Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

From my last post I am sure you have realized that I discovered Spaghetti Squash and I needed to use up all the leftover squash before it went bad in the fridge. I found a recipe for Spaghetti Squash here at Fort Mill SC Living and thought I would give it a try. Mine however is slightly different so will be posting up the recipe here as well. 

I love my vegies now so had to throw in a fair few as well as the one called for in the original recipe.

Spagetti Squash Lasagna (original by Fort Mill SC)

serves 6

327 cals

1 Medium spaghetti squash, cooked and prepared

500g lean beef mince

1 medium carrot, cubed

1/2 zucchini, cubed

1 cup kale, chopped

4 mushrooms, sliced

1/2 onion, chopped

1 can tomatoes

1 small tub tomato paste

1/2 cup beef stock

1 clove garlic

chili flakes

olive oil (I didn't use)

Cheese sauce

60g light tasty cheese

30g butter

2 TBS flour

nutmeg - dash

Preheat oven to 180/350 degrees.

Heat up a frying pan and add Spaghetti squash and cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes until slightly brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

In same pan add carrot, zucchini, mushroom and onion and cook for 3mins until slightly tender. Add mince and beef stock. Cook until meat browns. Add garlic, tomato paste and canned tomato. Simmer all ingredients for 15-20mins until the liquid has reduced. 

In a saucepan melt butter and add flour 1 tablespoon at a time. Whisk both until smooth. Add milk slowly and whisk until thickened. Add tasty cheese until melted. Throw in your dash of nutmeg. 

In a square baking dish put in 1/3 of the meat sauce and add all of the spaghetti squash. Top the squash with 1/2 your cheese sauce. Add the rest of the meat sauce and the rest of the cheese. 

I actually added only 2/3 of the squash and then add 1/3 on top of the bulk of the meat sauce so it was - meat, squash, cheese sauce, meat, squash, cheese sauce. 

OMG this was so yummy. If you wanted to cut down the calorie count don't add the beef mince - it will cut you calories by nearly 150 cals. Enjoy.

Salmon, Snow Pea, Tomato 'Spaghetti'

Becoming addicted to Pinterest has it's downfalls and it benefits. One of the benefits is that you come across many foods that are healthy that you wouldn't think twice to look at at the Fruit and Veg shop. Well I stumbled across Spaghetti Squash on my surfing and thought I would like to try it. I finally found it at my local F&V shop. It has been sitting there for a week but I finally baked it in the oven (for an hour) and made my dinner with it last night.

If you know me you know that my favourite food is pasta but with my new lifestyle change I have removed pasta from the menu so finding this has been a godsend.

My favourite pasta sauce is one I created myself trying to have a healthier creamier sauce that didn't make me stack on the weight and this sauce is the bomb - at least for me it is. 

I made up one serving for myself and then could only eat half of it. This is a meal to serve two. I will be having the left over for lunch today I think.

Salmon Pea Tomato Spaghetti

1 small can salmon in springwater (95g), drained

5 cherry tomatoes, quaretered

5 snow peas, cut in to three

1 small can light evaporated milk

1 cup cooked Spaghetti Squash

1 Tbls olive oil

Fry the snow peas, tomato and salmon in the olive oil until just warm. Put in the milk and cook until it starts to thicken. Put in the Squash and cook to your liking. 

Total calories per serve is approx 250. 

Mine was 'al dente' so could have cooked longer but it I liked it. Easy Peasy. 

Nanna's 90th present

Question: What do you get a 90 yr old who requested no presents for her birthday...???

Nothing. You make something - to eat. 

My husbands Nanna turned 90 yesterday. She is the best Nanna you could wish for. Generous. Sweet. Loving and most of all she loves spending time with her great grandchildren. Because of this I decided she needed to have something nice to eat when she is having a cup of tea or wants a yummy bite. So I made Peanut butter cookies. These are roll out cookies and they taste divine. The second day around they actually don't taste too peanut buttery - they taste like shortbread. At least to me they did. 

I also bought some Reese's peanut butter cups and a couple packs of Nutter Butter biscuits. 

I surprised her by turning up when she wasn't expecting anyone to come over to visit. She loved it too. I am sure it will take her a while to eat them all but that is okay. She deserves something special for just herself. 

If you are interested in the recipe I got it here - Created by Diane. My tip is if you do use this recipe for roll out cookies you put he dough in the fridge. I could not roll out the first batch I made - it was too soft. Second batch was easy to cut out. Good luck.