Life in Lape Haven

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Roasted Cinnamon-Spiced Butternut Squash with Sweet Potatoes & Apples

November 1, 2016
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Roasted Cinnamon-Spiced Butternut Squash with Sweet Potatoes & Apples. This delicious roasted butternut squash side dish spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with sweet potatoes and apples is a great healthy addition to any meal or holiday table throughout the fall and winter.

As much as I love summer, there is something to be said about all the crisp weather, cozy clothes, fall fun, and tasty treats that come with autumn. While I love all the apple and pumpkin goodies to be made (Apple pie? YUM! Pumpkin cookies? Yes, please!), I also get really excited when I start seeing butternut squash in the stores.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Roasted Cinnamon-Spiced Butternut Squash with Sweet Potatoes & Apples. This delicious roasted butternut squash side dish spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with sweet potatoes and apples is a great healthy addition to any meal or holiday table throughout the fall and winter.

I’m not sure when I first tried cooking butternut squash for my family, but it quickly became a staple of our autumn pantry. I love making this Winter Squash soup (Pumpkin-Butternut Squash Soup) by the Food Network’s Ina Garten. However, I think my absolute favorite way to enjoy this seasonal veggie is to simply dice it up and roast it, usually along with some sweet potatoes and apples.

The other night I was ready to make this sweet combination as a side for our dinner, but I couldn’t remember at what temperature I usually roasted it. So, I searched online for “roasted butternut squash.”

The first recipe I checked out was one for cinnamon roasted butternut squash from Chew Out Loud. Suddenly, I was ready to spice up my usual recipe a little bit. 🙂

While their recipe calls for adding brown sugar to their squash, I didn’t since I already add sweet potatoes and apples to the mix. I didn’t want to make my dish into too much of a dessert. I also had to adjust the oil and seasoning a bit since I had more to roast overall.

The resulting Roasted Cinnamon-Spiced Butternut Squash with Sweet Potatoes and Apples was delicious! (Even my little picky eater Josiah ate it well.) Not only is it a tasty side, but it is simple and healthy! This is a perfect dish for any meal throughout the fall and winter and would be a great new addition to your Thanksgiving table.

Note: Don’t let the prepping of the butternut squash intimidate you. It seems tricky, but it’s not that bad. I’ve learned that if you microwave it for a few minutes, that will make peeling it much easier. It will even help make it easier to cut up (butternut squash is a hard squash). Of course, be careful, as it will be hot! For more info on prepping your squash, you can check out this How-to from Simply Recipes.

Here’s how I make this yummy fall dish.

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Cinnamon Sugar Kettle Corn

November 5, 2015
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Life in Lape Haven: Cinnamon Sugar Kettle Corn recipe. A quick, tasty, and fairly healthy stovetop popcorn recipe using coconut oil.

For some reason autumn always makes me want popcorn.

It might be all the fall festivals with the warm scents of kettle corn wafting through the air. It might be that we’re more likely to be cuddling up on the couch for a movie now instead of playing outside as long as we can. It might be the simplicity of the treat.

It might just be that I really like popcorn.

According to family lore, my first steps were taken to get to popcorn, and I was busted as a little one eating strung popcorn off the Christmas tree (there’s even photographic evidence).

So popcorn and I go back a few years…or more.

(This post contains affiliate links, which means, at no extra cost to you, I will get a small percentage if you make a purchase through the link.)

Life in Lape Haven: Cinnamon Sugar Kettle Corn recipe. A quick, tasty, and fairly healthy stovetop popcorn recipe using coconut oil.

Then several years ago I was helping at a youth gathering at a fellow youth leader’s home. We often had youth group at their home because they had a large house and loved hosting people. The leader’s wife always had something special for us – fancy teas and hot chocolate, homemade waffles after a sleepover, and stovetop kettle corn at this particular meeting.

She had a funny pan with a crank that amused us all, but it produced the tastiest popcorn ever! Plus she had all kinds of variations she could make, and they were all good.

I immediately wanted a Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper for myself, so I could have yummy, crunch, sweet, and salty kettle corn and not have to share it with a dozen hungry teenagers.

It would be a few years later before I got my wish when I found a barely-used Whirley-Pop at the thrift store.

After that, I went on a hunt for recipes, finding all kinds of ideas online. I made plain salted popcorn, sweet kettle corn, caramel corn, and recently, pumpkin spice kettle corn. However, my very favorite (and my boys’ favorite, too) is Cinnamon Sugar Kettle Corn.

It’s super easy to make, and even easier to enjoy. It’s so good that I have to stop myself from eating the entire bowl…pretty much every time I make it.

I make popcorn often, especially in the fall and winter. It’s a fairly healthy, cheap, and really quick snack to make. In not much longer than it takes you to microwave a bag of popcorn, you could stovetop-pop a huge bowl of way healthier, tastier popcorn.

My recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Kettle Corn has come from some trial and error and tweaking of other recipes I have found. As always with my recipes, feel free to get creative and make it your own. If it comes out better than mine, please let me know!

Also, I imagine you can make this the old-school way with just a regular pan on the stove. I never have, but it should work just fine. Or you can scour your local second-hand stores in hopes of finding one, although I haven’t seen another one since the day I got mine.

Amazon carries the Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper, though, so you could get it brand-new or add it to your Christmas wish list.

However you can make it, I know you’ll enjoy it. Whether or not you share it or eat the whole bowl yourself is up to you.

By the way, I shared my Pumpkin Spice Kettle Corn recipe a couple of weeks ago in my “Family Room” email newsletter. Make sure you sign up to get other exclusive content and ideas. You can sign up by clicking HERE.

A quick, easy, fairly healthy, and super delicious Cinnamon Sugar Kettle Corn recipe using a stovetop popper and coconut oil.


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