I love the process of preparing food; the selection, the chopping, the mixing, the spices and I especially enjoy that moment when you taste your creation and it satisfies your taste buds and leaves you satiated. I love to experiment and try different vegetable combinations and above all I hope to inspire healthy eating through innovative usage of those vegetables.

Hours of preparation and designing a dish can be tedious and truthfully not all of us have the time necessary to spend preparing complex dishes and sometimes we just want to eat, RIGHT NOW!

I try to put a number of different types of dishes on the blog ranging from simplicity at its finest to complex yet I am always conscious of time constraints. I love to spend a weekend in the kitchen creating an intricate dish but also know the struggles of coming home after a long day at work and wanting to eat something that is easy to prepare and delicious.

This recipe is a simple one, involving a small number of ingredients but holds a ton of flavors borrowed from Italian cuisine. Roasted butternut lends a sweet contrast to the bitterness of the broccoli rabe and garlic while cannellini beans provide a creaminess. This dish can be prepared in a half hour and is great for leftovers the next day as well.

I also love the greens and white bean combo and eat it on its own, using whatever I have in the house and spicing it up a bit with some hot sauce! Sometimes you need a little spice in your life, I hope that you enjoy and healthy eating!

Simple Roasted Butternut Squash with Broccoli Rabe and Cannellini Beans

1 Butternut Squash, Halved, seeds removed

2 tbs Olive Oil

1 small Onion, Chopped

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1 Bunch of Broccoli Rabe, about 2 cups

1 can Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Optional: Parmesan and Hot Sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat the cut side of the butternut squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast, cut side down for 30 minutes or until a knife easily is inserted.

Meanwhile, in a saute pan, heat 2 tbs of olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and garlic, cooking until softened. reduce to medium low and add the greens covering with a lid until wilted about 2 minutes. Stir in the beans, cooking until warm. Sprinkle with salt to taste and remove from heat. Keep covered until the squash is cooked.

Fill the inside of the squash with the greens mixture, sprinkle with Parmesan or add hot sauce and enjoy!

The end of summer takes with it the bounty of strawberries, summer squash, tomatoes and cucumbers but not before one final push of all its deliciousness! You will notice that at many farmers markets, right before the greens and butternuts make their fall appearances, that the summer crop makes one last stand as if it is holding on to those longer days of warmth. Holding true to that pattern, John @royalacresfarmandcsa loaded up my basket full of zucchini last week.

Zucchini is one of those items that seems to over run our lives, during the high season it is often joked that a zucchini can be found in every car in the parking lot due to overzealous home growers left with an overabundance of crop. Personally, I love the versatility that zucchini offers, not only can you eat it raw, made into noodles, grilled, baked, or sauteed but it can also be frozen and utilized in baked goods. And who doesn't love to throw in a little extra nutrition into their baked goods?!

With so much zucchini on hand I challenged myself to make a zucchini bread that was not loaded with refined sugars, bleached flours, and eggs. I wanted to highlight the zucchini as opposed to drowning it in fat and calories. This loaf started as an experiment but soon became a favorite that I have made 3 times this week, it's that good! It is incredibly moist, flavorful, and dense and satisfies that need for a treat without harming your system.

This bread can be made vegan by utilizing maple syrup or agave as well as gluten free if made using gluten free oats, it has healthy fat from coconut oil and best of all, tons of zucchini! I hope that you love it as much as I do.

Healthy Honey and Banana Zucchini Oat Bread

1 Ripe Banana

1 tbs Vanilla Extract

1 Zucchini, Shredded (about 2 cups)

1/3 cup Coconut Oil, melted

1/2 cup Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave

1 cup of Oat Flour

1 1/2 cups of Rolled oats

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tbs Baking Powder

1 tbs Cinnamon

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bread pan using coconut oil and set aside. In a large bowl combine the oat flour (I make mine by throwing 1 cup of oats into my food processor and processing into a flour), oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a mixer, beat the bananas until mashed. Add the vanilla extract, melted coconut oil and honey, processing until combined. Add the shredded zucchini, slowly add the oat mixture to the wet ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan, smoothing it a loaf form, sprinkling with sunflower seeds if desired. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool.

Enjoy and healthy eating!