I always plan my meals ahead of time. Way ahead of time. Every Friday, I make the list of all the meals that we will eat for the next nine days. Sometimes, during the course of the week, meals swap days. Sometimes, meals get bumped for a variety of reasons, and other times the last two get plain crossed off when I start a new list for the upcoming week.

That dish that we had tonight, it had been on my list for at least 3 weeks now, but, for some reason, always ended up getting bumped to the next week. I didn’t want to cross it off. I really wanted to try it.

So this week, it had been scheduled for tonight, and I was really looking forward to eating it, so there was no way I was pushing it again, even though there were only two of us eating and I felt it was a fairly large and complicated meal to cook for a party of two. Especially I had to impose this on my daughter: she was the one who had to make it and she really didn’t feel like eating this.

But, I truly had my heart set on this one, THIS is what I wanted to eat for supper. While I have to admit that the first couple of bites left me a wee bit disappointed, I soon came to change my mind, completely! And so did my daughter! As she was making it, she kept making comments that it didn’t look so bad after all and that she might have a few Brussel sprouts. Oh, and a few pieces of potatoes. And well, maybe a little bit of squash too. Well, she ended up having a full plate and wanting to eat more when she was done, but since she was full, she will have to wait for tomorrow and enjoy some of the (YAY we have some!) leftovers!

We had this as a main course, but it could very well be made into a side dish also.

Here’s a list of what went into this meal:

Ingredients
(serves 4-6)

  • 1 acorn squash, peeled and cut in large chunks
  • 1 sweet potato, cut in large chunks
  • 1 pound Brussel sprouts, cut in half
  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut in large chunks
  • 200g green beens, cut in half
  • 4 small potatoes, cut in large chunks
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1½ tbsp Honey
  • 2 tbsp dried basil
  • 2 tbsp dried oregano
  • 2 tbsp dried parsley
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 4 tbsp water
  • Goat cheese, crumbled
  • Toasted almonds, chopped
  • Fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 425 Farenheit.
  • Mix all the vegetables together in a large mixing bowl.
  • In another bowl, mix the next list of ingredients to form a vinaigrette like mixture. Add this to the vegetables and coat well on all sides.
  • Transfer the vegetables to a large baking sheet and cook in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until level of tenderness has been reached, stirring the vegetables occasionally.
  • Transfer onto serving plates and garnish with goat cheese, almonds and parsley.