A no-carb delight!

Today has been one of the most productive days I have had, complete with cooking/preparing the week's meals, doing a freaking intense kickboxing class (thanks, Liana, for almost killing me today!!!), and of course lots of studying!

It's a new week: spaghetti squash week! I didn't know this vegetable even existed until my dear friend Pooja (who has inspired me with all kinds of recipes already) suggested I make something with it. I found it at Sunflower Market today, and decided to get the biggest one. Little did I know how much "spaghetti" it actually contains.

Massive vegetable.

Today, I decided to make baked spaghetti squash, lasagna style. First, I had to cut this thing. There was no way I could cut it lengthwise, so I cut it in half. 

It may not look that big, but it took so much out of me to cut this squash that not only was my arm about to fall off, I was actually sweating.

Aftermath of squash cutting. Defeated.

However, the show must go on.

The show in this case = cooking.

I saved one half, and cut the other half in half again. I baked the two quarters in the oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

While this was in the oven, I started on the sauce. First, I lightly sprayed the skillet with some Pam and threw in some minced garlic. (This is also where you would put in the onions).

After the garlic became a golden brown, I added one can of stewed tomatoes and one cup of vegetable broth. To season, I added basil and black pepper.

I let that simmer for ~15 minutes.

When the squash came out of the oven, I started scraping the inside of it with a fork. I had NO idea that this squash contained so much "spaghetti." It was seriously a lot.

This picture doesn't even do justice to the actual amount of spaghetti that was piled on there.

I Pam sprayed a baking dish, and added a layer of sauce. Then I added a layer of the spaghetti, some olives, and mozzarella on top. Then I added another layer of sauce, another layer of spaghetti, more olives, more mozzarella, and topped it with a little bit of parmesan.

I put that in the oven for ~20 minutes.

Topped it with some crushed red pepper before eating it. This is more filling than you would imagine!!!

While all of this was going on, I decided to try a little experiment. I've heard a lot of good things about chia seeds. So while I was at Sunflower, I picked some up. I was wary about it, so I got very little.

I added one teaspoon of seeds to a cup of water and then put it in the fridge.

After awhile, I took it out of the fridge and stirred. The seeds had become a gelatinous substance.

And then I drank it. It was oddly refreshing. And the texture of this gelatinous substance was intriguing. I then made myself another glass of it. Apparently it's good for hydration and has all sorts of other health benefits! I think I'll need to make another trip to Sunflower soon.