How to Tame the Hubbard Beast (Squash)

This one is relatively small, compared to the average size for a hubbard squash. I placed it in the sink, washed it off and decided to tackle its demise in the sink, because it seemed more stable in the sink than on the counter.

I used my sturdiest knife and was able to pierce the surface with relative ease, but I could not continue sawing with only the strength of my arms. So I got my household hammer and hammered near the handle on the dull side of the knife blade. I left most of the blade plunged inside the squash, and hammered it all the way around the squash.

It was a very tough job, but I got it open, however roughly. I used this dipper to scoop the seeds out.

You can throw the guts away, or you can clean the seeds, wash them and then dry them with a paper towel.

Toss them in olive oil, sprinkle them with some sea salt and toast them at 350 degrees farenheit until golden brown and crunchy. They are great for snacking.

This is what the tamed beast (cleaned squash) looks like.

Wrap them each in two or three layers of foil, you may like to place them on baking dishes or pans to catch potential drips. Bake them at 350 degrees farenheit until soft. I baked mine about 2 hours.

Then I scooped the pulp out and mashed it some more. I measured it into freezer bags, 2 cups per bag and froze it until I want to use it. It is excellent as a soup base, to thicken and flavor the broth. I also use it in muffins, waffles, cheeseless macaroni and cheese, pumpkin custard. It gets very creamy if you puree it in the food processor. I have even been known to eat pureed winter squash with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray and maple syrup or brown sugar.

Cucumber Salad

3 Tablespoons white vinegar
2 Tablespoons alcohol free soy sauce, Kikkoman is alcohol free
2 Tablespoons honey
1 to 2 Tablespoons organic grated ginger
1 pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
Kelp granuals to taste
1 Teaspoon black Sesame seeds, toasted
2 large cucmbers, sliced

Sprinkle the kelp granuals onto the sliced cucumbers.

Mix all the other ingredients in a small bowl and whisk them together.

Toast the sesame seeds in a hot skillet until they smell toasty and the sesame scent is very good. No oil needed, you don't want to fry them, just make them very hot until you smell it, or until you see them start to pop like tiny popcorns.

Whisk the hot sesame seeds into the dressing. Now pour the dressing over the sliced cucmbers and toss them around with a large spoon to coat them all with the dressing. Let the salad sit for at least thirty minutes before serving it, so the taste of the dressing can get into the cucmbers.

I get stomach aches from so many different things, since I lost my gall bladder, but I can eat this fat free salad all day and not get sick. Alhamdulillah. It's so very delicious too. Even my husband enjoys this salad.

Cabbage and Potatoes

This is what ancient European Peasant food looks like, and it is delicious.

2 pounds creamer potatoes, any variety
1/4 cup olive oil

2 tsp. caraway seeds
1 bulb organic garlic, grated
sea salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste
3/4 cup worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup vinegar of your choice, if you like your cabbage a little sour, I used malt vinegar (optional)

water for the amount of broth you desire, I ended up using 3 cups water

1 Head of organic Cabbage, sliced thinly

Pour the olive oil in the bottom of a hot dutch oven. Leaving the heat at it's highest setting, dump in the creamer potatoes and cover. Let them brown and steam simultaneously for about 10 or 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat.

Standing as far back as you can from the stove, gradually pour in a cup or two of water, then add the worcestershire sauce and the other seasonings.

Cover the dutch oven and bring it to a boil.

Now begin adding the cabbage, a handful at a time, if the pot seems stuffed before you are done adding cabbage. Cram the lid down on it and let it cook until the cabbage has shrunk some, then turn it so the cooked portion is on top, and press it down a little more, then cram the remaining cabbage on top of that and cover it. Every few minutes you can work the uncooked portion down, and the cooked portion up to the top, with your wooden spoon.

Cover the dutch oven and slide it into a pre-heated 350 degrees farenheit oven and continue to cook for an hour or two more.

You can add another cup of water anytime you think your pot looks in need of more liquid. I used only 3 cups of water and it was delicious.


Serve with rye or pumpernickle bread on the side. YUMMY. I am so crazy about cabbage lately I am thinking of changing my middle name. LOL. Just kidding.

This recipe was traditionally made with butter or animal fat, but I used olive oil instead.

Vegan Zucchini Bread

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 Tablespoon cornstarch +
1 Tablespoons water
1 cup almond milk or hemp milk
2 inches vanilla bean, scraped out of the hull
2 cups grated zucchini (1 medium)
zest of 2 to 3 lemons

1. Use a wire whisk to fluff the dry ingredients until well blended, in a large bowl.
2. Add walnuts now, if they are desired.
3. Grate the squash and measure it into another bowl.
4. Make a paste with the cornstarch and water, add to squash and incorporate with a wooden spoon.
5. Add almond or hemp milk and stir together gently.
6. Add zest of lemon.
7. Now gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with your wooden spoon.
8. Let the batter rest on the counter, while you preheat the oven at 350 degrees farenheit.

9. Spray the inside of three bread pans or a large cake pan with alcohol free cooking spray and divide the batter evenly between the bread pans, or pour it all in the large cake pan and bake it about 45 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

10. Serve warm, with plain yogurt or vegan cream cheese.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1/2 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 cup Heart Smart Bisquick

Preheat the oven at 450 degrees Farenheit.

Whisk the olive oil and sweet potatoes together until creamy.

Add the Bisquick and use a fork or pastry cutter to cut it into the wet mixture.

End product should be soft and lumpy, like regular biscuit dough.

Roll your dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut with a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter or just with the top of a drinking glass.

Spray baking dish with cooking spray and place biscuits with a little space between each one, to allow room for rising.

Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes.

Hint: My family likes small biscuits, so I make ours small. You may make yours bigger and thicker by not rolling the dough out so thin, and by using a bigger cutting device. You may need to increase your baking time if you make them bigger, but not by much. For bigger biscuits 12 to 15 minutes should be enough.

Marinated Eggplant

1 eggplant, sliced and sprinkled with salt
Balsamic vinegar
1 pint of grape tomatoes, cut in quarters
12 to 16 kalamata olives, sliced
3 Tablespoons capote capers
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, grated or minced
2 to 3 lemons juiced

Let the sliced and salted eggplant sit in a bowl on the counter for an hour or more. When you see a small puddle of brownish liquid start to accumulate under it, take each slice and sqeeze them real hard between two thick paper towels to get rid of any liquid that is in it.
Pre-heat your oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Spray a baking sheet with alcohol-free cooking spray (crisco and mazola make some) place the eggplant on the sheet in a single layer, drizzel a few drops of balsamic vinegar on each slice. Bake it for about 30 minutes, then pull it back out and flip them over and bake for about 15 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, cut your grape tomatoes in quarters, and toss them with the lemon juice, garlic, capers and olives.
Let it marinate until the eggplant is done, then layer it in a dish with the cooked eggplant slices and cover with plastic wrap.
Put in the refridgerator and let everything marinate together for at least an hour, but is best if you let it marinate over night.
You can eat it as it is or use it in sandwiches.

Hint: Rachel Ray uses the tomato and olive mixture on fish. Marinating eggplant in it was my idea.

Eggplant Parmasean

*I used two kinds of cheese in this picture, but it is unnecessary and unhealthy to eat that much cheese at one time when you have high triglycerides like I do. So after this picture was taken I started making it with only one kind of cheese and it tastes just as good as it did with two kinds. Note: this recipe has no bread and no pasta, so you get full, without all the starch in traditional eggplant parmasean dishes.

1 medium eggplant

Balsamic vinegar

Salt

Classico's spicy tomato and basil pasta sauce

roasted red peppers

kalamata olives

organic baby spinach or baby arugula

romano or parmasean cheese, grated

Peel 1-inch strips of the eggplant's skin off, and leave 1-inch strips on it too, for color and added stability. Slice the vegetable in 1/2 - inch slices, lay them on a plate and salt them. Leave them at least a half hour, or until you see beads of moisture on the slices. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit. Press each slice between thick paper towels to get rid of the bitter liquid that the salt drew out of them. Cover a baking tray, like a cookie sheet or a pizza pan, with foil and spray it with cooking spray. Arrange the eggplant slices on the tray in a single layer and drizzle some good balsamic vinegar onto each slice. Spray the tops with a little more cooking spray. Bake them for about a half an hour, flip them and bake them for about 15 minutes longer. Arrange the hot eggplant slices on a bed of either baby spinach or baby arugula, pour the warmed sauce over that, then grate your romano or parmasean cheese on top. Roasted red peppers can be chopped and layered onto the plate too. Garnish it with kalamata olives.

Roasted 'Tatoes

1 to 2 pounds of purple creamer potatoes
olive oil
salt
pepper
crushed rosemary

Preheat the oven at 400 F.
Wash and dry the potatoes.
In a medium bowl drizzle olive oil over the potatoes.
Sprinkle in the seasonings.
Toss the potatoes around until you're satisfied with the amount of spice and oil on them.
Place them in a baking dish and bake at 400 F for about 45 minutes, or until done.
Serve warm.

My kids get very excited when I serve them this dish.

Zucchini Butter

3 medium zucchini's cut in 1 inch chunks

1 large shallot, chopped

1 large garlic clove, grated

vegeta or other seasoning

alcohol-free cooking spray

Preheat the oven at 400 F.

Spray the inside of a large [glass] cake pan with alcohol-free cooking spray.

Layer the cut squash in the bottom of the pan.

Sprinkle chopped shallot and grated garlic across the top.

Sprinkle vegeta or seasoning of your choice to suit your taste.

Cover the top of the pan tightly with aluminum foil.

Let the zucchini bake for about 30 minutes.

After removing it from the oven, leave the foil on it to keep the steam inside until ready to serve. May eat as is, or pulse it into a coarse paste in the food processor.

Serve with fresh Simple Rosemary and Olive Oil Bread. This zucchini butter will make you forget there is such a thing as cow butter! I could eat all of it myself and lick my fingers afterwards, but I share it with my husband just because I'm so nice.

Zucchini Fritters

Helpful hint: you can pulse your zucchini, garlic and shallot in the food processor if you have one. It gets much finer then the grater does it. But if you don't have a food processor, a regular old hand held grater from the Dollar Tree works just fine. I have done it both ways.

3 small zucchinis, shredded, about 2 cups
1 large shallot, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, grated
1 cup heart smart Bisquick
3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (adjust to taste)
1/3 cup oatbran
3 Tbsp. ground flax seeds
1 Tablespoon paprika
salt
1/2 cup almond milk

Mix all ingredients together gently, avoid over-mixing. Let it sit for at least ten minutes before cooking, to allow the chemistry a chance to marry the ingredients together very well. I have let it sit as long as an hour before cooking it. Heat an iron skillet on high, when it gets hot, cover the bottom with extra virgin olive oil, and dip your fritter batter with a 1/4 cup or large spoon to make your fritters uniform in size. Cook over medium heat to avoid scorching the outside before they are cooked through. Add more olive oil as needed.

My family will eat a plate full of these and nothing else in one meal.

hint: I cook mine in a seperate skillet with alcohol-free extra virgin olive oil cooking spray, from either crisco or mazola.