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I love that this recipe is delicious, filling, and incredibly easy! The perfect trifecta for nutrient-dense weeknight cooking, you’ll find yourself making this recipe over and over. At its core, this recipe is rather simple — it is roasted butternut squash rounds topped with a flavorful mixture of ground sirloin, mushrooms, and spinach.
Once you get over the hurdle of prepping and cutting the butternut squash, the rest of the recipe comes together while the butternut squash rounds are roasting in the oven. I absolutely love how crispy the butternut squash gets in the oven! It is an excellent pairing for the ground sirloin.
This recipe is great for beginner cooks or anyone that is looking for low-carb recipes that will keep you feeling full. I’m really making a concerted effort to eat more protein these days and I recently made this high-protein bowl that I think would be wonderful with leftovers from this recipe!
Fun fact: ground sirloin has more protein than ground beef! Simply add the roasted butternut squash rounds to a bowl, add a cup of ground sirloin, and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, and top with marinated red onions or hot sauce. That’s 76 grams of protein right there! There’s nothing I love more than having a few recipes in your toolbox that are this easy and this good for you.
The ground sirloin mixture itself is great to have in the fridge and I highly recommend making extra because you do so many quick meals with it. You can easily make a play on Joe’s Special for breakfast or dinner by mixing it into scrambled eggs or serve it a bowl of rice for a lovely lunch. Having extra butternut squash is also great because you can keep them in the fridge and have them as a lovely snack the next day or add them to a salad to give it more body.
If you’ve never prepped a butternut squash it might seem like a Herculean endeavor but it’s easier than you might think! All you need is a sharp knife, a good vegetable peeler, a cutting board and you’re ready to get started. Begin by cutting both ends of the butternut squash with a chef’s knife. Using the vegetable peeler, peel the squash away from your body. With the chef’s knife, cut the necks of the squash and, carefully, slice the necks into inch-thick rounds. Be careful and move slowly! The rest of the squash can easily be cut into butternut squash cubes and sautéed or roasted or make butternut squash soup.