Spaghetti Squash with Peanut Sauce

The quarter is FINALLY winding down for me. Tests are over, projects are ending, and only one paper and a few hours of grading stands between me and the end of my first year in graduate school. It's sure been an interesting ride.

All of the craziness means that my food choices have been of the "quick and easy" variety. So, today I'm sharing two recipes that are simple, fast, and go great together: spaghetti squash and peanut sauce. They're easy and delicious, and in a pinch you can make the entire meal in the microwave (as I did when our kitchen sink was clogged and stove top cooking was out of the question).

Spaghetti squash is a really interesting vegetable. At first glance it just looks like a big yellow squash:

2 1/2 pounds of squash-y goodness.

But once you hack it open (and believe me, hack is the right word), it's full of pumpkin-like seeds and pulp, and a thick layer of flesh made up of little strands or "noodles."

See?

You can treat it like a vegetable and turn it into a side dish, or use it like a noodle and make it the foundation of a meal. You're probably not going to fool anyone into thinking it's pasta, but the spaghetti squash is delicious in its own right, and you still get to twirl it around your fork.

Oh, and did I mention they are cheap? Spaghetti squash usually goes for about $.69/pound at my Kroger, and I snagged this one for $1.75. A 2-1/2 pound squash is plenty for two people to eat as a main course; if you're cooking for one, just wrap the uncooked half in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge. It will keep for several days until you are ready to use it.


Quick Spaghetti Squash
Serves 2

Ingredients

1 small spaghetti squash (about 2-1/2 pounds)
Desired toppings (meat, veggies, and/or sauce of your choice)

Steps

1.  Remove any stickers and wash the spaghetti squash with soapy water.

2.  Pierce the spaghetti squash at least once with a knife. Microwave it on high for one to two minutes. This  softens the squash just enough to make it easier to cut and clean. (I don't think your squash will explode after two minutes in the microwave, but I pierce it just in case!)

3.  Remove the squash from the microwave and place on a cutting board. Use a large knife to cut it in half either way. The thing you need to know about the spaghetti squash is that the strings run in rings around the squash, not from end to end. If you cut it in half lengthwise (which is more difficult, since you have to deal with the stem), you're cutting the strands in half. If you cut it across its "equator" (which is easier) you'll get full strands but the halves are a bit trickier to deal with as they are less stable. 

Aside from pre-cooking for a minute or two, I really
haven't discovered the "trick" to making this easier.

(Or, poke some holes in it, cook it whole, and deal with it later--but it's going to be very hot, so be careful!)

4.  Use an ice cream scoop, melon baller, or a sturdy spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp. Word on the blogosphere is that you can clean and roast the seeds just like pumpkin seeds, but I haven't tried it.

I love my ice cream scoop for this.

5.  Place both squash halves cut side down in a microwave-safe dish (like a glass pie pan). Add about 1/3 cup of water to the dish. Microwave on high for about 7 minutes, then check it and continue to cook in 1-minute intervals as needed. When cooked, the flesh should be soft and easily pierced with a fork.

6.  Hold a squash half with a potholder and carefully use a fork to fluff the strands (works best if you pull the tines against the grain of the squash). Scrape the strands out into a bowl or cutting board.

How neat is that?

7.  Eat the squash as is, add some butter and Parmesan, or top it with a sauce. Spaghetti squash is one of those foods that can take on other tastes very well. Help it along by undercooking the squash just slightly, and then tossing the strands with the sauce in a pan over low heat for a minute or two. The sauce will latch on to the squash, and you'll end up with perfectly cooked strands.

Although many of the recipes you see for spaghetti squash treat it like pasta, I think it works better with Asian flavors. Like peanut sauce. My recipe below is the result of reading a lot of recipes and testing a few. Many recipes call for coconut milk, which I don't particularly care for, but if you like it you can replace half the water with it.

Peanut Sauce
Enough for one 2-1/2 pound spaghetti squash

Ingredients

1/4 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy, your choice)
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
1 clove crushed garlic
1/2 cup water
Sriracha hot sauce and/or crushed red pepper, to taste

Steps

1.  Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until bubbling and thick. Or, combine the ingredients in a microwaveable bowl or container and heat in 30-second intervals until combined. Add more water for a thinner sauce.

You can serve the peanut sauce hot or cold.

2.  Store any leftover sauce in the fridge for about a week. You may need to thin the chilled sauce with water before serving.

Combine your spaghetti squash, peanut sauce, and any veggies or proteins you like.

Spaghetti squash with peanut sauce and some stir fried chicken.

How do you like your spaghetti squash?

Last call for chicken soup! Or, going vegetarian for Lent

Chicken and bread soup.

Lent is coming up and I've been putting some thought into what I'd like to do for it. Most people think of Lent as a period of deprivation--fasting on holy days, avoiding meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday, and denying yourself something you enjoy like chocolate or Facebook. It is those things, or it can be, but it's more than that too.

I won't pretend to be an expert on my faith because I'm certainly not, but I think of Lent as a growing experience rather than a period of denial. Giving things up  can be part of it, but if that's all you focus on you're missing the best part: that by denying yourself a bad habit or an indulgence, you're growing and learning to be a better person. I think it's all too easy to forget that little piece, so for the past several years I've taken a new strategy: I give something up, but also try to add something--meditation, prayer, reading, or something else that helps me focus on the growth part of Lent, and not just the denial.

That said, as you can probably guess from the post title, I'm going vegetarian for Lent. (That is my task of denial; I haven't settled on a "growth" task just yet.) In preparation, I'm giving you my last meat-based recipe for the next couple of weeks.

This chicken and bread soup comes from the Solo Suppers book (with slight modifications). It is supposed to serve one, but I've never been able to finish it in one sitting so I recommend saving half for leftovers. It's deceptively simple, but incredibly delicious. I am sure going to miss this soup.

Chicken and Bread Soup

I estimate the size of a small carrot by lining up the
baby ones with the celery.

Ingredients

1 small onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 small carrot (or a handful of baby ones), peeled and diced
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast or 2 tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
2 cups chicken broth (or bouillon and water)
Salt and pepper
Pinch of ground cinnamon
2 slices good bread (I used the Lifehacker ciabatta)
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Steps

1.  In a wide saucepan melt 2 tablespoons of butter with the olive oil over medium heat. When it's bubbly, add the vegetables and saute about 10 minutes until soft. Add the chicken and saute about five minutes until cooked.

Before...

And after.

Add the chicken after the vegetables are cooked. You can also
make this with cooked chicken--add it during the last ten
minutes of simmer time.

2.  Add the wine and cook until it evaporates.

Use the wine to pick up any burned or
caramelized bits stuck to the pan.

3. Add the chicken broth, salt (if needed), pepper, and cinnamon. You might think the cinnamon sounds strange, but trust me--I was skeptical too, but it really makes this dish! Cover the pan and simmer 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is tender.

Add the broth...

...then pour yourself a glass of wine, because
it'll be a while...

 

...before it looks like this!

4. While the soup is simmering, melt the remaining butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the bread and cook until toasted and pale gold on both sides. Add one slice of bread to the bottom of a ramekin or other oven-safe dish.

I used three pieces because they were small: two for the bottom
and one for the top.

5. When the soup is ready, pour half of it into the ramekin over the bread. Top with the remaining bread and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-60 minutes, depending on how deep your dish is.

Before...

...and after.

6. Alternatively, cut your toasted bread into croutons and place them in the bottom of a bowl. Pour the soup over the croutons, top with cheese, and enjoy immediately.

As I've told several people, this soup is life-changing. For something with such simple ingredients, and very little seasoning, it's so full of flavor. The key is definitely the cinnamon--even though it's just a little bit, it adds warmth and accentuates the flavor of the chicken and the vegetables. The bread is the other all-star; it adds texture and bulk, making this a very filling soup.

Farewell, chicken soup. I will miss you.

And everything went better than expected.

Recently it seems that a lot of things have been falling into place for me. I'm a person who likes to believe that things happen for a reason, and I've been seeing the evidence these past few weeks.

Here's an example:

About a month ago, I started looking for an internship, a required part of my program. I flipped through the newspaper, scoured the internet, and racked my brain to come up with a good list of places to apply to. I made a big spreadsheet of all the possibilities.

About three weeks ago, I met with my advisor to talk about it. I told her what I thought I wanted, handed over the spreadsheet, and made plans to talk to her again in two weeks.

Lo and behold, just a couple of days later she and another professor in the department came up with a project that needed a writer. Later that week I attended a meeting, met the team, and became the latest addition. I'm now working on a consulting project for the local children's hospital with a team of design students and faculty. It's not something that I thought I'd be doing in a million years, but here I am using my writing skills for a worthy cause. It's a great feeling when everything works out better than expected.

This is a bit of a forced segue, but I'm going to say that "better than expected" is also a phrase that could be used to describe my latest culinary adventure: boneless buffalo wings.

I have been craving wings for at least two weeks now. That, combined with Superbowl Sunday, is what prompted me to try my hand at making them. I skimmed through a lot of recipes online, compiled the important parts, and came up with this. The measurements may not be exact, but the results are delicious. Oh, and it's a one-person meal (so you don't have to share!).


Boneless Buffalo Wings

Assemble the ingredients. The egg is raw,
by the way--that's just the milk making it look
like a cooked white!

Ingredients

1 boneless chicken breast or 2 chicken tenders
1/2 cup Bisquick (I used low fat)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Salt, pepper, paprika
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
Cooking spray
Hot sauce, like Frank's Red Hot
Butter

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. In a baggie, combine the Bisquick, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and paprika (or your preferred blend of spices). In a bowl, beat together the egg and milk.

2.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set it near your work station.

3.  Add half of the chicken pieces to the baggie, close it, and shake until coated. Remove the pieces and add them to the egg mixture; turn with a fork to coat. Put the pieces back in the baggie and coat them with a second layer of the Bisquick mixture. Repeat with the rest of the chicken.

I baked mine in the toaster oven, hence the tiny tray.

[Tip: I always find it helpful to have a "chicken hand" and a "clean hand" when doing this. Use your chicken hand to handle the raw meat, and your clean hand to handle things like the fork and the baggie. That way only one of your hands gets coated in batter!]

4.  Arrange the chicken pieces on the baking sheet. Put the tray in the oven and bake the wings for about 5 minutes on each side (more or less depending on how big they are--watch them carefully). As you can see, I baked mine a little too long!

A couple of chicks who spent too long in the tanning bed!

5.  Prepare the sauce while the wings are baking. Place about a tablespoon of butter/margarine/whatever you like in a bowl with whatever amount of hot sauce looks good to you. Microwave the bowl until the butter has melted and then stir it all up. Taste the sauce and adjust if needed.

Before. You can use whatever hot sauce you want--
but let's be real, go with Frank's.

After. It looks a bit like tomato soup.

[Note: You can skip the butter step and just use straight hot sauce if you want. I think they taste more like restaurant wings this way, though.]

6.  When your wings are done, add them to the sauce and toss to coat. Garnish with veggies and serve with a side of light ranch.

I had a salad to go with my junk food too, I swear!

Despite being a little burnt on one side, these wings were pretty darn delicious. I've tried making chicken tenders before, either with breadcrumbs or Bisquick, but never with both. I think that's the trick here--the Bisquick adheres to the chicken better than breadcrumbs alone, but the crumbs make a more substantial coating. They're not identical to what you'd get at say, B-dubs, but they'll definitely satisfy a craving while being a little bit healthier than what you'd get at a restaurant.