squash | healthy laps

spaghetti squash and salad

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Jen

I went to my favorite produce mart today, Russo’s. If you live in the Boston area, it is a must visit! They have all of the produce you could possibly imagine, and it is cheap! Not everything is local, so I at least try to buy produce that is from the USA. It is tough to buy local produce around here in the winter, but I really try in the summer!

Anyways, I bought all of the fruit and veggies I need for the week, but I had 2 favorite purchases!

First, was the bag of older bananas that I got for .98 cents!!

That’s right, 10 bananas for .98 cents! And, they aren’t even that ripe! I bought some good bananas for the week, but I purchased these babies so that I can cut them all up and freeze them. I love adding frozen bananas to my smoothies, instead of normal bananas because they give it a little bit more thickness. These 10 bananas will keep me going for a while – I would have bought more if I had a bigger freezer – what a great deal! 🙂 Look for this type of stuff at your local grocery store because normally the fruit that they put in the “damaged” bin is not really that damaged. I have bought apples and pears before as well – just cut off the bruised parts and save yourself loads of money.

My 2nd favorite purchase was a spaghetti squash. I have only made spaghetti squash once before, and it turned out great, so I decided to try again.

Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp dried basil (or fresh, if you have it)
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

I cut my squash in half and scooped out the seeds inside, then placed it face down on a cookie sheet.

I saved a few seeds to toast and use on my salad!

Sprinkled with salt and paprika before toasting.

I baked it in a 400°F oven for 35 minutes and it came out perfect!

Once cooked enough that you can easily stick a fork into the squash, it is ready to be turned into spaghetti!

Take one half of the squash and scrape out the insides with a fork. It will easily come out and look like spaghetti. Repeat with the other side.

I mixed my spaghetti squash up with a little butter, salt, pepper, basil and Parmesan cheese.

I also cut up some grape tomatoes and tossed them in my spaghetti.

Along with my spaghetti squash I had a great salad!

Remember when I made stuffed peppers for some friends and served it along with whole grain bread? Well, the next day I put the leftover bread right into the freezer to save for homemade croutons!

Tonight, I thawed the bread, cut it up into squares and tossed them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. If you remember, the bread was already brushed with italian seasoning before freezing.

I then toasted the chunks of bread in my toaster oven until they formed crispy croutons!

I used a bed of romaine lettuce and garnished it with freshly dried apple slices (by me!), unsweetened dried cranberries, toasted seeds from my squash and homemade croutons. I drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dressing.