Acorn Squash is the most challenging vegetable to make taste good without adding lots of fat and sugar. Today the acorn squash was brushed with sriracha, soy, just one teaspoon sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic and a pinch of allspice. Nothing too fatty or sweet there but they all are very flavorful and taste good together. Then a bunch of carrots were cooked up and 1/2 got blended into a puree with water, fresh squeezed orange juice and ginger that was roasted with the carrots. Then they were topped with more of the sauce, scallions and cilantro. THAT’S IT! This recipe makes 6 large servings or 12 side dishes. My photo isn’t the best because it doesn’t show the sauce but there is sauce on the top that taste good.

Ingredients for around 12 servings

3 small acorn squash – cut in quarters with seeds and membranes removed

8 Tablespoons sriracha – preferably Shark Brand (This brand is very smooth with almost a sweet tomato taste….yours will taste different with a different brand)

2 Tablespoon soy sauce

2 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

2 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane

pinch ground all spice

3 lb carrots – peeled – sliced into about 1/4 inch thick coins – (carrots must be fresh and sweet tasting for this recipe to taste good…..you can’t use old carrots here….I WARN YOU also please don’t use those chemical soaked baby carrots)

2 inches fresh ginger – grated

1/2 cup water (to cook carrots with)

I orange – just the fresh squeezed juice

up to 1 1/2 cups water – ( do 1/2 cup and add 1/4 cup till smooth and a nice consistency)

neutral non stick spray

1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – hand torn

Directions

Set oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray a baking sheet(s) with non stick spray.

Place the acorn squash quarters on the baking sheet(s)

In a small mixing bowl combine the sriracha, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, garlic and all spice. Mix well.

Brush the squash with thalf he mixture well. you cam well mixture in squash cavities.

Carrots and ginger (but ginger in one spot to infuse slightly but more so to cook it) go in a pan or two small pans. Add a half cup of water and cover.

Put the brushed squash on the middle shelf and the covered carrots on the lower shelves in the oven.

In my oven both were done in 45 minutes…..yours may or may not differ.

When squash and carrots are cooked threw pull them out of the oven.

Half the carrots get blended up with the ginger, some water and fresh squeezed orange juice. Start with the orange juice and a 1/2 cup of water……..add 1/4 cups more of water till nice and smooth. Hopefully your puree will taste sweet like mine. If you don’t think it’s sweet enough you can add a tablespoon of either honey or maple syrup.

Top each quarter squash with some carrot puree, some carrots, the other half of the sauce, some scallions with a little fresh cilantro.

Delicious, a bit spicy and full of gingery sort of Asian flavors.

It’s pretty easy to bake a delicious cake with sugar and butter. I wanted to challenge myself today so I came up with a cake that is almost fat free and also is sugar free NATURALLY!!!!!!! A few months back I made a delicious banana snack cake without adding butter. I wondered if I could make a date cake without adding sugar or butter and I sort of did! I really didn’t know how great this cake was until I made it a 2nd time unembellished. A little while back I published this recipe just for the cake plain because many people don’t want a fancy cake and mess with making a marmalade ………..You can always purchase a jar of all-fruit jam without sugar to spread on the cake……I think any sort of orange flavor and a little chocolate goes very well with this cake (you can drizzle it a little melted chocolate or stick chocolate shavings to the side). Mandarinquats (a mandarin and kumquat cross) were used as a marmalade topping. The Mandarinquats are full of flavor, are perfect for marmalade and goes extremely well with dates. I wasn’t too sure about the cake being great with sugar or butter until I made the cake a second time……but I thought by dressing the cake with Mandarinquat Marmalade the cake would be delicious and it is…..I also embellished the cake with some leftover home made ricotta cannoli fillings that I used like frosting that I had in my freezer that aren’t too sweet but delicious…..A cake doesn’t have to have too much sugar or fat in it to taste good! I note that the marmalade recipe makes about double of what you need. It’s also better to make the marmalade the day before if you want the marmalade cool for your cake.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

1 cup water – (for marmalade)

1/2 lb mandarinquats – ends sliced off cut in slices – seeds removed (you may substitute other small citrus but the flavor and tartness may differ some) – (for marmalade)

small pinch ground star anise – (for marmalade)

one cinnamon stick – (for marmalade)

3/4 cup sugar – (for marmalade)

1/2 Meyer lemon – (for marmalade)

1 lb dates – pits removed – chopped – soaked in hot water 1/2 hour and drained – (for cake)

4 eggs beaten – (for cake)

3/4 cup flour – (for cake)

1 teaspoon cinnamon – (for cake)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder – (for cake)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda – (for cake)

1/4 teaspoon vanila extract – (for cake)

small pinch sea salt – (for cake)

non stick spray to spray pan for cake

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F and spray 8 inch cake pan with non stick spray and set the pan to the side.

In a sauce pan on medium high heat add the citrus, star anise, cinnamon stick, sugar and bring to boil stirring pretty much……this takes a long time to cook…maybe 25 minutes (sorry I forgot to time)….you know its done just when you start to thing this will never get done……..The mixture starts to darken and thickens suddenly before your eyes and it’s done…Take off of heat when done and pour into a container to cool it some.

The soaked and drained dates get blended with the eggs……You blend them till it looks like cinnamon chocolate chip batter then you transfer to a mixing bowl. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.

Pour into 8 inch non stick sprayed cake pan.

Bake until done. (in my oven this took 20 minutes)

Remove from oven when done.

If you are adding a cannoli or cream cheese boarder then you have to wait till the cake is cool to add it………and fill in with marmalade

Or you can add the marmalade right away and serve.

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My husband was bummed that I made a dessert because he is not very found of sweets but even he said that this cake was very good and it is!

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