Roasted Kabocha Squash with Amped Grains + Green Tahini

Even if you LOVE cooking (as I do,) and even if cooking is “easy,” because you’re a professional…cooking three meals a day, for months on end is monotony.

Maybe it would be easier if I was ok eating leftovers, or “meal prepping.” But I’m not. Because I truly believe that eating food that was cooked days ago is not only nutritionally un-optimal, but it’s also pretty unsatisfying. Food tastes good when it’s cooked immediately, and 3 or 4 days later it just doesn’t.

But cooking everything from scratch, for every meal, is a possibility for no one. NO ONE. Not even a professional chef. What is possible is craftily piecing together the smart items you have in the fridge to make something awesome. The key to doing that is having smarter items on hand, and smart preparations to make them flexible. This Roasted Kabocha Bowl w/Amped Grains + Green Tahini is a perfect example of that. (And, it’s just the kind of meal that we have here several times a week, either as a super-powered lunch, or quick-to-make dinner.

Here’s how it comes together in my house:

I call this strategy  “Cook One Thing;” it’s basically a pact I make with myself to make one thing each night, enough that we can eat dinner + have a smart leftover for the next day. This isn’t something like leftover lasagne, or casserole, like the leftovers I remember from being a little kid. These leftovers are components, rather than whole meals that I can roll forward to the next day.

This strategy – instead of the “meal prep strategy,” means that we’re eating the freshest food possible, and incorporating them in creative ways. It also means that the meals we put together are more simple, but I’m ok with that. Here’s how this Roasted Kabocha Squash w/Amped Grains + Green Tahini came together in my house, using the Cook One Thing strategy:

My Monday Self needed something saucy to eat with eggs + toast, so I whipped up this creamy, herby Green Tahini.

Tuesday Self, may have made a rice cooker full of quinoa. Maybe they were lazy and actually didn’t do it and ordered pizza instead. But let’s just SAY that my Tuesday self was on it.

Wednesday Self saw a 3-hour window to bake a whole squash. I turned on the oven, popped the squash in, and went about checking emails, went for a ride, folded laundry, #didallthethings. Then I pulled it from the oven, scooped out the seeds, wrapped it up tightly + went to bed.

Thursday Self needed dinner. BUT – I already had what I needed to make something happen. So I pulled out that squash and the green tahini, and realized that Tuesday self was lazy and didn’t actually make the quinoa…so I used the rice cooker to make a batch while I chopped up some spinach greens, plucked some pomegranate seeds + had a cocktail.

And VOILA.

Sounds easy, right?

It’s also smart for active + adventurous folks.

This meal + it’s ingredients are:

• Flexible: individually, all of these components (roasted squash, amped grains, green tahini, and even the optional toppings – can each stand alone and maximize other meals. The squash can be rolled into soup, stirred into oatmeal, added to rice + eggs. The quinoa is great on greens, or on its own as a mid-day meal. And don’t get me started on the flexibility of this tahini!
• Super-Charged: pulled together, this meal is a powerhouse of nutrients; clean burning carbohydrates, grounding root vegetables, and prime proteins. Perfect as a recovery meal after a big run/ride/ski, or as a grounding meal for dinner. Clean carbohydrates, a flexible protein option and lots of color, texture and flavor make a delicious, nutritious full plate.
• Lo-Fi: None of the ingredients take more than 25 minutes of your work, and all of them use basic preparations and techniques. I use a rice cooker to make grains (typically while I’m working on something else,) but an InstantPot would also work. Your oven does the roasting for you, so all you need to do is pull it together and amp those grains here! You don’t need to have any pro-level skills to eat like a pro here!