Spaghetti Squash Mac and Cheese

Scrolling through the food category of Pinterest, you see a million recipes involving spaghetti squash. I’ve never really understood how a vegetable could replace some main ingredients in certain dishes, until now. Tonight I made spaghetti squash mac and cheese for dinner and let me tell you, it all makes sense now. I really didn’t even notice that I was eating squash instead of noodles! It was delicious.

I originally got the recipe from a Pinterest pin with a list of healthy recipes. The link to that recipe can be found here!

But, as always, I changed a few things up in the recipe. The recipe calls for ghee, which is most easily explained as an Indian butter. When I finally found it in the International aisle of HEB, I was kinda of shocked – it was $10!! Being the broke college student that I am, I was not about to waste potential wine money on a little thing of Indian butter. So, I substituted it with natural olive oil and everything turned out just fine!

I have decided that I need to start taking these pictures with a camera instead of my phone… But this will do for now

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Ingredients

1 large spaghetti squash
Canola oil spray
2 cups broccoli florets, steamed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
1 cup low-fat milk
1 cup reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Cut spaghetti squash in half, and scoop out all seeds and “guts”. Spray the center of both sides with cooking spray, and put them inside facing up on a cookie sheet. Leave in the oven for 50 minutes, or until the inside is tender enough to poke with a knife.
2. Meanwhile, steam the broccoli.
3. Once the squash has been removed from the oven and cooled, scrape flesh into a large bowl, adding in the steamed broccoli.
4. In a large saucepan on medium heat, heat olive oil and whisk in whole wheat flour. Then add the milk.  Turn heat down to low, add both cheeses and stir until melted. Remove from heat. (I would recommend getting everything ready for this step before you start it. You have to move quickly on the stove top!)
5. Pour cheese sauce over spaghetti squash and broccoli mixture, and toss until all the squash is covered.

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This was the perfect thing to eat while watching the season premiere of Pretty Little Liars. I kind of hate myself for still watching this show, but I feel like I can’t quit now…

Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday! Enjoy!

 

Xoxo

 

Blackened Chicken with Avocado Sauce

Yay for my first blog post! And typically, it’s about food (not sorry).

Summer school started a week ago and since I’ve been back in College Station,  grocery shopping hasn’t been at the forefront of my list of things to do – meaning breakfast and lunch were scrounging with what I had at home and dinner was something fast food. My roomie, Haley, has been doing the Whole30 Program, so she’s been on a huge health kick. Her dedication to her program has shown me that it really isn’t that hard to eat well and cook for yourself, so I’m gonna give it a whirl. I’m no where near doing the Whole30, but I’m going to get back on track to cooking for myself like I did during the school year, leave eating out to the weekends and maintaining a healthy mind set during the week.

 

Dinner tonight, courtesy of skinnymom.com, was Blackened Chicken with Avocado Sauce. You can find the link to their recipe here.

My picture doesn’t do it justice, but it was so good! The combination of spices used to blacken the chicken gave it an awesome kick and the avocado sauce had just the right amount of tang – and it only took 30 minutes! I tweaked a few things in the original recipe to fit my taste and needs, so I’ll post what I did below. I’ll definitely be making this again sometime soon – maybe for my mom who doesn’t know what quinoa is… (who is she?!)

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Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• ½ cup scallions, chopped
• 1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice, divided
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 container of Chobani greek non-fat yougurt
• 1 small avocado
• ½ tsp garlic powder

Instructions

1. In a medium size pan, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the quinoa, turn heat down to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes (or until all the liquid is gone), covered. When it’s finished cooking, mix in scallions and a 1 Tbsp of lemon.
2. In a bowl, mix paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, onion powder, salt and pepper. Rub on both sides of chicken breasts.
3. Spray a large frying pan with non-stick cooking spray. Cook chicken, covered, for 7 minutes on each side or until cooked through, over medium-high heat.
4. Meanwhile, mix Greek yogurt, remaining lemon juice, garlic powder and avocado in a food processor.
5. To serve, place the chicken on a bed of quinoa and put the sauce on top.

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Now bon appetit! 

Xoxo