C'est la vie

  TGIF and such. Etc. Another rainy, blustery Fall day. I don't mean that as a complaint about the weather, but rather the fact that I am not at home, snuggled under a blanket, reading a book, sipping hot chocolate, and intermittently napping. Doesn't that sound like the perfect Fall day. I'm hearing that tomorrow is supposed to be a lovely day. Of course it. Having these blustery, comatose days through the week is like getting sick on the weekend. Just ruins everything.

  But this is not a Weather Channel blog. This is the Diet Diva's blog. I'm here to report that I did not do quite as well as I would have liked to do yesterday. Well, I ate pizza for breakfast and lunch again- boo! I also snacked on some popcorn. For dinner I did pretty well. I made some oven-baked potato wedges and lean steak. That wasn't so bad. So, I'm doing ok. Not great. But ok

  This weekend I'm trying out a squash casserole recipe and experimenting with making "fried" zucchini in a more, shall we say, figure-friendly way. I've got some beautiful zucchs, a couple of yellow squash, a green and a red pepper, and butternut squash. I'm going to go pick up a spaghetti squash probably tomorrow. That will be the basis for my casserole. Has anyone ever had spaghetti squash? Let me tell you about it.

 First of all, points-wise it's free. It's rather large and it's a pale yellow color. It reminds me of a cross between a tall, skinnier pumpkin and a butternut squash. It's sort of the shape of a taller, skinnier pumpkin and has a stem, but it's skin is smooth like butternut squash. It's really user-friendly too, once you get the spaghetti-like flesh out. Here's what you do- lay it on a dish towel so it doesn't try to move away from you (they're sneaky devils, I tell ya) and slice off the top to remove the stem area and cut the bottom off too. Then slice it long-ways straight down the middle. Add a couple tablespoons of water to a large, microwave-safe plate and put the spagh-squash flesh side down on the plate. Microwave for around 10 minutes. Pull it out- be EXTRA careful because the squash AND the plate will be mad hot. Take a fork and rake it straight down, long-ways, through the flesh. What you will discover is that it actually comes off in long, stringy pieces, much like spaghetti.

 After that you can use it in recipes. You can replace pasta with this squash in just about any dish. Just be sure to pat it dry really well. I like to add it to a frying pan with a bit of non-stick cooking spray and season it with creole spices and "fry" it. I then add some cooked salad shrimp to it. You can use what you want. I've used it in casseroles and just eaten it by itself, seasoned.

  It's pretty tasty, easy to use, and, did I mention, it's free! Try it out some time. This weekend I'm also going to make some baked butternut squash fries. I got the recipe from Hungry Girl and people rave about it. She also has a super yummy butternut squash hashbrowns recipe that I'm dying to try. I'll report back soon with how all of my squash dishes turn out this weekend. Stay tuned and in the meantime, have a fant-abulous weekend, folks!