A Fall Harvest Dish

 One month into retirement and I have to say I’m loving it! My days are my own, I can do something useful or fun or nothing at all. I’ve been working on some home organizing projects and getting rid of some furniture/items that we no longer need - Facebook Marketplace is my new friend.

I’ve also applied for social security - believe me the government doesn’t make it easy. Something that should take no more than 15 minutes is a process. They already have all of the information but as my friend Irene says they make it difficult so that people won’t do it - she could be right. But that is done and you only have to do it once. 

I’ve been less ambitious in the cooking arena lately. I spent a lot of time at the end of the harvest bottling, freezing, and preserving the bounty from our garden so I was a bit tired of cooking. The good news is, grocery shopping is for essentials only these days.

Yesterday I decided to use up some of that bounty - I paired maple roasted butternut squash and brussels sprouts with a balsamic and maple marinated roasted tempeh into a delicious bowl - there were no leftovers. 

Ingredients:

1 package tempeh - cut into cubes

1 small butternut squash - peeled and cut into cutes 

1/2 lb brussels sprouts trimmed, washed, and halved 

1 onion - 1-inch dice

Marinade - veggies 

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Marinade - tempeh

1 package of Lightlife tempeh

1/8 cup maple syrup

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon avocado or olive oil

3.5 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

1.5 tsp olive oil

Instructions:

Combine tempeh ingredients. Chop tempeh into cubes and add to marinade in a shallow container. Marinade for 1 - 2 hours. 

Chop all vegetables and add to a large bowl. Combine marinade ingredients and pour over veggies. Stir to combine.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place veggies and tempeh on either a stoneware or metal baking sheet and cook until tempeh is browned and veggies are crisp-tender. 

While veggie and tempeh are roasting make either brown rice or quinoa. 

Serve in bowls adding fresh spinach, veggies, and tempeh. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and cranberries. Add more maple syrup if desired.

Enjoy!