cheesy casserole

I have found another delicious use of spaghetti squash... cheesy hamburger (cheesyburger?) casserole! I love this kind of comfort food!

All I did was mix this baby with cooked spaghetti squash and a pound of cooked ground beef. I also added some peppers and onions. Baked for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven: PERFECT.

I'm very fortunate that my husband loves this kind of thing too!

alfredo!

Spaghetti squash is changing my life. I love having no guilt eating 'pasta' and I love that I can make everything that has regular pasta in it with this magic vegetable. And it tastes GOOD.

We've had our spaghetti now with parmesan & butter, red sauce, and in lasagna. All wonderful. Time to bring out the big guns... Can we do alfredo?

I baked some frozen chicken breasts in the oven (350 degrees for one hour with foil covering: perfect every time). I made a quick alfredo sauce with garlic, parmesan cheese, heavy cream, and butter on the stovetop. And I cooked the spaghetti squash in the microwave like I did last time, cut in half with some water inside. 

After everything was cooked, I spread some of the 'spaghetti' into the bottom of a baking dish and then placed some of the diced chicken on top. I poured half of the alfredo on top and then repeated layers. On top of it all, I sprinkled some more parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. (Side note: Why do the grocery stores sell parsley in such HUGE quantities... who needs that much parsley?)

I baked it for an hour in our 350 degree oven. AJ had two servings... and I think he wanted three, but the promise of sweet potato pie calmed him down ;)

Seriously... so yummy. Try it :)  Yummm!

nice surprises.

Last time I cooked spaghetti squash, I felt bad throwing away the seeds. I was wondering if I could roast them just like pumpkin seeds.

Well, last night I tried. It worked! I was excited. Just rinse the seeds, toss with butter and spices, and throw in a preheated oven. (I did 325 because that's what the spaghetti lasagna needed). I tried paprika and sea salt this time... Wasn't my favorite. They seemed a bit more chewy than pumpkin seeds but they were still good!

And then I forgot to put them away when we went to bed so the kitties had some as well. Oh well.

No dinner posting tonight because we had Chick-Fil-A due to having to get to church. Yumm-o.

Did you know if you order a kids meal but return the toy, they'll give you free ice cream? Perfect.




Also, I think I figured out what to do with the rest of the candy chicken. Stay tuned ;)

spaghetti lasagna: not too much of a good thing.

Today was a great day.

1. I got a lot of work done at school.
2. I caught up with a good friend and her precious baby boy.
3. I experienced a coconut steamer for the first time.

Thank you, Lydia, for the reco (haha). YUM. So delish!

Today, I did not figure out what to do with the leftover candy chicken, but tomorrow is another day ;)

For dinner tonight, we had 'spaghetti' lasagna. Weird name. I know. I came up with it. Basically it's just spaghetti squash used in place of the usual lasagna noodles. SO GOOD. I used this recipe as a jumping off point, but changed it up quite a bit.

Are you getting excited yet?

Last time we had spaghetti squash, I boiled it whole in a big pot of water. That resulted in me almost getting severe burns because the water went LOCO.

This time, I sliced it in half lengthwise, got all the gunk out of the middle, put one half in an oval baker, put 1/2 cup of water in the squash, and then put the other half on top. Microwave for 10 minutes and voila! Perfect. No burns.

While that was cooking, I sauteed some ground beef, onions, garlic, and peppers. Smelled amazing. When the squash and beef were finished, AJ texted me and said he'd be late. So I waited...

just waiting to be something delicious...

We waited... and waited. Finally, he texted to say he was on his way home so I started 'assembly' aka layering: sauce, 'noodles', meat, cheese and so on. I also threw in some salami and pepperoni pieces because they were left over from the stromboli.

Then, I baked it at 325 for about 30 minutes. And this is the result, folks:

Here's some close-ups:

Let me just tell you: after candy chicken, I'm almost expecting disastrous results with every opening of the oven. This did not disappoint. It is SO yummy that I'm glad I made a whole casserole. We'll have spaghetti lasagna for work tomorrow and for dinner on Thursday. And I am HAPPY about that. 

The best part is: it's a pretty healthy meal: lots of veggies and some ground beef. Try it. You'll love!

too good to be true?

A few weeks ago, I had a crazy craving for peanut butter cookies (no mom, not pregnant). So, I perused some of my favorite food bloggers for a good recipe. I should add that AJ (hubby) and I are competing in a 'biggest loser' competition and are trying to eat healthy.

Well, I found a healthy peanut butter cookies recipe. It was too good to be true. It was disgusting. It tasted like peanut butter, raisins, and vanilla stirred together...  because that's what the recipe called for. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. Needless to say, we made some unhealthy but oh, so good real peanut butter cookies.

So... when a friend of mine told me to replace regular pasta with spaghetti squash, I remembered those PB cookies. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. I love pasta... More than most people. How could a vegetable taste like pasta?

Fast forward: today, as I walked through the aisles of our trusty neighborhood grocery store, I saw a spaghetti squash and had to get it. They're not cheap... but I guess nothing truly healthy usually is.

Here's what happened:

 just returned from the store :o)

I boiled it in a big pasta pot (appropriate?) for about 25 minutes. Then I sliced it in half and this is what it looked like. I scooped out all of the middle part (mostly seeds).

It shred SO easily with a fork. I had to stick one section back in the microwave (in a big bowl with a bit of water and then I covered with plastic wrap) for a minute.

I served it with sweet Italian sausage after tossing the 'pasta' with garlic, parmesan cheese, sea salt, and butter. AJ loved it and has been busy researching the nutritional benefits of switching forever :)