Bean-stuffed Baked Squash

Since releasing 55 pounds of toxic fat with my cleanse and fat-release system I’ve been taking a different approach to whole foods meals.  Where I used to be a big pasta eater, it’s pretty much been eliminated from my diet.  Pasta dishes were for me an easy dish to prepare, yet always very more-ish. I always wanted more, more, and more.

Looking through my recipes, I came across this beany pasta dish the other day and thought: “No wonder I weighed 210 pounds!”

I don’t eat like that anymore. It’s not that it wasn’t good, healthy food – it was.  But it’s the kind of food that switches on my body’s cravings, and after eating a plateful of it, I always wanted another plateful.

I’m not sure what would happen if I made pasta today. I did have a pasta dish when I was in Vegas. It was at an Italian restaurant, and seemed reasonable to order pasta. I can’t even remember now what kind of pasta it was. Just that it was delicious. I ate a lot of bread at that meal.  Pasta and bread go together in the feeling-satisfied part of my brain.  I think it’s the wheat and gluten. Both of which I’ve learned to STAY AWAY FROM.  I still enjoy a sourdough wheat-flour thin-crust pizza, with minimal vegetarian toppings, but I no longer keep wheat flour products in my home, and refuse to buy anything with added gluten.

So what’s that got to do with today’s recipe?

It’s a switch-up for me. I’ve been using my cleanse and fat-release system for 15 months now, and I’m starting to eat more and more whole foods.   I still cook on-the-fly, using whatever is on hand, inventing the recipe as I go.  Yesterday’s supper surprised me.

You may remember, a couple weeks ago, reading my post about cooking a batch of organic, white navy beans from scratch and freezing them in 1/2 cup containers.  So I had a yellow squash, and someone had just given me some tomatoes from their garden (oh how sweet is that!) and thought: “Hmmm what would that squash be like stuffed with beans and tomatoes?”

So I fired up the toaster oven (so much more electric-bill friendly than the big oven – since I started using it, my electric bill has gone down 15%. That’s not only a financial saving, but also an environmental saving – and I’m all for anything that’s environment saving!)

I washed the squash, cut it in half, dug out the seeds and stuffed it with 1/2 cup of pre-cooked white navy beans (they were still a bit frozen), with a single medium-sized diced yellow tomato, a little Hungarian paprika, and some fresh thyme.  Dabbed each half with about a teaspoon of organic butter (must be from organic, grass-fed cows – the other stuff pushes my butter-craving button – but that story is for another post!), sprinkled on a little sea salt, covered the dish and popped them in the toaster oven at 375F – watched a 45-minute training video, and when the video was finished, ate my supper!

It was surprisingly delicious.  Not sure how it stacks up on the nutrient chart, haven’t got that far – yet – but wow, what a lovely taste experience.

As a single person living alone, I ate both halfs and called that supper. If I had a significant other with me, I probably would have done a couple baked potatoes to go with it, and increased the beans, so each of us would have half a cup.

Oh yeah, I had eaten a chocolate peanut butter vegan meal-replacement bar a couple hours earlier, when I got back from my walk to the beach, where I sat and played my ukulele for an hour or so.  And witnessed the goat stampede on my way home! (Link takes you to short video of stampeding goats on my instagram.)

Yesterday, I also had a chocolate meal replacement shake for breakfast, 2 fried egg and tomato sandwiches, on dark rye toast for lunch, and a bag of popcorn and butter at the crazy movie I went to see (Kingsman Golden Circle – it’s so funny, in a kind of sick way – pushing satirical violence to the limit…)