I’m back at it with an update and a recipe for you.  I had a great day today.  This morning I went to see Alex Guarnaschelli do a cooking demo at Market District and I got her autograph.  This is the second time that I have seen her.  I really like her and enjoy watching her on tv.  Then as soon as that was over, I raced to Soergel’s Orchards to see Brittany Angell from the blog RealSustenance.com.  I love her blog and I have made a lot of her recipes.  My favorites are the cinnamon rolls and the blueberry lavendar scones.  It was a real honor and joy to get to meet her.  I got her autograph and a picture with her.  🙂  Then I went and enjoyed the sunshine at our local winery to hear a very good band perform-Good Brother Earl.  And thus I am ending the beautiful day by telling you all about it.

I have started my day countdown for school.  I have only three weeks (9 days of classes) and four weeks til I graduate!!!  I can’t wait. I am so excited.  I have applied for a few jobs, but I don’t have anything yet.

Baking for me is therapy.  It’s relaxing and enjoyable.  I get to be creative and I enjoy giving my baked goods to friends.  So in the past couple of weeks I have been doing quite a bit of baking at home (because I don’t do enough at school).  I have mainly been making almond flour things, but I also made two new cookies that were far from anything I could ever eat, but they got good reviews.  My almond flour items also turned out pretty well.  One recipe was a fail, but the other three were a success.  Sometimes everything I make doesn’t turn out, but I’m not done with that recipe yet.  I want to make them for a friend because she told me her favorite kind of cookie when she used to be able to eat regular cookies and I want to recreate that for her with almond flour.  I just need to adjust my recipe and try again.  One of the ones that turned out is a favorite combination of mine.  I have always liked maple and vanilla together and when you add almonds, it gets even better.  So I decided to make vanilla maple almond flour cookies.  I’m currently not eating nuts or maple syrup, so I don’t even know how they tasted.  But I gave them to friends and family and they said they were soft and chewy with very good flavor.  They had never had anything like it before and even non gluten free people said they would eat them again.  Now I can’t wait until I someday that I can eat maple syrup so I can make them for myself.  I might have to look for some maple extract to use because that day is a far ways away if ever.  But nonetheless, I thought I would share this recipe since it seemed to be a hit and it’s something I long to enjoy.  The great thing about this recipe is that it is so easy to make; there are only four ingredients.

Chewy Vanilla Maple Cookies
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Combine almond flour and salt in a bowl.  Add vanilla and then stir in maple syrup.  The dough should be moist and hold together when you form a ball.  If you need more liquid, you can add more maple syrup.  Use a cookie scoop or spoon to form balls and place them on your cookie sheet.  Flatten the balls with your hand or bottom of a cup.  You want the cookie to be about 1/8″ thick.  Bake cookies for 15-20min.
Makes about 5 large cookies.

You can adjust the vanilla flavor to your liking.  I like a strong vanilla flavor, so I chose to put more in.  No one I gave them to complained.  These cookies had a slightly crisp edge, but a very soft and chewy middle.

Hello fellow readers!

It has been so long since I did a blog post that I almost forgot how.  I have this week off from school so I wanted to take the time to give you an update and share some news with you.

School is going well.  I have enjoyed my baking/pastry classes, though I do put a lot of stress on myself.  However, I have successfully made deans list every quarter and have perfect attendance.  Next week I will be starting my last quarter!!!  Finally!! I am so excited!  I will be taking chocolates and Pastry Cafe.  Cafe will be fun because it is myself and four friends.  We get to design the menu, make the food, and run the cafe on Thursdays and Fridays from 9:30-12:30.  It will be a lot of work with so few people, but we will have a great time.  It will all be worth it.  I am looking for externships or a real job.  If anyone knows of anything, please let me know.

This past quarter I took a breads class and advanced pastry/cake decorating class.  I kind of enjoyed them.  I was really sick of making bread after 11 weeks.  I have also decided that I don’t like decorating cakes with gum paste and fondant.  I like baking them, but I would rather have someone else decorate them.  In breads class we talked a lot about different types of grains and gluten.  Since I eat grain free, I convinced my teacher to do a grain free bread.  Most of the class enjoyed it and they liked learning about gluten/grain free.  We made two versions: a plain one and one with nuts/seeds.  The recipes are at the end.  Some pictures of the cakes that I decorated are at the end too.  I also had to compete in a competition.  I made a pot of gold and rainbow for it.  It wasn’t very good and I clearly did not place.  Unfortunately I work so hard in school that I injured my wrist and am currently in PT trying to get it better.  Its really hard to knead bread, roll things out, and mix things with a bum wrist.  I worked at Giant Eagle for three months, but I recently quit to concentrate on my last quarter of school.  School and work was just too much to handle.

I’m sure you are probably also wondering about my health.  Well, in October I started working with a nutritionist and naturalpath.  I had allergy testing done and found out I was allergic to pretty much everything I was eating.  So I changed my diet to about four main foods.  I have been taking several different homeopathic supplements and my body is slowly healing.  Eventually the goal is for me to be able to eat more foods, but we don’t know how long it will take.  It is very frustrating not being able to eat what I want or enjoy food.  I love my doctors and am very thankful for their help.

This past weekend I went with my Mom to Market District to meet Bobby Deen.  He is a very friendly, personable, and nice man.  He demonstrated three recipes and then I got his autograph on my plate and a picture with him.  It was so much fun!!!  This coming week I am going to Market Square to meet Buddy the Cake Boss. I can’t wait.  I’m so excited for it!!  Since I’m in culinary school, I try to go to as many cooking demonstrations as I can.  They are fun, informative, interesting, and I get autographs and photos.  Such good memories.

Grain Free Bread
from Elana’s Pantry

2 1/2 cups Almond flour
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
3  Eggs
1 Tb. honey/agave nectar
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In large bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a small bowl whisk together eggs, honey, and vinegar.
4.  Add wet to dry and stir well.
5.  Pour into greased 6.5×4 in. baby loaf pan.
6. Bake for 45-55 min.

Grain Free Nut Bread
adapted from Elana’s Pantry

2 1/4 cups Almond flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
4  Eggs
1 tsp. honey/agave nectar
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1-1 1/2 cups chopped nuts/seeds of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In large bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a small bowl whisk together eggs, honey, and vinegar.
4.  Add wet to dry and stir well.
5.  Pour into greased 6.5×4 in. baby loaf pan.
6. Bake for 45-55 min.

                                      

Well, I think that’s all the information I have to share with you for right now.  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!!

 

Do yo ever feel completely overwhelmed with life?  Unfortunately, that’s happening to me right now.  I am working on managing it though.  I’m concentrating on school and my perfectionistic self is putting out a lot of effort in attempt to do well.  My baking class is much more fun than my skills class was, however, I have learned that I’m really not the ‘star’ baker I thought I was.  My teacher hasn’t much liked the things that I have been baking.  So that has been extremely stressful for me.  Hopefully as I bake more and have more classes my products will turn out better.  But in combination with other stress, I have been really stressed out by food and not wanting to bake for myself.  I know, that probably doesn’t sound like a good thing coming from a food blogger who wants to become a baker, but it’s the reality.  It’s an odd situation to be in.  But one thing I know, is that if I can alleviate any stress at all, it might help the other parts of my life.  I want to take it easy on myself right now.  For the sake of my own sanity, I am making a disappointing decision to take a break from blogging.  Right now I don’t have the time to constantly be making new recipes and baking new things and I honestly don’t have the desire to either.   At some point, I’m sure I will come back to my blog, but right now I need to put it on hiatus.  I would like to thank you all for your support and encouragement over the last several months of this blog.  I have fully enjoyed blogging and making new recipes and look forward to getting back at it in the future.   will still check my blog and email occasionally, so feel free to leave comments or send an email.

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a nice Fourth of July.  I am back from both of my vacations and I have had a week of classes already.  I had a nice break from school and thoroughly enjoyed meeting some new people and watching fireworks on the beach.  It’s back to reality, though, and busy with classes.  However, I am enjoying my lab class much more this quarter because it is baking!!  Finally!  So far we have made two batches of blueberry muffins, cream scones, country biscuits, and sour cream coffee cake.  My parents have thoroughly been enjoying these treats that I am bringing home.  I am also taking nutrition, so maybe eventually I’ll have some tidbits to share with you.

Before I left for vacation though, I did some baking and I wanted to share a recipe that I made to take with me.  I went to Michigan for a family reunion and found out before I went that I would not be the only gluten free person there!  There would be two others.  I was super excited and knew I had to bake something to take for us to enjoy.  I couldn’t wait to have someone else try something I made.  So I took some scones and cookies.  One of the cookies I took was a lemon coconut meltaway.  For some reason lemon screams spring/summer to me and I thought it would be a refreshing dessert to take for our cookout and picnic on the beach.  I found a recipe for these cookies, but I ended up changing several things.  The cookies are delicious and really are melt-in-your-mouth-creamy.  Oh, and by the way, they are no bake, so great for summer when you don’t want to turn your oven on and heat up the house.  Just remember to store them in the refrigerator (or freeze for longer storage).

Lemon Coconut Meltaways
1 1/4 cup almond flour
2/3 cup coconut flour
2 cups shredded coconut
1/4 tsp. stevia powder
1/4 cup lemon oil*
1 tsp. vanilla powder/extract
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup water (as needed)

Mix together the dry ingredients.  Stir in the lemon oil and vanilla.  Gradually add the coconut oil.  Once all oil is added, decide if you need a little water to make this a cookie dough and hold together.  I ended up using slightly over half a cup.

Drop the cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place the sheet in the refrigerator for about an hour to let the cookies set.  Then you can package them into another container for storage.
*Lemon oil=I don’t use extract because of the acid and/or alcohol that is usually in it, so I buy a mix of lemon oil and sunflower oil.  I assume it measures the same as extract, but I can’t be positive.

     

Because they are not baked, the cookies remain soft and very moist.  Super yummy and cooling for a hot day.  Be careful though: the cookies hold together by the coconut oil being hardened in the refrigerator, so if you leave them out in the heat for a long time, they might just melt a way!

YA!!!!  One quarter of school is officially in the books.  I finished classes on Friday.  It was an incredibly stressful final two weeks of school; however, my stress was for nothing as I came out with straight A’s, Dean’s list, and perfect attendance.  However, I’m proud of the work I did.  And I have to thank my Mom because she put in a lot of effort for one of my projects.  She is very crafty and helped make my menu look amazing.  So here is a picture:

   

Aren’t those pigs so cute?  For my class we had to create a menu and this is what I envision the menu looking like in my bakery.  We had to create two menus, so I did one for allergy free food and then I put all the same info on another board and labeled it “classic” for regular food.  My teacher was super impressed=100% A!!  I am thankful for a break and look forward to start my baking class in July.  But for now, I’m off on vacation to relax and recover.

Friday I’m off to Michigan for four days and then I’m headed to beautiful Cape Cod to stay with my grandma for ten days!  I look forward to relaxing and shopping and spending time with family.  In preparation for vacation, I have baked two things to take with me and tomorrow I will be baking two more things.  (I’m sure I’ll be sharing those recipes soon.)  Breakfast and snacks are usually the hardest part for me while traveling.  So I always try to take several options with me.  One thing I baked to take is apricot coconut scones.  These are my favorite treat.  Good for breakfast or snacks.  The apricot and coconut combination is amazing!  These scones were inspired from an apricot white chocolate scone that my mom and I used to make.  I loved them.  And I have severely missed them since my diet has changed.  I decided to try and replicate the scones and replace the white chocolate with coconut.  Now, I love these scones and think I like them better with coconut than white chocolate.  I have made this recipe so many times and know that it will always be one of my favorites.

Apricot Coconut Scones
2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 gelatin egg (or egg white or equivilant)
1 T. vanilla powder/extract
1 cup chopped apricots
1 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup water
1/16 tsp. vanilla stevia

Preheat oven to 330 degrees.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add in the wet ingredients.
Make drop scones on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  About a 1/4 cup size.
Bake for 18-20min.
Makes 16 scones.

As with all of my baked goods, I prefer these cold or sometimes hot out of the microwave.  They taste delicious with a smear of coconut butter also.  They freeze wonderfully and make very travel friendly snacks.

Another thing I have baked to take with me is vanilla shortbread cookies.  I have been craving shortbread for the past few weeks and decided to finally try my hand at making some.  I am not incredibly happy with the final consistency of these cookies, but the flavor is great and they satisfied my craving for shortbread.   I have thought of two adjustments that I would like to try for this recipe, but I will have to wait until I have more time to bake…..I leave Friday and still have so much other stuff to do.

Vanilla Shortbread
1 cup almond flour
3 T. vanilla olive oil
Pinch salt
1/16 tsp. vanilla stevia
Pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Flatten each cookie.
If you choose, you may press a pecan halve into the top of some or all of the cookies. (I made half with and half without a pecan and like each way equally well……depends on my craving)
Bake for 15min. until lightly golden.
Makes about 6 cookies.
They are super crumbly while warm, which is why I want to try tweaking the recipe.  However, upon refrigeration or freezing, they firm up and become much more stable. 

       

I’m not sure if I’ll have the chance to write or not while I’m on vacation.  So happy summer everyone.  🙂

I have had a hard two weeks; hence the reason I haven’t posted anything in a while.  I just don’t have the time.  Schoolwork is taking over my life.  I finished one final this week.  It was in food and beverage.  So if you want to know what coffee/tea/beer/or wine to drink with something, just ask, I may be able to help.  I’m glad it’s done, but unfortunately I still have four more to go and two huge projects to finish.  So as much as I would love to whip up something new in the kitchen, I decided I can’t take the time to and should instead put my time toward schoolwork.  I have three weeks of classes left and then three weeks of break.  I cannot wait for a break!!!  However, my lab class has been surprisingly fun the past two weeks.  We have been fabricating chickens.  We get a whole chicken and we have to break it down into the wings, breasts, legs, and thighs and remove the wishbone.  It was the thing I dreaded most on day 1, but now it is my favorite thing and I want to do it everyday.  Weird!  So the last two weeks I have brought home lots of chicken for my parents to eat.  And a few sides to go with it.

   –>   

In other news, lately I have been on a huge nut/seed butter kick and so I thought I would share a few of my favorite combinations.  A few months ago I wanted to buy a jar of pecan butter, but I couldn’t justify spending $8 for an 8oz. jar.  So instead, I bought a bag of pecans and made double  the amount for cheaper.  The pecan butter was so delicious.  So it got me thinking- what other nut butters could I make?  So I started making various nut/seed butters and various flavor combinations.    I’ve been making a new batch almost every other week.  It certainly is cheaper to make your own butter and it’s really easy too; as long as you have a food processor.  Just hit the on button and in a minute or two you have butter.  Nothing compares to fresh ground nut butters warm out of the processor.  Usually only about half of my batch actually makes it into a jar and into the refrigerator.  It’s so hard to pass up that warm gooey goodness.  Honestly, I enjoy nut butters best by themself on a spoon.  However, they do pair well with several food items and are quite tasty when used in baking.

Nut/Seed Butters
-Vanilla Ginger Walnut  (my current ultimate fav)
-Apricot Walnut
-Date Pecan
-Cinnamon Almond or Pecan
-Rosemary Cayene Almond  (super good on flax seed flatbread)
-Strawberry Almond
-Pumpkin Almond  (surprisingly good with pears)
-Figs went well with both pecans and almonds (a little cinnamon is a nice addition)
-Raw 3 nut (raw walnuts, pecans, and almonds make a very nice mix)
-Tahini
-Garlic and Cumin Tahini (or sunflower seed is good too; makes a nice dressing for meats/vegs/salads)
-Sunflower seed  (sometimes I stir pumpkin seeds in; spices like garlic and cumin also work well here)
-Vanilla Coconut
-Raw Almond
-Raw Walnut
-Raw Pecan

I like almond butter raw and creamy.  I like walnut and pecan butter raw, but thick and slightly crunchy.  I like sunflower seed butter and tahini toasted, creamy, and with a hint of salt.  When I make sunflower seed butter I use raw sprouted salted seeds that I toast for a few minutes first.  I only add oil to sunflower seed butter, they don’t seem to have enough oil themselves to get started.

If I’m not eating it straight off the spoon, there are other ways that I enjoy these butters: on crackers or flatbread, chicken/turkey, vegetables (cooked or raw), fruit, Larabars/homemade bars, muffins/breads/cookies/scones.  I’ve also added a spoonful to smoothies and soups.  Sometimes I make a protein mix by stirring protein powder, chopped seeds or nuts, and chopped fruit or dried fruit with a tablespoon or two of butter.  If you add milk, it makes it more like a pudding.  Some of the flavored butters taste good when used in baked goods.

For the most part, I make the butter and then I add flavors, mix, taste and adjust.  If you would like a more specific recipe, leave a comment and I’ll be glad to give details.  I’m sorry I don’t have pictures, but nut butters don’t make for the most exciting pictures.

Despite my hard two weeks, I did decide to take one day off on Saturday to have some fun and enjoy myself.  I had a wonderful day with my best friend Amy.  I went to see another chef demonstration and Amy went with me.  This demo was by one of my idols: Alex Guarnaschelli.  It was by far the best chef demo I have seen yet.  She was amazing.  So personable and entertaining.  She answered a ton of questions, mostly about Chopped.  And I got her autograph!  After the demo we went to a local park, Hartwood Acres, for the first annual Pyrofest, America’s largest firework festival.  Oh my gosh, it was cool.  It was over six hours long and featured five live music acts and six firework displays choreographed to music.  There were even daytime fireworks.  It was a beautiful day and so much fun.  It was a great show.  I really hope it comes back next year.  I had a wonderful fun day, but now it’s back to homework.  (just three more weeks, just three more weeks, I can do it!)

  

   

  

This past weekend I went to see another chef, Chef Mario Batali, at a local grocery store.  I saw two quick demonstrations and then got his autograph.  I’m very excited to say in two weeks I will be going to see another famous chef.  She is one of my idols and I’m so excited!  I’m really enjoying these chef appearances.  Check out the pics of Mario below.  I took a plate to get signed.  I plan on collecting other chef autographs on the same plate.

           

I also took some time yesterday to bake a new recipe.  I haven’t baked anything in a while and was long overdue.  This recipe is not original.  I had read about it on some of the other blog sites I follow.  It sounded really good and I wanted to try it.  I made a few changes, so I’ll post the recipe as I made it, but you can click on the link to take you to the original recipe.

Almond Butter N’Oatmeal Bars
adapted from here
1 1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 chopped dried apricots
1 tsp. vanilla powder/extract
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/16 tsp. stevia powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
*1 gelatin egg

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Grease an 8x8in. baking pan.
Mix the first four ingredients together.  Microwaving the almond butter for a few seconds helps.  Stir in the spices and baking soda.
Lastly, make and add the gelatin egg.  The batter will be thick.  Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 25 min.
Allow to cool and then refrigerate.
These are best served cold.

*To make egg replacer: mix 1 T. unflavored gelatin powder with 1 T. cold water.  Add 2 T. boiling water and mix until frothy and all gelatin is dissolved.  Add to batter like normal egg.  You could sub a real egg, a flax egg, or a chia egg.
The original recipe called for a chia egg, which I’ve used before and could have used here, but I’ve been reading of using unflavored gelatin to make an egg and I really wanted to try it.  I was happy with the turnout of the egg and will definitely be using it again.

These bars really do surprisingly taste like an oatmeal cookie bar.  I can’t believe it.  I really like the combination of apricot and almond butter, but raisins or other dried fruit could be used.  The bars definitely taste best cold.  Beware!!  Cold or not, they are very crumbly bars.  Enjoy over a plate!  I actually had trouble getting a decent picture because they were falling apart as I took them out of the pan.

                         

Whew!  It’s been a long two weeks and I’m glad they’re finally over.  I had midterms this past week and spent a lot of time studying and preparing.  For the most part they went well.  However, I started out my skills midterm by burning my hand badly enough for it to blister on the first thing I made.  Ow!!  I still had four other things to make in about an hour and a half.  I pushed through the pain and managed to get an A, so I was pleased.  The only points I lost were for seasoning since I can’t taste anything we make.  But I’m still pleased with an A.  Not that I can relax now that midterms are over, but I can take a few more breaks.  I also scheduled classes for next quarter and will be taking Intro to baking, nutrition, and speech.  I’m really looking forward to baking and nutrition.  I’m sure speech will be a drag to get through; just like math is this quarter.

In other news, yesterday I went to a local grocery store and met celebrity chef Lorena Garcia.  She did a demonstration of two recipes and signed autographs.  It was a fun event and she was very entertaining and very nice.  I’m looking forward to going to see other chefs in the future.  I already have two more events on my calender, but I’ll wait and tell you about them after the events. 🙂

      

So now you’re probably wondering what I’ve been cooking up lately.  Well, with midterms, I honestly haven’t made much.  I made my mom a pie for her birthday, but I couldn’t eat it.  So mainly in the past two weeks, I’ve been making snacks to get me through classes and long study sessions.  So I thought I would share some of my favorite snacks with you.

Snack Attack Snack Suggestions

Homemade scones, bars, cookies, muffins
-I always keep a stash of items in my freezer for the times when I want something immediately or for on the go

Nut/seed butters
-I like to make my own walnut/pecan/almond/sesame/ and sunflower seed butters and put them on just about anything.   Some suggestions:  celery, cookies or muffins, chicken, stuffed dates, Larabars, and of course, straight out of the jar.  For convenience, though, I do also buy nut/seed butters.

Toasted nuts
-I like raw nuts, but toasted nuts are so much better.   I like to rinse mine before toasting.  It takes off the tannins (preservatives) and makes a crispier nut.  Sometimes I also spice my nuts for a sweeter snack.  Any spice could be used, but my favorite is cinnamon.  In the fall, though, pumpkin pie spice is a nice substitute.  My favorite nuts to snack on are walnuts, pecans, almonds, and brazil nuts.  Walnuts and pecans make the best spiced nuts.  I like my nuts best frozen.  So I after I prepare them, I put them in a bag and keep them in the freezer.
Toasted Nuts
-Place nuts in a large bowl and cover with water.  Soak for five minutes.  Drain and repeat two more times.
-Place nuts on a cookie sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven for 17-20min.  Depends on how toasted you like your nuts.  I like mine well done.

Spiced Nuts
1 cup nuts
2 tsp. oil
1 1/2 tsp. spice (pumpkin pie or cinnamon)
1/16 tsp. steviaPreheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the oil, spice, and stevia in a bowl.  Stir in the nuts to fully coat.  Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Toast for 15-17 min.

Toasted pecans, almonds, and walnuts.

 

Larabars
-my favorite flavors are gingersnap, blueberry muffin, coconut cream pie, and pecan pie

Homemade trail mix
-nuts, seeds, dried fruit (plum amazins, apricots, and goji berries are my favorites), and sometimes I add shredded coconut

Sometimes if I really need a pick me up or I don’t want anything sweet, I eat a piece of chicken or turkey.  It’s great cold and plain.

Raw Pumpkin Seeds

Last week in my skills cooking class at school my teacher made pesto.  So of course then I had a craving for pesto; pesto that I could eat.  So I bought the ingredients when I went to the store this week, but then I had to decide what to put it on.  I decided on spaghetti squash.  I had completely forgotten about spaghetti squash until I had lunch with a friend a week ago and she was eating it.  I thought pasta and pesto sounded like a great meal; and I added chicken for protein.

What a delicious meal this was!  It had been so long since I had either squash or pesto and they both tasted so darn good.  And the good news?  Since I am the only one who eats the food I make, I have leftovers!!  I can’t wait to have it again!

Spaghetti Squash
choose whichever size you want.
the brighter yellow color the better, it will have more flavor.

Pierce several holes in the squash with a fork or knife.
Microwave on high for 6-10 min.  About 2 min. per pound.
Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.  Larger squash may need a bit longer.
Slice squash.  Use fork to remove seeds and then twist out strands.

Pesto
you can prepare this while the squash is baking
2 cups basil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup olive oil

Place first three ingredients in a food processor.  Process for about 30 sec. and then slowly start to drizzle in the olive oil.   You may want more or less oil depending on how thick you want it.

Serve spaghetti squash in a bowl with pesto over top.  Chicken is optional, but a good addition.  Enjoy!!

             
             

Sorry, you can’t really see the spaghetti squash under there, but I promise it’s there.

I’m so excited to see that my recipes made someone else’s wish list!

Check it out:   Wish List.

 

Thanks, throve!