Spaghetti squash spaghetti

January is the time of new diets and health kicks. As part of mine, I decided to make the plunge from using noodles to squash when having spaghetti. I thought I would just try it and see if it was good enough to have every once in awhile. Turns out it is super great. I think it would be going to far to say I don't care if I never have another noodle again, but I honestly am not missing them in this application. And since it makes for a completely vegetarian dish (vegan if you don't put parm on top) I have started to have this at least twice a week.
To cook the squash, you just need to halve and clean them, put them face down in a casserole dish with a little water, and cook for 45 min or so at 450. In the time it takes to make the sauce (see here or here for examples), the squash will be done. Take them out of the oven and scrape with a fork, and voila! This is a smash hit in my house, even with the kiddo. He can't get enough.

Pesto

Back a couple of months ago, as summer was winding down, I cleared my garden of basil. We had a pretty large crop this year, and the best way I have found to store it is to make pesto, and freeze it. I make big batches, and freeze portions in ice cube trays. That way, when it is the middle of winter (although today is technically the first day of winter) and you are being lazy, you can just boil up some noodles, pop in a few of the pesto cubes and you have dinner. Go me for thinking ahead! For this particular dinner, I added a little extra by sauteing some onions and mushrooms to add to the mix. It was good stuff, and the baby LOVED it.

Noodles n' cheese

You want easy dinners? Here is one that is about as easy as it gets. I mostly use this meal as a vessel for loads of feta. All you do is cook up some noodles, whatever kind you have in the pantry. Then I saute some onions and garlic in olive oil till soft, put the cooked noodles in with it, add garlic powder, tons of Italian seasoning, some butter and more olive oil, and that's it! Then I load my bowl with the noodles and tons of parmesean and feta. MMMMMMM cheese! Fast, simple and yummy.

Copycat pasta salad

There is a certain boxed pasta salad that I LOVE. But since I am trying to eat less processed things, I decided to make it myself. And I must say, it wasn't too far off! I diced some carrots and cooked them with peas in one pot. In another pot I cooked some noodles. While all that was going, I cooked bacon in the microwave. Once it was all ready, and cooled down, I mixed it together. The sauce is a ranch sauce. Since we make our own ranch anyway, I just did what I usually do (and by that I mean what K does since he makes it) and it turned out pretty well! It wasn't exactly better living through chemicals, but good enough to take away my craving

The great ricotta experiment

At lunchtime the other day, I was looking through the fridge for something to eat. I didn't find any sort of complete meal, just bits. I decided to try something inventive. I had half a tub of leftover ricotta, some plain cooked noodles, part of an onion and part of a can of tomato sauce that we use as pizza sauce. I sauteed the onion and some garlic in oil, added a few spoonfuls of ricotta, mixed in the noodles and cooked it together for a couple of minutes. It kind of looked odd, so I decided to put in the tomato sauce too. The result wasn't the greatest thing I've ever made, but it was pretty good. And better than just wasting the rest of the ricotta. I don't know what else to use it for besides lasagna type of meals.

Veggie lasagna

Lasagna is one of my secret recipes. I can make a killer one. The recipe is the same one that my mom and grandma used, and may go back farther than that, but I have no idea. Anyways, over the years, I have slightly changed it. First I used turkey instead of beef, once my husband and I quit the red meat. Now, while I still eat poultry, he doesn't, so I decided to make it veggie-style. I used a can of garbanzo beans, mushrooms, and broccoli. It wound up really good! The beans gave it an almost meaty taste so it didn't seem like anything was lacking. This will be made again

Some new recipes

Last night for dinner I tried out a couple of recipes I found in the isles of Vitamin Cottage. One was for a tuna casserole and the other was for acorn squash, stuffed with rice. We had one winner and one loser.

Loser first: the acorn squash. Now I love me some acorn squash, and I love rice, but this was gross. You roasted the squash halves with honey on them, and on the side, you made rice in chicken broth, and then added lemon zest at the end. The zest tasted pretty bitter, even though I am sure I didn't get pith since I used my trusty microplane grater. Maybe the lemon was just too old? It looked fine, but whatevs. All I know is I won't have this again... however, I may rip off the idea and just figure out a better way to go about it.

And now for the winner! I am not usually a fan of tuna casseroles because hot, canned tuna kind of creeps me out. This was totally good though. You cooked the noodles first, and in a separate pan, sautee green pepper, onions, carrots and peas. Then add cream of mushroom soup, the tuna and the noodles. Mix it all together and put in a casserole dish, and bake it for about a half an hour. Then you mix some breadcrumbs in butter and top the casserole with it, baking for a few more minutes to toast that. The recipe didn't call for it, but my taste buds said salt, so I just sprinkled some on my serving. Although, so did K so I probably should have just added it to the whole dish! It was good, and made a lot. I took some for my lunch today, and still have a bunch left. This is something we will definitely make again.

Ok, Vitamin Cottage- you get a score of 1 each for your recipes this time!

Stuffed Sauce

I have posted about my spaghetti sauce before, but I make it almost every week, so here we go again! I tend to make them all slightly differently, depending on what I have on hand. This sauce is a good way to use a ton/eat a lot of veggies. This time, my base was onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery and orange peppers.
I brown them for a few minutes, and then add some of my frozen, crushed tomatoes. Then cook for a long time, probably 45-60 minutes. This looks like a ton of sauce, but it cooks down some, and usually we end up with just a little more sauce than we need to finish a pack of noodles.

Apples in spaghetti sauce!

That's right. You read me right. Apples. In spaghetti sauce. I got the idea from Lidia's Italy again. K and I couldn't decide if it would be good or gross and the only way to settle that is to make it! It was a very easy sauce. Just saute chopped onion and celery in olive oil, add tomatoes (we sauced ours in the food processor), cook for awhile, then add a shredded granny smith and a shredded red delicious in at the end. Of course salt to taste. Serve on noodles with parmesean as usual.

As for the verdict.... it was really good!! It wasn't overly appley, just sweet. If I didn't know what the secret was, I don't know that I couldv'e even named it! I will make this again. Plus it would be a fun thing to make when people come over to freak them out!