Ingredients:
1 acorn squash
1 Tbsp butter
dash salt
2 tsp sugar free maple syrup
2 Tbsp Splenda brown sugar
Use a heavy cook's cleaver to split the acorn squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and discard them. Score in the inside flesh of the squash so that it holds the liquids well.
Slightly melt the butter in the microwave and smear half of it on each half of the acorn squash's insides. Add in some salt to taste. I happen to be a low salt person so I add very little. Put half of the maple syrup and Splenda brown sugar in each one. They will tend to pool at the bottom of each "bowl" - that's fine. You'll be spreading it around once the dish is complete.
Heat an oven to 400F and put the 2 bowls onto a cookie sheet. Bake them for an hour to an hour and a quarter. You want to make sure they are thoroughly cooked. They should be brown and crispy on the top when they are done. Take them out and cool them off. When you're ready to eat them, spoon the liquids all around the flesh again. You eat the inner orange part, but not the outer green skin.
This is REALLY tasty and sweet. Again, I wouldn't recommend eating this all the time! You don't want your tongue getting used to this level of sweetness. Still, it's a great special side dish. Heck, it could very easily be a dessert.
You get probably 2/3rds a cup of acorn squash here, which is 9g of net carbs. For that, you are getting 200% of your Vitamin A and 35% of your Vitamin C. This is not junk food! It's very nutritious for you. The only other carbs you're getting is in the Splenda brown sugar, which unfortunately is 12g right there. If you think that's high, you should look at the carbs in *regular* brown sugar. If this is too much for you, just leave it out. A ton of people eat Acorn Squash with butter and no sugar / maple syrup at all, and find it sweet and delicious. We enjoy it in all the variations.
By the way, my mom says she makes this dish in the microwave - she just puts the acorn squash into the microwave on a plate, covers it with saran wrap and hits her "vegetable" button. It cooks for about 7 minutes and is perfect. We did this with our Buttercup Squash Recipe and it came out perfectly.
Then you can use the rinds (shells) in a Chicken Broth and Squash Soup Recipe
Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books
