Dinner Hour: Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

The recipe for tonight's dinner originally called for red peppers instead of acorn squash, but the store was flat out of 'em and well?  I was hungry.  

To prepare the squash, cut a little off the top and bottom and scoop the middle out, turn upside down in a baking dish with an inch of water, and microwave for 8 minutes.  (You can bake them, too, but it takes FOREVER).   When they're done in the microwave, drain the water, flip the squash right side up, and place the liquid from the cans of tomatoes on the bottom of the baking dish and you're ready to stuff 'em.

The filling starts with about a half an onion sauteed in olive oil.  When they get soft, add a couple tablespoons of ground cumin and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic.  Sautee those for a minute and then add about a bag of thawed and drained spinach and two cans of drained, diced tomatoes.  Cook until the liquid is mostly gone.  At that point, add about 3 shredded carrots, a can of rinsed, drained black beans and 3/4ths a cup of quinoa.  Add two cups of water and bring to a boil.  When the quinoa is tender, add a cup of pepper jack cheese and spoon the mixture into the precooked acorn squash, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. 

Take out, uncover, and add a smidge more cheese to the top of each one and bake for another 10 minutes.  Serve hot and enjoy!

Verdict over here?  We'd all eat it again in a heartbeat.  Shaun would prefer that it be spicier, which I would agree with, but considering that Bean ate three helpings of the filling, I might just leave it as is and individually season each with crushed red pepper.  Robin said that she didn't think she would have ever tried something like this a few months ago but loved it and has since said that she's becoming less and less afraid to try new things.  That?  That's a success in my book.  Niiiiice.