Puttanesca over Spaghetti Squash

So I had this jar of anchovies that I really wanted to eat today. I know, you probably can't relate. But I also had a couple of servings of spaghetti squash stashed in my freezer, so right away I'm thinking puttanesca. Luckily, I dug around and had all the ingredients. Well, all the ones I wanted anyway, since I don't use any type of pepper. Here's what I threw together and it was amazing! Assuming you like anchovies. :)

Puttanesca over Spaghetti Squash

1 - 15 oz can tomatoes in Italian seasonings

1 can anchovies in olive oil

1 tbl minced garlic

3 tbls capers

20 black olives, diced, or about 1/2 a 15oz can

1 cup pre-cooked spaghetti squash

Pour the entire can of anchovies, oil and all, into a skillet set on medium heat. Add garlic and cook until the anchovies melt into the oil and the garlic is lightly browned. Add the olives, capers and tomatoes and simmer until hot. Done!

This makes 2 servings of sauce. Served over 1 cup of spaghetti squash you've got 192 calories, 7.5g fat and 11g protein. 

Healthy Vegetarian Lunch Ideas

I shared some lunch ideas with a friend today and figured since they were all typed out, I'd go ahead and post them to share with everyone. 

My go-to lunch is a veggie sandwich; I am using a low calorie Sara Lee multi grain bread. It's pretty darn good for 45 calories a slice. This only takes me 5 minutes to make in the morning, so if I didn't have time to make something the night before, I just slap it together and go. 

Veggie Sandwich

1 cup spinach

1 medium tomato cut into 4 slices

Sliced cucumber (at least 8 slices, more if desired)

Mustard (or whatever spread you want, I love mustard and it has no calories or fat)

2 slices Sara Lee low cal Multi Grain bread

Lightly toast the bread because it will stay more firm until lunch as it soaks up tomato juices. Slather your spread of choice on both slices. Arrange 4 slices of cucumbers, then spread 1/2 cup spinach on top. Arrange 4 slices of tomatoes on top of spinach, then repeat with remaining spinach on top of that. Finish with another layer of cucumbers. Viola!

With these ingredients: 116 calories/1g fat/7.5g protein

The next 3 require preparation the night before. Sometimes I do the spaghettti squash on Sunday then have it for 2 lunches during the week. And when I say liquid butter, I use the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray, and pour it into a bowl to make sauces if needed. Yeah, I know it's chemicals, but I don't care. ;)

Spaghetti Squash w/ Tofu Sausage Ragu

1 tsp minced garlic

1 small can of tomato sauce

4 oz tofu sausage

1 regular sz can of tomatoes with Italian herbs (drained)

1 cup mushroom slices

1 cup zucchini slices

2 cups cooked spaghetti squash

Brown garlic, add sausage, mushrooms and zucchini and let it all brown at the same time. Cook until as done as you want them. Then add tomatoes and sauce and stir it all together. This makes 2 servings of sauce. Serve each serving over 1 cup of cooked spaghetti squash, or store with 1 cup of cooked spaghetti squash in the fridge for later lunches.

With these ingredients: 182 calories/.5g fat/12g protein per serving

Spaghetti Squash Carobanara

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup cooked spaghetti squash

1 egg

liquid butter (optional)

3 slices Bacon (I use Oscar Meyer center cut, 70cal for 3 slices. Turkey bacon has less calories but I don't like it)

1 cup spinach

(This is kinda like bacon and eggs over pasta, plus spinach, but without the pasta. ;) If you don't like bacon, maybe try turkey bacon, or a different type of meat, because this is really, really good. Most people make it with heavy cream and butter, obviously I choose not to. I add a little liquid butter to the egg mixture, but it's purely optional.)

Whisk egg in a medium bowl (add a little butter if you prefer) and set aside. Dice bacon and brown in skillet. Remove bacon but leave grease, add garlic and spinach and cook until wilted (or however you prefer it). If spaghetti squash is not hot, zap it in the microwave or heat in boiling water. It needs to be HOT for the next step. Add the hot spaghetti squash into the egg bowl. Stir and separate and coat the squash with the egg, while the egg cooks on the spaghetti. Add the hot spinach and bacon and stir it all around to combine. The squash and spinach will scramble/cook the egg, so they both need to be hot when you add them to the egg. If the egg doesn't look cooked, you can microwave or return to skillet to help it finish cooking. Once it's all coated, mixed and cooked, either serve or save for lunches.

With these ingredients: 198 calories/10g fat/16g protein

Oven Roasted Summer Squash & Eggplant

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1/2 eggplant

dry seasonings or dressing mix (try Italian or Ranch dressing dry mix)

liquid butter, or any oil or cooking spray

I make a little sauce out of liquid butter, lemon juice and low sodium Worcestershire sauce to cook these in, but it's kinda different, so you might try it first to see if you like it. It's about 2 tbls liquid butter and then dash in the other two to your desired flavor. 

Dice or slice all veggies and throw in a big plastic bowl. Coat with butter mix, or oil, or cooking spray, and sprinkle dry dressing mix over the veggies. Toss them around in the bowl and add more of each as needed to coat. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray and spread all the veggies on in a single layer. Cook on 425 for 30-40 minutes. Depends on how done you want them. At 40 minutes, the ones on the edges will start to burn so keep an eye on it. This is a big serving but they do cook down a little smaller, so I consider this just 1 serving personally. 

With ingredients listed: 135 calories/1.5g fat/10g protein

Becca's Banana Bread Recipe

I finally wrote out this recipe this morning while I was making it. I start with a basic recipe, and then add a few things, but I never really measured or kept track. I sort of make it up on the fly. But here it is. Mine is currently baking in the oven and smells amazing already!

1/2 c (1 stick) butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 bananas (over ripe but soft, not frozen)
1 1/2 c flour (white or wheat)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c quick oats
1/2 c bran

Cream butter and sugar together in large bowl. Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each. Add bananas one at a time and use a pastry cutter to chop them up. (Or you could chop them into slices first and add slices instead. Your choice.) Blend this wet mixture together pretty well, but leave some of the banana chunky. In separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet mixture and blend together. Pour into well greased 9x5 loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins. Lower temp to 325 and back another 30 mins. Test center of loaf with knife and if needed, lower temp to 300 and bake an additional 10 minutes. Voila!

Side note: This is not in any way shape or form the low fat or calorie version. Even I need a break from uber healthy now and then. ;)

Spaghetti Squash with Tofu Sausage Ragu Sauce

I am not 100% vegetarian, but I sure do love to try new meals without meat. This all got started when Lori over at The Stonybrook House  posted this: Whole 30 Spaghetti and Meatballs. I have always wanted to try spaghetti squash but really had no idea how to get started. Well apparently the perfect time was now. Her directions for cooking the squash were perfect. It came out just a little firm and crunchy, which I really liked. But I'm not a meatball lover, and really wanted to do this as a complete vegetarian dish. So here's how I substituted.

Tofu Sausage Ragu Sauce:

Fat free no stick cooking spray

1 tsp diced garlic

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes w/ Italian Seasonings

1 small can tomato sauce or paste (optional)

1 cup mushroom slices

1 cup diced zucchini

4 oz tofu sausage

Spray pan with cooking spray and start garlic browning. Add sausage right away and chop it up in little pieces (it doesn't exactly crumble easily). Add zucchini and mushrooms and cook until soft. Add tomatoes (not drained) and sauce or paste, if desired, and cook until all ingredients are hot and combined. Without the sauce or paste, it's a little bit extra liquidy. Sauce makes a little thicker sauce, and paste makes an even thicker sauce. Just depends on your preference. I admit it could have used a little salt, but I've given up salt, so I did without and it was still delicious and very filling.

This makes 2 servings of ragu sauce, each poured over 1 cup of spaghetti squash, for a grand total of: 172 calories/0.5g of fat/11.5g of protein. 

The squash made 5 servings of 1-cup each, and I froze them in individual baggies. I also divided the tofu sausage into 2 oz servings sizes and froze them. This is how I do all my meals so that everything is pre-weighed and individually packaged. Yes, I really do weigh and measure all my food. Each morning I take whatever I want for dinner out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw. By the time I get home that evening, it's ready to go.

Mini Upside Down Fruit Cupcakes

So you know that whole craze about the angel food cake mix where you just add 1 tbl of water and microwave for 1 minute and bingo, instant fat free cake? Well, this is my own personal fat free twist to it. Here's what you need. I used the gluten free cake mix purely because it was also very low calorie and fat free, and that was my goal here.

1 box Fat Free Angel Food Cake mix
1 box Fat Free Yellow Cake mix

The mixing ratio is 3:1, cake mix to water. I tend to mix about 1 cup of cake mix to 1/3 cup of water. The mix is very forgiving though.

Your choice of diced fresh fruit. Yes, you could use canned fruit, but it needs to be VERY well drained and it addes calories and fat. I used strawberries, bananas, pears and apples because that's what I had on hand.

Spray each cuppy compartment with non-stick spray, or use paper cups. Drop about a teaspoon full of fruit into the bottom of a mini cupcake pan and add a dash of cinnamon on top of each fruit. The cinnamon is optional but HIGHLY recommended. The difference in flavor is amazing.

Add about a tablespoon of cake mix on top of the fruit. (Or basically fill up the little cups.) The cake mix will look pretty bubbly.

Pop in a 425 degree oven for 12-14 minutes (depending on how brown you want the tops). Remove pan from oven and let cupcakes cool in the pan for about 5-10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each and then turn them out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Viola! Instant healthy mini cupcakes. About 40 calories each and fat free. Unless of course you eat them all in one sitting, which has been known to happen.