Tilapia, Brown Rice and Edemame Dinner, just another #glutenfree dinner at the Walker House!

Decided to follow a couple of recipes close to their originals tonight.  Can't say I listened to everything they posted, but the fish recipe ingredients I did.  The brown rice I HAD to fix. Here's what we had for dinner, another #glutenfree meal! BAM!

BTW, I used a frozen bag of tilapia filets, drying them off carefully before placing in the baking sheet.  Lots of folks, even chefs, forget to dry the fish filets before marinading, cooking, etc.  The sauce will not adhere to the protein the way it needs to to get maximum flavor.  And I'm all about big flavor. :)

Baked Tilapia with Coconut-Cilantro Sauce

Here's the Garam Masala  spice blend, needed for the tilapia.  You will have enough left to use again.  I used the ingredients as was called for, but instead of putting them in the oven, I just placed them in a non-stick pan on the stove top set on medium heat, shaking occasionally.  I took them off the heat once I was able to smell them without sticking my nose straight to the pan.  I allowed them to cool for a couple of minutes, then placed them in my husband's coffee grinder, and pulsed til they were powder.  Yes, I did clean the grinder. He wouldn't be too happy if it smelled like Indian spices in the morning.  To clean the coffee grinder, I just used the heel from our loaf bread and ground it down.  This will get rid of most of the powder, then I just took a damp paper towel to wipe off the rest.  His grinder looks almost new!

Chile-Garlic Edemame as another side dish.  This is for the edemame still in their pods, but you could use the same method to coat them without the pods.

The brown rice, I made "on the fly", as we say in the restaurant kitchen.  It means to make a dish without any recipe, just an idea of what might go with the main dish.  The tilapia recipe had both Asian and Indian inspired ingredients, especially the Garam Masala spice blend.  So I recalled some flavor profiles, and created this dish.  I like to read a lot, so even before I went to culinary school, I could tell you lots of different flavors which went together, thanks to #JuliaChild, #FoodNetwork, #BonAppetit, Galloping Gourmet, and various cookbooks.  If you wanna learn and can only afford one book, I would suggest The Flavor Bible.  It helped me so much, and my culinary school issued these to all the students when we first began classes.  So study up! You'll be improvising in no time.

Indian Brown Rice Pilaf
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp unsweetened coconut, shredded
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup brown rice
1 Tbsp golden raisins
1 1/2 cups water
2 fresh cilantro stems only, no leaves

1 tsp Kosher salt

2 Tbsp Cilantro, chopped

Directions:
1. Pour olive oil in a medium sauce pot, which is on medium heat.
2. Once oil is glistening, add onion and cook for 3 minutes.  Then add garlic ginger, and coconut.  Continue to cook for another 3-4 minutes.
3. Add remaining oil, brown rice, and raisins.  Cook and stir for 3 more minutes, allowing the rice to becoming warm.
4. Once the mixture has had a chance to incorporate, add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, turning up temperature to Medium-High if needed.
5. Lower the temperature to Medium-Low, cover, and allow to simmer for 30-40 minutes.  You will know when it is done when all the water has evaporated, and the rice is al dente, or slightly resistant to the bite.
6. Serve with a garnish of cilantro leaves.

Stuffed Boneless Leg of Lamb with Smashed Roasted Fingerling Potatoes & Parsnips

I first made this recipe the Easter before Sam enlisted into the Navy.  I've wanted to make it again forever.  I just happen to notice that Sprouts had boneless leg of lamb cuts on sale, and I decided right then and there that I would have to make it again.  There are so many things that could be part of the stuffing ingredients.  I think the key is to include items that will that will add loads of flavor to the lamb.  This particular recipe is Mediterranean inspired.  I thought afterward of various greens I could have included as well: Of course the trend of the moment, Kale, but I love Swiss Chard more, since it's a milder green. Artichokes, tender asparagus, eggplant, roasted red bell pepper, kalamata olives, fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.  You can always make your own version of this stuffing.  Just make sure you're tasting as you go.  Also, the panko bread crumbs can be replaced with lentils, quinoa, barley, brown rice, farro, etc.  It just depends on whether you're eating gluten free or not.  Have fun!  I hope you like this as much as my family. 

Stuffed Leg of Lamb with Smashed Roasted Fingerlings and Turnips, with a simple Pan Gravy

Stuffing Ingredients:

2 oz smoked bacon, cut into lardons (1/4 inch wide, by 2 inch long strips)

2 oz olive oil

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

1/4 cop red & yellow bell peppers, chopped (can use any color(s) combination, just not green)

1 1/4 Tbsp garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp Kosher salt

large pinch pepper

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

small pinch of cayenne, or ground red pepper 

1 bag baby spinach, chopped

1/4 tsp lemon zest

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 cup dried breadcrumbs

1/4 cup feta cheese (or substitute with Parmesan, Romano, or Pecorino)

Lamb Ingredients:
2 1/2 lb boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of silverskin only

salt & pepper

olive oil to drizzle pan, and lamb
Gravy/Pan Sauce Ingredients:
2-3 Tbsp Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour (or regular All-Purpose Flour)
3-5 cups Beef Stock (can substitute with Vegetable or Chicken stock as well)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Garnish, optional: 
Either lemon zest or chopped parsley

Directions:

1. In a large skillet (I used our cast iron skillet), oh medium heat, cook the bacon until it the fat has rendered, about 4 minutes.  Add onions, continuing to cook and stir occasionally, for 3 minutes.  Then add the chopped peppers cooking another 2-3 minutes.  Sprinkle on the garlic and seasonings.  Allow to cook another minute, stirring occasionally.  Now add the spinach and zest, and toss to coat.  The leaves will instantly begin to wilt.  Using a pair of tongs, flip the spinach around, so the un-cooked leaves will be able to get heat, and the wilted sides can get off the heat.

 BEFORE

AFTER

2. Once all the leaves have wilted, turn off the heat then add in the breadcrumbs and cheese.

3. Then pour on the lemon zest, and allow to cool off before handling stuffing.
4. In the meantime, it's on to prepare the lamb. Oh, and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  That might help :)

This is how the lamb looks when you get it from Sprouts Market.  Some butchers will wrap it with twine, but they'll use something to bind it all together.  If I had some, I would've used some caulfat, none in the fridge though.  The green spot is the Done gauge, but they don't work, they only tell you once the meat is over temp, so throw it out, please.

I decided to reuse this mesh again, so I could recycle it.  If you have twine, and know how to truss this type of meat, go for it!
Here's how I prepped the meat:

 This first photo, I just began the first of many diagonal cuts, just trying to go through the thick fat layer.  If you're watching your saturated fats, this can be trimmed off, and replaced with a generous rubbing of olive oil.

 Here, my daughter just wanted to take a picture without my terrible nail polish job, lol!

 Here you can see I did diagonal cuts all the way down the fat, and I did do very thing slices into the silverskin, or shiny fat, farthest away from the photo.

Again, we start at one end, cutting periodically with the previous cuts.  I'm afraid I did get a bit too enthusiastic, but it just allowed the melted fat to penetrate the meat.

Here, I made the last cut.  CAUTION! Don't do what I did and lay your tips so close to where you are cutting.  I usually have a claw hand, holding onto my "victim" ;)  Now, back to the instructions......
5. Take the cooled stuffing, place it in large mounts on the inside of the lamb (opposite side of the fat).  Make sure you leave at least a 1/2 inch border around the edges of the meat.

6. Roll the meat over the stuffing, jelly-roll style, and tuck in the ends (as much as possible anyway).

Don't worry, the other side looks like it exploded. c:

7. Take the trussing, or mesh which came with the lamb, do you best to wrap it back up.  I did mine like you would a pair of pantyhose, well just one leg of them anyways.

8. Drizzle the olive oil inside a heavy baking casserole, or roasting pan.  Place the roll inside.  Then, drizzle with the remaining oil.  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

9. Roast the meat for a minimum of 40 minutes.  Using a instant read thermometer, push it into the center of the lamb, touching the stuffing, to get an accurate reading.  It will need to read 135 degrees to be cooked to medium-rare; it will continue to cook while it's resting.  Place on a cutting board and allow to rest while you focus on making the gravy/pan sauce.  Make sure you remove all pieces of the stuffing that might have fell out of the lamb.

10. Place the pan on a stove top burner and turn on to medium.  Using the flour, we're going to make a rue.  Whisk it around, picking up as many bits and pieces off the bottom of the pan as you go.  The flour flavor has to be cooked out of the flour before we can move to the next step.  This should take 1-2 minutes.
11. Slowly begin to pour in stock, at first only pouring in a 1/4 cup at a time, stirring to completely incorporate before adding more stock.  Continue to do this until all the stock is added.  Then raise temperature to Medium High, and stir constantly til it just begins to bubble.  then lower temperature to Medium-Low.  Your gravy will be done once the gravy will stay on the back of a spoon.  My gravy had enough seasoning, but make sure you taste yours before taking it off the heat.
12. I made smashed roasted fingerling potatoes and parsnips to accompany this dish.  You can make anything you'd like, including couscous, brown rice pilaf, or even garlic mashed potatoes.  To make the potatoes and parsnips, I just cleaned and dried the potatoes, cut the parsnips into 2 inch strips, tossed in olive oil, minced garlic, lemon zest, dried crushed rosemary, and salt and pepper.  Then they were roasted at the same time as the lamb, at the same temp in a medium roasting pan.  They took about 30 minutes.  You can tell when they're done by piercing with a fork.  They're done when the fork pierced very easily, and they should be a nice light golden brown.  After I removed them from the heat, I  used a potato masher to mash them right inside the roasting pan.  After they were mashed, I sprinkled some fresh lemon juice all over and served with some pan gravy along the top.
13. The lamb can be sliced with either a serrated or long carving knife.  Serving size is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.  Don't forget to take off the mesh wrapping before you carve! ;)  Once both the meat and any side dish is on the plate, drizzle the gravy across them.  If you would like, you can garnish with either lemon zest or chopped parsley.
14. Enjoy!

Chicago-Style Pizza Cooking Demo, done in October 2011

I thought this would help show our skills :) We were very blessed to Lauren & Clint from Candlelight Films film us . Thanks y'all! I feel I should point out, this is NOT gluten free, nor is it a part of a healthy diet. However, if can share this pizza pie with several others, have a hearty salad along with it, then it's not so bad ;) and it's very tasty! love Sam's pizza dough too. I'll try to round up the actual recipe, and edit this post soon to show the recipe. Hugs y'all!

Carnitas Tamale Pie Night

Well, we've had some Carnitas (or Spanish for pulled pork) in the fridge for a few days, and I wanted to make something fast, or at least easy prep, so I thought why not make a casserole-ish dish?
What did I come up with, a lighter version of tamales, better known as a tamale pie! YUM
I looked up some recipes, found one that helped me figure out my main steps, and decided on a Verde (green) sauce would work well with my pulled pork.  Luckily I have tons of Mexican ingredients in my fridge, including Anaheim chiles which are so tasty.  Here's the recipe:

Carnitas Verde Tamale Pie

Ingredients:

Casserole Topping:
1 cup masa harina
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground Cayenne pepper
1 cup boiling water
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp baking powder


Casserole base:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Anaheim or Poblano chile pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 cans Salsa Verde, 7-8oz each
1 lb leftover carnitas, or pulled pork (also can substitute with any lean ground meat)
1 can white beans, drained; such as Navy or Cannellini
1 Tbsp ground Cumin
1/4 tsp Chili powder
1/4 tsp dried Oregano
salt to taste

Garnish:
3oz Queso Fresco (can use Monterey Jack, or Mozzerella if needed)
2 Tsbp fresh Cilantro, chopped
lime wedges

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the masa harina, salt, and cayenne, stirring well with a whisk.  Add water to mixture, and stir with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.  Cover until ready to use.
3. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  *If you don't have a cast iron skillet, you can use any large, nonstick skillet as long as it can take the heat of a 400 degree oven.  Add oil to pan, and allow it to heat up before adding vegetables.  This should take just about 30 seconds.  Add onion, and allow to cook for two minutes.  Add garlic, chile pepper, and mushrooms, cooking for an additional two minutes. Once this is done, you can add the rest of the ingredients for casserole base.  Cook until sauce is gently bubbling. This will take about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat.
4. Add melted butter and baking powder to masa mixture/base, stirring until smooth.  Press the masa mixture in palm of hands, then lay each piece on top of the casserole base.  Spread out into an even layer.  If there are small spaces with the masa mixture, it is okay.
5. Cover pan with foil, and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned around edges.
6. Remove from heat, and allow to set for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with crumbled queso fresco and cilantro; serving with lime wedges.

Been eating off the Spaghetti Squash for a couple of days now, since the husband's been working nights, and our daughter's been working in Mesquite since Wednesday.  I'll blog tomorrow about my next recipe which will involve some leftovers.  Just wait til you see what I can do with a little bit of masa and pulled pork. :)

Hi ya'll!
I've been contemplating starting a blog ForEvER! It seems like it anyway.  Plus, loads of folks have asked me to begin one on cooking, nutrition, etc.  It's just time, right?  So here's a bit about me...
I'm 42 y/o, on extended LOA (leave of absence) from culinary school, or Le Cordon Bleu, Dallas, due to huge amounts of pain, misterious undiagnosed pain, lol, and several other (boring to me) issues stemming from my chronic condition, fibromyalgia, and my autio-immune disorder, lupus.  Yep, I've got both.  For a long time, I was told you couldn't have both, but tongues out to them doctors, patients can have both.  I'm not going to go on about it, I definitely don't want pity, just giving the basics as to why I've got the time to blog if I'm a chef.  I have to say, being a chef is such grueling yet fascinating work. And here in 2014, we can finally get a glimpse of what it's like, sort of, to work in the professional kitchen, thanks to food television.  Just don't get me started on why Hell's Kitchen should be banned, lol.  It's NOT okay to abuse your staff, even though many a chef will understand why a lot do yell during service, and even get down right mean.  It's their heads on a spike if the kitchen doesn't produce gorgeous plates, with mouth-wateringly deliciousness.
Okay, so as far as school goes, I've completed like 99% of my classes, which has been infuriating, since I'm such a stickler for finishing what you start, and I'm so conscience especially since I have medical barriers which tend to rear their ugly heads when I've made a goal for myself.
Also, another tidbit, I've worked in the service/restaurant industry since I was 17 y/o.  Back when you could fake your age, yep, I lied about my age and when I lived in Atlanta, GA, I told an HR employee that I "forgot" my ID, but showed my SScard.  I still feel bad about it.  I was hired as a day hostess at this fine dining restaurant and jazz lounge.  Eventually, they gave me management duties, but never officially gave me the title of assistant day manager, since I was so young.  Good excuse not to raise my pay, right? Anwyays, after about 4 months, I moved back to Denton, TX with my H.S. sweetheart.  And on my 18th bday, went in for an interview for a waitress position.  The mgr was so impressed with my desire to come in on my bday that he hired me on the spot.  I still miss those fun, low-responsibility days where all I had to worry about was saving enough $ to pay my rent (all utiliites paid) and have money for food & gas.  Even though I immediately started living with my HS sweetheart, I still had a blast at Chili's.  Yep, that was my first foodservice position.  I moved on to work all over the Dallas area, being anything from a hostess (when needed), cocktail waitress, banquet server, to FOH trainer.  When my daughter was 3, and I was 27, I worked at a well-known steakhouse, as a trainer, bound for management.  There was a mgr who did NOT know his boundaries, and decided to slap me (as a joke, right), twice.  I did what you're supposed to do, call the police, and immediately notify the other mgr on duty.  However, I did not understand to keep my mouth shut around the rest of staff, being way too naive to realize the ramifications of gossip.  So, I eventually was squeezed out of that job altogether.  I did go through a depression, and since I was a single mom, yep, I had to temporarily lean on ppl I did not really feel I wanted to be pals with.  They weren't mean folks, just knew they didn't care about me unconditionally.  Today, I look back on that time and realize God was screaming for me to listen and come to him.  But I got in my own way.  I can even remember my bfriend's mom taking us to church on a couple of occasions, and me even getting into the worship & sermon.  Oh well, I just thought, hey, I'm already a Christian since I was raised in the church.  Nope, wrong.  All is well, though. I now know I was loved even back then.
Another interesting story: When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was told I was a complicated pregnancy due to my lupus, and blood clotting disorder stemming from my lupus (called autphosphilipid syndrome).  My fiance and I thought moving to live with his dad and stepmother in Florida would be better than living in Dallas, without help from his family. FYI: His mom wouldn't believe Darion was his child, so she refused to be of any assistance during the pregnancy, and none of my family lived nearby, nor had any time or space for us.  So off to Ft Myers we went.  On Valentine's Day, 1995, I rebelliously ate a 1/2 dozen oysters on the half shell, and yes, I KNEW some of them weren't at the correct temperature, as I was eating them.  SMH!  So, within the following next 24 hrs, I spent without food or drink, even sips of water caused horrindous responses.  I eventually ended up at the ER, and was placed in the Triage unit for overnight observation.  What happened next was TERRIFYING!!! no joke...I woke up around 11pm with my hand throbbing.  I mentioned it to the nurse, who noticed the IV had infiltrated (google it peeps).  Unlucky for me, one, the IV was mostly potassium chloride, which is ToXic to the tissues, and secondly, the on-call dr was a bit of a lazy butt and would only order a wet, warm compress which did NOTHING! for me.  Overnight, my hand swelled up, at 1am they cut off my engagement ring (don't worry, it wasn't expensive).  At 8am, when the dr's did their rounds, they immediately decided I needed emergency surgery.  By that time, the swelling had pasted my elbow, and the fluid had began to burn through to the top layer of my skin just by my wrist.  OH! and this was all happening to my left hand/arm which is a big, HUGE deal to me, since I'm extremely left-handed.  I was freaking out on the inside, but still very exhuasted and still in pain from the food posioning.  By 1pm that day, Saturday, I was getting plastic surgery where they cut both sides of my lower arm and hand, trying to leave the top side of my wrist intact (this would help me to have movement quicker than if they cut it open).  The doctor did NOT sew my wounds back up, only the bottom side of my hand (to the wrist).  They had to leave the wounds open to debreed (yeah, google that one too, be forewarned it's pretty gross). By the next day, I was transferred to another hospital, an long-term care/wound care center where there were no other pregnant women, only very mature ppl who's wounds wouldn't heal correctly.  I was in terrible pain.  The drs decided I needed more intensive treatments, and asked me to agree to hyperbaric oxegyn therapy; I was the first pregnant lady to undergo this treatment, ever.  After I signed the releases, lol, I successfully completed five without incident.  However, on the fifth day, a Saturday, I had a grand mal seizure while on the toilet, yep very embarrassing. The nurses told my fiance that it was only my passing out, yah right, thanks for the concern, and put me back in bed, where my fiance attempted to fight with me and force feed me waffles and coffee.  Not an ideal diet for a person with hypoglocemia since she was 14, and esp not for a pregnant person (food options were not his fault, just what was offered).  Come to find out, I had bit my tongue, but was unable to communicate this to him or the nurse on staff, since my brain wasn't functioning correctly, and I was wiped out from the episode.  Later, my obgyn from the other hospital visited me when I was on my way for my sixth chamber treatment.  Lucky for me!  I ended up having another grand mal seizure in his prescence while I was inside the chamber.  Now, in case you haven't googled this yet (how dare you, j/k), it takes time to come off the full oxegyn pumped into the chamber, just like it is for scuba divers.  So, I was having this seizure, and they couldn't do anything but try to get my attention.  They were so sweet to me, but I eventually went totally out, and didn't regain full consciousness until I was on a gurney flying down the hall.  My fiance was talking to me, freaking out, asking me if I could hear him.  My brain had forgotten any recent events, including him, my baby, the city we were in, etc.  I totally looked at him, and was like, who are you? but couldn't say it.  I began ripping off all the gauge from my left arm, which of course started bleeding everywhere.  It was dificcult for the staff to get ahold of me since my left arm was an open wound, without hurting me more than I already was.  Anyways, I finally calmed down, and did remember who he was, etc.  Once I was transferred back to the original hospital, my OBGYN was able to do some tests, including an ultrasound of my womb, he found a blood clot in the placenta as well.  During the night, it grew.  I was told that it was a very big possibility that it would kill me if left alone, and would def kill my unborn child.  So I had to decide to have an emergency c-section, and Darion was born!  She was only 1-lb 9.25oz, and only 12 inches long. She was a tiny little thing, being born 3 months preemie.  I couldn't hold her though for over a week.  The only major medical issue she had was she was Jaundice the first three days, and she couldn't breath very well the first couple of days.  Other than that, we just had to tube feed her most of the time she was in the hospital, and get her to gain as much weight as possible.  We couldn't take her home til just one week shy of her due day, May 24th (released 5/17).
As for me though, I had it pretty rough for a while.  After the c-section, I stayed in the hospital for another week, trying to connect the dots in my head, and not having much luck.  I slept a lot.  It took forever for me to realize I had this huge chunk bitten off my tongue and gum.  But that wasn't the worst of it: The worst was my arm was still not healing and the nurses & I had to keep debreeding my wound.  They put my arm in a sort of compression sock, and hooked it onto an IV pole so I didn't have to lay it down on anything.  Seriously, it was a purely open wound, here's TMI: It was open down to the muscle!!!!  And the staff had to purposely allow gauge to stick to all the flesh then, RIP it off.  This was an attempt to remove/pull off any dead flesh which wouldn't come off on its own.  It was like having scabs but inside your arm/hand. Eventually, my plastic surgeon had to cut the topside of my wrist to allow us to get to some hidden areas which needed debreeding.  This was the site where the liquid had burned its way up to my epedermis.  Once they released me, I had a home nurse visit me twice a day for three months.  During the last month, I was able to do some of the debreeding on my own.  I just felt it was easier for me to be able to anticipate the pain.  By this time, the wounds had mostly healed on their own, with just one small gash having some black, dead flesh (sorry, I'm immune to this type of talk.  I can hear my mom telling me it sounds gross).
I continued to have seizures and lost time on a daily basis for the first two months after my grand mal seizures cause my body was not absorbing the dilantin I was taking for them.  Eventually we did get it under control, just in time for Darion to come home.  Unfortunately though, my fiance & I did not fair well.  We were both pretty young.  I was able to handle this better since I already dealt with having lupus, and took these events with an optomistic attitude.  For him, he was in shock for months.  We fought every day, not knowing really how to move forward.  We wanted to make a home for Darion, but we were still living with his dad.  He ended up working lots of hours, and I ended up staying home all the time, with only one thing to do when I could make it-visit Darion, and love her, touch her, learn how to care for her (the hospital had classes for parents with a preemie baby), and eventually got to feed & HOLD her.  It was scary though, knowing she needed such gentle, constant care once we got to bring her home.  He & I looked at places to rent, bought the furniture, etc we needed, but never moved out of his dad's house.  At some point, I think he gave up, and knew he just couldn't handle being a father.  I agreed, but felt he deserved to be around her.  It just didn't work out.  I don't wanna say anything bad about the guy, it's not like he & I were married, and had the time to build a loving relationship.  However, it's unfortunate for Darion.  I tried to keep in contact with him, etc, but he just wanted to hide behind what his mom always said, which was who knows who's child she was.  I still can't believe that he's STILL using that as an excuse though.  It's ridiculous since I hadn't been promiscuous at all before I met him.  And, I was going through my divorce, so I wasn't seeking out one night stands (never really did).  Hmph, just wish it had been different for D.  She's the BEST daughter, ever!

I'm gonna stop for now, I've been working on this post for three days.  I haven't even really discussed my love for food, nutrition, etc.  Or how I'm doing physically, etc.  Not that that is what this blog will be all about.  Just want to give my back stories. Can't tell just one. lol

Spaghetti Squash with Marinara on the Food Network

Spaghetti Squash with Marinara on the Food Network

I used the squash portion of the recipe to make an early dinner for the family.  The variation I made was to make a quick bolognese, or meat sauce instead of using marinara sauce, but either is delicious.
Here's my meat sauce, in case you wanna try it, btw, my mom taught me this, and I've been doing it the same ever since.  I do know the "correct", or Italian version, but it's a bit more tedious if I must say ;)

Ingredients:
1-lb lean ground beef, or ground turkey
1 jar or can of favorite spaghetti sauce
1 Tbsp red wine, sherry, or balsamic vinegar
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tbsp light olive oil, depending on your style of saute pan
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, or your favorite addition to your sauce, such as oregano, basil, thyme, etc
Salt & Pepper to taste
Shredded parmesan, if desired

Instructions:
1. Using a large saute pan, at least 12 inches, heat it on medium, drizzling your oil around the pan.
Place onion in pan, and stir occasionally for 2 minutes, then add garlic and mushrooms.  Continue to saute, stirring occasionally for 2 more minutes.
2. Pushing vegetables to the edges of the pan, place ground meat in the middle of pan, breaking it up as you go.
Try not to crowd the pan, or your meat will steam instead of brown.  Browning the meat will give it more depth of flavor.  If the meat ends of steamed, it's not the end of the world, just continue with recipe.  Continue to stir occasionally for several minutes.
3. Once your ground meat is thoroughly cooked, pour in vinegar and stir around to get any bits off bottom of pan. Then, pour in your sauce of choice, and the rest of seasonings.    Allow sauce to come to a low simmer, stirring occasionally.
4. Lower temperature to low for at least two minutes.  This will allow all the seasonings to come together.
5. Mix in with squash, and serve.  Top with parmesan if desired.
ENJOY!