Summer Spaghetti

Well, I told you I would be posting this recipe soon! And to be honest, I'm just as surprised as you are that I'm getting it up this quickly. I've been commuting to my real estate training for the last week or so. I'm not supposed to be here until 9:00, but I head down the road after I drop the kids off at 7:00. It's usually only a 45 minute commute, but you never know what you might hit on the way, so I like to give myself a little bit of extra time. Since I had some extra time this morning, I figured why not go ahead and get this recipe up on the blog.

I saw this recipe posted on Food, Fitness and Family a couple of weeks ago. I honestly didn't think that I would make it until I realized that I needed a recipe yesterday and I already had most of the ingredients on hand. Plus, I needed something that would work with the 21 Day Fix Extreme and a light bulb came on in my head. I went back and looked at this recipe and decided to give it a try. I'm really glad that I did, too! It was really good and so incredibly easy! TC and the kids weren't too thrilled about the zucchini and yellow squash in it, but as far as I'm concerned, they can just pick them out. They're still getting in veggies with the sauce. If you're looking for a quick and delicious recipe to try, I definitely recommend adding this one to your menu plan for next week! I used a recipe for some turkey meatballs (which I will be posting the recipe for at a later time), but the recipe calls for chicken. So, just use what you prefer :-)

SUMMER SPAGHETTI
Source: Food, Fitness & Family
Servings: 6 - 8
Points+: 8

1 box whole grain spaghetti

1 medium zucchini, chopped

1 medium yellow squash, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1 1/2 c. tomato sauce

1 t. oregano

1/2 t. garlic powder

1/2 c. diced tomatoes

2 cooked chicken breasts, sliced

Shredded parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and veggies, salt & pepper and cook until veggies are tender. Add sauce, tomatoes and spices and heat until sauce is warm.

Serve with chicken (or meatballs) and top with shredded parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Roasted Butternut Squash

Hey everyone. I meant to post this earlier this week, but once again, things have been hectic at our house. Camden came down with croup again and we ended up in the ER with him on Monday. He was having some trouble breathing and it worried this mama bear. They gave him a breathing treatment, some steroids, ran some x-rays (which came back clear), gave us a couple of prescriptions and sent us on his way. He is breathing much better now. He still has the barking cough, and that is still annoying him, but overall, he is doing much better. Z-packs really are awesome, I tell you!

So a couple of years ago, I tried a recipe to make butternut squash fries. Since butternut squash doesn't have any points, it seemed like such a great swap. Well, after getting a great strength workout in for my arms by cutting that sucker up, I baked it up and tried it. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the fries. They weren't crisp at all and just didn't satisfy my hunger for fries. Fast forward to this year. More and more people are talking about how great squash is. When I was at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, squash was on sale, so I decided to pick up a butternut squash and a spaghetti squash. I googled and pinterested (yes, I make up my own words now!) for recipes and found a couple to use as a guideline, but decided to put my own twist on it. The result was absolutely delicious! I had to buy another one last weekend and roasted it for this week. So, so good. It takes a bit to prep it, but it's definitely worth it! Here is how I made it:

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Servings: Ha! Maybe 2 - 4 depending on if you can stop eating it!
Points+: 1

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

The first step is to cut the squash in half and scrape out the seeds.

After that, you need to peel the squash. I just used my vegetable peeler for this. The skin is kind of tough, but it wasn't an issue for me.

After peeling the squash, I cut it up into about 1 inch pieces. Mine weren't all uniform, but that didn't matter.

Next, I spread out the squash on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. I take a little bit of olive oil and spread it over top of all of the squash.

Over top, I sprinkle a little bit of seasoned salt and some garlic powder. These are the spices that I prefer. I tend to use them on a lot of different things these days. But you can use whichever spices you like.

Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 50 - 60 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven, it will smell amazing and you will have some delicious darker pieces as well.

I like to serve mine up as a side dish with whatever we are eating. I also like to just eat it as a snack. I like to keep some in the fridge all the time so I can just reheat it when I get hungry for it.

I hope you all try this recipe and enjoy it as much as I do. This is definitely going to be making a regular appearance in my kitchen in the future!

So long for today...