good thing it's all wrapped in celophane cuz it's all for my chomping pleasure now!  Love gum when I run or drive. 

Bad Surprise = Blogging for a half hour and stepping away from my computer to find this is what the Fairy Princess did to her room.   And this is after I kinda pre-cleaned it.  She has about 200 books...most of them were dumped out of the book bins.

As a sidebar, I love my child to death, but it takes every ounce of my maturity, wisdom, patience of a yogi saint, and then some, to day in, day out parent gently, with a smile, and with love and an open heart when your house is getting destroyed.  Young sistas, please know that motherhood is the most amazing gift ever, but please wait til you're ready for this.  That's my only deep comment in this post, promise.

Good Surprise = Finding Blender Bottle hooking me up with a new cup!  

I am no stranger to these cups and as you can tell from my stash, I love them!

But it's always nice to have an extra.  These cups get a Two Thumbs Up from me!  If you're not familiar with them, there's a wire whisk ball that does an excellent job of blending even the most stubborn of protein powders, cough cough Sunny W or Jay R coming to mind, even with scant amounts of liquid and a quick shake-shake.

I even made a pumpkin pie protein shake in it recently.   1/2 c lowfat vanilla almond milk + 2 Tbsp Pumpkin Puree + Cinnamon + Stevia + 1 Scoop Sunny W...

....And the Blender Bottle cut thru that pumpkin puree like nobody's business.  There are times when you just don't want to take out and clean the VitaBeast and are looking for something quick and easy but cannot handle a crappily mixed smoothie?  Well, the Blender Bottle is gonna be your new BFF.

Check their site for other great uses like these, too.

And cool colors.

A couple yummy eats included roasting an acorn squash a la Heather Happiness style.

Slice that sucker in half, don't lose any fingers in the process.

Then as Heather suggests, lightly spray with cooking spray.  I used my Organic Pam Canola, which is a fairly new find for me.  I like it in order to prevent an oil slick from accidentally pouring outta my TJ's EVOO bottle.

Then I placed the squash face down and added about 1/8th c of water.

Baked for 45 Mins at 400F and here ya go!  Squash It Up, Baby!

After allowing it to cool, there was a little shrinkage factor (TWSS) and then I peeled the skin off.

Chopped into my best effort at Squash Fries and containerized for 2 dinners....

...that will be ready in 30 seconds when the little Fairy Princess does not want to wait for her grub.

Acorn Squash Fries are a winner with the Princess!

And in an effort to not waste anything, I cleaned off the squash seeds, tossed them with 1 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice + 1 Tsp Salt and got ready to dehydrate them.  

Going into the Magic Box....

The verdict?  Good, but even better if you're into seeds.  They are a little bit of a mouthful for me, a smidge tough.  But I am not hugely into seeds.

Good Surpise = Good thing Scott is.  They make a perfect lunch snack for him.

Bad Surprise = My Little Princess took a horrible fall while chasing a ball with her dad (he fell too in order to break her fall a bit) and she has a goose-egg and some scrapes on her forehead.  My heart fell to my stomach when my family came inside from a little "game of ball" while I was fixing dinner and both were bloody, Skylar was screaming, and it was pandemonium for awhile Tuesday night.  Good thing that they're both fine now and trunk-or-treating went off without a hitch in the Princess Action.  Whew. 

Good Surprise = For dessert as if all the Halloween Candy isn't enough, I had to get in on a handful of Vegan Chex Mix, aka Puppy Chow

...and a couple Raw Vegan Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes.

VeganMofo in the house today.
     
Yoga Today is Marichyasana A

Tip of the Day: My Dozen ProBars Give Away!  I highly recommend entering yourself to win 12 of these delish bars!

Katharina's also got some loot she's giving away, check it out!

Have you ever roasted pumpkin or squash seeds before?  What did you think of them?  In the past I have always just scrapped them but thought I would try to salvage them and it was a good effort, for sure.  But then I was in TJ's yesterday and was reminded of all their ridiculously awesome nuts and mixes like wasabi & chili spiced almonds or cajun trail mix and dark chocolate covered apricots and stuff like that.  Do you have any favorite nuts or snacky mixes like that?  Do you make them yourself or purchase, and if so, where?

Stay Tuned For a few Flashback Friday Pics...