‘Tis the season for squash of all sorts- my favorite happens to be butternut squash. Here is a delicious and nutritious recipe for you to share in this savory, nutty squash with your friends and family. Or, keep it just for yourself- it tastes too good!

For the squash:

1 2-3 lb. organic butternut squash

Wild Oats Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For the stuffing:

2 Tbsp. Wild Oats Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. organic butter

10 button mushrooms, diced or sliced

1 15 oz. can Wild Oats organic Garbanzo Beans

1 tsp. Wild Oats organic paprika

1 tsp. Wild Oats organic cumin

1 tsp. Wild Oats organic coriander

1 tsp. Wild Oats organic chili powder

1 lemon, juiced

Sour cream

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the squash in half. Scoop the seeds and the connecting matter into a small bowl. Discard the connecting matter and save the seeds to roast along with the squash.

Place squash in a baking dish, cut-side up. Add a generous amount of olive oil; enough to both coat the squash and so that some will drizzle off into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the seeds around the squash.

Bake the squash until when a fork can go into the squash with very little resistance, probably about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.

In the mean time, sauté the mushrooms in the butter and olive oil over medium heat. When the mushrooms turn golden brown, add the can of garbanzo beans, liquid from the can included. Add the spices, and stir until the all the liquid has evaporated. Add the lemon juice, and continue to sauté until the lemon juice has evaporated. Turn off the heat.

When the squash is done roasting and has cooled off a bit, make a canal in it by scooping out some of the insides. Add the scooped out insides to the bean and mushroom mixture.

Put the mixture in the canal. Top with a dollop of sour cream.

Happy Fall feasting!

Do you know what can be scarier than ghosts, goblins and ghouls? The ingredients in some Halloween candy! Make this year healthier by handing out goodies made with more wholesome ingredients. Check out some natural Halloween candy ideas and then tune into  Everyday on Tuesday to see me talk about them!

Surf Sweets
Surf Sweets organically sweetened gummy candy and jelly beans are full of the fruity flavor that you expect and none of the yucky ingredients you don’t. Kids and parents alike enjoy Surf Sweets because their candy is free of high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors, and the top ten allergens. You will love how the fresh fruit flavor of the organic fruit juice is revealed when it’s not masked by processed corn syrup and petroleum-based artificial food dyes! Give them a try! www.surfsweets.com

Justin’s
Justin’s is one of Colorado’s most beloved brands. Their delicious, single wrapped Peanut Butter Cups are certified organic, gluten free and vegan. Besides being delicious, their chocolate is Fair Trade, which means that the hardworking people who harvest the cocoa beans are paid a fair price for their labor. This positively impacts families and gives them the resources they need to thrive. www.justins.com

YumEarth
YumEarth was born out of a commitment to feed families a diet rich in delicious, healthful foods that are free of chemicals. YumEarth candies and lollipops taste great because they use real fruit extracts to sweeten products. Plus products are certified organic, contain no artificial colors and flavors and are fat and nut free. www.yummyearth.com

Glee Gum
Glee Gum is natural chewing gum made with sustainably harvested rainforest chicle. Their limited release, special edition pack of ten pops offers a great alternative to conventional Halloween treats. Each pack contains a mix of three delicious flavors: Sweet Strawberry, Crisp Green Apple, and Juicy Orange. Gluten-free and allergy-friendly, these pops are made without artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, or preservatives. www.gleegum.com

Happy Mission Monday! It is crunch time with only four days left until Halloween. Have you made up your mind about what spooky character you’ll be dressing up as this year? Regardless of all the vampires and ghosts lurking around on Halloween night, Halloween can be a scary time when you see all the sugar and sweets flooding into your home. We want to hear what are some tips or tricks that you incorporate to lighten the sugar-load or make sweet treats less scary?? Do you limit your kids to 5 pieces of candy a day or do you pass out healthy options to all the trick-or-treaters that show up at your door step.  We hope you take a moment to play along on Twitter or Facebook.

Today’s challenge: Share with us your favorite spice for this time of year for a chance to win a spice prize pack.

If you’re playing along on Facebook, simply comment in our Mission Monday post (include link) before 11:59 p.m. ET tonight to be entered to win!

If you’d like to play along on Twitter, simply tweet us your answer with #wildoatsmission #sweeps by 11:59 p.m. ET today to be entered to win!

Good luck! Full Sweepstakes rules and details can be found here Twitter and Facebook.

Last week, I had one of those no good very bad days show up on my doorstep. It started simply enough- calls, email, catching up on tasks that pile up when one is in and out of town. It had been quite a few weeks, and I was looking forward to a mellow weekend to assimilate all the details. I contemplated the to-dos as I walked to my car on my bi-weekly move-car-to-avoid-ticketing-for-street-cleaning jaunt, including a much-needed car wash… which is when I noticed my car was missing.

Thus began a 7-hour, shockingly expensive odyssey around Los Angeles to retrieve my car; along the way, I discovered: the ex had racked up rather a lot of tickets, last week’s ticket & tow while I was out of town had put me over the impoundable limit, and (much to my surprise), my registration had expired three days ago. Under time constraints, with a dying phone battery and having used up my tow-yard dial-a-friend just the week before, the day was a recipe for disaster. So, how did I end up in a shockingly good mood at the end of it?

While I have always realized the truth in Blanche Dubois’ famous line on the kindness of strangers, a recent study has demonstrated this is more than an anecdotal phenomenon.  Experimenting with social interactions amongst a group of 100 commuters, behavioral scientists Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder discovered that those who interacted with strangers reported an overall improvement in their sense of well being, as well as their productivity levels. Curiously, when asked to predict whether interaction or solitude would be preferable, most participants guessed incorrectly, assuming solitude would be the better choice.

When I first ventured out to address the mystery of the missing car, I chose to do so alone; I was unwilling to ask for help and anticipated a day of grinning and bearing it solo. Over the course of the day, I had 3 visits to the you-in-trouble, girl office, two trips to the tow yard, one trip to the DMV, and a final stop at the lot holding my car. Along the way, I encountered all manner of strangers who, each in their own way, improved my mood and deserve my thanks: three uber drivers, one dmv guard, four dmv patrons, three dmv workers, four tow-yard employees, and one fellow pedestrian. We talked philosophy, life stories, and trivia; discussed the inevitable “this too shall pass” nature of such rubbish chores and costly expenditures. We shared experiences, averted traffic, made each other laugh.

As the hours wore on and I expected my stress level to rise, instead I found myself charmed by the good will and random acts of kindness strangers offered. Each deadline was made by the skin of my teeth, and somehow, even as I anticipated my debit card going up in flames with each new charge, I was smiling.

My takeaway? As I make my way through the day, attempting to stop and smell the roses, I should keep my eyes and ears open for the random human interactions that are the best cure for a bad day; and I should offer others the same kindnesses. You never know how a small gesture can turn around a person’s perspective.

It’s a sure sign that fall has arrived. As colorful as autumn foliage, the appearance of this wonderful round fruit is one of the most joyous aspects of the harvest season.

And it’s a healthy one as well. High in antioxidants and fiber, it’s must-have in your diet.

And no, this isn’t an ode to the pumpkin, but rather to the pomegranate!

Now perhaps you’re only familiar with pomegranate juice, in which case you’re missing out on the benefits of the whole fruit. The trick is to know the “secret” of getting inside one to find the beautiful red, juicy seeds without squishing the juice out of them.

Pomegranates also have some cool history behind them. Even its name, “pomme garnete,” which translates to “seeded apple” goes back many centuries. And the symbolism behind it shows how many cultures have held the pomegranate in high esteem.

In Japan, it’s considered to be a symbol of fertility and prosperity. Ancient Greeks referred to it as the symbol of love. Shakespeare even made use of that symbolism by having a pomegranate tree appear outside of Juliet’s window in “Romeo and Juliet.”

But there’s a good reason why the pomegranate holds such a prominent role in folklore: it is truly a “superfood.”

The main benefits come from some complex antioxidant compounds that make it just about the healthiest fruit out there. It also contains a whopping amount of vitamin C. One humble pomegranate will give you almost half of your daily C requirement.

In a study of antioxidant levels found in different juices, pomegranates scored top place, beating out grape, acai and even blueberry juice. And studies in Israel found that they can help your joints and reduce arthritis pain – mainly due to their amazing anti-inflammatory properties.

Okay, now that you know how great pomegranates are, how do you get more of these amazing fruits into your diet?

Juice is one way, and there are plenty of choices in the store (only be sure to get pure pomegranate juice, and not one diluted or with added sweeteners).

But if you want all the benefits of the pomegranate in as fresh a form as possible, you want the whole fruit.

The beautiful red “jewels” inside are called arils. It’s sort of like a juice sack that covers a small seed. The seeds are edible too (I love them, but if you don’t you can just spit them out).

Of course, what probably discourages most people from buying fresh pomegranates is the tough red rind and white membrane between the arils, which are quite bitter and should be tossed out after you open one. Here’s what the Pomegranate Council recommends:

• Cut off the crown, and cut the pomegranate into sections.
• Place the sections in a bowl of water, then roll out the arils with your fingers. Discard everything else.
• Strain out the water, then eat the arils whole, seeds and all.

While that works, I sometimes use an alternate method of just scoring the fruit in quarters, wiggling the sections apart and then working the seed clusters out.

The key to getting at the seeds efficiently is to try and remove as much of the bitter white membrane as possible in large pieces, rather than picking it out.

But once you learn to do it the right way, it’s really not that hard! You might even find yourself wearing a button that says, “Powered by Pomegranates.”