Squash & Snow

First off, my friend Sam told me that Jym Ganahl is having some issues with his live weather tweets... he told us no snow in the forecast for at least 6 hours... less than two hours after he published that we had an inch... Jym boy, let's work on those cloud reading skills shall we? Sooo, the first real snow of the season is on the ground and the wind is blowing my friends. But let's take a journey into the warm kitchen where I will be teaching you about Spaghetti Squash.

I've heard of this mystical veggie before in passing but recently an old high school friend has been sharing her love of it on facebook. Obviously since it's on facebook it has to be worthy of a taste test! It is a veggie that, when cooked, comes apart in long strands. Both the texture and color resemble spaghetti noodles. It took me visiting two Kroger's before I was able to actually buy the squash, but I stuck to my guns and found it.


It's pretty boring looking if you ask me. I was also worried about the dents and bruises indicating that there would be badness on the inside but no worries, it was just fine. Google and I decided the best and easiest way to cook the squash is to cut it into halves length wise, so the "noodles" are as long as possible. Once you've got it open, you need to scrape out the seeds and guts just like you would a pumpkin. You should end up with something like this...


Place the halves, rind up, on a greased cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes... voila!



Now you can just take a fork and start combing the squash from the rind. It comes off super easy and in fact, looks exactly like spaghetti!




I just sauteed some peppers and onions, added some light Prego sauce (totally disgusting and water and not worth the 60 calories) and topped with 2% mozzarella cheese.


Over all, I would say it was a 5 out of 10. I really think if I added steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, fat free ranch and chicken that this could have potential as a pasta craving substitute... or maybe the basil pesto with spinach, tomatoes and feta. I guess it wasn't horrible if I'm already thinking about experimenting again :)

Also, for your information... I went to the gym and did both cardio and weights tonight. I also decided that as much as I like paying off my CCs, I like losing weight more. I will be texting my trainer tomorrow so I can start up sessions next week.