Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Any soft vegetables you have (i.e. peppers, onions, zucchini, etc)

Chicken pieces (bone-in or out is fine)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2-Cut up the veggies into chunks.  Place in glass baking dish

3-Season with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, mix so that both vegetables and bottom of dish are coated

4-Place chicken pieces on top of vegetables (if bone-in, may want to brown on a skillet for a minute, if boneless, you can put as-is in dish)

5-Cook for about 25-30 minutes (depending on size of chicken, you may want to cook longer, check chicken before deciding if it’s finished or not)

6-Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Chicken (however you want it…breast, thigh, leg…it is difficult to get the almonds to hold on bone-in chicken, but in our case, it was workable)

Egg (beaten for the attempted coating)

1 bag of sliced almonds

1 Kabocha squash

Directions:

1- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2- Peel the skin off your chicken.  Coat in egg.

3- Dip into bowl of sliced almonds (they may not all stick, so you can also lay it in the baking sheet and pile on some extra almonds to coat it)

4- Put chicken into oven for 30 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking:

1- Cut the squash in half, trying to cut it as evenly sided as possible

2- Scoop out the seeds, and wash it with water (you can eat the skin, but that is optional)

3- Place, shell side down, in large, microwaveable bowl (or tupperware) and fill about a half inch high with water

4- Place saran wrap  on top of the squash, poking a few air-holes in each.

5- Microwave about 12-18 minutes. (Check for softness.  If some are a little al dente, then you can heat for longer)

6- When done, pick up carefully and slice them

(NOTE: Next time I try this, I am going to consider removing the skin and mashing them like actual mashed sweet potatoes)

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 Spaghetti Squash

1-2 cans of diced tomatos, drained (Double check if it’s gluten free for you GF folks)

Garlic, minced

Olive oil

Italian Seasoning

Dry Basil herbs

Directions:

1-Cut the squash in half horizontally (Shortways) and scoop out the seeds.

2-You could steam it a number of ways, but we put it in a large tupperware with some water in it.  Wrap the tops with clear wrap and microwaved it for about 7-10 minutes.

3-While it’s microwaving, you can dice up some garlic (or if already diced), fry the garlic in olive oil for a little while to let the flavor come out.  Dump in the diced tomatos and then sprinkle some of the herbs into it.  (Just enough for your personal taste level).  Let simmer for a while.

4-After the squashes are steamed, scoop out the meat (Seems easier to do with a fork since they are a noodle-y texture).  Scoop your desired amount onto a plate.  Top it off with some of your diced tomato mix.  Enjoy!

Here is how it looked as a side dish to our chicken:

Top, Left Corner - Spaghetti Squash with Dice Tomato Topping

Ingredients:

1 Acorn Squash

1/2 a green apple, cored and cut in chunks

1 Tbsp Maple Syrup

1 and 1/2 Tbsp Butter, melted

Directions:

1-Cut the Acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds

2-Microwave both halves in the microwave for 5 minutes

3-Mix butter, syrup, and apples together, and place in the halves of the squash

4-Microwave the squash for another 5 minutes

(Combined with my gluten free breaded chicken and mashed potatoes, I give you dinner!)

Baked breaded chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Maple Acorn Squash

“ok here is a really easy one. get some small mushrooms and pull out the steams so they are just mushroom caps. fill the caps with bacon bits add a spoon of cream cheese on top then throw them in the oven at 350 until the tops look done. SOOO GOOD!”

I’ll let the public assume the amount they need.

THEN, I come home and tell my mom about it and she is laughing because she has plans to make Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus for dinner too!  Perhaps great minds think alike!

Ingredients:

1-Baby Asparagus (however many you want, keep in mind that 3 will be wrapped in the meat)

2-One package of bacon or prosciutto

3-Olive oil

4-For prosciutto recipe, you also need lemon juice (just enough to squeeze onto everything)

Directions (For bacon):

1-Wash the asparagus and cut off the ends

2-Wrap 3 asparagus spears with one slice of bacon until it has all been wrapped

3-Heat a pan with oil at low to medium-low to give enough time for both the bacon and the asparagus to cook without overcooking either.  Once the bacon is cooked and the asparagus is tender, then remove and put on a plate.

Directions (For prosciutto…courtesy of Rachel Ray):

For asparagus, snap off tough ends of spears where they naturally give when bent. Place spears into 1-inch of boiling water. Cover the pan and cook asparagus for 3 or 4 minutes, until spears are just tender but remain bright green in color, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Drain and cold shock the spears in a colander under cool water. Return cooked asparagus to skillet and coat with lemon juice and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Remove bundles of several spears at a time from the pan and wrap with sliced prosciutto. Pile assembled bundles on a serving plate.

Oh man, it was so good too!  Who could possibly decide which is better??

(OMG Vodka?  I hope you’re 21 when you make this!)

Arlene’s Vodka Sauce

1/4         Cup real Butter

2          Cloves pressed Garlic

2          Tablespoons Tomato Paste

1 and 1/2      Cups Vodka

1          teaspoon dried Italian Seasoning

1/2         Cup Half & Half

1/4         Grated Kraft Parmesan Cheese            

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a sauce pan add garlic and tomato paste, sauté 1 minute.  Add Italian seasoning and Vodka, simmer 3 to 4 minutes, add Half & Half and Parmesan Cheese, simmer additional 5 to 6 minutes.  Serve over Angle Hair Pasta. 

Arlene’s Note: This makes a rich sauce and is better as a side dish.  I think it goes well with grilled veggies such as squash, red and green peppers, strips of eggplant or portabella mushroom, etc.  A nice piece of white fish goes well also, like Northern Fresh Halibut.