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.

Blue Cheese Stuffed Tomatoes

As I’ve mentioned before, the love of my life & I are members of our local CSA. Sometimes we’ll receive 10 ears of corn, and other times we’ll receive 20 heirloom tomatoes.

Well, this was one of those tomato times.

They were sitting on our counter in a brown paper bag trying to ripen and I was wondering what to do with them. I’ve always had this ‘romantic’ idea of cutting the top off of peppers or tomatoes and stuffing them with something.

Tonight was the night.

We had the cheese thanks to Costco, as well the bread crumbs and other spices.

Just to make sure I wasn’t completely off of my rocker, I borrowed heavily from Grill Grrrl to make them.

From experience I know my dear loves garlic and onions, so after scooping out the tomato ‘meat’ i threw in a layer of garlic & onion at the bottom of the tomato, then added blue cheese/gorgonzola, bread crumbs & basil to ‘taste’.

Since I have more basil than I know what to do with after baking for 20/30 min I added fresh basil diced to the top of these before serving.

INGREDIENTS
4 Tomatoes
1/4 cup blue cheese/gorgonzola
1/8 bread crumbs
1/8 garlic
1/6 diced onions
basil to taste