Don’t get me wrong – I adore Christmas. But — yes, but — sometimes all the gift lists, party plans and sparkle of the season, have me falling back on a fall favorite (see what I did there…).

The stuffed squash. It’s the equivalent of the “this old thing?” of dresses. It looks so fancy, expensive – exclusive if you will, but really, it’s a no-brainer you’ve had forever. Anyone can pick it up at J. Crew.

I was hoping to get a simple black dress for a holiday party coming up (TOMORROW). Dun, dun, dunnn. Who would think a 26-year-old woman doesn’t have a go-to of those? Four hours at the mega-mall, countless changing rooms and one desperate call to my mother later, I was home, straight Grinchy, and ready for a different kind of go-to.

So:

What you’ll need:

1 butternut squash, small for a ‘personal’ size
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 14.5 oz can of tomatoes, reduced salt if possible
2 Tbsp. chipotles in adobo sauce
1/4 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 sausage ( chorizo is delicious – I used a chicken sausage from Trader Joes.)
feta cheese (optional, kind of)

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Cut off neck of butternut squash, until you can see seeds. *Save the neck to chop up for later! (You can sub in sweet potato instead – I did!)
• Using a spoon, scoop out seeds & pulp.
• Place squash in baking dish.
• Drizzle 2 Tbsp. olive oil over squash. Add salt and pepper. Put in oven right away.
• While your squash cooks, and starts to soften, chop onion, garlic, bell pepper and neck of squash.
• After 10-15 minutes of cooking, pull out the squash.
• Stuff with tomatoes, onion, garlic, bell pepper, sausage and leftover squash. *This probably won’t all fit inside the squash, so just spread any spillage around the baking dish.
• Bake for 25 minutes
• Use a fork to test if squash is done. If it feels soft when you poke the outside, you’re good to go.
• Plate and sprinkle with feta cheese

Other ideas – add thin slices of eggplant in the medley around the squash. Or swap out the chipotle sauce, chorizo and feta, for a sweet chicken apple sausage and blue cheese.

I’d love to hear what you think!

Enjoy!!