Acorn Squash is a fave of mine, I didn't know it was high on the glyemic index though...I guess I feel, if it is a fruit or veggie I can eat it. I usually prepare it with butter, brown sugar and little honey. Sooooo goood. I use it like a sweet potato I guess.

PQ - You can read the Wikipedia entry here, but basically it refers to how quickly a food raises your blood sugar after eating it.

I used to heap on the brown sugar until I started South Beach. Now the squash seems sweet enough on its own, but I'll occasionally add a packet of Splenda if I want it to be more like a dessert.

I remember when I was in Italy one year, I fasted throughout the day and at a completely vegeterian diet. Well our food was limited on the tour I was on, so I hadn't eaten in two days and was starving. However, we were in the field of a huge church on our pilgramage, and I noticed that the trees looked heavy... with pomogranates! Nobody on the tour had ever eaten them before, so I got to show them how.

Gifts from God, man. They're awesome.

* 3 medium acorn squash
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3 cups chopped apple
* 1/4 cup melted butter
* 1/4 cup brown sugar

PREPARATION:
Cut acorn squash in half crosswise; remove seeds and pulp.
Place cut side down in shallow baking pan. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes.
Turn cut sides up; sprinkle with salt.
Combine remaining ingredients; fill squash with mixture.
Continue baking 25 minutes or until acorn squash is tender

Pomegranates don't seem worth the work.

PQ - It's what the Internet told me to do!

As far as the pomegranate... I had a similar experience to yours. I felt it was far too much work for the taste. Just give me a damn juicy honeycrisp apple or a sweet orange!

I suspect pomegranates have sort of a low glycemic impact because you have to eat them slowly. Some people don't consume the seeds, by the way - they just suck them to get the red flesh, then spit out the seeds. And I'd never heard of soaking a pomegranate before, either.

I love your blog! You seem like a young lady with her head squarely on her shoulders. I especially like the fact that you are discovering the produce section and learning to cook. I really feel that the whole era of people not cooking has led to the literal expansion of society (especially its pants size). The fact that you are learning to cook and enjoy healthy foods suggests to me that you are going to continue as one of the success stories of weight loss!

I love all the squash this time of year! I buy one almost every time I go to the grocery store.

However, if anyone can make acorn squash look good... you did.

BTW, this is my first time posting to your blog, and I have to say you amaze and inspire me. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself.

You do need to be careful what you do this on though, because the juice DOES stain. I have a wooden cutting board that looks like something died on it because of a pom!

Also - any of you school-folk: pom seeds are an AWESOME study snack. They are a much better "mindless study snacking" snack than chips or whatever else!

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2007/10/26/counterfeiting-much-less-prevalent-than-you-think

PQ - I have tried spaghetti squash and it is pretty good. Sometimes I try scraping it out too soon and burn myself though.

My FAVORITE winter squash recipe is here:
http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=684

I don't do "fries" though - I just cut it into chunks and bake with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt. The outside gets all carmelized and crisp, and the inside is squishy and delicious. OMG. LOVE.

Have you had butternut squash? It's quite similar to acorn squash. I also love to take a small pumpkin - the pie kind, not the carving kind - chop it in half, and bake it at about 400 until soft. Pumpkin is much, much lower in calories and sugar than acorn or butternut squash, and so yummy.

Sadly, my wife hates it (more for the consistency than the taste), so I get it very rarely now.

It is my favorite food - always has been (I'm strange that way.) However every time I buy it in the store checkers hold it up to me and ask - "now what is THIS?" Just peel it with a knife (ordinary peelers don't work), cut it up, cook it until tender (takes a while) in salted water. Then mash it up with some butter and pepper. If you are feeling particularly wicked add a little bacon fat. I prefer it to chocolate! (I guess I am strange.)

Tasty human blood, though.

I quartered a pom just last night and squeezed the sections over a bowl to get the juice and then made a nice vinaigrette with it. Yum.

I am a little leery of the pomegranate, but maybe I'll et brave and give it a try...

Re: pomegranates - the juice stains dramatically and forever - I use a MUCH larger bowl to soak the pomegranates (only needs a few minutes0 and then do all of the un-seeding in the water - so the juice that inevitably squeezes out in the process is diluted. The seeds sink, the white pulp rises - and the process is MUCH faster. Eat the seeds - like grape seeds - good for bowel process. . .

Sometimes I bake it with a little sugar-free maple syrup in the cavity. Butternut is my favorite, slow roasted is best. Not all butternut are created equal, the ones with darker flesh and less moisture are far superior. The ones grown in the northern sections of the US are better.

I also enjoyed the squirrel/acorn/linoleum comment, almost sprayed the coffee...

However, my husband would totally agree that they're more trouble than they're worth, especially after I managed to spray the juice up the wall. The pale-green wall. If you wipe pomegranate juice, it turns navy blue...

We had to repaint that bit.

I haven't had them stain skin, though.

What's with all these people who put sugar (or whatever) on their squash? Are they eating it for dessert? Maybe this is a cultural thing.

PQ - Why, thank you! And actually I don't use any lotion. Sorry! I have naturally beautiful cuticles, I guess.

I don't know anything about the first fruit you describe, but pomegranates are very typical in Spain. There is a city called Granada whose coat of arms depicts a pomegranate (a "granada") and some other stuff irrelevant for weight loss. An advice to eat the fruit is either
- dessert: granate seeds with some sugar on top
or
- main course: salad with curly endives and pomegrenate seeds.

I, personally, love the salad.

Cheers

I love Pom's and introduced my DD to them last year and she is now hooked, I buy a couple and deseed them and give them to her for school snack - she now has all her friends hooked too, they are good in salad too.

About the dread pomegranates: they're yum, but lots of work (though I've never done the soak / float / skim routine, just picked out the seeds).

When we were in Turkey in May, I spotted the answer: a juicer. Street vendors chop them in half across their 'equator' and squash them in those drop-handle metal juicers. You could easily do the same with a lemon juicer at home, and just run the juice through a strainer. If it's not sweet enough, mix in a little OJ.

Pomegranate juice and rum with sugar & mint is also PDG. :)

A perfect addition to a salad--total crowd pleaser. Really...better than any crouton. It's like a little punch of juice that you control. Imagine, scarfing some baby romaine, feeling a seed in the mouth, and making a conscious decision to POP it open, releasing its sweet nectar into the mix. Divine.

Also, when mixing fruity sha-sha drinks (both alcoholic and not), throw a few seeds in the glass. They'll swim about looking ruby-like and fantasmic. People will oooh and aaaah at your innovative charms. My chums and I have created a drink around the pom seeds--we call it mermaid scat. Because, of course, if a mermaid were to poo, it would probably resemble pomegranite seeds.

Thanks for the blog--stumbled on it and found myself ignoring work for the better part of an hour. Keep it up.