Paleo Squash and Sausage Bake
Wow, the weather turned FRIGID today. I did not want to get out of bed, did not want to get dressed, and did not want to go to work. And while at work, I was still cold! I really wish the fire marshal didn’t frown on space heaters under teachers’ desks. Humph.
But that’s ok because tonight I made a delicious fall meal! Yummy squash, sausage, and protein-packed eggs all in one dish. The best part? I forgot to do any planning for dinner, and I was still able to make this with little fuss and preparation. WIN!
I got the idea for this meal from PaleOMG, one of my favorite places to go for paleo recipes. I’ve actually had the acorn squash on my counter for a while now – and slightly surprised it hasn’t gone to rot. Nope, it was still good! I also had a butternut squash that I never made into soup, so I decided to throw that into the mix as well. Here is the recipe with my own modifications:
Serves: 4
- 1lb chicken sausage (I got the “cleanest” sausage I could find)
- 1 acorn squash, cut in half, seeds removed
- 1 butternut squash, cut in half, seeds removed
- 4 eggs
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Place both squash cut-side down onto your baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the squash is soft when you press on the skin.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- While your squash is cooking, add a tablespoon of some kind of fat to a large pan over medium heat (I used bacon fat) then add your minced garlic and diced onion.
- Stir around to keep from burning.
- Once your onions become translucent, add your breakfast sausage to the pan.
- Cook down, breaking up the sausage as it cooks. If you forget to thaw your sausage and it is still mostly frozen when you start cooking (you at least attempted to thaw it under water in the sink, right?), just dump it in the pan frozen. It will thaw as it cooks and you can break it up into pieces. But this is tedious. Just don’t forget to thaw the sausage next time.
- Once the breakfast sausage is almost all the way cooked through, turn your heat to low and add your inside of your acorn and butternut squash. Do this by using a spoon to scoop out the insides. Toss the skin.
- Mix the squash and the breakfast sausage together, then scoop it into 4 piles in your baking pan.
- Once you have divided your squash-sausage mixture in the pan, press into the middle with a spoon to breakfast a little resting spot for your egg.
- Crack an egg on top of each pile. Some whites may run off the sides if your hole wasn’t deep enough. That’s ok.
- Place back in the oven to cook for 10-15 minutes or until egg-cooked preference.
- Serve!
This was pretty yummy! The kids were excited about having an egg on top of their food, so they hardly noticed the squash and onions. HA! Sneaky mom.
This would also probably taste realllly good with some sage flavored sausage. I may try that next time. Until then – stay warm!
