Spaghetti to the Second Power

How is it possible it's March? Furthermore, how is it possible it's Wednesday and this is my first post of the week?

I will say I've been really productive around the house. I blame all the do-it-yourself, creative blogs like this or this. Honestly, how do these women find time to be a wife, a mom, clean, cook, be creative, and blog? I can (on occasion) do all those things (with the exception of be creative-though I do try), but at the same time?! Hey, I'm no Wonderwoman, though I'm beginning to think they may be!

Inspiration usually only strikes with the home renovation-fix it up on the cheap-type blogs. But, the other day I was inspired to try something new in the kitchen. Namely, spaghetti squash. (Thanks to LeslieRays for the inspiration!).  We eat summer squash and zucchini all the time, but I've never tried this particular variety. After this meal though, it's going to get a lot more play in my kitchen.

First of all, here's what I did:

• Rinsed the squash
• Microwaved for 1 minute to soften it up
• Slice the ends off and then slice in half, down the middle (even softened up those suckers are hard to slice!)
• Scoop out all the gunky seeds. Note: I was surprised because it kind of reminded me of a pumpkin on the inside. I just used a spoon to get out all the goopiness.
• I lined a baking sheet with foil (this is optional, but by doing this I didn't have to wash the sheet afterwards. Bonus!).
• I put a little butter and salt on each half (next time I will also add some garlic)
• Pop those babies in the oven at 375 for about 40 minutes 

Meanwhile I made my sauce (because I didn't have my usual sauce in the pantry). I tried something different and I was really pleased with how it turned out. My favorite thing I did was add some fresh spinach pesto to the sauce. Extra veggies and extra flavor.

• 1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves
• garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon of parmesan cheese (you could use other cheese if you wanted)
• Sprunch that in the food processor (I used the Magic Bullet again since it was already out and dirty from the tomatoes)
• Add in 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and blend that until it's the desired consistency.
• Note: Because I didn't want the spinach to get wilty, I waited until right before I took up my meat sauce to mix it in. 

When your squash is done, just put it on your plate and rake up some of the "noodles" with your fork. Put in the meat sauce and top with cheese. It is so, so good.

I took this pic after I had mixed it all up. It was much prettier before I dug in!

Next time, I'm going to try to make an Asian inspired stir-fry using spaghetti squash!