March Meal: Zucchini Spaghetti

March's Meal was made in...May (and published in August). I'm two months late because life. But really, finals, wedding, etc. etc. means I'm a few months late in making my meals. But I'm not letting being late stop me from my monthly goal!

This meal was sooooo easy. As you can probably tell, Clay and I love veggies. Zucchini is one of our faves.

There are 5 ingredients to this meal:

• Zucchini, 1 feeds one person
• Ground Beef, 90-95% lean (we actually used 85% lean because that's all I could find so we weren't as healthy as we could have been)
• Olive Oil, a tablespoon-ish or two or three
• Pasta Sauce (the amount depends on how much meat you have and your personal preference)
• Salt/Pepper

1.  Cut up the zucchini and put slices on baking sheet. Pour olive oil over slices and a pinch of salt/pepper. Bake for 20ish minutes at 375 degrees. I like mine to be a little burnt because it makes it crunchier so just check it every now and then until you are satisfied. I would probably flip the zucchini over once because sometimes the bottom can get more burnt than the top. [Handy tip: put foil over the baking sheet before you lay the slices on them. It will help the olive oil not seep into the sheet as much and will be a breeze to clean up!]
2. Heat the beef in a skillet over the stove until the meat turns brown. (I know. Duh. But some of the people reading this might not know and I can't be held responsible for their food borne illness.)
3. Once the meat has been cooked for about 30 minutes, drain all the grease into a container you can discard later. Remember you don't ever want to put grease down the disposal.
4. Add the pasta sauce to the ground beef and let simmer for a few minutes until ready to serve.
5. Place the zucchini slices on a plate and top with the meat/sauce! Enjoy!

January Meal: Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

 

Hey friends! For the new year, I have stolen an idea from my friend Cassie, to make one new meal a month. I liked this idea because if you're like me, you don't have much time to try new elaborate recipes, but I can totally accomplish one fancy recipe a month! When I eat, I like to order my food and get it within 5-10 minutes. The only problem with that is it limits you to eating out, which can be costly and more than likely not good for you.

Tuesday night I made "Skinny Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce." I had been wanting to try spaghetti squash so I went to Pinterest in search for a fun recipe. I found this one on the Skinny Mom blog and thought it looked great. I also liked that the prep and cook time were under an hour. Let it be known, it takes that long if you have awesome knives, a vegetable chopper, and cook your squash in the microwave. I opted for the oven because ovens cook food more evenly, which meant it was in there for 50 minutes not 15. And I also have the worlds worst knives. I actually found them in my basement one day so I'm not sure if the lady who lived here before me left them, or if they were an old roommates. But nevertheless they are all I have so I made it work. My whole cook/prep time turned into TWO. HOURS. Woof. Like I stated earlier, I can totally meet my goal of one meal a month, any more than that and I'm doomed. I'm pretty certain I could get it in under an hour on my next try. If you have a man to help cut the squash in half that will probably eliminate 20 minutes right there-those suckers are hard to cut. But I like to think it was the knives fault and not my lack of strength!

Despite the time it took me, I loved the way it turned out!! It was delicious! It made soooo much too. I fed myself, Clay and my roommate, Lexis. Tonight Lexis and I ate off of it again. And I could probably get 2 more meals out of what's still left. If you're only cooking for two people, I would suggest cutting the recipe in half.

You can find the recipe on the link up above (click on Skinny Mom) but here are the slight changes I would make from what it has on there. My changes are in red.

• 8 cups spaghetti squash, cooked (2 medium size squash will yield about 8 cups)
• 1 lb lean ground beef (90%-95% lean) <<< but really, get the more expensive meat
• 24 oz low-sugar spaghetti or marinara sauce (20-22 oz.)
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 small zucchini, chopped finely
• 1 celery stalk, chopped finely
• 1 carrot, peeled + chopped
• ½ cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
• ½ cup low moisture, part-skim, shredded mozzarella cheese
Optional*: (I did not use the sweetener.)
• 2 tsp Stevia®

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. To cook squash in oven, cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and membrane. Place squash cut-side up on baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 45-60 minutes.(I cooked for 50 minutes and it turned out great but next time I might leave it in the whole 60 minutes)
3. To microwave squash, cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and membrane. Place squash cut-side up in a microwave safe dish with 1-2 inches of water (just enough water to cover bottom of microwave safe dish). Microwave 9-10 minutes until soft. (I didn't microwave. I'm not sure it would have had the same soft texture if I chose this option.)
4. In a large, deep sauté pan, add extra virgin olive oil.
5. Add onions, celery, carrot, and mushrooms. Saute vegetables on medium heat for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften.
6. Add lean ground beef to vegetables. (Next time, I'm going to cook my meat in a separate pan, drain the grease, then add all the meat to the pan with vegatables.)
7. Continue to cook vegetables and brown ground beef, breaking up the meat into smaller pieces. Continue to cook until meat is no longer pink in color.
8. When meat is cooked, add chopped zucchini and jar of spaghetti sauce. (I bought a 25 oz. jar and put the whole thing in. It called for 24 oz. I would put about 20-22oz of sauce instead.)
9. Stir to mix all ingredients together and simmer on low for 5-10 minutes.
10. Adjust sauce with salt and pepper and (optional) sweetener. (I didn't do the sweetner and it tasted just fine.)
11. When spaghetti squash is cooked, remove from the oven or microwave and let cool for 5 minutes. After it has cooled, begin to remove the flesh with a fork, which will come out looking like spaghetti strands. Serve with sauce OR transfer spaghetti squash to a casserole dish.
12. Cover the squash with meat sauce evenly.
13. Top with mozzarella and bake in oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes until cheese has melted. Serve hot.
14.  I will also add a small salad as a side dish.

That whole meal added up to be around $27.00. That's not bad when you get 8-10 servings out of it. That's less than $3.00 a meal! I didn't have any coupons to use so had I looked for those it would have been even less. I will say, you need to get the meat it calls for. It will be more expensive but that's what makes it so healthy. 80% ground beef is what you will find the most of in the grocery store and probably what you've bought in the past. Fun fact: it's equivalent to McDonald's ground beef. So go ahead and do yourself a favor and get the 90-95% lean meat. Adding a salad or any bread will obviously increase the price as well. You can find all the nutritional facts on the site above.

You will have leftover vegetables which I actually used the night before because I looked at the recipe and knew I'd have plenty. I chopped up a bell pepper (not on this list), the extra mushrooms, a new zucchini, extra carrots and the other half of the onion and cooked them in a skillet on the stove with olive oil and salt and pepper. I think it's important to reuse as much of your food as possible so you save money and don't let things go to waste. 

Here is a picture of what my spaghetti squash lasagna looked like...not exactly a Pinterest worthy photo but it tastes the same!

Here's the link to the 9 other healthy recipes you can make with spaghetti squash.

 Happy cooking!