O Spaghetti Squash, I Used To Hate You So ...

I've never been a fan of spaghetti squash. You know how sometimes when you eat a certain food it coats your teeth and makes them feel furry? Yes, that.

But my daughter and I have lost quite a bit of weight these past few weeks (see this post about the chicken insanity inspiration: http://www.pinkchihuahuacrafts.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-little-chicken-insanity.html) and I'm looking for low carb meals to enjoy while we're on the weight-stabilizing phase of our eating plan. We love pasta, but neither of us enjoy how we feel after we eat it - me especially. Wheat is an inflammatory food, and my knees always hurt muchly the day after a pasta dinner.

So I've convinced myself that I'm going to learn to like spaghetti squash. I'm going to look past the furry teeth and try to move beyond the slippery noodles that don't hold the sauce and learn to love this low calorie, low carb vehicle for pasta sauce.

This is the dish I made earlier this week. (Link to recipe here - this is not my original recipe or my excellent food photography: http://blog.tastefulpantry.com/2014/01/21/spaghetti-squash-lasagna-bowls-gf/)






And you know what? My teeth didn't feel furry, the sauce clung nicely to the squash strands, and I almost felt like I was eating pasta! My middle grandson (who is 5) loved it. We didn't tell him he was eating squash until he was finished, but he guessed. I'm pretty sure he'll eat it again. Maybe it wasn't cooked enough when I've had it in the past? Maybe I just wasn't old enough? (Although if  5-year old can eat it and like it, seems like being in my 50s would be plenty old enough.) The 3-year old didn't like it, but oddly enough, he ate the squash, not the chicken and sauce. And the 14-year old would eat the guinea pig, the Chihuahua Brothers and the cat if I cooked them and served them with ketchup, so I wasn't surprised he ate this.

Whatever the reason I like spaghetti squash now, I'm glad. Because tonight, we're having this:






Except I'm subbing Italian turkey sausage for the chickpeas. (recipe here because this is also NOT my recipe or food photography: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/01/spaghetti-squash-roasted-brussels-sprouts-chickpeas.html)

A Reason to Make Cupcakes!

Easter is coming soon. We don't do anything big - the kids get baskets and they'll probably go to their other grandmother's house for dinner with their parents. Or not - I don't know what the plans are at this point. Their preschool parties are this week: Mace's was Wednesday and Gavin's is tomorrow afternoon.

So this happened Tuesday evening for Mace's party:

And this happened tonight for Gavin's party:

Mace's comment: I ate some of my cupcake, Grammy, but I didn't like the crunchy stuff on the top (which was just yellow cake-decorating sugar). Gavin didn't seem fond of them either - he inhales sugar, but didn't want to try these.

The Peeps are hollowed out slightly, and the chicks are sitting on a chocolate egg and some spring-colored sprinkles, which will be a fun surprise when the kids eat them. The frosting is a slightly sweet cream cheese frosting, whipped until fluffy, and the lick of it I had was heavenly. I'm really hoping Gavin likes them ...

I love making cupcakes!

A Little Chicken Insanity

So my daughter and I have been on this diet lately. It's a fad diet, so I won't go into the details, but I will say we've both lost a good amount of weight in a short time. And I'm all about the instant gratification of seeing scale numbers go down on a regular basis. The food choices are very limited, though, and we've been eating chicken quite often. A LOT of chicken. And since vegetable choices are also limited, I've been searching and searching for ways to prepare said chicken, so you might say I've had chicken on the brain these past five weeks.

And when I have one thing on my mind for a long amount of time, something like this invariably happens:

Front view

Side View

It's been rather gray and dreary here, too, as late March is apt to be, and I've been longing for the colors of summer. Thankfully the chicken we've been eating doesn't come in these colors, although I do wonder if it would taste more like cake if it did ...

Pattern available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/226418189/funky-chicken-trio-crochet-amigurumi?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_query=funky+chicken+trio&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

or here:
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/crocheting/home-decor/funky-chicken-trio/136010

The End (hahahaha!)