Festive Peppers and Squash

With the holidays upon us, I have stopped sharing crock pot recipes for the next month, and rather am sharing some holiday recipes. This week's holiday recipe comes from Helen Brownell, who writes: "Festive Peppers and Squash is a wonderful vegetable dish for the holidays, which is very colorful and pretty, as well as tasty. We like it best served with rice, so I have included instructions for that as well. The recipe also blends nicely with green salad, carrot raisin salad, apple ambrosia, etc. We love it! Hope you enjoy it too!"

Rice Instructions:

Clean 2 cups raw brown rice or a blend of brown and wild rice. Boil 4 cups distilled water flavored with ¼ tsp. Celtic sea salt, ½ tsp. garlic powder or fresh garlic, and 1 tablespoon dried onions. Add the rice to the boiling water and bring mixture back to a rolling boil. Turn heat down to simmer and place the lid on. Simmer 40 minutes without peeking. When done, serve in a dish and sprinkle with parsley.

To prepare the vegetables:

Ingredients:

Place1/4 cup of water in heavy saucepan and add:

2 large carrots sliced

4 cups butternut squash cut in small chunks

Sprinkle with dehydrated garlic and onions

Steam above vegetables until almost tender and then add:

½ green pepper sliced

½ red or yellow pepper sliced

1 crookneck squash cut in small chunks

1 medium zucchini sliced

Directions:

Continue steaming until peppers, crookneck, and zucchini are barely tender Near the end of the cooking time, sprinkle with fresh or dried basil. ENJOY!