Harvest Ground Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash (AIP, Paleo, Whole 30)

I love Fall. It is by far one of my favorite times of there year. Cold mornings, leaves changing colors and the awesome fall produce. I just love all the winter squash available and love trying different soups and recipes with them. When we came home from the grocery store a few weeks ago with two giant acorn squash, I immediately started my Google search.

After search and looking through a bunch of recipes online and not finding what I was looking for, I decided to take the plunge and make my own. The gorgeousness below was the result.

Harvest Ground Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash

I started the recipe creation as many of us usually do, looked at what was in my fridge and went from there. By combining some of my favorite fall flavors together, I created this healthy and delicious Harvest Ground Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 medium to large acorn squash, halved and seeded
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 – 1.5 lbs of ground turkey (depend on packaging)
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• ½ large onion, diced
• 1 apple, cored, peeled, and chopped
• 1 ½  cups of cranberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 cups of fresh spinach 

Instructions

1. 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Place squash halves face down on a cooking sheet tray and place in oven for 50 mins or until you can easily pierce with a fork.
3. Prep veggies while squash is cooking, or you can even prep them up 3 days ahead of time.
4. When the squash has about 20 minutes left to cook, heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat,
5. Add ground turkey to preheated pan and allow to completely brown. 
6. Once meat is cooked, add onions, carrots, apple and cranberries to preheated pan. All them to cook down for about 10-12 minutes or until the cranberries start to pop and carrots start to cook down. Stir frequently.
7. Lastly, add in fresh spinach and cook for another 2 minutes, or until spinach wilts.
8. By now your squash should be done and start to cool out of the oven. Drop the oven temp down to 350 degrees.
9. Flip squash halves over and scoop out a little over half of the flesh from each half. You want to leave a nice layer around the shell so they don't collapse. Add flesh to pan with turkey and  veggies.
10. Fully incorporate squash with turkey and veggies. Once well combined, divide the mixture and place it back into each of the squash halves.
11. Please back in the oven and cook for 10 more minutes.
12. Remove, and let sit for about 5 mins. Then enjoy!

Share and Give Thanks

The recipe makes four, big portions, so you can really have just one and be good. I served them with a small slaw and also with nothing on the side. It’s really up to you. And of course share this beauty with someone. Here is the hubby enjoying his squash. He claims it tastes “healthy.” I think he just says that when he knows it’s actually good for him, but it actually tastes good and doesn't want to give that away.