5 Minutes to Lunch
With the help of a (vegan) hamburger. And a butternut-squash trick.
Katie, how can it be “5 minutes” if one of the ingredients is butternut squash? Those things take ages to cook! True, but here’s what I like to do: Buy the BIGGEST butternut squash you can find.
Roast the whole thing (see: How to Roast a Butternut Squash… sorry in advance for the creepy photo! :-?). Then portion it out into single-serving amounts and freeze whatever you don’t plan to use within a few days. Unlike spaghetti squash, butternut defrosts quite well.
Hamburger Veggie Burger Helper
- Steamed Broccoli (or other veg)
- Roasted Winter Squash (or sweet potato)
- Burger, crumbled (I highly recommend these burgers)
- Optional: Nutritional Yeast for topping
Mix everything together, season with salt, and sprinkle nutritional yeast on top, if desired. Try to mix/chop everything well enough that you get a little of each component in every bite :). (You can even pulse with a hand blender a few times if you wish!)
For a gourmet twist, try drizzling with coconut milk immediately prior to eating.
Seriously, why bother with complicated recipes that take hours when simple things can taste just as good? My dessert was just as easy and quick-to-prepare as lunch.
Three-Ingredient Peanut Butter Balls
Life is too short to spend it slaving over a stove (unless, of course, you enjoy the cooking process. I just don’t happen to be one of those people.)
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Question of the Day:
Do you ever freeze leftovers?
I love to cook in bulk and freeze extra servings of things. Cook once, eat twice… or three or four times! Soup is a favorite meal to freeze. But I like freezing foods like pancakes as well. The only problem is that my freezer can get pretty crowded! 😕
Other question: Have you ever eaten Hamburger Helper?
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Artisana winner: bottom of this post.
I sometimes freeze leftovers. More often I eat them for lunch. 🙂 Sadly, I have had hamburger helper. It was my husband’s favorite thing to cook when I first met him. Gross.
wooay!! great recipe for my vegan start!! in case you haven’t read my recent post… I am going VEGAN GIRL
so excited!!! 😀
I did see that! I’m so excited for you!! Would I embarrass you with a shout-out on twitter? 😉
not at all!! SPREAD THE word.. WOO!!
That is so exciting! 😀 Just thought I’d throw that out there!
This is genius!! And yes, I freeze leftovers. And then promptly forget they are there.
That looks fabulous! I’ve never tried hamburger helper, but I think I will keep it that way and make you veggie burger helper instead! 🙂
I’m sad to hear that spaghetti squash doesn’t freeze well – I didn’t know and stuck some in the freezer a few months ago. Oh well, I guess it’s a good excuse to by another squash 😉
I freeze leftovers all the time. They make for great quick and healthy weekday meals!
Maybe you’ll have better luck! Mine got all watery and GROSS :-?.
I recently discovered butternut squash and I could think was – where has THAT been all my life? Wow – so yummy 🙂
My daughter has a snow day today (it is -25 here) and we are going to make your single lady cupcakes and peanut butter balls. Considering baking a peanut butter ball INSIDE the cupcake… 🙂
On a tech note, I think you linked to the wrong butternut squash recipe as the one shown doesn’t give the details of roasting.
Ugh! Thanks for letting me know. You’re right; it was the wrong link :(. I fixed it.
Let me know how the cookies turn out! And also, stay warm! It’s “feels like -2” here, and that’s more than cold enough for me!
mmmmm that looks yummy!!!!
I would definitely freeze my leftovers more often… if only I could stop buying frozen fruit and veggies and stuffing my freezer with all of it! My freezer never seems to have any space at all, haha. (Frozen veggies and fruit, though… they’re essential to quick meal prep! So I love ’em, and it makes me happy to hear all the research that has proven frozen produce to be nutritionally on par with fresh produce – at least most of the time, and sometimes it’s supposedly even better~)
I agree with you though! Simply delicious ingredients all thrown together makes for a delicious meal, so why spend hours slaving over one meal when you can be eating something awesome in a couple of minutes…? Though, admittedly, I love cooking and spending time in the kitchen. Quick recipes are great too though – and your meals always look fantastic and only take a few minutes!
May as well for once actually say: Thanks for all the recipes thus far! 😀 I didn’t know you could freeze pancakes… Definitely keeping that in mind, haha.
Oh yes yes! You can definitely freeze pancakes. I hate how so many bowls/pans/utensils are needed for pancake-making, so I’ll make up like 5 batches and only have to do one set of dishes ;).
Such a fantastic idea! And sometimes when I’m honestly craving pancakes, I don’t feel like going through all the hassle to make them… It’s simple but genius – freeze ’em so you can eat them when you want!
You’re full of good ideas. 🙂 Thanks for always sharing them!
I am so craving broccoli right now and this looks great, I never think to crumble burgers and make things like this…
I hate Hamburger Helper, but I feel like I would love this! I always freeze leftovers. They make easy meals on busy nights! Everything looks delicious!
Girl, uh. greed. Even though I love preparing yummylicious food, I often finding myself cooking in bulk and throwing the same things together all the time! It’s repetitive, but delicious and simple:) It will be especially helpful in college next year!