There's something about food inside of more food that just makes me happy! Chile Relleno, Squash Boats, Egg in a Basket - I love it! My FAVORITE thing about a recipe like this is I can do it in phases. In other words, maybe I already have some leftover ground beef that's already cooked (or shredded chicken, or whatever), and it's easy to just toss it in! I also make my boats a little early (like say 5 or 5:30) if dinner is going to be ready around 7:30, just to give myself time to let them cool down. So here we go! If possible, try to get all organic and local veggies!
Butternut Squash Boat
Ingredients
1 Large Butternut Squash
1 lb of Ground Beef (grass finished is best)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 medium tomato
1/2 cup raw milk cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon creole seasoning (homemade recipe here - use more or less depending on how much flavor you want to add)
Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
To make the squash:
Grab your favorite stainless steel pan
Turn your oven on to 425.
Slice the butternut squash in half - don't worry if it isn't perfectly even! Just do your best.
Remove seeds.
Place squash halves face up on your pan
Drizzle generously in EVOO and sprinkle with a good layer of salt.
Once oven is preheated, toss in the oven for 35 minutes.
Once your timer goes off, make sure the squash has started to wrinkle a bit.
I like to turn my oven off, and let the squash stay another 30 minutes or so while I'm dicing my veggies.
Filling:
Grab a decent sized skillet and begin to preheat with a coating of olive oil.
Toss in your diced onion, and stir regularly until onions soften. Add more olive oil if necessary to keep onions from sticking.
I also like to add a dash of salt to my onions!
Add ground beef, and mix in creole seasoning.
Stir often until ground beef is cooked through.
While the ground beef mixture is simmering...
Pull the squash out the oven and let it cool a bit.
Preheat oven to 375.
Once cooled, begin to slice to carve out the butternut squash, leaving about 1/2 inch from the skin. Again, it doesn't have to be PERFECT. I've cut straight through my squash before and it still turns out great!
Take the squash you've just pulled out and make sure it's sliced up nicely.
Add to your ground beef mix!
At this point, I like to turn my burner on low and cover, letting all the juices from the beef and onion soak into the squash. About 10 minutes or so.
Meanwhile, grab that tomato and dice it up!
Once your ground beef mixture has simmered, grab that pan that has your squash boats chillaxing and bring it over to your skillet!
Fill your squash boats with the ground beef mixture until full.
Add diced tomatoes on top.
Pop the filled boats topped with tomato back into the oven for 10 minutes.
Add the shredded cheese, and let it cook for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is fully baked into the squash.
Remove squash boats and transfer each half to a plate. Enjoy!
*To make this meal a little more summery, just swap out your butternut squash for zucchini!
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