Black bean, butternut squash, and caramelized onion tacos

October 22, 2013

Today calls for a celebration. It is our 15th wedding anniversary. Yay! My hubby was unable to eat dinner with us but that didn't mean that he couldn't be a "part" of it. I thought about what I would want to make for him had he been able to eat it. It didn't take long for me to figure out that it had to be tacos.

I decided to try a new taco tonight. Stay with me this is where it gets long. Caramelized onion, butternut squash, and black bean tacos. Oh yeah. This is happening.

I started out by peeling and chopping a butternut squash. I gave it a light coating in olive oil. I spread it out on a large baking sheet and separated it into two sections. One side got salt, pepper, and garlic & wine seasoning. The other side got salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and oregano. I baked them at 425 for about 10 minutes. It didn't take too long to bake seeing as I had cut them so small.

I also made a batch of caramelized onions. It is time consuming (probably about 40 plus minutes) but so worth it. Our other toppings included: whole black beans, black beans processed with homemade salsa, sour cream, sautéed green pepper/Portobello mushrooms/garlic, cilantro, avocado, cucumber, and spinach. We had our tacos with local grapes and apple juice in fancy glasses.

I had dinner all set up before the kids came into the kitchen. I was hoping that it would like nice for them. That it would make it feel more like a celebration even though daddy wasn't here. Sure enough. My son walked in and said "oh, it looks so fancy". Ha. Perfect.

Wow. The tacos were amazing. The caramelized onions and butternut squash were really delicious together. However, I think I would not add the black beans processed with salsa next time and stick to just whole black beans. I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow! The kids both liked the butternut squash. My son skipped beans and had leftover pork loin in his taco.

What is a celebration without cake? Not a celebration I want. Ha. We had a giant cupcake of chocolate cake and a strawberry shortcake layer cake. I can't take credit for making them. Oh well, I deserve dessert off. :)