Butternut Squash and Apple Hash (Potatoless Hash)

I love a hearty breakfast, but since changing some of my diet to go for more healthier options, I've been exploring some different ideas. Normally hash is made with a white or sweet potato of some sort, but I recently discovered that Butternut Squash works in almost the same way for a hash as a sweet potato would. I love this option because it's not too sweet, but it's a great compliment to the heartier pieces of this recipe.

You want to start by peeling off the outside of the squash. Some use a good potato peeler but I just used a knife. You only need about a cup of squash diced up for one person (less really, but I like to have extra for left overs).

You also want to dice up half a white onion (or one whole onion if you like onion breath, it's really up to you).

One thing before you go crazy with the slicing and dicing of the veggies, chop up two or 3 strips of bacon kind of fine and start rending that down in a hot pan. I used a pepper bacon and I don't add butter, I let the fat be the oil I would normally use. By the end of the whole process the bacon will be cooked down pretty well.

After I'm done chopping and the bacon has started to get kind of crispy, I add the veggies.

Next up is the sausage. For this recipe I used Polska Sausage, but you can use pretty much any kind that you want. I gave them a rough chop, nothing fancy.

 

I added some rough cut mushrooms. I didn't want to cut them too small because they will shrink up a lot as you cook them in the pan.

Add some salt and pepper to your taste and cook away. I don't stir the contents in the pan too much because if you do, you may smush your squash and that's no fun. You want to let the outsides of the squash caramelize a little (not burn, caramelize.. Know the difference!).

Once the veggies in the pan are tender and caramelized, I add one chopped up apple. I picked a Fuji apple for this because it's not too tart and not too sweet. I add this at the end because I do not want the apple to lose its crispness.

At this point I let all the ingredients cook while I poach some eggs. Once the eggs are done, you are good to go with serving the whole meal.

And this is the end result. Potatoless hash! Love Love Love! Though I'm not a Paleo expert, this is a pretty close option. I like avocado with my eggs; I think it's the Californian in me.