Then I Went Crazy and Now Spaghetti Squash

Alright people who need people and my friends who are reading this so they can say they did when I interrogate them later. Shockingly I am going to try to talk about food. I know. Calm down. Wait, don't leave... Food is cool. I promise. 

If food wasn't cool, the people on Top Chef would not be high fiving ALL THE DAMN TIME. Duh

 The fact that I am typing this right now is actually amazing. I have a fab guest post from JJ in DC waiting in the wings and I logged on to use it. Then I saw I'm about to hit 1,000 page views and I decided to take one for the team to knock it over the line. In the midst of a week full of monsoons and a nanny who lives in a flood zone (so she had to cancel both work days) and a toddler who just started loving to throw major tantrums, I've got cabin fever. Bad. I actually frightened S tonight with my aggressive chatter and unpredictably giant hand and body gestures. The only time this much rain is cool is in a romcom. 

What she is really saying is "You got us stuck in the rain, you screwed up my hair, you ruined my dress, and so it's over."
The original version of The Notebook was really short.

When the rain cleared for a bit today I realized that L was almost out of proteins. Since you are my friend and reading this, you probably read about that fancy little almost emergency room visit Sunday night. It threw off my week. I had plenty of chicken for Landon, but she decided this week that she really isn't into chicken. Not into chicken in the way of spitting it back out as soon as it hits her tongue. I'm a believer in proteins and I HAD TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. So we ran out to Whole Foods to check out the already prepared protein situation. It was good. There were other people there. I'm pretty sure I scared a few of them.

Hello strangers, you are not my baby or one of the walls of my home. So nice to see you.

 Then I took my crazies to the regular style grocery store for other essentials not good enough to be carried by Whole Foods. Namely cat food and ice cream drum sticks. Running these kinds of errands with a child is so much better than prebaby. People don't judge you as harshly for walking out of the store with an economy size back of cat food and a box of ice cream when you also have a baby. It's like a magic code. For the record, we only have one cat. We just hate buying cat food all the time. Senor don Gato is from Montrose, he lives outdoors and he has a boyfriend named Yoyo who we also support. We are open to these things in our family. 

Mee-Ow!

 Because sharing is caring, I feel that I should tell you that I need a shower. Baby emergency leads to bad grocery planning added to torrential downpours that lead to cabin fever (still with me?) equals yoga pants, stretchy jeans, and S's high school undershirts. And all of that equals me needing a shower. I should just go outside in the back yard and use the free water. Well, I would and all, it's just that the mosquitoes are really bad right now and I don't really need a mosquito bite down there. That's the only reason though.... Oh, and on a similar note, did I tell you I got a call from my church today and they asked me to teach Sunday school? S thought that was pretty entertaining. I told them this year might not be good but I would be happy to do advent wreaths or hide Easter eggs. She was pretty excited still. She must not read this blog.

Wait, was I going to blog about food? YES. I was. Guess what? It's healthy food. Bonus. It's also versatile food. Mega jackpot bonus. And growing up we NEVER ate it. (Side eye, mom.) Today I'd like to introduce you to my good friend Spaghetti Squash.

I will squash the competition. Get it? Shut up, it's late.

At my old job we were peer pressured into working through lunch. The bonus of this is that the people I worked with were fantastic. The down side is that we were stuck in the office all of the damn time. BUT because of this "working lunch" environment, I got to learn about spaghetti squash from my lovely coworker/friend H who brought it one day while in the midst of a very successful spin on the South Beach Diet. Apparently it's the mainstay pasta replacement on low carb diets. In real life, it is amazing in and of itself and if you want to use it to replace pasta or rice or other things in your life, it is perfect for that as well. We are going with spaghetti squash basics tonight. I'm going to show you how I cook mine and then show you how to use it in place of pasta in a regular spaghetti style meal. Once you have the basics of how to cook it down, you can sub it for so much and the mild sweetness is great with a bit of al dente crunch to the squash strands. 

First you preheat your oven to 400 (my favorite, if you remember). Then puncture the skin of the squash like you would a potato. I use a large knife because the skin can be tough.

Need to take out some aggression?

The skin won't be eaten so no need to wash, just puncture and place it right on a baking sheet and insert into the oven. It will take an hour total to cook, but ignore my timer in the photo below and set your timer for two 30 minute increments. Once the thirty minutes is up, you will want to turn the squash 180 degrees. If you leave it on one side the entire time, it will brown all the way into where the spaghetti squash lives. No bueno.

After an hour in the oven your squash should come out looking something like this:

I have found that it is much easier to deal with the squash when it has had lots of cool down time, so I will often cook the squash earlier in the afternoon and let it sit for up to an hour before cutting it. When you are ready to harvest your spaghetti, cut the squash in half long ways. The innermost part will have seeds and thin strings similar to a pumpkin that you can take a spoon or your hand and remove.

The top half still needs the center cleaned out, the bottom half is cleared.

Both cleared of seeds and strings.

 Once you discard the seeds and seed mess (technical term) you take a fork and simply scrape it along the insides of the squash and the spaghetti threads just come up like magic.

Left squash half is empty, right squash half is mid scrape.

Here's your squash guys. I know it looks exciting. Hold your applause.

At this point your spaghetti squash is good to go for whatever you want to use it in. You can seriously chop it up and sub it for rice in a dish, you can use it in place of pasta or spaghetti or in place of hash browns. It's a great way to cut calories from your meals and I prefer the flavor sometimes. Or you can screw health and throw some butter and Parmesan cheese on it and go to town. Following is what we did with our squash. 

Browned some lean hormone free ground beef.

Added Newman's Own Tomato and Basil

Frozen baguette fresh from the oven, fresh grated parm, and thinly cut fresh basil from my amazing basil plant.

Final Product: Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce, fresh basil and parm.

 All of this rain is making my plants crazy. My sweet potato vine is taking over the front yard and my basil now thinks it should be a tree. So all of Houston, if you need basil, please let me know. It's raining basil, among other things. Don't let this lead you to believe I have a green thumb. Sweet potato vine can grow in a drought and my basil has had good fortune in the rain. The rosemary bush was here when we got here and I leave it the f alone so as not to kill it.

I'm not sure how to wrap up a post that has taken so many different directions, so I'll just let you know that I plan to shower after posting this. Rest at ease my friends. More rain tomorrow = an evening of Chinese take out, champagne, and a romcom. Obviously S will not be home.

-RT