Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

As part of our weekly meal prep, I wanted to do something using some of the 10 pounds of freshly ground sausage we have in our freezer right now.  Now when I say freshly ground, it's about as fresh as you can get - the pig was raised behind our gym over the past eight months.

Among the countless things I love about our CrossFit gym, it's a community of people who promote the idea of eating locally sourced, high quality food.  Through our gym, we've bought half a pig (yielding around a hundred and sixty pounds of pork), a share of a cow (around 35 pounds of beef) and participated in a CSA vegetable share, saving me lots of farmer's market trips.  Needless to say, our freezer is jam packed (and we haven't even picked up the cow yet) and we don't have to buy much in the way of meat this winter.  I've also been pretty good about freezing the excess of our veggies so we're fully stocked up on fresh kale, swiss chard and zucchini as well.  Yay for feeling prepared!

Back to the sausage.  It's amazingly delicious.  We've been sautéing it up with eggs for breakfast most mornings but I wanted to give it a little more panache.  We had gotten an acorn squash the previous week from our CSA, so low and behold, my Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash was conceived.


Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

2 medium sized acorn squash, sliced lengthwise and seeded
1/2 lb loose sausage
1 cup swiss chard leaves, finely chopped
1/3 white onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1 small gala or fuji apple, peeled and chopped
2 cloves roasted garlic
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup almond flour
3 sage leaves, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 tablespoon sea salt, divided
6-7 grinds of freshly cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- In a baking dish, lay acorn squash, cut side up, brush with coconut oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutmeg
- Bake for 45 minutes
- Saute your sausage until thoroughly cooked
- Add diced onion, celery, apple, garlic, swiss chard and sage, cooking until onions are translucent
- In a mixing bowl, add almond flour to the beaten egg and whisk until combined
- Add the cooked sausage mixture to the egg and mix until well incorporated
- Stuff sausage mixture in to the squash, cover with tin foil and return to the oven for 20 minutes