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Super YUMMY Spaghetti Squash “Spaghetti” Recipe!

I visited my sister over the weekend and she made spaghetti squash for me. Let’s just say, I FELL IN LOVE! Not only have I been wanting to try it for YEARS NOW (not sure why I never got myself to do it), but the nutrition facts are amazing and it is delicious. A cup of spaghetti squash has only 42 calories, 0g fat, 10g carbs, 2g fiber, and 1g protein.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make, here’s what you’ll need.

INGREDIENTS:

  • whole spaghetti squash, about $2.99 at Trader Joes (serves 4 people or more)
  • marinara sauce
  • veggies or meat of your choice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wash the skin of the squash, cut it in half, length-wise if possible (unlike me). The squash is very hard like a pumpkin so be careful!

2. Place 1/2 of the squash in the microwave on HIGH POWER for 15 min. Yes. 15 min. And you do not need an oven.

3. In the mean time, sautee some veggies. I had some red pepper laying around.

4. Once the squash is done “roasting” in your microwave, take it out (be careful, it’s hot!) and cut length wise. Then scoop the seeds out.

5. Then, using a fork, simply scrape out the squash. It gets all stringy!

6. Place the hot “spaghetti” on a plate, smother with marinara sauce, and top with your sauteed veggies. I’d definitely add basil if I had some.

7. Optional: also smother with sriracha :P THEN DEVOUR!

Eat! Enjoy! I ate a ton and felt super light but full afterwards! Next time, I will add some sort of a protein in there but OH MAN this recipe surpassed my expectations. I am in love with spaghetti squash. It has a semi-sweet taste and is BETTER than noodles. Seriously. I need to try making pad thai with this! And chow mein. And pho. And all sorts of noodle/pasta dishes!!! It wins my food of the month award! Totally Blogilates-approved!

Have you ever tried spaghetti squash before? What are your techniques?

Don’t be fooled…that bowl of “oatmeal” has as much protein as a scoop of protein powder. I was so excited to try my TVP (textured vegetable protein) as “oatmeal” this morning. What a great way to cut down carbs and up that protein intake for bfast while still enjoying a bowl of warm goodness. Here’s what I did for this bowl… INGREDIENTS: -1 ripe banana -1 TBS steel cut oats (rolled or instant ok too) -1/2 cup TVP -Dash of cinnamon -Water or skim milk, almond milk, soy milk etc. DIRECTIONS: 1. Mix the dry oats and TVP in a bowl and add enough water/milk to generously cover the surface of the ingredients. 2. Place in microwave for 3 minutes if using steel cut oats, less if using rolled or instant. 3. Take out, stir. If you like it mushy add more liquid and reheat. 4. Peel a ripe banana and place right in the bowl. Heat for 1:30 to 2 minutes. 5. Take a spoon and slice the banana into coins. Should be very easy! 6. Stir it all up! Add a dash of cinnamon! If you need more sweetness you can add some brown sugar or dried berries, but I think a ripened and cooked banana is sweet enough! TASTE? Great! Normally I’d have to boil steel cut oats for 30 min on the stove to get a nutty yet mushy consistency but today I was feeling experimental so I microwaved them for 3 min. I’d suggest using rolled oats in the microwave for this recipe if you have them. My taste buds are pretty weird so I liked the super crunchy appeal of the microwaved steel cut oats. The oats mixed with the TVP created an overall oatmeal taste. I am so happy that I can eat this for bfast and be full longer. 1/2 cup of TVP has 22g of protein! Whenever I eat regular oatmeal I get hungry quickly because of the carb content. This is revolutionary! I love TVP! So far I have used it as a grain replacement and as a meat substitute. Versatility to the max!

Don’t be fooled…that bowl of “oatmeal” has as much protein as a scoop of protein powder.

I was so excited to try my TVP (textured vegetable protein) as “oatmeal” this morning. What a great way to cut down carbs and up that protein intake for bfast while still enjoying a bowl of warm goodness.

Here’s what I did for this bowl…

INGREDIENTS:

-1 ripe banana

-1 TBS steel cut oats (rolled or instant ok too)

-1/2 cup TVP

-Dash of cinnamon

-Water or skim milk, almond milk, soy milk etc.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix the dry oats and TVP in a bowl and add enough water/milk to generously cover the surface of the ingredients.

2. Place in microwave for 3 minutes if using steel cut oats, less if using rolled or instant.

3. Take out, stir. If you like it mushy add more liquid and reheat.

4. Peel a ripe banana and place right in the bowl. Heat for 1:30 to 2 minutes.

5. Take a spoon and slice the banana into coins. Should be very easy!

6. Stir it all up! Add a dash of cinnamon! If you need more sweetness you can add some brown sugar or dried berries, but I think a ripened and cooked banana is sweet enough!

TASTE?

Great! Normally I’d have to boil steel cut oats for 30 min on the stove to get a nutty yet mushy consistency but today I was feeling experimental so I microwaved them for 3 min. I’d suggest using rolled oats in the microwave for this recipe if you have them. My taste buds are pretty weird so I liked the super crunchy appeal of the microwaved steel cut oats.

The oats mixed with the TVP created an overall oatmeal taste. I am so happy that I can eat this for bfast and be full longer. 1/2 cup of TVP has 22g of protein! Whenever I eat regular oatmeal I get hungry quickly because of the carb content. This is revolutionary!

I love TVP! So far I have used it as a grain replacement and as a meat substitute. Versatility to the max!

Substitutions and Training your Taste Palette This is what I had for lunch at Roll & Rye in Culver City, CA. I never thought of subbing potato salad with cottage cheese but it worked. I don’t know why the peach was there - added some sweetness I suppose. Since becoming such a health food freak, I’ve learned to like a lot of weird combos. I’ve also been able to turn a “tolerance” for healthy foods into an addiction for healthy foods. It takes a while to train your taste palette to become accustomed to missing certain foods but it is possible. Slowly begin diminishing the amount of say for instance, salt, in your meals and before you realize it, you won’t need it anymore. Same thing with becoming vegetarian. Slowly omit the meat and you won’t feel like you have to eat it. I never put salt on my food and I stay away from indulgent sauces as much as possible. I also don’t sweeten my oatmeal anymore, a warm banana provides enough sweetness! Eating with less condiments makes me savor my food more, and with every bite I think about the subtle but intricate tastes. It’s thoughtful eating. One of the easiest substitutions you can try is subbing salsa for ketchup. Another I recently discovered was squeezing fresh lemon juice on things like sushi instead of using soy sauce. Need butter? Try avocado. Enjoy! What are some of your creative substitutions?

Substitutions and Training your Taste Palette

This is what I had for lunch at Roll & Rye in Culver City, CA. I never thought of subbing potato salad with cottage cheese but it worked. I don’t know why the peach was there - added some sweetness I suppose.

Since becoming such a health food freak, I’ve learned to like a lot of weird combos. I’ve also been able to turn a “tolerance” for healthy foods into an addiction for healthy foods.

It takes a while to train your taste palette to become accustomed to missing certain foods but it is possible. Slowly begin diminishing the amount of say for instance, salt, in your meals and before you realize it, you won’t need it anymore. Same thing with becoming vegetarian. Slowly omit the meat and you won’t feel like you have to eat it.

I never put salt on my food and I stay away from indulgent sauces as much as possible. I also don’t sweeten my oatmeal anymore, a warm banana provides enough sweetness! Eating with less condiments makes me savor my food more, and with every bite I think about the subtle but intricate tastes. It’s thoughtful eating.

One of the easiest substitutions you can try is subbing salsa for ketchup. Another I recently discovered was squeezing fresh lemon juice on things like sushi instead of using soy sauce. Need butter? Try avocado.

Enjoy! What are some of your creative substitutions?

Enoki Mushroom Scramble w/ Mock Abalone

This was absolutely delish. If you’ve never tried enoki mushrooms, you must, they are super chewy and noodle like. I am actually going to experiment and try making a sort-of spaghetti with them one of these days. You can get enoki mushrooms at an asian food store for 50 cents a pack.

INGREDIENTS:

- For the scramble you will need 1/2 cup of frozen chopped spinach, 2 eggs, 1 pack enoki mushrooms.

- 1 can of vegetarian mock abalone - this is actually wheat gluten or seitan

(This will make 3 servings)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour out the oil/juice in the mock abalone can and just heat up the gluten pieces in a bowl. This eliminates extra calories.

2. Separate the enoki mushrooms so that they are not all strung together at the roots. You should cut off the bottom and just use your fingers to separate them.

3. Once they are like noodles. sautee them in a pan for a few minutes with a little EVOO.

4. While the mushrooms are getting tender, mix the chopped spinach and eggs in a bowl.

5. Pour the egg mixture over the mushrooms and scramble for a minute or two.

6. Now put the mock abalone and some scramble on a plate and your dinner is done. So easy.

Did you know that a WHOLE cantaloupe is only 188 calories? And has 1g fat, 45g carbs, 5g fiber, and 5g protein. Okay, it’s made of 43g of sugar but consider that a small 6oz container of Original Strawberry Yoplait Yogurt has 170 cals, 1.5g fat, 33g carbs, 27g sugar and 5g protein. I can EASILY down a couple yogurts but would never be able to finish a whole melon on my own. What a perfect post workout snack! Love it!!! Information from caloriecount.com and was measured for a medium 5” diameter melon.

Did you know that a WHOLE cantaloupe is only 188 calories?

And has 1g fat, 45g carbs, 5g fiber, and 5g protein.

Okay, it’s made of 43g of sugar but consider that a small 6oz container of Original Strawberry Yoplait Yogurt has 170 cals, 1.5g fat, 33g carbs, 27g sugar and 5g protein. I can EASILY down a couple yogurts but would never be able to finish a whole melon on my own.

What a perfect post workout snack! Love it!!!

Information from caloriecount.com and was measured for a medium 5” diameter melon.

Scientific Reasons why you may be Eating More

Have you ever been amazed at how much you can eat? I constantly stun myself.

I am not a very big person, I’m an 5’5” and 118 lbs, but my appetite rivals that of Adam Richman on Man vs. Food or those guys on Epic Meal Time on YouTube. (Love those shows! I have a fatty residing within.) I know. You guys don’t believe me. No one does. But I’ve even had people say to me, “Wow for such a tiny person you sure can eat a lot.” It is embarrassing how much I can stuff into my body, but my appetite is just overwhelmingly ginormous sometimes. Have you ever been told that?

I don’t know whether I should blame it on my crazy workouts, my inner fatty, or my sheer attraction to all things food, but I definitely think my appetite needs a second look! So I took some time to do a little research on why my eyes may be bigger than my stomach.

Here are the top SCIENTIFIC reasons why you may be eating more, from TIME Magazine:

Read more

(Yes that is a ridiculously jumbo croissant about the size of my head) Ahh, finally! Back home from the Orient and back to bloggin! Most of my trip was based around food and business. Food and business. So I thought I’d start with some food, which of course I totally had too much of. In general, I thought China and HK was just like Chinatown in the states, except it was a never ending Chinatown. Everyone was telling me, OMG the “real” Chinese food is so much better than US Chinese food. When I got to China and had some Cantonese, I was excited to find out what “authentic” Chinese was. When I took my first bite, all I could think was…and the explosion of different flavors comes…when? Turned out it was the same as the kind I’ve had all my life! What I think they meant was, it aint no Panda Express. Well thank you parents for raising me on real Chinese and not General Tao’s chicken. Anyway, one of the hardest things to do for me was EAT HEALTHY on this trip. Trust me, I tried. We went out every night and everything was so so oily. The first night I was so disappointed in myself for not staying “on track”. Then I just decided to wake up at 6am everyday and workout super hard to make up for it. So in this food blog post, you’ll find things that I do not recommend eating on a daily basis! But hey if you’re in a different country, give yourself some slack, taste to your heart’s desire, and make up for it with an intense workout! Here’s my food blog journey in the Orient! First night in Hong Kong. They have these smoothie stands where you can pick your fruit and they’ll juice it fresh for you. Amazing! Everything on a stick. Literally. Everything on a stick. In a 7-11!!! Oh yes, finally an open street market full of fruit stands! I bought apples and bananas. YUM. The biggest cucumber thing I have ever seen. Anyone know what that is!!?? Steamed buns in China. I love the whole street vendor food thing. It gives your food some extra personality that you can’t get when purchasing in store. Don’t ask me about cleanliness ;) I didn’t die. See those yellow things in there? That’s my favorite dessert ever. It’s a Chinese egg custard tart. I was so so so happy to find this lady who was selling them fresh from the oven. There was a huge line in front of her tiny bakery. It was sooooooo good. I bought these as well. For lunch. I can’t tell you how many calories was in each. Let’s just not talk about it. After I burned off that carbalicious sugarfied lunch with some shopping and walking, I found another HUGE line in front of this place selling “large fried chicken”. I contemplated for about 3 min whether or not I should indulge. Large means size of my face. I ate the whole thing. EEK! Yum. The next morning I let myself have some of my dim sum faves. The top picture is chee cheong fun (steamed long rice noodle with beef) in sweet soy sauce and the second is ha gao (steamed shrimp in a chewy noodle wrap). OMG YUM! Random pic, but apparently McDonalds delivers. Not Chinese food but can you please take a look at that Jumbo Croissant???? Size of my face. Jumbo donut. Size of my face. Jumbo Cinnamon Roll. Size of my face. You guys may or may not know this but I am a big Man v. Food fan. This was so MVF material. I ended up buying the big and small of everything and giving it to my friend. That gave me so much pleasure. It was as if I had eaten it all myself ;) Alright next post will actually be about what I did in China! It’s 5:30am now. I am so jet lagged. I guess I should go to bed!

(Yes that is a ridiculously jumbo croissant about the size of my head)

Ahh, finally! Back home from the Orient and back to bloggin!

Most of my trip was based around food and business.

Food and business.

So I thought I’d start with some food, which of course I totally had too much of. In general, I thought China and HK was just like Chinatown in the states, except it was a never ending Chinatown.

Everyone was telling me, OMG the “real” Chinese food is so much better than US Chinese food. When I got to China and had some Cantonese, I was excited to find out what “authentic” Chinese was. When I took my first bite, all I could think was…and the explosion of different flavors comes…when? Turned out it was the same as the kind I’ve had all my life!

What I think they meant was, it aint no Panda Express. Well thank you parents for raising me on real Chinese and not General Tao’s chicken.

Anyway, one of the hardest things to do for me was EAT HEALTHY on this trip. Trust me, I tried. We went out every night and everything was so so oily. The first night I was so disappointed in myself for not staying “on track”. Then I just decided to wake up at 6am everyday and workout super hard to make up for it. So in this food blog post, you’ll find things that I do not recommend eating on a daily basis! But hey if you’re in a different country, give yourself some slack, taste to your heart’s desire, and make up for it with an intense workout!

Here’s my food blog journey in the Orient!

First night in Hong Kong. They have these smoothie stands where you can pick your fruit and they’ll juice it fresh for you. Amazing!

Everything on a stick. Literally.

Everything on a stick. In a 7-11!!!

Oh yes, finally an open street market full of fruit stands! I bought apples and bananas. YUM.

The biggest cucumber thing I have ever seen. Anyone know what that is!!??

Steamed buns in China. I love the whole street vendor food thing. It gives your food some extra personality that you can’t get when purchasing in store. Don’t ask me about cleanliness ;) I didn’t die.

See those yellow things in there? That’s my favorite dessert ever. It’s a Chinese egg custard tart. I was so so so happy to find this lady who was selling them fresh from the oven. There was a huge line in front of her tiny bakery. It was sooooooo good.

I bought these as well. For lunch. I can’t tell you how many calories was in each. Let’s just not talk about it.

After I burned off that carbalicious sugarfied lunch with some shopping and walking, I found another HUGE line in front of this place selling “large fried chicken”. I contemplated for about 3 min whether or not I should indulge.

Large means size of my face. I ate the whole thing. EEK! Yum.

The next morning I let myself have some of my dim sum faves. The top picture is chee cheong fun (steamed long rice noodle with beef) in sweet soy sauce and the second is ha gao (steamed shrimp in a chewy noodle wrap). OMG YUM!

Random pic, but apparently McDonalds delivers.

Not Chinese food but can you please take a look at that Jumbo Croissant???? Size of my face.

Jumbo donut. Size of my face.

Jumbo Cinnamon Roll. Size of my face.

You guys may or may not know this but I am a big Man v. Food fan. This was so MVF material. I ended up buying the big and small of everything and giving it to my friend. That gave me so much pleasure. It was as if I had eaten it all myself ;)

Alright next post will actually be about what I did in China! It’s 5:30am now. I am so jet lagged. I guess I should go to bed!

Eat SPICY to burn more calories! In the most emailed article of the week, The New York Times says that we need to turn up the heat in our foods if we want an extra calorie burn. Check out this study by scientists at Purdue: A set of 25 diners, some who like spicy and some who did not, were given tomato soups either laced with cayenne pepper or plain. “The effect was greater among diners who didn’t regularly consume spicy meals. Among that group, adding red pepper to the soup was associated with eating an average of 60 fewer calories at the next meal compared with when they ate plain soup. For both groups who ate red pepper in food, the spice also appeared to increase the metabolism and cause the body to burn an extra 10 calories on its own.” Pretty cool. But maybe the extra cal burn came from the fact that it’s just hard to eat hot foods. I mean, we sweat when we eat spicy, causing us to make extra movements during our meal (wipe off face, cry, fan selves, whistle hard through our mouths), making us use more energy while we eat, therefore we eat slower, get full faster, so potentially we’re eating less while burning more during our meal. The effects are modest, plus the study noted that as the dieters get accustomed to eating spicy, the metabolic effect wears off. We’ll just then have to eat even MORE spicy I guess. Yea, I don’t think eating spicy does anything extra for me anymore. Ghost chili anyone? Source: Adding Food and Subtracting Calories, The New York Times

Eat SPICY to burn more calories!

In the most emailed article of the week, The New York Times says that we need to turn up the heat in our foods if we want an extra calorie burn. Check out this study by scientists at Purdue:

A set of 25 diners, some who like spicy and some who did not, were given tomato soups either laced with cayenne pepper or plain.

“The effect was greater among diners who didn’t regularly consume spicy meals. Among that group, adding red pepper to the soup was associated with eating an average of 60 fewer calories at the next meal compared with when they ate plain soup. For both groups who ate red pepper in food, the spice also appeared to increase the metabolism and cause the body to burn an extra 10 calories on its own.”

Pretty cool. But maybe the extra cal burn came from the fact that it’s just hard to eat hot foods. I mean, we sweat when we eat spicy, causing us to make extra movements during our meal (wipe off face, cry, fan selves, whistle hard through our mouths), making us use more energy while we eat, therefore we eat slower, get full faster, so potentially we’re eating less while burning more during our meal.

The effects are modest, plus the study noted that as the dieters get accustomed to eating spicy, the metabolic effect wears off. We’ll just then have to eat even MORE spicy I guess. Yea, I don’t think eating spicy does anything extra for me anymore.

Ghost chili anyone?

Source: Adding Food and Subtracting Calories, The New York Times