Recipe Review from 1/4/2021

Welcome to the new year! It's been a quiet start all in all if I discount the work insanity. No blizzards and a week of beautiful hoarfrost coating everything. And I do mean everything. The picture below caught one of of the sunny days - it's been mostly foggy and overcast.

photo by scifiwithpaprika@blogger

It was a week of predominantly leftovers. We had tentative plans to go scouting bird hunting locations in SD but a blizzard kept us home. So I just made what I had planned on taking on our trip.

The Meal Plan:
Sat (L) Burritos from the co-op (S) Texas Roadhouse take-out
Sun (L) leftover chili (S) Bear roast and potatoes
Mon (yoga) leftover bear
Tues - Texas Roadhouse leftovers
Wed (yoga) leftover bear
Thurs leftover chili
Fri (off) leftover squash with quinoa

Lunches:
Husband = sandwiches
Me = Squash with Quinoa and Apricots

Squash with Quinoa and Apricots (The Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook) vegetarian/vegan
A bit time consuming on the prep side, and I'm generally not a fan of pre-cooking something that's going into a slow cooker. What grabbed my attention was using squash and quinoa - which I had in my pantry.

This was...okay. I found it overly "orange-y" and in hindsight, I should have cut back the zest to 1 tsp. I did cook it for for 6 hours on low and it turned the squash, apples and onions into a bit of a "mush". Not very appealing. So while not a "failure" - I did eat it for lunches for the week, this would need some tweaking if I were to make it again.

Made enough for 5-6 lunches (depends on your container size)
Medium to large (3 1/2 to 5 qt slow cooker
1 tbsp oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp minced ginger root
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp finely grate orange zest
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup orange juice
4 cups cubed, peeled winter squash
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup chopped apricots
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed

Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, cumin, orange zest, cinnamon stick, tumeric, salt and peppercorns and cook, stirring, for 1 minutes. Add vegetable broth and orange juice and bring to a boil. Transfer to slow cooker.

Add squash, apples and apricots to slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low 6 hours or on high for 3 hours; until vegetables are tender. Discard cinnamon stick.

Cook quinoa according to directions on package. Add to slow cooker and stir well. Serve.