Squash is in season…still, and NO! I’m not sick of eating it yet! I am however, bored with squash for dinner so I thought I’d create some easy, healthy and fun dessert recipes featuring… drumroll….squash! I’m dog/housesitting right now, and the owners left me tons of produce with a note that said eat it or else it will be tossed. You don’t have to ask me twice! Free produce? Why, I’ll take it! 

  

Never heard of squash brownies? Me either! Until today when I decided creating a recipe couldn’t be that hard since I made one for zucchini and carrot brownies awhile back! Although these are veggie brownies, they still have chocolate chips making them sweet enough for you, and me, to forget all about the squash. Talk about an easy way to get your kids to eat their veggies! Yes, I will be a sneaky, but good mom, one day! These brownies are sugar and gluten-free and easy peesy to make! 

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Yellow Summer Squash Chocolate Chip Brownies- makes a 9×9 baking dish 

Ingredients: 

-2 cups yellow squash, grated or chopped thinly 

-1 egg

-1 cup almond butter 

-1/8 cup honey 

-1 tsp each of vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon

-1 tsp baking soda

-1 cup chocolate chips 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly spray your baking dish. 

2. Chop up the squash and add everything, except the chips, to a large bowl. 

    

3. Mix everything together well, adding chips last. 

4. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy! 

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I finally had time to check out the Farmer’s Market on Grande Avenue, literally blocks from my house. It’s held every Wednesday morning in a large parking lot outside of the Smart and Final Grocery store. It’s small and cute, and I ran into five people when I was there… feels like I’m in Rhode Island again! I’m a sucker for new ingredients so when I saw this here chayote squash, that kind of looks like the Grinch, I had to have it, even though I was unsure of how I would use it!

Other things that ended up in my basket that I had never used before included  dandelion greens, that I juiced with this morning, baby green pumpkins, that I may use as decoration and not to eat, and then some yummy peaches and a six dollar watermelon! I am a sucker… who spends $6 on this? What can I say? I felt bad no one was buying them and the farmer went to all the trouble to set up this cute stand so I thought why not? I don’t have a clue what I’ll do with it.. yet! 

Since the chayote kind of looks like an apple, I thought why not combine the two and some blueberries for a unique crumble? It’s still in the oven baking and it seems delish- probably better than it sounds reading this out loud! The crumble is made from toasted almonds and you can substitute gluten-free or almond flour for whole wheat. It won’t change the consistency! 

 

Chayote Squash and Apple and Blueberry Crumble- makes a 9′ pie pan 

Ingredients:

– 1 chayote squash

– 4 Granny Smith apples

-1 cup almond (toasted) 

-1 pint blueberries 

-2 T cornstarch 

-1/4 cup light brown sugar 

-1 tsp each of vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and apple pie spice 

-3/4 cup flour ( I used whole wheat) 

-1/4 tsp salt 

-1/4 tsp baking soda

-1/2 cup almond butter 

-1 egg 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place almonds on un-greased baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes or until golden in color. 

2. Peel and de-core the apples and cut up in chunks. 

3. Cut the chayote squash in half. Remove the ends and the two large seeds inside. Cut squash in chunks too. 

4. In a large bowl, mix together the apples, chayote, blueberries, cornstarch, brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Let sit. 

5. In your food processor pulse the toasted almonds, flour, baking soda and spices. 

   

6. Then add the almond butter and egg and pulse again until everything is combined. 

7. Place the squash and apple mix in a pie pan and sprinkle the crumble on top. 

8. Bake for 45 minutes or until sides are golden and the apples are bubbling. Serve warm! 

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I’m looking forward to this evening after my yoga classes so I can kick back, finish my book and enjoy some of the wine I got last night at my wine club’s bi-monthly pick-up party. Oh! You’ve never heard of one of those before? You obviously don’t live in California where everything here revolves around WINE!

Jennifer and I headed over to Baileyana Winery after work last night for some fish tacos, yummy Pinot Noir and a beautiful sunset. We are experts at these pick-up parties now… we may just HAVE to join more wine clubs!!!