Gingery Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ok so this is officially my first post on the Monthly Challenge thanks to my friend Kerri for inviting me to join! So I'll start this post off with saying I've never used Quinoa before but have read lots of good things about it so it was a great excuse to try it out. So off I went to Allrecipes.com to see what I could find. I settled on this recipe as my whole family loves acorn squash and frankly all the spices and ingredients sounded good. So here's how it went...

Recipe:

found at allrecipes.com by Jeana Malcolm

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Gingery-Quinoa-Stuffed-Acorn-Squash/Detail.aspx

1. While my acorn squash were baking I started the dicing and sauteing part..it looks so pretty in the pan I think so I'm pretty excited at this point.

2. Quinoa cooking away...

3. Acorn squash come out of the oven and needs to cool before getting scooped

4. Spices and apples going in now...smells very aromatic and looks really good but I'm losing my excitement for some reason about the meal...not sure if the smells weren't appealing to my pregnant appetite or what...so I was getting anxious about it being our dinner lets put it that way. I need to also add that I'm not a huge ginger fan..I appreciate what it adds to a lot of dishes but something about the smell doesn't do much for me so why I picked this recipe I'm not sure?

5. Well here goes nothing...I'm stuffing all the mix back into the squash skins and topping them with the mozzarella to go back in for the final melting stage...as you can see they are HUGE..and there was stuffing left over even if I hadn't dumped half of one squash do to me scraping it too hard and ripping it in half..grrrr. So basically I didn't even use up all the filling...it makes a ton!

6. Here's the final product..they look fine I think and are definitely plenty to fill you up. Now to try them out.

Our family's review: Matt my husband and I both thought they were ok but something about the sweetness was a bit strong for us. I couldn't pin it down as to whether it was the smell/sweetness of the cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg...or my dreaded ginger flavor. But the dish is very aromatic and something just wasn't thrilling to either of us. Audrey my 2.5 year old....smells EVERYTHING before eating it...gave it a sniff and made a face (maybe she's anti-ginger too..lol). Matt got her to try it and she did eat a bite but then reached for her sippy cup and said "I need to wash it down!" So while Matt and I are trying not to totally lose it..I honestly felt the same way..and was secretly dreaming of a pizza. Then Matt got her to try another bite...and she goes for it then lets it kind of hang out by a string of cheese and says "I need to spit this out."

Now in no way would I ever not reccommend a meal based on a 2 year olds review who's mood on any food changes by the hour...but I had to add those in due to the fact and I myself wasn't shot in the head with the meal. Anyways...I think the concept is a great idea and you could really play around with the flavors and what you stuff back into the squash..in fact you could do this with any squash you might like not just acorn. I don't think the star ingredient Quinoa played any role in our not liking it so it would be good stuffed in..I think the spice mixture was more of the issue for us personally. I would definitely still try using Quinoa again..just not perhaps this recipe.