Well, I finally did it...tried spaghetti squash that is. For the past few years I've been hearing about it--how good it tastes and how easy it is to prepare. Low carb-ers touted it...George Stella, the TV chef mentioned it often on his program.
So, last week I finally purchased a spaghetti squash. The price was $1.19 per pound and mine weighed a little over a pound making the cost $1.37 plus tax.....not too expensive as fresh produce goes. It even had a sticker with cooking instructions. I chose to microwave mine.
I washed it, punctured it with a fork in several places and put it in the microwave for 9 minutes, than let it rest 5 minutes to finish cooking. Then I cut it in half and removed the seeds. Finally using a fork I "scraped" out the spaghetti type strings of squash. It yielded enough for two generous servings of a large plateful each.
My extra serving was stashed in the fridge for later in the week. The one I ate immediately was misted with butter flavored spray, sprinkled with salt and pepper and I crumble a wedge of Laughing Cow Light cheese, French Onion variety, over the top. I returned it to the microwave and nuked it to get the cheese melty. Yummo is all I can say. The taste was terrific and it was very filling. And calorie wise that pile of squash, excluding the cheese, was about 50 calories. A similar volume of pasta would have been about 210 calories.
I had a side salad of tomatoes, carrot, baby spinach and cooked wheat berries dressed with a tablespoon of Annie's Goddess dressing. Wheat berries are my new love along with this squash. They are so chewy and filling and couldn't be easier to prepare. Next post I'll tell you how I prepared mine and give you some calorie info and a couple of links for some recipes using wheat berries.
In the meantime if you have yet to try spaghetti squash, I say "don't delay"...once you do try it, if you're like me, you'll be thinking "why did I wait so long?".
So, last week I finally purchased a spaghetti squash. The price was $1.19 per pound and mine weighed a little over a pound making the cost $1.37 plus tax.....not too expensive as fresh produce goes. It even had a sticker with cooking instructions. I chose to microwave mine.
I washed it, punctured it with a fork in several places and put it in the microwave for 9 minutes, than let it rest 5 minutes to finish cooking. Then I cut it in half and removed the seeds. Finally using a fork I "scraped" out the spaghetti type strings of squash. It yielded enough for two generous servings of a large plateful each.
My extra serving was stashed in the fridge for later in the week. The one I ate immediately was misted with butter flavored spray, sprinkled with salt and pepper and I crumble a wedge of Laughing Cow Light cheese, French Onion variety, over the top. I returned it to the microwave and nuked it to get the cheese melty. Yummo is all I can say. The taste was terrific and it was very filling. And calorie wise that pile of squash, excluding the cheese, was about 50 calories. A similar volume of pasta would have been about 210 calories.
I had a side salad of tomatoes, carrot, baby spinach and cooked wheat berries dressed with a tablespoon of Annie's Goddess dressing. Wheat berries are my new love along with this squash. They are so chewy and filling and couldn't be easier to prepare. Next post I'll tell you how I prepared mine and give you some calorie info and a couple of links for some recipes using wheat berries.
In the meantime if you have yet to try spaghetti squash, I say "don't delay"...once you do try it, if you're like me, you'll be thinking "why did I wait so long?".