Two for One

Well, I did cook last night.  However, I was lazy and decided not to actually tell you about it until tonight!  So, as a little treat for today, you get last night's dinner as well as tonight's dinner!  Aren't you a lucky bunch of readers?!  So, instead of telling you all the boring details of my day, I will dive right into the food, because let's face it, that is why you are sitting here reading this!

I got this first recipe from a blog one of my friends suggested I check out called Peas and Thank You.  Like my family, this was a mom who had finally had enough of all the bad things she and her family were ingesting, and their family went vegan.  She also has a cook book that I intend to buy once papa nothing starts getting antsy for some new recipes.  I changed the ingredients a bit since we have not really gone vegan; I can't bring myself to buy tofu cheese yet, and quite frankly, it just doesn't taste the same as some melted gooey mozzarella cheese!  Anyways, here is the recipe for Spaghetti Squash Casserole.  This was one of my favorites so far...and...it only took about 15 minutes to prepare (once you baked the squash in the oven)!  The recipe has you cut the squash and then microwave it, I don't like that method...I almost lost a finger doing it that way once!  Those things are a real pain to try and cut uncooked.

Spaghetti Squash Preparation

*do this about an hour before you are ready to start dinner prep.  For example, we like to eat around 5:30 pm, so I put the squash in the oven and then went and played with the lil' ones for an hour*


* preheat oven to 375 degrees
* put squash on a cookie sheet and bake 40-60 minutes ( I baked it for 60 minutes)
* remove from oven and cut lengthwise; it is so soft you can pierce it with a paring knife
* scoop out the seeds and "guts"

this is all that should be left when you are done

* take a fork and shred the squash, it will look like short spaghetti strands

this is what the squash looks like shredded

Spaghetti Squash Casserole


1 large spaghetti squash (about 7-8 C of squash strands)
2 C marinara sauce
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 C non-dairy (Tofutti) or organic cream cheese (oops, I misread this and bought sour cream, so I used 1/2 C sour cream instead)
1/4 C nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
2 C lightly steamed broccoli florets
1 C mozzarella cheese, shredded

* preheat oven to 350 degreees
* in saucepan, combine the marinara sauce, oregano, basil, cream cheese (or sour cream if that is what you bought by mistake) and the nutritional yeast or parmesan.  Heat over low to medium heat until all melted together.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
* add spaghetti squash and broccoli to the saucepan and evenly coat
* put it all into a large casserole dish, lightly sprayed
* top with the shredded mozzarella and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly
* after baking, broil for 2-3 minutes

Ok, now we move on to dinner tonight!  As you can see by some of my blogs, I really like gnocchi!  I made a new gnocchi recipe tonight that had spinach (another one of our faves), baby peas, lemon, and heavy cream...what could be better than that combo?!  As usual, the kids started raiding my pantry and fridge about halfway through dinner...they found a bag of lunch meat that they decided was an acceptable substitute to gnocchi.  My son threw slices of it across the table to his sister, who promptly chewed two little eye holes and made herself a meat mask!  Papa nothing, who by the way, was an hour late for dinner, declared it was a great meal.  He told me that if I had cooked like this when we first met he would have married me even quicker!  His next sentence was "this is put me in the mood to spend money good" hmmm...mama nothing thinks a new Coach purse might be a good reward for all this extra effort.  I got this off of Epicurious, and pretty much followed it by the book.  The best part about this recipe:  prep time is 10 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes...mama like!


Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas


1 cup FROZEN baby peas (do not thaw)
1/2 heavy cream (I used organic)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove, smashed (I just used the minced stuff from a jar)
3 cups (3 oz) baby spinach
1 tsp grated lemon zest (any excuse to use my microplane grater, I use!)
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 lb. dried gnocchi
1/4 cup grated parmesan

* simmer peas with cream, red pepper flakes, garlic, and 1/4 tsp salt in a skillet, covered, until tender, about 5 minutes
*toss in your spinach and cook over medium low heat until spinach is wilted
* remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice
* bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add your gnocchi, boiling about 2-3 minutes until gnocchi start to float to the top
* add gnocchi to the sauce mixture and stir in the parmesan

Gnocchi me happy!  Add a side of lemon roasted asparagus (see earlier blog post) and you have a healthy and delicious dinner!

Thanks for reading and good eats!