chickpea stuffed acorn squash

I’ll be perfectly honest with you -Â the bulk of my food which was eaten today were not photographed. It was probably because I did not feel up to the challenge before lunch to go walk back to my classroom to dig around for my camera. What can I say? My legs are REALLY sore from yesterday. Every time I walked down the stairs at school (about 10 times), I felt like they might very well fall off.

I slept particularly well last night and enjoyed not having the alarm go off at 4:30 to work out (if you thought I would go this morning, you are absolutely crazed). After I got myself ready for the day, I enjoyed a bowl of overnight oats sans the internet.

I also thought a lot about how I enjoy tricking my husband into eating things which are much better for him than he would normally choose to eat. The cereal below looks a lot like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, would you agree?

It’s definitely not - but he doesn’t know about it. One would think he may notice a different box in the pantry, but you never know.

source

Once I got that out of my system, after work today I was scheming how I would get the husband to eat what I was planning to make for dinner. Instead of trying to trick him, I decided upon a different approach.

Honesty.

I heard through the grapevine it might be good for a healthy marriage, so I decided to give it a whirl. I told him he had two choices for dinner tonight:

1. He could try something new with me.
2. He could eat leftovers.

Surprisingly, he chose the “try something new”. I was shocked, appalled, and very very happy. Needless to say, I just had to get it right because I want him to continue “trying things”.

Insert the acorn squash.

Chickpea Stuffed Acorn Squash

What you’ll need:

• 1 large acorn squash, quartered (or 1 medium acorn squash, halved)
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup GF breadcrumbs (I toasted a piece, then put it through my mini processor)
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce
• spices to taste (garlic, pepper, salt, oregano, parsley)

How it’s done:

1. Using a large knife, quarter your large squash and set half aside for later use.
2. Scoop out all the seeds from the center of the squash.
3. Place squash on a baking pan and begin to cook in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
4. While squash is baking, saute your onion, garlic, and pepper in 1 tbsp. olive oil. Add your chickpeas, spices, and marinara sauce and heat through.
5. Once your squash has been cooking for 30 minutes, take it out of the oven, Stuff your squash with the chickpea mixture, top with breadcrumbs, and cover with foil. Bake for an additional 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

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I would be lying if I told you this was good. The reason why I say this is because it was excellent - not just good, but excellent. It really is something you should highly consider trying. It was fairly easy as well!

I would also be lying if I told you my husband actually ate this. He actually had his stuffed with sausage, peppers, onions, breadcrumbs, and parmesan. Either way, he thought it was delicious. He asked me, “is squash good for me?” I should have said no, but I told the truth. See? This whole “honesty” thing is working out for me. “Yes, darling, it is very good for you” was my reply (minus the darling because in reality I don’t talk like that). He claimed the squash was very “smooth”.

I’m a very happy and very full lady right now - do you even know how much fiber is in acorn squash? Paired with the protein of the chickpeas, I could probably skip out on my evening snack. Who are we kidding though - I’ve got freshly baked muffins (you’ll have to wait) and a sweet tooth.

Question: Not that I think you are a malicious person or anything, but what is something you have been “honest” about lately?

Tagged as: acorn squash, breakfast, chickpea stuffed acorn squash, chickpeas, dinner, honesty, overnight oats