Month of cooking, day 1 (greens and mushrooms with spaghetti squash)

Slight change of plans already to the proposed menu -- Passover starts on Friday, which means I can't do polenta on Saturday.  Also, we'll be doing seders with friends both nights, so it probably doesn't make sense to cook a separate meal for us, especially on Saturday.  Since I offered to do soup for the Saturday seder, that'll be my recipe for the day.  It's not mushrooms, but hey, the theme isn't a hard and fast rule.

Also, I realized that I'm doing all brand-new recipes this week, and I really don't need to -- the goal is to do lots of new stuff, of course, but really, it's to do something different every day.  I won't change anything else for this week, I don't think, but I'll have to remember for next week.

Today, I got lucky with my choice of recipes. I hadn't actually had time to go grocery shopping, despite my best intentions, but I had all the ingredients I needed already in the fridge.  In top of that, some of the prep work was already done -- Mu had peeled all my garlic for me last week and it was sitting in a ziplock, waiting, and the spaghetti squash was left over from 2 weeks ago and just needed some frying.  That said, I'm gonna have to be better about planning in the future.  I need to set aside time for prep work, and I'm not always good at remembering that.  But today, I got a quick and yummy meal!

Braised greens and mushrooms with spaghetti squash
Ingredients
Baked spaghetti squash (recipe here but I used less garlic this time because I added some to the greens separately)
1 bunch of chard (collards or mustard greens would be fine here)
1 small red cabbage (or some other green if you'd like)
dozen shitakes
handful (say, 10?) oyster mushrooms
garlic for the greens (maybe half a head?)
Neutral oil
Salt and pepper
A couple of slices of lemon or some lemon juice

If you don't already have baked spaghetti squash, bake it now.  It should be scooped out and ready to cook with garlic and butter by the time you start the rest of the recipe.  Wash and roughly chop the greens.  Carefully clean the mushrooms and de-stem the shitakes.  Slice or chop into bite-size pieces.  On high medium heat, heat some neutral oil in a large pan and toss the greens in.  Saute for a few minutes until they begin to cook down.  Add the mushrooms and salt and pepper.  Chop up and add the garlic.  Saute for another few minutes.  Add about a cup of water, turn the heat to low medium, cover and cook until everything softens, about 7 minutes.  In the meantime, take your baked squash and cook it with garlic and butter as per the previous recipe.  When the greens and mushrooms are soft, uncover and cook until most of the liquid is gone.  If your greens are a little bitter, like mine were, add a splash of lemon juice at this point.  Add the squash, adjust seasonings as needed, and cook for another 2-3 minutes to meld the flavors together.  Serve hot!

Aren't the colors pretty?

Recipe summary
Time: It's hard to say, because I had so much done ahead.  With the squash already baked and the garlic peeled (which takes me forever!), it took about 40 minutes, start to finish, though most was hands-on this time.
Serves: 6 as a lunch dish, probably 4 if you want a bigger meal.
Highlights/thoughts: You could use any mushrooms here, but I like the flavor and texture of the shitakes.  The oyster mushrooms don't have a strong flavor, but the texture is nice because it feels meaty and satisfying.  I also liked using the red cabbage for the bit of color.  Oh, and I love how lemon juice takes the edge off bitter greens!  I learned that from someone at the CSA and I use this trick a lot!
Would I make this again?  For sure, in some variation.  We get a ton of greens, and mushrooms go well with them.

I finally went grocery shopping after cooking this, so I'm ready (I think!) for the rest of the week!