Category: Baking/Cooking

Usually it is inspiration off of pinterest, but sometimes its my own creation. Someone who is experienced with a Hispanic cooking background but I am constantly challenging myself to the deco cupcake and cake artforms as well as other gourmet dishes. Sometimes I nail it, sometimes I flop it. Either way is usually entertaining.

Baking/Cooking · Fitness

Low Carb Spaghetti Squash with Chicken Parm

juliaism1 Comment

20130415_183701So tonight I made low carb spaghetti squash with Chicken Parm. How is this possible you may ask? WELL I used spaghetti squash to make the noodles, Chicken baked in the oven for Chicken Parm, and a homemade tomato sauce for the delicious red gooeyness you see in the picture. Overall its not the tastiest thing in the world but it sure is guilt free 🙂 And its not like it tastes “bad” it just is crunchy and obviously isn’t carby noodles. I’m convinced you’ll get used to it though, I did.

To Make spaghetti squash:

So to make this bad boy it too a little prep, you have to boil spaghetti squash for a good 30 mins +. I boiled it whole for 30 mins (just because it was easier to just poke holes in it with a knife) but it could have went a tad bit longer. I rotated it from time to time while it boiled as well since I don’t have a pot big enough to fit something so big! (That’s what she said 🙂 After 30 mins you cut it in half on the equator (not lengthwise) and start scooping out the stringy insides separating it from the seeds. (You can save the seeds if you want, there’s recipes out there to bake them and eat them like pumpkin seeds. I hear they are nutritious and full of protien but I didn’t feel like doing the extra work so I threw them away.) So when you are scooping the seeds out use a mitt and tongs, the insides are VERY hot and its easy to burn yourself. You also might want to get a fork to break up the stringy parts of the squash but I ended up just using my hands after the squash cooled for a couple of mins.

Halfway through it looked something of a mess, kind of like the picture…20130415_183411yep. a mess. My fiance is used to our kitchen looking like an atomic bomb went off though, he says it just means we use our kitchen 🙂

So I forgot to take pics of the chicken, but this is a fairly easy recipe to do.

Chicken Parm

Take 3 chicken breasts, leanest ones you can find, and smear low fat sour cream on them. Take a little bit of skim mozeralla cheese, and a little bit of bread crumbs and sprinkle them onto the chicken breasts. Bake in the oven on a foil sheet ontop of a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 25-30 mins. Chicken should be 160-175 for safe temps, and juices run clear.

Homemade tomato sauce

Take peeled tomatoes, about 12 small ones (or a big reduced sodium 32 oz can of peeled tomatoes) and break them up in a pan (with juices if you used a can). Add in a can of tomato paste and put on medium heat until the juices start to slightly boil. Put on Simmer for 15mins and add in your favorite Italian spices, ours include garlic garlic and more garlic. We also love salt and pepper but I always go easier on the salt and heavier on the pepper. Walah! Easy homemade spaghetti squash sauce.

So overall it takes some getting used to to “pretend” the spaghetti squash are actually noodles, but by the end of the dish I was full and content that I hadn’t eaten a bunch of carby pasta. I guess diets are all about what you want to “put up with”. I have a friend that loves carbs because shes a runner but I also have friends that swear to stay away from them and if they absolutely have to eat them they only eat the wheat. For us, we try to do wheat carbs. But like everyone else, we indulge in regular carbs too. 🙂 He’s marrying a carb lover, thats for sure!!!

Happy low-carbing! 🙂