The spleen/stomach diet consists of root vegetables and full sweet flavored foods (think sweet potatoes, squashes etc). The spleen/stomach is always active around times of transition and there is constant transition happening in our body every time we digest the food we eat. We’ve been talking about the fall diet (lung/large intestine) alot lately but you can consider the spleen/stomach diet the staple or foundation items.

If you are going through alot of changes, feeling “off”, under too much stress, or have a tendancy to “over think” add some more yellow to your diet especially now when everything is in season. If you are looking to feel grounded, ground yourself with whole foods that grow in the ground! Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, beets are a great place to start. Squashes typically grow on the ground and sprawl out so if you are in a place where you are looking to grow spiritually, mentally look to squash as a metaphor to stay close to the ground as you spread out. 🙂

Here is a tasty dinner that is great for keeping  you grounded and is a little different if you are sick of the same old things. I have been cooking squash on Sunday nights to ground my family for the week ahead. I’ll have a few more tasty squash dishes coming up. 🙂

Southwestern Stuffed Acorn Squash

I originally found this recipe here. Below our my adaptions.

What you need:

small onion (lung/large intestine system)

2 garlic cloves (lung/large intestine system)

1 lb of ground beef or ground turkey

2 bell peppers (I like to use baby bell peppers for added colors) (spleen/stomach system)

15 oz black beans (kidney/urinary bladder system)

2 cups cherry tomatoes (or yellow pear tomatoes if they have over taken your garden!) (spleen/stomach system)

3 Acorn Squash (spleen/stomach system)

Cumin

Chili powder

salt

Oregano

Shredded Cheese (I used a blend)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Half squash and deseed. Place squash face down on baking sheet. I add a small amount of water to pan so the squash won’t stick. Cook 45 minutes or until tender.

While squash is cooking brown chopped onion and garlic in skillet. Add ground beef and cook for a few minutes. Add peppers and tomatoes while continuing to brown the meat. Sprinkle cumin, chili powder (we use Chili Coban from Guatemala it has a smokey flavor and isn’t as spicey), salt and oregano. Add beans at the end to warm and simmer for about 10-12 minutes.

When the squash is ready place meat and veggie mixture into the squash sprinkled with shredded cheese and cook at 325 or under cheese is melted.

Garnish with avocado, cilantro and plain Greek yogurt. This is a hardy meal alone or you can fill warmed tortillas with stuffed squash to make it go further. We usually eat the extra meat in tortillas as left overs but I would recommend eating the squash on the first day it doesn’t usually taste quite so tasty the next day. 🙂

Enjoy!