Roasted Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash wasn't introduced to me until the beginning of my 30's. It just wasn't a vegetable we had growing up. Actually, the variety of veggies I was introduced to as a child spanned from canned green beans to broccoli, with only corn in between. We were more of a fish sticks and macaroni household.

As I became older I was introduced to more veggies. As a teen, my aunt Kim showed me the wonders of artichokes and dipping the leaves in garlic butter to eventually get to the heart...I was wowed. I still remember sitting at her counter dipping one by one. It felt like we were participating in some ceremonial act together. When visiting my aunt Karen in Oregon when I was about 26 years old, she had served baked sweet potatoes with dinner. I was in love. The skin was perfectly crunchy and the inside melted in your mouth with just the right touch of butter and brown sugar. In my early thirties my dear friend, Melissa Zanni served roasted beets at a Labor Day BBQ...where had these been all of my life? She introduced me to juicing beets and to this day they are my absolute favorite to juice. At a mom's potluck event that was put on for Thanksgiving, Julie Gordon brought spaghetti squash. This really amazed me. I thought for sure I was eating noodles. It appeared to me that it was the same type of noodles used in the Philipino dish, pancit. When I found out it was squash I couldn't wait to try and make it myself to see if I could pass it off to my family as noodles.

I have baked the squash, cut in half, flat side down cut length-wise. I have slow cooked it cut in middle, face down with meatballs and pasta sauce after hearing about my dear friend, Theresa Rothstein's kid-approved dinner. Both were enjoyable. I was particularly impressed with the crock pot dinner. No one knew they weren't noodles! When it was brought up that the noodles seemed "weird", I simply offered a white lie, saying that they were rice noodles. :-) I have to do what I have to do to get my people to eat veggies. The reason they stood out so much was that there was so much moisture that they became mushy.

Today I tried preparing the spaghetti squash by roasting it. I have to say, this was so easy and made a big difference in the soggy factor. There wasn't one! There was enough moisture but not so much that it became mushy and clumped together. It's a little sad to fore go the crock pot, but it didn't take long at all, and you could have your sauce and meatballs simmering in the crock all day if you wanted to.

Here's the plan!

Preheat oven to 450 F

What you will need:

One spaghetti squash

4 Tbspn olive oil

2 Tbspn minced garlic

Salt and Pepper

Cut squash through the middle (not length-wise) and spoon out the seeds. 

Place both halves, flat side up in a baking dish. I used a glass casserole dish

Drizzle the insides and top with olive oil

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and minced garlic (or garlic powder)

Place your dish in the oven and bake for forty minutes. Mine was a small squash, so I  checked it at 20 minutes and let it roast another 15 minutes.

Scrape them clean directly into the baking dish.

I then added some more pepper and salt and sprinkles on some shredded Parmesan cheese.

In my bowl, I added some chopped jalapeno.

A small serving was perfect for lunch. Now I have the whole casserole dish full to incorporate into dinner tonight. It's so versatile. You can use it like pasta or eat it plain. You can dress it up for the main dish or use it as a side dish. I have Dairy Free Indian Butter Chicken going in the slow cooker now, I'm thinking about using it where I normally would use rice and pour our chicken and sauce over it for dinner. 

I should have taken more photos, when you pull them out of the oven, there will be some of the oil and moisture sitting in the bottom, just let it mix in when you shred it into the dish.

Let me know if you have any delicious and creative ways of preparing spaghetti squash!

Enjoy!

All the love, 

Caffeine and Freckles

Quick and Easy Vegetarian Lunch - Red Quinoa and Rice with Fire Roasted Peppers and Onions

This one is a bit of a cheat. Not a cheat as in a greasy or sweet sugar loaded meal, but a cheat as in not homemade. Still, in it's cheater fashion, it is healthy, so who cares?

I used two items. Costco sells packets of Rice and Red Quinoa and I had Trader Joe's frozen Fire Roasted Peppers and Onions.

Microwave the rice and quinoa and saute the peppers and onions in a pan. I added some garlic powder, Himalayan salt, black pepper, and red pepper.

Quinoa is very high in protein and is considered a complete protein packed full of amino acids (more information here), so there is really no nutritional need to add meat, but throw some in if it floats your boat! Water chestnuts would be a nice added crunch to this lunch.

Filling, healthy, and satisfying in a bout two minutes.

Recipe Share - Portobello Spinach Enchiladas (Freezer Meal Friendly)

These enchiladas happened spontaneously a few weeks ago when I needed to use some left over crockpot chicken. 

I decided to make chicken enchiladas and freeze them for another night. 

I also had a ton of baby portobellos that needed to be used ASAP. There are only two veggie lovers in our house so I made one tray of chicken enchiladas and one tray of veggie enchiladas to freeze.

I used whatever I had on hand. I was skeptical about how they would turn out, but was pleasantly surprised this evening when I thawed and baked them for dinner tonight.

Here's what I used:

1 package of Baby Portobellos

Corn Tortillas 

1 can organic Black Beans

1 small can Green Chilis 

1/2 Red Onion

3 handfuls of Spinach

Cumin

Chili Powder

Smoked Paprika

Garlic powder

I probably used some turmeric 

2 small cans of Hot Enchilada Sauce

Garlic Olive Oil

I think those are all the spices I used 😳 It has been a few weeks now, I hope I'm remembering them all.

1. Start off by tossing the mushrooms with oil and garlic powder and placing them on a baking sheet.  I used garlic olive oil. I baked them at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. While they are roasting, cut your red onion into whatever size you prefer and drain and rinse your beans.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the mushrooms, onion, black beans, spinach, Chilis, and seasoning. I don't measure with seasonings, so don't be shy, sprinkle it on, taste it, and add some more if you like. 

3. I try to avoid the microwave when possible, but I typically wrap the tortillas in a damp towel and nuke them for a minute or more so that they are soft and bendy for rolling. While the tortillas are getting bendy 😊, pour enough sauce in your baking dish (or disposable freezer tray) to cover the bottom of the dish/tray. 

4. Spoon about 2 large spoonfuls of the mixture into each tortilla and roll. Place each roll in the sauce covered pan. Once you pan is full, pour remaining sauce over the top to wet each enchilada.

If you are not going to freeze, add cheese and bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

If you are going to freeze, I suggest adding the cheese when you are ready to cook, only because you may want to put them in before they are fully thawed, and you don't want your cheese getting too crispy.

I thawed mine by setting them on the counter for a majority of the day. Easy dinner night!

I served it with rice and I'll be sharing the left overs with a few friends for lunch tomorrow.

What's your go-to freezer meal?

-Caffeinated and Freckled