Tag Archives: Spaghetti

Aug 17 2013
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LIFE + FOOD, RECIPE

Spaghetti Sauce Right Off The Vine

Here in Kansas, it is apparently tomato season. Let me be more specific. It is apparently freakishly high-yield tomato season. We’ve had about a month of arid, relatively hot weather, with almost no rain or precipitation of any kind. Everything was really dry. Those with gardens were having to fight with every hose they had to keep the things alive.

Fresh Tomatoes

Courtesy of The Corner of Awesome & Bombdiggity

That dry spell finally came to a close, and with a welcome deluge it rained for 3 days straight and since has rained on average one out of every three days. The result of this has been all the tomato plants that were fighting just to stay green have now starting producing tomatoes like they’re going out of style. It’s wonderful!! My friend’s garden, which only has three tomato plants, has produced enough tomatoes to feed 4 different families and me!

Here’s a little secret about tomatoes – well, it’s not really a secret, just something some of you might not be aware of. Tomatoes that you get in the store are not actually ripe. It’s true. Most of the tomatoes that you find in the grocery store are picked while they’re still green by illegal and often times enslaved immigrants and then shipped to their destinations. In route, the tomato container is saturated with a gas called ethylene, which causes the tomatoes to turn red. It doesn’t make them ripe, just red. That’s why most of the tomatoes you buy at the store taste like they’re not ripe. Because they’re not!

Garden-Fresh-SpaghettiAnyway, with home grown, delicious, ripe garden fresh tomatoes, recipe’s take on a whole new character and explode with flavor and color! With the tomatoes I received from Tomato Lady, I made up a batch of simple spaghetti sauce. Only 4 ingredients plus spices, but oh the flavor! Combine that with a plate of angel hair pasta, top with an avocado, and you’ve got a wonderful meal! If you’d like to try this for yourself, you can find the recipe in the recipes section of the blog.

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Jul 31 2013
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LIFE + FOOD, RECIPE

Squashed Spaghetti

I’m down to the home stretch. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only a few more days in this vegetable desert! But for now, I’m still here, and I’ve gotta eat. So I’m still trying to mix things up a bit. Though at this point, everything is starting to taste the same.

My mouth is watering as I think about what’s coming. My friend, whom I’m walking in this desert with, will be cooking cheesy chicken enchiladas to celebrate the end of our diet. You better believe I will thoroughly enjoy them! I can almost taste their melty gooey cheesy goodness right now! I will, for sure, include a recipe for my own cheesy enchiladas when I make some for myself. As absolutely delicious as they are, they are extremely simple to prepare. You can watch for that.

For now, seeing as how my culinary canon is still in effect, I’m going to attempt to recreate a staple of any family’s dinner menu – spaghetti. “But you can’t have pasta!” you might be screaming right now. And you’re absolutely right. This is why I’ll be utilizing the often overlooked spaghetti squash!

Spaghetti-SquashFor those of you who don’t know what this is, the spaghetti squash is an oddity of nature. When you slice this squash in half and bake it, the flesh of the spaghetti squash comes apart in strands, resembling spaghetti noodles, and it has a slight buttery flavor. It still has the texture of squash, but if you close your eyes and imagine real hard, it’s almost like eating real spaghetti. It’s a great spaghetti substitute for those who are vegans, alergic to gluten, folks on a low carb diet, or even for those looking for a healthy and light alternative to the high-calorie traditional spaghetti.

It’s good with a little butter and Parmesan or Romano cheese, and an Italian meat sauce. Since I can’t partake of any of that, I’ll have to settle for a tasty homemade marinara with mushrooms. And instead of meatballs, I’m cooking up some chopped zucchini and yellow squash. … O meat, how I miss you so!

SpaghettiSquashAs it turns out, this is one of the better meals I’ve prepared during this diet. I think it ranks up there with my quinoa lettuce wraps.

One of the guests at our Monday night group – the event for which I prepared this delicacy – told me that no one has ever convinced her to eat squash before (she’s not a fan apparently). She liked this dish though, which is surprising, seeing as how it’s made up almost entirely of squash. It just Goes to show you that with the right combination of flavors and textures, you can turn anything into a delicious meal! Though she did pick out all the mushrooms (apparently not a fan of those either)…

If you’d like to try your hand at this squashy spaghetti facsimile, you can find the recipe in the recipes section of the blog.

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