Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

Spaghetti covered in meat sauce was such a staple for me growing up. One of my favorite meals, actually! Though I eventually realized that the reason why I loved it so much was that the noodles acted as a vehicle to shovel delicious, flavorful sauce into my belly.

Enter the spaghetti squash.

This fantastic winter squash has a comforting pasta-like texture but grain-free, gluten-free, all-natural, sugar-free, low-fat, oh friggin' yeah that was just 5 health buzzwords in a row! (I'm playin' to win, my friend). But on that note, it is so important to remember that organic fruits and vegetables are the true health generators. A head of lettuce or bunch of radishes doesn't need advertising or marketing dollars - you just know that it's good for your body.

(I know, it's not the most appetizing picture. But it's delicious, I swear!)

Simple Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti
The main concept behind this is to use cooked spaghetti squash as a grown up sauce carrier! Steaming has been the cooking style of choice in my kitchen as of late so that is the methodology I used below (though baking would work just as well).

Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash

Directions:
Halve the spaghetti squash (my tactic was not exactly safe but very enjoyable - stab with knife, lift knifed squash and slam back down onto cutting board so that halves shoot apart).
Scoop out squash guts and seeds.
Bring about 1 inch of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
Place squash halves in saucepan and cover. Allow to steam for 20-25 minutes - You'll know it's done when the outside skin is easily pierced with a fork.
Use a fork to tease out the spaghetti-like squash fiber into a bowl.
Top with sauce of choice.*

*While marinara is an absolute classic, above I used coconut oil, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, sliced red onions, and chopped kalamata olives. It was very tasty, so simple and I definitely recommend it!

Squash purchased from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, grown by Tantre Farm.

She's baaack...

My goodness, it has been a while. There have been many things distracting me away from this creative outlet, however the main excuse I will highlight is overwhelm. Not from my life (though my life has had some highs and lows in terms of busy-ness as a student finishing off her college degree!), but overwhelm by the initial challenge that I took on 2 years ago. As a vegan living in a 4-season climate, I felt straight-up deprived during some cold winter months - I remember a specific week where I ate nothing but bulk grains and legumes because there was nothing growing (that I knew of) here in Michigan. While since then I have learned about wild edibles and started growing some vegetables of my own, there has still been a sense of guilt and deprivation that I have attached to this blog and this challenge.

An interesting aspect of living in such a high tech society is we are given so many opportunities to spiral into information binges. What a blessing and what a curse. There are so many (contradicting) opinions - scientifically back, personal, or experiential - on how we should be eating. Food is a smokin' hot topic and legitimately so. We are literally coming into union with another energetic being! Maybe that is too "woo woo" of a comment, but I do not think it was a fluke that traditional societies have intricate rituals around eating.

At a secondary thanksgiving event yesterday, my cousin asked if he could get the info of this blog to share with his mother-in-law as inspiration for a more vegetable-centric lifestyle. I kind of didn't want to give it to him because I was embarrassed by my virtual disappearing act. Well I am ready to challenge myself again - in a very subdued way. I have danced dirty with deprivation and I will not allow myself to feel that way again. I know that my body feels best when I consume large amounts of raw vegetables and if I can not get them locally now, that is juust fine, it is something to strive for ;)

Another note, I am no longer vegan, vegetarian, and I'm boycotting any labels of this sort as a general rule. Though it makes life a whole lot easier to go into new situations being able to say "Yeah, I'm not gonna eat that. I'm veeegan." and about 95% of what I eat on a daily basis is vegetables (soooo many vegetables), I have come to terms with the fact that just because something is "vegan" or "locally produced" or "gluten free" does not mean that I want to put it into my body. I think I will call how I eat now as a high vibration diet. But that is another conversation for another day...

(black radish love to all of you)

Anyways, thank you so much for reading this (if anyone is haha) and I hope that anything that I say, do, take pictures of, eat inspires a more conscious lifestyle!

Love, Sam