The other night I came across a recipe for stuffed squash that contained black beans.
Black beans, and
squash. I thought it sounded pretty weird, so I went for it. Of course, I thoroughly switched around the recipe first. You'll see . . .

Cut your medium-sized acorn squash in half and gut the seeds. (You can toast them. I didn't). Put them CUT SIDE DOWN (for moisture's-sake) on a cookie sheet (you can pam-it or oil-it if you'd like, I didn't, and it hardly stuck to the pan at all . . . your call). Put the oven between 350-400 and you're just trying to soften it (think: potato). Takes about 40 min-ish, depending on heat and size of squash. While your squash is-a-baking . . .

Mince 2 cloves garlic (mmm) and 1/2 medium white onion. I'm not a big onion fan, so I always take the onion down a notch. So I guess I should say, "onion to taste."

In a medium-heat pan, coat with olive oil. Toss in onion and garlic (mmm). Then toss in about, hmm, 3/4 c. ground turkey and let it brown, brown, brown.

Here comes the black beans! YAY! Rinse one 15oz can of black beans thoroughly in cold water (gets rid of up to 35% of extra sodium), and then dump onto browned ground turkey. Take approximately 22 cherry tomatoes (I just counted from this picture, again though, "tomato to taste") and dump those in as well. Then, turn the heat down a smidge, cover the pan, and let the mixture simmer until tomatoes are broken down . . . like this.

Mmmmm. Looking good.

While that was all happening, or anytime you find time, grate about 1/3 c. cheese (I chose a mild cheddar) and chop some green onion. It will make everything look awesome, for cryin' out loud.

At about this time your squash should be nice and soft, like that up there.

Of course, here comes the part where we make it look nice. Cheese and green onion those suckers. The stick 'em back in the oven for ten-minutes-ish. You're looking for the cheese to fully melt, and for the edge of the squash to get a bit more of that delicious-looking browned appearance. Follow? Ha. Told you I'm no pro . . . I don't have the vernacular down. Bare with me. Or is it "Bear" with me? Either way, you choose. It doesn't even matter.

So, here we are: Stuffed Squash! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
[this was kinda a Fooding test blog, so, beware. I'm getting the kinks of blogging about food worked out. :)]