Banana Squash for Breakfast

Master Taralynn Sorenson is all about general healthiness, not just exercise. One goal of this blog is promoting healthy cooking options. I struggle with this, to be honest with you. My main goal as a family chef is making sure hungry people eat something that didn't cost too much or take me too long to fix. Nutrition is a nice bonus. So I'm always tickled when I find something that is fast, cheap, and nutritious to boot.

This recipe, from Cooks.com, is what I ate Tuesday and Wednesday for breakfast. It's sweet and orangey, which makes me forget that I'm eating a vegetable in the morning. I am not completely sold on the vegetables for breakfast idea, but this is one I think I'll try again sometime:

Honey Glazed Banana Squash
2 lb. banana squash
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. butter
1 tbsp. orange rind
Salt to taste
Wash and cut pieces of squash into serving size, removing all seeds and unwanted members. Place on cooking sheet, rind side down. Bake at 375 degrees until tender, about 25 minutes.Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Add honey, salt and grated orange rind. Pour on squash pieces and bake 10 minutes, or more to glaze. Tip: Hubbard squash will work as well.

It was tasty! It passed three of my four cooking goals:

1-Is it easy to make? I'm all about easiness in cooking. This could hardly be easier--the hardest things are grating orange rind and not scraping your fingernails, and having to smell the stinky inside-squash smell when you clean it out. But overall, pretty easy.

2-Is it cheap? Practically free, since my neighbor with a huge garden (he is my buddy. Wonderful man.) gave it to us. Oranges were the main expense; everything else I had on hand.

3-Is it nutritious? Heck yes! Love that squash! Okay, the honey and the butter, not so much. Especially the butter. But I'm the kind of girl who thinks I ought to get a few perks if I'm eating squash.

And, number four, the Holy Grail of cooking: will my kids eat it? No way.

But all my neighbors did at the potluck. And they asked for the recipe. --Emily M.