Butternut Squash Cranberry Apple Bake

 This Butternut Squash Cranberry Apple Bake is a great kid-friendly make ahead side dish for Thanksgiving or holiday get together.

November is upon us and that only means one thing… it’s almost Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays and my hubby’s number one favorite. There is not much better than getting to eat a bunch of the best comfort food all in one day!

This year I have made it a goal to get a family cookbook ready by Thanksgiving to give to family for christmas. So I have been collecting a lot of family recipes and recently came across one of my favorite holiday side dishes. A squash and apple bake my grandmother and mom often make for Thanksgiving or Christmas. This dish is both sweet and savory and has a punch of holiday flavor thanks too some added mace. Mace is a spice very similar to nutmeg, but not as commonly used or found in cooking. In this recipe I have swapped in nutmeg, but you can easily use mace if you happen to have some in your spice rack!  This dish it’s definitely one of those foods that brings back a lot of childhood holiday memories for me!

I decided to re-create my grandmothers recipe a bit by adding in some more holiday flavors like maple and cranberries. End result was delicious! It still kept intake the flavors I remember but with a punch of color and tart bite from the cranberries.

This Butternut Squash Cranberry Apple Bake is also a great way to get kids to try squash and cranberries because its paired with kid-friendly baked apples and has a touch of added sweetness from maple syrup. You can even have your little ones help you by layering the squash, apples and cranberries and mixing together and pouring on the glaze. This dish is great prepared ahead and cooked just before eating. You can also bake it ahead and reheat it in the oven or microwave just before eating. Truth is this dish is way better day 2, than day 1. Over night the apples and squash soak up all the flavors from the glaze and are extra tasty!