Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

The famous William Turbyfill, who is more enthused and persistent about the food revolution than I am, is always coming up with healthier, better, DIY recipes. Today he came over with a low-carb low-cal version of spaghetti using spaghetti squash, AND he made his own homemade sauce!

SQUASH:

He cooked the squash in the microwave (as this was the method recommended to him), took the seeds out of it, then just forked through the flesh, which naturally separated into strings that resembled spaghetti noodles.

SAUCE:

He made the sauce by boiling the tomatoes, peeling them, and then putting them in the food processor. The sauce was made before he brought it to my house, so I am not certain of all the ingredients, but I know it had Cayenne, because we both love some kick in our sauce.

THE END RESULT:

This dish was amazing. SO much healthier than pasta, and tastes even better. The texture was delightful, too. Using pasta noodles would have been easier, for sure, so for a quick meal I might not tackle this, but I will make this again, without a doubt. Maybe add some spicy sausage next time. Mmmm.... Try it yourself!

First Trader Joe's recipe trial went great!

After printing off delicious-sounding recipes from TraderJoesFans.com I headed to TJ's (Trader Joe's) and bought ingredients for 2 recipes: Arugula & Prosciutto Pizza, and Bleu Cheese Meatloaf.

The meatloaf was the easiest recipe ever; quality ingredients and convenience all at once. Literally, the recipe asked me to mix a handful of ingredients together and then bake it. It was really yummy, but did not blow my socks off. I probably won't make it again.

The pizza....oh, the pizza. Mmm.... Of course it would be delicious, it was covered in cheese and prosciutto! Using TJ's pizza dough (which is super cheap and yummy) was so easy and it turned out just perfect. My only complaint about the recipe is the cost. The cheese was a bit pricey, but the prosciutto was ridiculously expensive! The good news is, once you have made pizza this way, it is easy to "wing it" next time, so I can choose a different type of meat that is less expensive next time. Overall, I am certain that TJ's pizza will be a staple comfort food in this house!

Check out the website and plan your meals accordingly. Nothing beats one-stop-shopping!

Trader Joe's Recipes

I heard about this website from a friend, it is fantastic! There are recipes that just require buying a few TJ products and throwing them in a microwave, and then there are intricate gourmet recipes. Either way, TJ is an affordable place to buy good food.

Trader Joe's Recipes

How to shop effectively and cheaply:

---choose recipes first: it is smart to choose all the dinners you want to make for a week, but I usually choose for a couple of weeks (I don't cook every night, we eat leftovers often)

---write down all the ingredients you need from each recipe and buy them all (this is why it is useful using the trader joe's list of recipes, so you know you can 1-stop-shop for ingredients)

---- don't buy anything else for dinner, buy only breakfast and lunch items since your dinners are taken care of! Sometimes, however, I do buy a few items for quick dinners, just in case, like spaghetti and sauce.

fried chicken and pancakes and pasta, oh my!

I am behind on my entries, so I shall write 3 sections, read one or all:

PANCAKES:

So did you know that pancake mix only saves one step in the pancake-making process? It is super easy to make pancakes that are not from a box (which keeps away the big bad additives and preservatives). Actually, any baked good that comes powdered in a box can be made just as easily from scratch.

I don't have the recipe for pancakes on me (my husband actually made them, he is in charge of breakfast) but it is easy to find on the internet. All pancake recipes are pretty much the same and super simple. Luke's secret ingredients that make it fabulous: vanilla extract and cinnamon. Mmm...... But I am still not sure if cooking in butter or oil is better. Luke used olive oil this time and I loved the texture, but it seems like butter might taste even better. Keep your eye out for the next pancake blog.

FRIED CHICKEN:

For a dear friend's birthday, we made homemade fried chicken. Mmm... It took awhile to cook, but was ridiculously easy to do right.

From Emily's famous (amongst friends, at least) recipe, we dipped in milk/egg mixture, then in flour with a bit of Johnny's and dried sage and called it good. I was surprised at the amount of vegetable oil we had to use to fry it in, but it worked! We were freaking out at how much our fried chicken actually looked and tasted like real fried chicken.

Next time, I would like to experiment with some other seasonings and ingredients. I wonder why she didn't tell us to use breadcrumbs. How would that affect the taste and texture? I know that many recipes call for them, so I would like to try it out. I will also like to try maybe some curry powder or chili powder.

Fried chicken: MAYBE not the healthiest of choices, but if you are gonna have junk, it is still better to have it homemade. At least our chicken was washingtonian, vegetarian, hormone-free, and antibiotic-fee. Ahh... I love my reasoning skills. I can justify anything!

PASTA:

Found brown rice pasta at Grocery Outlet for super cheap... score! The texture is slightly different, but the taste is identical and it is much healthier than regular pasta.

William came over and made some homemade sauce that was super easy, cheap, and delicious. Basically used some canned tomato sauce and canned chopped tomatoes and added some onion, green pepper, and cayenne pepper. Superb. Why do we ever buy pre-made sauce? It costs so much more and tastes, often, more bland, than homemade sauce.

Next time, I will try to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned if they are in season.