Meal Plan Monday

Hello friends!  How was your weekend?  Ours was great!  I think it is safe to say that spring has sprung around here - yippee!  I am anxious to get out in the garden, but I have been battling some hand issues since the start of the year that have been holing me back from some of my regular activities.  Good thing for helpers in the kitchen (even grating cheese causes me a fair bit of pain).  Slowly but surely whatever is going on with my hand is healing, but man is it frustrating!  (and YES, I have been to the Doctor and physiotherapist about it).

Enough of me griping!  LOL Here is this week's meal plan:

Sunday: BBQ Pork Chops, Spaghetti Squash Casserole, Kale Salad

Monday: BBQ Chicken, Spaghetti Squash Casserole, Caesar Salad

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes, Kale Salad

Wednesday: Salmon, Grilled Vegetables, Kale Salad

Thursday: Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (I finally found a homemade Alfredo sauce that I like...recipe coming soon!) and Caesar Salad

Friday: Take out! (Our son's hockey playoffs are this weekend and after his 4 pm game I am volunteering at the raffle tables...so no cooking for me!) 

Saturday: Undecided!

Have a great week everyone!

Spaghetti Squash Mac N Cheese

On Sundays, we typically make homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch.  We make a big pan of it, that way we have some leftovers for lunch on Monday (and sometimes even on Tuesday).  I decided to shake up  this week's tradition after I came across this recipe for Spaghetti Squash Mac N Cheese.  Here is the recipe:

Spaghetti Squash Mac N Cheese (Source: Jo and Sue)

2 tablespoons flour
Salt & pepper (to taste)
1 cup milk
1 cup Tex Mex shredded cheese
5 cups cooked spaghetti squash
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
1 green onion, diced
1/4 cup frozen peas
3 tablespoons fresh parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F.  Wash your squash, cut in half and scrape out the seeds.  Place cleaned squash face down on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour.  Remove from oven, cool, and remove the squash from the rind with a fork and put into a large bowl.  Set aside.

Prepare a baking dish and set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the flour, salt and pepper.  Over medium heat, gradually add the milk tot he flour mixture  whisk until smooth.  Heat and stir (constantly) until it thickens.  Remove from the heat and add in the  Tex Mex cheese.  Stir until the cheese has melted (this is pretty quick) and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the cheese sauce over the spaghetti squash.  Add in the green pepper, green onion and frozen peas.  Mix well - get that cheese sauce into the squash!  Pour into the prepared casserole dish, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes, until the parmesan cheese is melted and the squash is heated through.

VERDICT:
I think this would make a nice side dish for a meal.  When I first saw the recipe I imagined this dish replacing our Sunday homemade mac n cheese, but it won't.  It's a good accompaniment for a larger meal, not a meal in itself.  Having said that though, it was good.  I quite liked it, and will certainly give it another go!

Butternut Squash Soup

Yes, we are still on the soup kick around here :-)  My hubby loves butternut squash soup, and well, I've never really been a squash fan...at least not growing up.  Then I discovered this Spaghetti Squash Casserole that got me more open to eating squash.  So I figured, what the heck, let's find a squash soup recipe and see how it turns out.  Well...the verdict is below.

I found this recipe in My Father's Daughter - I've been enjoying a lot of the recipes in this book.  It's been a nice addition to my collection of cookbooks.

Butternut Squash Soup (Source: My Father's Daughter)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (or garam masala)
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
4 cups vegetable stock - warmed gently in a pot

Over medium heat and in a large pot, heat the olive oil and the butter until the butter is melted.

Add in the onions and garlic.  Saute for approximately 10 minutes, or until the onions start to soften.  Add the salt, pepper and curry powder, cook for another few minutes.  Add the squash and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add in the vegetable stock.  If the stock does not cover the vegetables in the pot, it is OK to add some boiling water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until the butternut squash is very soft.

Remove from heat and allow to sit and cool for at least 15 minutes.  I let mine cool for about 25 minutes (I was watching a show on TV...doesn't happen often so I took advantage of the moment!).  I also transferred my soup to a big serving bowl to cool and for processing.

Bring out your food processor and puree your soup in batches.  Do NOT overfill your food processor, and do NOT use hot foods in it...that will cause a big mess and potentially some injury! (I have not learned that lesson, but have heard the lesson and am passing it along!).

Put the processed soup back into your soup pot.  Repeat the process until all of the soup has been processed.  At this point you could re-heat and serve, or you can do like me.  I made my soup the night before and we ate it for dinner the next day - for a few reasons - first because it does take a while to prepare and if your family is like mine after school/work - they want to eat by 5:30 and I wouldn't have the soup ready in time - and two - I feel that the flavour gets a lot of extra time to set in if you refrigerate overnight and heat to serve the next day.  

VERDICT
I know, you've been waiting for this :-)  Well, let's just say that I haven't heard my husband get so excited about soup before.  Like ever.  The noises that he was making were entertaining.  I think he ate half of the pot for dinner.  And he was asking how soon I would make more.  He liked it that much.  I was a little worried when I was prepping the soup - it smelled a lot like pumpkin and I don't particularly like pumpkins unless they are the jack-o-lantern variety, and also I was a little concerned about the curry flavour - I wasn't sure if it would be too overpowering.  But it wasn't. It was good.  Thumbs up from everyone (except the toddler, but he had a fever and not much was making him happy at dinner).  This soup is one that I will make again.

Top 10 Recipes from 2012

It's countdown time!  It's New Year's Eve!  A day all about counting down...and time to add my Top 10 of 2012 into the mix!  What a great year with so many fabulous recipes - both that I found and tried, and all those fantastic recipe at my weekly Scrumptious Sunday Recipe Link Party!  Thank you for helping me maintain my addiction.

Here are my Top 10 Recipes of 2012, as picked by you, my readers! (Click on the recipe name to take you to the full recipe!)

10) Nanaimo Bar Ice Cream Cake

 

9) Carrot Pineapple Raisin Bran Muffins

8) Italian Cream Soda

7) Fudgy Nutella Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing

6) Baked Not Fried French Fries

 

5)  Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake

4) Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

3) Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches

2) Spaghetti Squash Casserole

1) German Apple Cake

 

 

Wishing each and every one of you a very Happy New Year's!  Have a safe, fun-filled evening!

 

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

My Dad will be so pleased...I made squash for dinner.  Or maybe he won't be once he reads the verdict below.  I guess we'll see!  My Dad is a big squash fan...and everytime it was prepared when we were growing up, we (me, my brother, and I am pretty sure my Mom) all turned our noses.  Ewww, squash.  I painted all squash the same.  If I didn't like one, I didn't like any of them.    But then I grew up, and occasionally at a restaurant one of the vegetable sides would be a squash of some sort.  Sometimes it was spaghetti squash.  And I sometimes tried it.  And I discovered that I like it. Fast forward a few moons and I'm reading through my pile of cookbooks and I come across a recipe for "Spaghetti Squash Casserole"...hmmm...sounds promising.  I think I'll try it.  And we did...here is the recipe:

Spaghetti Squash Casserole - from Taste of Home

1 medium spaghetti squash
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F.

Slice the squash in hal lengthwise; remove and discard the seeds.  Place squash cut-side down in a baking dish.  Bake for 45-60 minutes or until easily pierced.

Increase oven temperature to 375F.

Melt butter in a skillet.  Add in onion, garlic, mushrooms, herbs and seasonings.  Saute until the onion is translucent.  Add in the tomatoes and cook off most of the liquid.  Set aside.

When the squash is cool enough to handle, use a fork to separate into strands.  Combine the squash, tomato mixture, cottage cheese, mozzarella, parsley and crumbs.  Pour into a greased 2 quart casserole.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  Bake, uncovered at 375 for 40 minutes or until heated through and the top has started to brown.

VERDICT:
Wow, this was so good.  My husband's first reaction was "mmmmm" and he then proceeded to have three servings!  He even took leftovers to work and I think he shared a little there.  We gave some of the plain (baked) spaghetti squash to the baby, he wasn't a fan.  Our oldest son, well, we had to tell him that the spaghetti squash was noodles...which he found acceptable and he cleaned his plate.  My husband is already asking me to make this again!