POST CATEGORY : Foodie

Spaghetti Squash Bowls With Meat Sauce

Spaghetti Squash Bolognese- great healthy recipe for the pasta lover trying to eat healthy

Look at me being all healthy today! You guys should be SO proud! I’m proud too, because my husband ACTUALLY ate this and he ENJOYED it! Points for everyone! But in all seriousness, this is a GREAT recipe! I had been wanting to make spaghetti squash for a very long time, but I was always hesitant because I didn’t know if I would actually like it. Well, when my cousin brought one over to cook last summer, it was the perfect chance to try it. Well, try it I did and I LOVED it. No, it’s NOT pasta and you are kidding yourself if you think it will be the same, but it is still REALLY good..and I LOVE my pasta. 

My cousin made us spaghetti squash marinara, and it was good, but I knew that if I REALLY wanted to love it (and wanted my husband to love it) I was going to have to add a little bit more to it. Enter, the meat. My husband thinks that meat sauce makes EVERYTHING better and in this case I have to say I agree. Add some meat and a few extra veggies into your sauce and you have a full fledged feast on your hands:) Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce and peppers- such a great substitute for those who want to eat healthy and love pasta

Ingredients:

  • 1 large spaghetti squash
  • 1 jar pasta sauce- I used Classico Tomato Basil
  • 1 bell pepper- I used half a red and half a yellow
  • 1 lb ground beef or turkey
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Suggestion: Add more veggies! Throw in a few mushrooms, a little onion, and maybe a little bit of spinach!

Spaghetti Squash bowls with meat sauce- tastes amazing and won't leave you hungry!

Directions:

Squash:

  1. Start by heating your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Cut your spaghetti squash in half. Y’all, this was hard. I used 3 different knives before I almost gave up. Thankfully we had a pumpkin carving knife sitting in our drawer from Halloween. Worked like a charm- highly recommend! Lol!
  3. Scrape out the seeds on the inside of your squash, just like you would a Halloween pumpkin.
  4. Spread a little olive oil around on the insides of the squash and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.
  5. Lay face down on a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil. I also like to put a little olive oil on my tinfoil to prevent sticking!
  6. Once your oven reaches 400 degrees, put your squash in the oven.
  7. Cook the squash about 30-45 minutes, depending on your oven, or until soft.
  8. Once your squash is soft, remove from the heat and using a oven mit to hold it still, scrape out your spaghetti squash with a fork. It should be stringy like (duh) spaghetti! You don’t have to scrape the entire squash out, but at least do the top.

Sauce:

  1. Cook your ground meet in a frying pan until half cooked.
  2. Add your chopped peppers (and other veggies) to the pan and cook until meat is browned.
  3. Add your sauce and simmer on medium-low until squash is fully cooked.
  4. I like to add a little spice to mine with some basil, oregano, minced garlic, and crushed red pepper.

Spaghetti Squash Bowls:

  1. Once the squash and sauce are done, scoop your sauce out into your squash bowl.
  2. Cover with mozzarella cheese.
  3. Place back in to oven for 5-10 minutes or until cheese has melted.
  4. Serve! This is the fun part! Wes and I enjoyed eating out of the squash bowls, it was fun. You have to scrape along the bottom to get more squash, it was an experience. If you, however, don’t get pleasure out of being a child playing with your food, or you are trying to in fact feed a child, you can scoop it all out in to a regular bowl. 

Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce- recipe

I’m so serious about this one you guys! I was full, my husband was full. We actually had so much food left over that I will be having it for lunch twice this week! Not only was there a lot, but it tastes so good too. Highly recommend this one, especially if you are trying to be healthy and are a pasta lover like me!
Thanks so much for stopping by! If you know of a. a better way to cut a squash than with a pumpkin carver or b. any other great spaghetti squash recipes, let me know in the comments below!
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Garlic Parmesan Tilapia

Garlic Parmesan Tilapia Recipe
Today’s recipe is one of those that kind of happens by accident, and you are SO glad that it did. I knew that I wanted to make us tilapia with veggies and rice, but I was sick of the same old tilapia with lemon pepper seasoning. I looked through the fridge to see what we had (not much lol) and I found a block of parmesan and some garlic. Well, I thought, I could make something out of that…..garlic parmesan you see that all the time! So, I put everything together and threw it on the grill, half expecting it to be just alright when it was done. It.was.so.good.

Ingredients:

  • Tilapia Filets
  • Olive Oil
  • Shredded parmesan (or a block and a grater)
  • Minced garlic- fresh, in a jar, or dried in the spice aisle
  • Salt, pepper, crushed red pepper
  • Sides- I made balsamic asparagus and some Near East wild rice
Garlic Parmesan Tilapia on the grill

Directions:

  1. First, you are going to want to make yourself a tin foil pouch- like pictured. You just fold all sides of the tin foil until you have a little foil dish.
  2. You will want to put some olive oil down first so that the fish doesn’t stick to the foil.
  3. Coat your tilapia in olive oil, using a basting brush.
  4. Sprinkle garlic, parmesan, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper on to both sides of the fish.
  5. Once you have placed your fish in your tin foil pouch, add a little extra parmesan to the top.
  6. Grill on medium/high until tilapia is cooked through thoroughly.
  7. Serve with your choice of sides!
  8. NOTE: This dish can also be baked in the oven if you don’t have a grill!

Garlic Parmesan Tilapia Recipe

I kid you not, I made this for Wes and I for dinner, then the next day I had it for lunch….and a few days later I had it for lunch again. So good. Tilapia is by far my favorite type of fish…anyone else have a good tilapia recipe? Link it up in the comments below so I can check it out!
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Green Chile Mac & Cheese: AKA The Best Mac & Cheese You Have Ever Tasted

Mac and cheese with green chiles- to die for

Mac and cheese is one of my favorite things to eat, I’m pretty sure anyone in my family will tell you that. There’s just something about two of my favorite things, pasta and cheese, mixed together like that…it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. It doesn’t matter if we are at a 5 star restaurant or a dive bar, if there is mac and cheese on the menu, I want it.

There’s a specific mac and cheese that they have at the Alamo Drafthouse here in Texas called green chile mac and cheese. It is to die for. They took it off the menu for a short time a while back and I wrote an email to the owners because it is the only reason I spend the extra money to go to the Alamo Drafthouse. (I’m pretty sure that this only happens to me, but if I like something at a restaurant they end up taking it off the menu. I don’t know if I have weird taste in food or what, but it’s true. That’s besides the point though….) I guess I wasn’t the only upset customer because they ended up bringing it back to the menu, which made me SO happy!

Well, this mac and cheese, it’s great and all…but it’s not worth seeing a movie I don’t want to see in order to get, so I decided that since I found the best mac and cheese recipe ever I would make the green chile mac and cheese with it. It was delish! Absolutely great….dare I say BETTER than the Alamo Drafthouse’s? I think I dare to say it. You have to give it a try…and if it’s not fantastic then you are doing something wrong!! Green chile mac and cheese- the best i have evr had

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 cups milk
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • Noodles
  • 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar
  • 1/2 cup of shredded romano cheese
  • 1 can diced green chiles
  • Crushed Red Pepper
  • salt & pepper to taste

Green Chile Mac and Cheese Recipe

Directions:

  1. First, get a pot of water boiling for your noodles and put them in there.
  2. Put the 3 cups of milk into your saucepan on high until it boils. Once it is boiling remove it from the heat.
  3. Melt your butter in a saucepan.
  4. Take butter away from heat and whisk your flour into the melted butter until it is a creamy brown color.
  5. Take your hot milk and whisk it into the butter and flour concoction.
  6. Turn your heat back on and cook the sauce until it is thick.
  7. Once the sauce is thick and creamy start to stir in your shredded cheeses. 
  8. Once all the cheese is melted you have what we call the “mac sauce”- you can add salt and pepper here if you would like.
  9. Add your noodles to the mac sauce and mix it up.
  10. Open your can on diced green chiles and drain the liquid from it.
  11. Stir those babies in to your mac and cheese.
  12. Add some crushed red pepper for a little bit more heat.
  13. Put your mac and cheese in to a oven safe casserole dish and bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Great recipe for green chile mac and cheese

You have no idea how happy I was eating this. I probably looked like a 5 year old eating a giant piece of chocolate cake on her birthday…..<sigh> it’s the little things in life! Enjoy everyone! I will see you all back here tomorrow for Fit Friday! You know, to work off all of the calories from the mac and cheese! :)

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Easy Taco Salad

Taco salad with Doritos- SO easy and so good!

Some of you health nuts might scoff at this recipe seeing as though I am trying to eat healthier, but let me begin by saying that if it isn’t pasta I am doing so well! Haha! I am a pasta addict and could probably eat it every day for every meal in different ways and just be happy as a clam. Fat, but oh so happy:) Pasta is also my go to meal when I don’t know what to make or don’t feel like putting much effort into the nights meal. I realize though, pasta is not good…for you that is. It’s really a bunch of carbs with absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. <sigh> It’s unfortunate, but it’s true…so here I am today with taco salad. This is really good taco salad though:) This batch turned out exceptionally appetizing looking…which is weird, because usually it looks like a wreck but tastes amazing! Lol!  Great taco salad recipe

Ingredients:

  • Ground beef
  • Lettuce
  • Taco seasoning
  • Beans – I used black, but you can use chili or kidney as well
  • Frozen corn
  • Red bell pepper
  • Onion
  • Doritos or other corn chips
  • French/Catalina dressing

Doritos and Catalina dressinf in taco salad

Directions:

  1. Cook your ground beed in a pan with the taco seasoning.
  2. Once it’s half cooked, add your chopped veggies (peppers and onions).
  3. Sauté these for a little while until they are soft.
  4. Add your beans and corn and cook until hot.
  5. Make a bed of lettuce in a bowl and add your cooked ingredients to the top.
  6. Add some French/Catalina dressing and crush some Doritos on top.
  7. Serve!

Note: If you want to serve it as a dish at a party, I would let the cooked ingredients cool down a bit then toss them with the lettuce, dressing, and chips in a big bowl. This is also SUPER good cold as left overs! If you plan to eat it later as well I wouldn’t mix all the ingredients together- they get soggy pretty quickly.

Easy taco salad recipe- simple and fast!

There are certain ways to make taco salad a little better on your diet as well if that’s what you’re looking for. For one, you could take out the Doritos (which I am very proud of myself for only putting 3 or 4 in this time) and you could cut back a little on the dressing or put it lite dressing. Well, I hope you enjoy and let me know if you serve this at your Superbowl parties next weekend!

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Skinny Turkey Chili

Skinny Turkey ChiliChili is one of my favorite cold weather recipes. I could eat it pretty much every day and usually do after I make a big pot full! It’s so hard to cook for just Wes and I, I ALWAYS over do it and make too much. Thankfully I’m a leftovers kind of gal and I go home for my lunch break so this chili will be my lunch for the rest of the week:)

Usually I make my chili with ground beef, but if you read this post last week, you’ll know that I’m really trying to be good to myself this year and ground turkey is much better for you:) So, turkey it is! It’s a super easy recipe and can be made in pretty much one pot!

Turkey Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds Ground turkey
  • 3-4 large tomatoes, chopped (or 2 cans diced tomatoes no salt added)
  • 2 cans chili beans
  • 1 bell pepper, diced
  • 1-2 cups of organic tomato juice (depending on how thick or thin you like it)
  • 2 tsp hot sauce
  • 1 jalapeno
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Basil and oregano to taste
  • chili powder to taste

Directions:

  1. Start by chopping up all of your veggies and having them ready to go.
  2. Start cooking your ground turkey in your big chili pot.
  3. Once the meat is half done, add in your chopped veggies (all except the tomatoes).
  4. Cook on stovetop until meat is fully done.
  5. Add tomatoes, chili beans, tomato juice, hot sauce, and seasonings.
  6. Simmer for about 25 minutes or until pipping hot.
  7. Serve!

Amazing Turkey Chili Recipe

See? It’s that easy! Now, go ahead add it to your list of skinny meals for the week! Tasty and only about 250 calories, who can beat that?

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