Sunday, January 5, 2014

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash and Christmas, 2013

I was feeling guilty about blogging about Christmas so far after the date and was prepared to lament about all the sicknesses I've either endured personally or as a motherly nurse.  But, then as I was catching up on reading the blogs, I discovered that lots of people are posting belatedly.  So, I feel better.  Although, I do really wish I had my Christmas post in the same year that I ate the dish.  Ah, well.

I wanted to come up with something seasonal and savory to bring to the family potluck, and I came up with this baked dish (that took longer to bake than anticipated), consisting basically of all the ingredients listed in the title.  Makes it easy, doesn't it? It turned out very well, and if I end up tweaking it in the future, I'll edit this post, but it's pretty darn good for now!  Buuuuuuttt, because we were all sick, we ended up staying home and not joining the big family for dinner.  Aaaand, my parents didn't come over for my traditional breakfast spread.  It was a very different Christmas indeed, but I still tried to make it as special as I could.  I made some of my breakfast dishes anyways, and we had a nice dinner, albeit simpler. 

Here's what we had for breakfast:

GR and JK made the Gingerbread house again
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Tiger Balls
SR made the Soft Ginger Cookies
Loaded Cinnamon Rolls 
Breakfast Links
Orange Juice
Hot Apple Cider
Coffee

For dinner all I could muster was:

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash
A kid-friendly spaghetti dish

Our "scant" breakfast table

We also managed to drag ourselves to the fire station again to deliver our annual Christmas treats.  They remember us every year now.  GR was too sick to come, so it was just SR, JK and me.

SR and JK are sicker than they look.  But, we just love this tradition!

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash
(taken with my new camera as of that morning; not sure if I like the posted date on the pic, but you can see I took it on Christmas!)

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

4 cups Brussels sprouts that have been halved
5 cups butternut squash that have been diced into half inch to an inch cubes
1 and 1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup 100% maple syrup

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Toss all the ingredients together in a large casserole dish.  Bake uncovered for one hour, stirring at the halfway mark.  That's it!  So easy.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

15 comments:

  1. A lovely spread and a great way to use both brussels and squash! Yum! I hope all the illness is out of your family - lots of gross stuff floating around.

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  2. I'm coming to the fire station next year if it means a few of those treats! And don't worry about posting late - I love Christmas food posts, whether it's in January or December!

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  3. SR is gorgeous! Is she trying to entice that hunky firefighter to the far right? Do they let JK slide down the pole?

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  4. Glad to hear you're all feeling better, and that you enjoyed a fine spread in spite of all the ills. As far as being late, if it makes you feel any better, I still haven't sent out New Year's cards, and I can't claim any excuses. I'm thinking it might be too late and I should just wish people a happy 2015.

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  5. Im with Shen, SR is so beautiful! And that's such a nice thing of yr family to do. Looks like you fared well enough at home too. Happy New Year!

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  6. DROOL! What a great way to do brussel sprouts. Definitely going to have to try this!

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  7. I hope your feeling better...I will pray for all of you to be blessed with good health this new year. I love all your recipes and I love the brussel sprouts. My new post is now up.

    http://nuestracena-vegancuisine.blogspot.com

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  8. Ingrid, thanks, I loved the dish! And, yes, we are all finally feeling better!

    Joey, if you're by the fire truck, you'll get a cookie for sure.

    SV, thank you! I think my children are beautiful, too. :-)

    Andrea, ha ha, I love to still get cards, even if they're late. Go ahead and send 'em.

    FF, thank you - I"ll pass that on to her. We ate well despite the illnesses. Happy New Year to you too!

    CVM, thanks! I like how they turned out.

    Millie, thank you! I'll check out your post.

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  9. I'm not a fan of brussel sprouts at all, but you've actually made them look delicious!!!! lol
    Just wondering if you have an option to follow your blog by email? Thanks :-)

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  10. Sandy, I have learned to love Brussels sprouts over the years. I used to hate them, too, but there are ways to cook them to make them yummy. As far as following me by e-mail, I don't know how to set that up. I'd love to make things as easy as possible for my followers. Do you know how I can set it up? Thanks!

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  11. Sounds like I need to try your recipe to get used to them then!!!

    See if this works for you - go onto your blogger page and click on the "Layout" section. You can then "add a gadget", and under the list of gadgets there should be one called "subscribe by email".
    :-)

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  12. Eeerrrrrrr, okay, Sandy... Just to let you know, I'm very wary of any new technology, even though my hubs is a computer guy by profession. New stuff makes me nervous. But, I will see. I will definitely check it out, I promise!

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    1. No worries! I'm not too great on the computer and with technology myself! :-)

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  13. Have I missed out on years of aging with SR? I agree with the nice comments above. Not to leave out cute little JK. Maybe I'll make you feel better by posting about our Christmas in February. :)

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