Sunday, December 18, 2011

Spaghetti Squash!


By Ciara Cappo

Last month I set a goal for myself to eat healthier and clean up my diet. I set this goal for myself in order to have a healthier lifestyle. Sometimes we can go day to day and not realize how much the things we put in our mouth affect our body. The things we consume can affect our bodily functions, energy and mood. One thing you should take notice of when changing your diet is how your body feels and if there are any changes that occur with your body during this time. I have become more aware of how my body feels since changing my diet, when eating certain things I have noticed what my body does and does not like. I have noticed that since cleaning up my diet I have felt better and seem to have more energy than before!

 I started my ‘clean’ diet by eating as much fresh fruits and vegetables as possible, chicken and fish, and 

started eating brown rice instead of white. I come from an Asian culture so switching over to brown rice was very difficult for me luckily I found a brown rice and quinoa medley that I like and tastes great! A great tip for making diet and lifestyle changes such as this is to find foods that go along with your change and also taste good. If you don’t enjoy what you are eating, you will be least likely to follow your diet change. Most of the time I have been altering recipes I currently use to incorporate fresh ingredients but the other night I tried a completely new recipe. I made spaghetti squash! I first heard of this recipe from a woman I met while working- she said her granddaughter loved it. I thought to myself “if kids love it, then why wouldn’t I?” At my next grocery store visit I happened to walk past the squash and noticed a recipe sticker attached to it, it was the recipe for spaghetti squash. It was a sign! If you’re lucky enough to find a squash that comes with directions you should definitely try it.

Spaghetti squash was somewhat easy to make. Basically instead of using traditional spaghetti noodles for the pasta, you cook and string the squash to use as noodles. You can add your usual pasta sauce or make your own like I did.
1.     You must poke holes with a fork around the entire squash.
2.     Next you microwave the squash for 8-10 minutes or until the skin begins to soften. Carefully remove squash, cut in half and remove seeds.
3.     Using a fork, scrape along the inside of the squash. This will cause the squash to peel off in a stringy fashion. Do this to both halves of the squash until the desired amount of “noodles” are obtained.
4.     Now you are ready to add your homemade sauce and enjoy!

Here are a few pictures from my experience with this dish





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