Butternut Squash with Seitan and Rice Noodles

I made my first solo shopping trip, leaving baby and Mom behind, yesterday, and enjoyed buying a new compost bin that has charcoal filtration for smell and looks like a nice pottery piece that can sit on the counter. But the bigger news is that Whole Foods in Chapel Hill had just a few days ago opened up new construction and the produce department is now huge - disorientingly so!

One item they had, which they often don't, is cut up squash. I purchased some of the chopped butternut squash and used about half of it in today's meal. I started sauteeing half of a red salad onion, chopped to approximately 1/4" or slightly larger cubes. Two minutes or so later, as the onion started getting a bit clear, I added a box of seitan, chopped into medium chunks, as well as the large chunks of squash.

I continued cooking for another 12-15 minutes or so over medium heat, stirring occasionally and watching the squash cook and become deeper in color. Once the squash was cooked, I added maybe a tablespoonful of fresh rosemary needles, a little salt, maybe a teaspoon of jerk seasoning, and about a half teaspoonful of fenugreek, useful for a mother's lactation (I added it for that reason; it didn't add much to the flavor of the dish), and some rice noodles that I had soaked for about 5 minutes in hot tap water. I stirred everything together, then added a few tablespoonfuls of Baja lime marinade. After a final stir, I served the dish a minute later - it was tasty!!

On Friday, some friends brought over a nice meal for us of stuffed Indian parathas, tabouleh, and excellent fresh fruit. That same day, another friend also dropped a meal off, which we heated up yesterday. That friend is from the Gujarat region of India and is an excellent cook - we think she should open a catering business or restaurant. She had an amazing curried potato dish, as well as khamman dhokla.