Our Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe is a delight from the beginning to the table- it’s sure to impress all your friends and family! I love acorn squash and all varieties of squash for that matter. Today’s Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling has step by step photos to help you make it. It’s filled with nuts, turkey bacon, fresh herbs, onion, garlic, half and half, lemon juice, and feta cheese! It’s a good time in kitchen from beginning of cooking to the first mouth-watering bite around the table. Enjoy!

It’s Fit Friday with Miss Nichole from Pure Clean Fitness! It’s time to get our workout on. If you want check out more of our Fit Friday posts then CLICK HERE! 

Ingredients in our Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe

• acorn squash
• olive oil
• coarse sea salt
• sprigs of herbs; such as sage, thyme, and parsley
• onion
• garlic
• dry white wine, I use chardonnay or chicken broth, divided
• turkey bacon
• pure maple syrup
• half and half or cream starter
• fresh lemon juice
• unsalted, mixed whole nuts; walnuts, pinenuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and almonds
• feta cheese

How to make Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe

First off, we need to prep the squash – microwaving them for 5 minutes before cutting makes them OH so much easier to work with – just use caution because they’ll be a little warm! Then remove the seeds and as much of the strings as you can, place them on a pan flesh side down, and coat their little backs with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Lightly coat the herbs with olive oil too (I just used what was left on my hands from the squash). Get them baking in the preheated 425 degree oven.

Now, we need to prep our onions and garlic and Mise en Place out the rest of our ingredients; thinly slice half and onion, mince the garlic (or use the already chopped kind like me!), measure the nuts, open up the half and half or Light Cream Starter and measure it out, have your wine or broth ready to go too.

Once we get cooking there won’t be any time to mess with all of that.

Step-by-Step Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe! Ready?  Here we go.

1. Get your sauté pan on the stove over high heat and get it smokin’ hot, then add the olive oil, watch it almost reach it’s smoke point, and throw in the onions! The idea behind sautéing is to make those onions jump – high, high heat to caramelize and bring out the fabulous flavor. Once they’re all nice and brown and the pan has developed fond (or the flavor stuck to the bottom of the pan) then we hit it with a 1/3 of the white wine, cook and stir making sure to scrape up as much of that flavor off the bottom of the pan as you can.

 2. Hit with another 1/3 of the wine, reduce again, add in the garlic, and cook 1-2 minutes; stirring. Add the last of the wine, deglaze and cook until almost dry- about a minute. Set aside.

3. Grab your fry pan and lets get that bacon fried up. I use turkey bacon because believe it or not, I like the taste! It fries up crispy and tastes just as good as ‘real’ bacon.

4. Cook and stir it, get all the pieces separated and then once really browned remove bacon pieces (leaving the little bit of drippings in the pan) just put the cooked bacon in with the onions while we work on the sauce.

5. Meanwhile, check on the squash. Once they’re soft to gentle pressure, remove them to a serving platter and get your nuts roasting. Make sure to set a timer for stirring the nuts every 2 minutes so they won’t burn.

6. Back to our sauce… Add the maple syrup to the bacon pan, cook over medium high and bring to a boil, add in bacon mixture and reduce by half so it’s thick and saucy. Then, whisk in the half and half or cream starter and cook another minute to get it to a honey-like consistency.

7. Remove the roasted nuts from the oven, add them to our delicious sauce and stir to coat, fill the center of each squash with maple cream filling and garnish!

8. YAY. You did it! Wasn’t that SO much fun?!

Let’s get our Fit Friday on!

 If you have followed me or been a Fit Friday reader for a while you probably have realized I am not a huge proponent of “traditional” weight lifting sessions. I don’t love to have a back and bis’ or a leg day. Instead I tend to be a much bigger fan of functional lifting a full body workouts. No matter what your style is though core is always essential. 

Your core is your powerhouse that is used for every movement, every lift, every day. And I am not talking about getting the perfect bikini middle, I am talking about having a strong core to help you live life healthy and injury free.

Today we are going to a no equipment needed core workout that you can throw into any workout. I love to add this workout to the end of a run. I like to keep this pretty basic, especially if I am adding it to the end of a run. It ensures that I focus on good form getting the most out of each movement.

Love squash? Enjoy our Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe and some of these too! 

• Roasted Butternut Squash with Gorgonzola Cheese
• Brown Sugar Banana Squash Recipe
• Apple and Sweet Potato Stuffed Acorn Squash
• Butternut Squash Soup with Cinnamon Crema
• Butternut Squash and Apple Street Tacos
• Roasted Butternut Squash, Feta, and Pine Nut Salad Recipe
• Carrot Squash Cake

Yield: 6

Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe

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Our Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe is a delight from beginning to the table- it's sure to impress all your friends and family!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 small acorn squash, washed
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 10 sprigs of herbs, such sage, thyme, and parsley
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup dry white wine, I use chardonnay or chicken broth, divided
• 15 slices of turkey bacon, thinly sliced.
• 1 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 3/4 cup half and half
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 12 oz 3 1/2 C unsalted, mixed whole nuts; walnuts, pinenuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and almonds
• 1 tablespoon feta cheese, finely shredded

Instructions

1. Heat oven 425 degrees.
2. Place squash on a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes; this will make them easier to cut.
3. Cut squash in half, remove seeds and discard.
4. Rub outsides of squash with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
5. Place cut side down on on baking sheet.
6. Lightly coat herbs with olive oil scatter on pan with squash.
7. Roast until squash is tender, approx 25 min.
8. On stove over high heat warm a medium sized saute pan, once pan is hot add oil and watch for it to just start to smoke, add onions, and stir.
9. Once onions are browned and caramelized, add 1/3 of the white wine to deglaze pan, make sure to bring up all the bits and pieces from the bottom of the pan into the liquid, using a wooden spoon to scrape. Repeat with another 1/3 of wine.
10. Add garlic, deglaze for the last time and cook until liquid is reduced to almost dry.
11. Set aside.
12. In a large fry pan, add bacon and cook until crispy.
13. Remove bacon to onion pan, leaving drippings in fry pan.
14. Once squash is cooked, remove to serving platter, sprinkle insides with salt and pepper.
15. Evenly spread nuts on the pan used to bake squash, bake 425 for 3-4 minutes; stirring twice.
16. Once nuts are lightly toasted and aromatic remove from oven; set aside.
17. Now to finish the filling:
18. Over medium high heat, add maple syrup to fry pan the bacon was cooked in and bring to simmer, add fresh lemon juice, then bacon and onion mixture; reduce liquid by half (to honey like consistency) approx 3-4 minutes, stirring.
19. Whisk in half and half; stir combine.
20. Throw in the roasted nuts and coat with sauce.
21. Fill each acorn squash with filling.
22. Garnish with roasted herbs, an extra sprinkling of sea salt, and finely grated feta cheese.
23. Enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 646Total Fat: 34gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 25gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 1033mgCarbohydrates: 72gFiber: 7gSugar: 45gProtein: 15g

Enjoy our Acorn Squash with Maple Cream Filling Recipe, it tastes so gourmet with all that maple and bacon flavor packed into a one dish!

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Ruthie & Madeliene