Nature’s noodles

Last night I tried a new food!

I don’t remember ever having a spaghetti squash before, even though Mom insists we had some back when I went to fat kid camp.

I put some of Mom’s awesome spaghetti sauce on top of mine (it wasn’t on-plan…I was “bad” last night, too) and sprinkled with some parmesan cheese.

I’m glad it didn’t have an overwhelming SQUASH flavor.  Though I like squash, I think it would’ve been weird if it tasted squashy while posing as pasta.  Instead, I was a tad weirded out by the crunchy texture.  Is it always so crunchy?  Was mine just underdone?  It really was weird “harvesting” the “noodles” though – you could see how the fibers ran through the sides!  I always thought it was the tines of the fork that made the “spaghetti,” but there are little “fault lines” already in the squash that get torn apart!  I’ll definitely be up for trying it again – how do you guys eat spaghetti squash?  Since I shouldn’t be eating spaghetti sauce yet, I’ll need to find an alternative way of enjoying.

Speaking of stuff I shouldn’t eat…

 

…we brought home a small slice of pumpkin cheesecake each.  And thusly ended my vacation eating.  It was good and compartmentalized – I didn’t let my overeating, splurging, and indulging bleed past the boundaries of Saturday afternoon and Sunday like I might’ve before.  Victory for long-term success!

Lunch today was of the Boring-Ass variety.

 

Leftover chicken and some steamed green beans.  Wooo.  Dinner was a little more interesting, however.  I was looking for inspiration in some Weight Watchers and Cooking Light recipe books and came across one for pork chops with a gravy-ish sauce.  I took that as a canvas and added some other stuff to it.

I pan-seared some pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic, then stuck them in a 300°-ish oven while I worked on the sauce.  In the same pan, I sautéed garlic, onion, and mushrooms, then added some red wine followed by chicken stock boullion.  I reduced it and added a small amount of cornstarch which reduced it even further….too far.  I added some beef boullion to water it down some more before stirring in some gorgonzola cheese.  All the flavors worked well together, but there was something that was a tad…off.  Maybe it was the cheap red wine.  I’d like to try it again without the wine (or with white instead).

With the rest of the bag-o-beans from today. 

And speaking of “bag-o-,” here’s a bag-o-sweetness who has kindly requested I knit her a new hat to replace the one she outgrew last year.  Pink and yellow with sparkles.  I’ll probably start on it next week…this week, my fingers are working to the bone to finish some last-minute Christmas gifts!!!