Vegetable Stuffed Acorn Squash

This recipe was inspired from chooseveg.com but I made a couple of changes to their recipe. This was delicious! I highly recommend it, you could eat the stuffing as is or put it in a butternut squash as well.

2 to 3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 onion, diced
2 tbsp of Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, or grass fed butter
Fennel seed to taste (this helps make it taste like sausagey)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 acorn squash
2 cups of cooked brown rice or quinoa, or a mix of the two
1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup of dried cranberries
3/4 cup of crushed pecans

1. Cook the rice prior which is always 2 cups of water or broth to 1 cup of rice.
2. Cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the middle parts.
3. Place the acorn squash open side down on a foil lined baking sheet at 375 degrees for 30 minutes
4. While that is cooking, saute onions and celery in healthy cooking fat until translucent.
5. Add salt, pepper, and fennel to taste while sauteeing.
6. Once veggies are translucent, turn off the burner and mix in rice, sun dried tomatoes, dried cranberries, and crushed pecans. Mix well.
7. When 30 minutes is up, take the squash out of the oven and spoon out a little bit more of the center.
8. Add as much stuffing as you like into the middle of the squash.
9. Keep squash open side up this time and cover squash with tin foil and put back 375 degree oven for another 30 minutes.

If you want to be extra awesome, keep the acorn squash seeds from cleaning out the acorn squash...cavity...and rinse the gook off of them and then dry them. You can made them sweet or salty and spicy, but use about a tbsp or so of butter or olive oil and toss them in it. Add whatever spices you like, I prefer cinnamon, a little bit of brown sugar, and nutmeg. Then roast them in the oven for a healthy snack or dessert kind of thing. Roast them at 215 degrees for 20 minutes on a foil lined baking sheet.

Source: http://www.chooseveg.com/stuffed-acorn-squash.asp