Speghetti Squash Bake... DELICIOUS!

I LOVE spaghetti squash.. so much so that my mom planted it in her garden and harvest over 40 of them this past fall. I ate likely 20 them easily.. and they are  TWICE the size of the store squashes! Well I get bored of plain roasted anything.. and have been looking for new ways to make these wonderful squashes. Well I did! I found a recipe and made it my own.


To start...

Chop a squash in half... clean it out.. and pop it in the microwave for 12 minutes ( or till it is easy to extract from the skin.)

In a pan saute with olive oil:
 
- 3 chopped carrots
- one small zucchini
- one red bell pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic or garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste.

Because my children REFUSE to eat spaghetti squash.. I decided to fake them out... I added 2 cups of cooked spaghetti as well.

You then add 16 oz of your choice of tomato sauce, 1/4 cup of Parmesan and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Pop into the oven covered at 350 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. After 25 minutes, add a bit of grated cheese to the top and finish the last 5 minutes off uncovered.

Finished product... and My kids ate it with no complaints.. They had NO idea there was any squash in there. It was delicious and I have leftovers for the week! LOVE IT!


Cheers!

My Boston Tribute...

I haven't been really blogging lately.. and purely to laziness. Work has been INSANELY busy.. driving all over the place for risk assessments, meetings, presentations and working late late hours. Trying to keep on track with workouts and meal planning along with eating properly has taken up a lot of energy. Last week I gave myself a break, I understood I had a busy week and just did what I could. I tried to stay as close to my caloric intake and get in some exercise.

I was home with a sick little girl on Monday, had a nap that afternoon and when I awoke this is what I found on the news.

(Picture found at www.houston.culturemap.com)

 

The Boston Marathon Bombing... I was glued to the TV and Twitter to see if the local runners, one which was a coworker of my dear husbands, were alright. Thankfully within minutes everyone was accounted for. However, there was a 8 year old little boy who awaited his father at the finish line was not alright. Nor was his mother or 6 year old sister.

The only thing I could think of was how devastated that my babies and hubby were not at the finish line of my PR'd 5 km last fall, and how I would have given anything for them to have seen me. I know how excited my children get for me to even go for a run, never mind to catch me at the end of the race. So I am assuming I, as other running parents cherish these moments. My heart breaks for this dear father who ran upon this scene.. for the grief he is feeling... and for all the grief felt by the victims.

I noticed on twitter that runners were running. We were uniting by lacing up and hitting trails. If we could do anything it was run the last miles some of these folks never got to run... or run miles the victims will or may never get to run again.  So that is just what I did on Tuesday.

 

I put on my blue race shirt, my yellow jacket ( Boston Colours) and hit the trails. As you can see here in Saskatchewan we have snow.. and A LOT of it left! There were steps I took that I fell through the snow, areas I had to climb up the trail and areas of pure ice. I ran 3 kms.. and fought many tears at the thoughts of what it would have felt like.

I may not have ran 26.2 miles.. But i ran for 26.2 minutes in honour of all those people in Boston. I am pretty proud to say I am a runner. We can't bring back the victims.. but we can RUN.