Breakfast Squash and
Zucchini Recipes:
Don’t Knock it Till You Try It

Breakfast Acorn Squash 

Breakfast doesn’t always have to look like breakfast.  I don’t know about you but I get real tired of cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc.  It’s the same thing over and over again but with a different twist.  And if you are like me, dairy is an issue.  Yogurt doesn’t work well with my digestive system – so that’s out.  And I can only have so many smoothies – that gets old after a while too. 

So in order to change things up a bit I started incorporating a lot more veggies with my breakfast.  I made a zucchini pie, a vegetable egg platter and sometimes I’ll scramble leftover veggies in my eggs.  But today, I decided to try something completely new by using squash and zucchini recipes. 

And my husband LOVED it.  I LOVVVVVVED it even more.   Plus it met my requirements for healthy recipes on a budget!!

•  It had about 5 ingredients or less.
• Took less than 20 minutes from prep to table.
• Cost less than $5 for the meal.
• And it looked impressive.

I may not dress to impress…..but I do cook to impress!!!

Total Cost – $4.32 for 2 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 acorn squash
• 4 slices of Canadian bacon, diced or 1 cup of ground sausage, turkey sausage, beef, chicken or turkey ( I used Canadian bacon but it would have been cheaper to use ground meat)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tomato, chopped (optional)
• 1-2 TBSP. olive oil or coconut oil or cooking spray
• 2 eggs

Part of learning to cook fast is knowing how to use your time…..cook smarter….not longer!!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Start with cutting the acorn squash in half and spooning out the seeds.
2. You can roast the squash but it may take 20-30 minutes for it to even be soft enough to eat so I put the squash in a microwave safe dish and added a bit of water on the bottom to create steam then microwaved it for about 9-10 minutes.
3. While the squash is in the microwave start chopping your tomato, onion and preparing your ground meat or canadian ham.  I used canadian ham so all I had to do was chop it.
4. If you are going to use a ground meat – you will have to brown it while your squash is in the microwave. 
5. As the ground meat is browning, add the onion and saute until the onion is translucent and the ground meat.   
6. When the squash is done in the microwave – the inside of the squash ( the meaty part) should be relatively soft.
7. Brush with a little olive oil, butter or coconut oil. 
8. Sprinkle with some salt, pepper and any other spice you like.  I used Cumin. 
9. Transfer squash to the broiler in the oven on a low setting and be sure to watch it.  You want it to brown on the top of the squash but not BURN!!
10. When the meat/onion mixture is close to done then add the chopped tomato and toss.
11. Set aside.
12. Remove the squash from the broiler (hopefully you have been watching it!!)
13. Fill the acorn squash with the meat mixture.
14. Then quickly make your sunny side up egg (I made mine over medium because I don’t like the yolk that runny – but my husband does). 
15. CAREFULLY…..place the egg on top of the acorn squash. 

Voila!!

This is one of my FAVORITE squash and zucchini recipes….ever!! 

Plus, this is easy to make ahead of time.  All you have to do is have the squash roasted and done.  The meat mixture can be made ahead of time too.  Then in the morning heat up the squash and meat mixture in the microwave or the oven….make your egg and place on top.  Done!!! 

FILLING ALTERNATIVES:

You can fill the squash with ANYTHING.

• Ground meat and low fat cheese.
• Corn and beans
• Rice and beans
• Maybe you have leftover sauteed veggies – you can use that.

Feel free to experiment…..you really can’t go wrong!!