That’s a mouth full. I hate shortening my titles for my recipes, but I did. I didn’t talk about the cinnamon or salt in the recipe. Anywho, Thanksgiving is on the way, so this week will be filled with recipes to help you eat paleo through the holidays. Yayyyy!
If you’ve done paleo before during a holiday or party and are a legit foodie, you know that it can be ultra annoying to be at parties and not be able to eat everything that’s there. And when I say “not be able to eat everything that’s there” I mean you’re having an internal battle on whether or not you should eat that piece of pumpkin, blueberry AND apple pie, along with the 6 different dips that are paired with chips and crackers. You know what I’m saying if you’re a foodie for life. You’re acting like you’re listening to the conversations around you, but you’re actually just thinking about the dessert table and if you should just have a taste. Just a fork full. Even though you know that the fork full will turn into a whirlwind of pounding food without even know what you’re consuming, you just know if has frosting on it. And that’s really all you care about because you haven’t had frosting in months, maybe even years. If you act like you’ve never been there, you don’t love food near as much as me. Because that was me at a party the other night. And I gave in. Frosted pumpkin squares?? Eff me.
I didn’t have my best eating choices over the weekend. I think some people think that since I create paleo recipes that I will never ever ever fall off the wagon. Which isn’t totally true. I have my moments. Life is all about living, but it’s also making the best decicions you can in certain situations. Sometimes you don’t get to choose where you get to eat while traveling. You’re at other people’s disposal when it comes to food choices. So I did my best. Then not my best. Then my best once again at the airport. Eating at airports is my least favorite. Except when I got to eat at Root Down at DIA and had a burger with sweet potato fries and a bloody mary. Made me feel like I wasn’t even in an airport, which I love. Either way, I don’t feel my best but I’m back home and back on the track that I want to be on.
I just watched a woman stuff an incredibly greasy burger king bag into her purse. It creeped me out. Which is odd since I’m pretty much a huge grease ball after what I shoved in my face over the weekend. Call me butterball. Do it.
Thanksgiving Side Dish: Maple Bacon Pecan Roasted Butternut Squash
- Yield: 4-5 1x
Ingredients
- 6–8 pieces of bacon
- 5 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash (640 grams)
- 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (100 grams)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup (70 grams)
- 2–3 tablespoons bacon fat (rendered from cooking bacon)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4–1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place strips of bacon on a foil lined baking sheet
- Cook bacon for 20 minutes. Bacon should still be slightly soft (not crispy) when you pull it out of the oven. Remove from baking sheet to cool on a paper towel lined plate. Chop bacon into small pieces once cooled. Place the rendered bacon fat in a large bowl.
- Add the cubed butternut squash, pecans, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt to the large bowl with the bacon fat.
- Mix together to coat the squash well. Add pieces of bacon to the mixture and mix well.
- Add mixture to a 9×11 glass baking dish.
- Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees.
- Place dish in the oven to bake for 35-40 minutes (depending on size of cubed butternut squash) or until squash is soft.
- Serve immediately.
___________
More Sweet Sides:
Last Minute Thanksgiving Smashed Maple Sweet Potatoes
______________
Click Here To Get All My PaleOMG Recipes Into Your Meal Planner With Real Plans!
I may be compensated through my affiliate links in this post, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running!
I made this for my non-paleo family this year at Thanksgiving and it was a HUGE hit!! To quote my husband “Anything that has bacon in it has to be good”. This blog has been my life saver, THANK YOU!!!
This was delicious! Heated up leftovers, added a couple strips of fresh bacon and ate it on top of a gluten-free waffle.
Made this for Thanksgiving dinner….it was to die for! Because of your recipes I was able to stick to eating healthy. Thank you so much….btw….toot toot!
This dish was very well received at the family’s Thanksgiving dinner! Thank you!
Huh…this is pretty much exactly Against All Grain’s sweet potato recipe. You just used butternut squash instead.
seriously? i’ve never seen her recipe. truly haven’t. i rarely look at other blogs for that reason
This was fantastic! We could have eaten three batches of this!
This was so good! This and the apple tartlets are the first Paleo recipes I’ve made. I came across your blog a few months ago and have enjoyed reading it. I’m sure different blogs have recipes similar to one another but not everyone reads all blogs, not to mention that we all tweak recipes, so keep them coming along with your humor!
This was AMAZING! Even the people who didnt like squash ate this. Everyone asked what was in it and where I got it. I am on a detox diet, and everyone was worried I would only be able to eat the Turkey….They were all very impressed with the spread I prepared.
This dish was a big hit at our Thanksgiving dinner! This is the first big holiday I’ve celebrated since trying Paleo, and I was worried about missing the mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole…this did just the trick! Everyone raved about it and my 85 year old grandmother even had me write out the recipe for her so she could try it at home!!
Holy cow, Juli! This was awesome, and super easy! I hoarded the left overs. I’m going to make this all the time now. Thank you so much for providing yummy recipes for those of us with zero kitchen creativity. Love it!