Fun in the kitchen

This blog was originally started to share my creations, recipes, trials, and errors in the kitchen. So, here's a little addition just about food. One of the results as well as the goal of this Advocare journey is that I want to get back in the kitchen and making real food, instead of just grabbing whatever is convenient when I'm too hungry to cook. So far I've been relatively successful. One thing I've done recently is make a big smoothie mixture and freeze it in a few different, portable containers to take to work and then have as my lunch. After work (I finish around noon every day) I am always starving but that's also the time I usually want to go to the gym and run. If I go home and eat I usually fall asleep and/or eat too much so I don't feel much like running after that. In order to avoid both scenarios, I've been really trying to take something with me to work to eat after the kids leave but with enough time still before I run to make sure it's all settled and digested. So far, a smoothie seems like the best of both worlds. All the liquid makes me feel full, I don't usually crave anything else afterwards, and it's easy for my body to digest enough that running 30-45 minutes later is no problem. Plus, I can get veggies, protein, and some fruity carbs in all at once! Win-Win! Unfortunately I don't have any good recipes, I've just been dumping this in to the Vitamix and seeing what happens. So far, none have been magically delicious enough to post about or record, but generally I start with some water mixed with coconut milk (the kind in the carton, not the kind in the can), then add some greens (broccoli and kale currently but I'll probably move to spinach next), then a frozen banana and some frozen berries/fruit too. If it needs more liquid to blend I add more water and/or ice. Then see what happens :)

My other experiments lately involve more food. I have been playing with my new Vitamix and have made two nut butters recently. I made almond butter a couple days ago and last night I had fun with making Cashew butter. It turned out really creamy and I can't wait to find a fun recipe to use it.Yum!

Beyond that, I've also been trying to find a good meal for dinner that doesn't use any type of carb. Even quinoa is considered a complex carb according to Advocare, so that has been difficult for me. I enjoy quinoa and it has protein and amino acids, which as a vegetarian, is really important to find those in a natural food source. Last week I riced cauliflower and used that, but it got really soggy the next day. So, this time I tried using a spaghetti squash as the base for my meal. I really like spaghetti squash and find that it is really easy to make, as long as I plan ahead for the 45 minutes of cooking and 10+ minutes to cool enough to handle. But other than that, it's rather easy and not at all labor intensive (except trying to cut it in half!). I used coconut oil on the pan this time, when usually I just spray it with a cooking spray. Not sure if that was what caused it or not, but the strands came out pretty soft and smooshy this time, not quite as hard and 'noodle' like as usual. Could also have been the squash itself, I don't think they're exactly in season right now.

 So, like I said, cut the squash in half, remove the seeds, then put in on a cookie sheet cut side down (I have it facing up in the pic just to show how it looked when done) in the oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then, let it sit for about 10 minutes to cool. After that just scrape out the strands using a fork. I just dumped the strands from both halves in to a bowl.

 While cooling, throw some veggies in to a pan and get 'em cookin! Here I used the peppers and onion mix I love, with added broccoli and carrots. I admit that I added a little shake of fajita seasoning to give it a kick, but it's not really needed. Also, I had bought a frozen mix of 'mexican' style veggies so I put that in the microwave to steam a little. It was really corn heavy with some peppers, onions, and black beans. It had no added seasonings, I triple checked! Be careful of those 'steam ready' veggies in the frozen aisle. A lot of them already have seasonings and sauces which are just added calories and sodium! Totally unnecessary!!

 Anyways, enough of my soap box! So when all the veggies are done to your liking (I like a little brown when sauteing) just toss them in to the bowl with the spaghetti squash! At this point the squash had been sitting in the bowl for a while so adding the veggies straight from the pan and mixing it all up helped to make the whole thing nice and warm again, but if you can time it better than I did then mixing and eating while hot is probably better.

All mixed up, I just dished some out in to a bowl, and of course topped with some cubed avocado and a hearty scoop of salsa to finish it off. Later I realized I had forgot two very important ingredients - olives and cilantro!!! I have a bunch of cilantro in the fridge and it would have really completed this dish nicely but I have plenty of leftovers still to eat so you can bet I'll be adding some later! Overall it was really yummy and fun to make. I love making dishes like this because they are really easy and super great to experiment with. If you have other veggies on hand, throw those in too! Or use them instead! Don't like peppers? No problem! Need to use up some zucchini? saute it and throw that in as well. Or do it totally different and let me know what you think works well with spaghetti squash!