Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Seasonings

Another week with the glorious CSA, another vegetable I’ve hardly ever cooked.  This time it’s spaghetti squash.

Although I’ve eaten the stuff I’ve never actually prepared it.  It was somewhat difficult to cut it open, but with some love and a sharp knife I was able to make it happen.  The cool thing about spaghetti squash is that after warming it up in the oven (or possibly some other way) you can take a fork to it and pull the inside out like actual spaghetti (OH, that’s why they call it that!). Since I’m not entirely on the gluten-free band wagon but trying-to-cut-out-white-flour-to-help-cut-out-calories this was a delicious alternative to actual spaghetti.

Using this recipe from “and then I cooked” as a base, I basically prepared it similar until the spices and the discard part.  Please save your spaghetti squash seeds for a nice snack.

Since this was my first time cooking with spaghetti squash I wanted to get a good understanding of how it tastes, etc so I know what to do with it.  I nuked it for 8 min, baked it for about 20 min, forked out the spaghetti guts then sauteed it with butter, coconut oil & garlic.  Although she called for cooking it in only butter, I figured I’d just use about a tsp of it for flavor mixed with the healthier coconut oil.  If you’re gonna Paula Deen it up by all means use a half stick, I’m just trying to watch my calorie intake.

This kind of reminded me of tofu, where it has a fairly neutral although ‘gordy’ flavor, it takes on the spices very well.  I can see this used with taco seasoning or the like for some squash tacos, etc.  Hmm…

I had 2 squashes so I seasoned them differently, so, season to your liking, but below is what I did.

INGREDIENTS
1 whole spaghetti squashed.  Roasted, then fork out the guts
2 tbsp no salt seasoning to taste, mix all over
1 tsp butter for frying
1 Tbsp coconut oil for frying
garlic for frying to taste

First nuke in the microwave or possibly the oven for 8/10 minutes.  Scrape out the inside then scoop onto a skillet with coconut oil or butter if you’re into that sort of thing.  Saute until golden, golden brown.  Place on a salad or eat straight up.

*I’ll figure out the pictures soon enough.

Mac & 4 Cheese

mac & 4 cheese

Who doesn’t love mac & cheese?

For me, I have memories of back in the day at a friend’s house eating multiple bowls of some MSG filled orange/yellow type cheese stuff, that I’d scarf down like I was trapped in a desert for weeks and haven’t seen food since I left on the journey.

Once I was old enough to make it myself, but not smart enough to know better, I’d make my own box of bright orange/yellow cheese like substance and load it up with Sriracha or chipotle tabasco and eat it until there was just a milky residue left at the bottom of my bowl.

We bought some a few weeks ago, at you guessed it, and still have the boxes staring me in the face when I kneel down to figure out what I want to eat on those late nights (link to drunken food lament) and this Friday I decided to make some.

As this blog evolves more stuff will be made from scratch, but for now I like taking something that was about 60% made for me, then add to it. This time I had gorgonzola, gouda, goat & regular box organic dried cheese to add to the mix.   Since I don’t like just eating senseless calories with white flour & cheese I added some ‘normandy style vegetables’ steamed, and then mixed with the finished cheeses and consumed with my chipotle hot sauce*. Delish.

INGREDIENTS
2 boxes of mac (from basic store bought mac & cheese, although basic quinoa basic pasta would be best, only 1 cheese packet if box pasta)
1 packet mac & cheese cheese.
1/4 c shredded gouda
1/2 c blue cheese/gorgonzola
1/4 c goat cheese
1/2 c almond milk
3 cups vegetables of choice
curry spice, onion & garlic to taste

*I try to watch my sodium and salt intake, but there are some things that I HAVE to eat some type of salt. Mac & cheese & popcorn are 2 of those definite things. In addition to penzy’s smokey mixed salt, I prefer some type of hot sauce, and in this case my chipotle hot sauce. The only boundary that my hot sauce addiction knows are cereal & ice cream, other than that I think I’ve basically put hot sauce on everything else.