Nik's Vegetarian "Meat" Sauce

Sorry about the stove...if I'd know you were coming over... ;)

So I thought it’d be nice, after all the flurry of the Pledge, to post about…food. Remember when we used to talk about food? Me too! Let’s start doing that again!

This is a quick one but, as always, there’s a story.

My youngest child has decided to become vegetarian. This is not the first time she’s done this. She’s never much cared for meat, especially meat that looks like meat. It bothers her deeply to think that she’s consuming an animal.

While I’m not vegetarian I respect the fact that she (at 12 years old) came to that decision for herself. But life is not easy for a vegetarian kid living in a meat consuming household. Very often it was hard to find that wonderful place in the middle of the Venn diagram that is my oldest child, a self-proclaimed “meatitarian” and my youngest.

But recently – EUREKA! – I found a ray of hope. Quite to my surprise my oldest likes Boca Burgers. That brings us to last night, when I wanted to make ONE dinner that feels like dinner. The eldest had been wanting spaghetti. While I could have made a veggie spaghetti (and grumbled while the oldest picked out most of the veggies and fed them to our beloved Basset Hound when she thought I wasn’t looking), I decided to try to build upon her like of Boca meat by using Boca crumbles instead of meat.

(NOTE: This isn’t a review for Boca products, but you can look them up for yourself here.)

Here’s the recipe. After I’ll tell you how it was received.

Nik’s Vegetarian Spaghetti & “Meat” Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 clove garlic minced (or one heaping tsp of jarred minced garlic)
• 12 oz. Boca crumbles (they come in a 12 oz. bag)
• 1 jar low-sugar spaghetti sauce (I usually get the most basic kind and doctor it up myself, as you’ll see below)
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning (or, if you don’t have that but have dried basil, the same amount)
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes (less or none if you don’t like spicy stuff)

Optional (and had it just been me and The Younger, I would have used), a variety of colorful diced veggies like zucchini, yellow squash, red peppers, eggplant, really anything!

Directions:

Spray a pan with nonstick cooking spray, set it over medium heat and allow it to get hot.

Add onions and peppers (and any other veggies you’re using) and saute about 2-3 minutes, until they begin to soften.

Add the Boca crumbles and stir into the veggie mixture. Allow it to cook about 3-4 minutes.

Add spaghetti sauce and seasonings and stir. Bring it to a boil, then drop the heat down to medium-low, allowing it to simmer about 10-15 minutes more. The sauce should be a deeper shade of red when finished.

NOTE: This can be made with whatever ground meat substitute you like. I am trying to watch my younger daughter’s soy intake to make sure she doesn’t just eat soy as a meat replacement. I know that’s a concern for some of you as well.

NOW…I served this to them atop whole-wheat thin spaghetti. I always eat just the sauce, chili-style, with tons of grated Parmesan on top.

The Elder? She loved it! Interestingly, I didn’t tell her it was vegetarian. The fact that her sister was eating it should have clued her in but…14 year-olds are sometimes self-absorbed, so what can we do? I’m just glad I have a good fall-back dinner everyone can eat!

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo a la Nik

(Yesterday on Bariatric Foodie….)

You made a spaghetti squash. Possibly your first. Congrats! Now let’s translate it into a yummy meal.

I love spaghetti squash because it makes a great family type meal. The divas know (intellectually) that it is not pasta, but seriously? Anything covered in sauce is going to be good. The trick is to make it a health benefit as well.

We like Alfredo sauce. A lot. Unfortunately, it has a gamillion calories, so I have to make some concessions to make it all work.

First off, I make it into a casserole. What does that do? Casserole = finite amount of sauce. With a traditional pasta dish you tend to dump sauce on it and not think about how much. With a casserole you add sauce then reheat it, which infuses that flavor into everything in the casserole, removing the need for a lot of sauce.

I could write a book on this stuff (wink), but I think I’ll give you the recipe now:

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo a la Nik

2 yellow squash, diced
2 zucchini, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. chicken breasts, cubed
Yield of one spaghetti squash
½ c. skim milk
½ c. grated Parmesan cheese (you can get the shelf stuff but grating your own is so much better!)
Fresh ground pepper (to taste) and sea salt
½ a jar Alfredo sauce (I use Ragu reduced fat)
4 o 5 slices of Provolone cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray down a sautee pan with nonstick and cook chicken breast cubes thoroughly and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
In the same pan, sautee both types of squash and onions until just tender. Add garlic and mix well. Transfer to same bowl as chicken.

Turn burner down to low and add milk, scraping up the bits at the bottom of the pan. When the edges of the milk begin to bubble, add the Alfredo sauce, mix well and warm through.

Add spaghetti squash to the large mixing bowl and mix chicken and veggies completely.

Add parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and mix again.

Add the Alfredo sauce and mix into the veggie mixture thoroughly. Transfer to a 13x9 casserole dish.

Top with slices of provolone cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

This is a seriously yummy dinner. And here’s the kicker. When you give it to the kids…and they wolf it…you’ve snuck not one, but THREE veggies into their meal!

I let that fact slip to La Grande Diva a few days ago. Messed up her whole world.

And THAT...my lovelies...is what I call playing with my food!

Have a great weekend!

How to Make Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is one of those veggies where there are as many ways to prepare it as people to prepare it.

That is to say, my method isn’t the only method, just the one that works best for me. If you have another method, by all means share it with the Foodie Nation (in the comments section)!

Wait…let’s back up a minute.

If you’ve never heard of spaghetti squash, they look something like this:



When cooked the “meat” of the squash is stringy, much like angel hair pasta. Cooking one is probably about the easiest thing in the world. Here’s my four step process.

Step One:

Place your squash in a cooking pan and fill it up to halfway up the sides with water. Cover it with aluminum foil and pop it into a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. The photo I used is cut in half. I usually don't bother to do that, though.

Step Two:

Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool completely before handling it. Seriously. I theorize 99% of spaghetti squash injuries are a result of skipping this step! When it's cool, fork test it. The fork should easily pierce the skin and go into the flesh.

Step Three:

Once it's cooled is when I usually slice it in half length wise (and might I say it's MUCH easier to do it at that point). See the center part that is sort of gooey with seeds in it? Yeah, scoop that out with a spoon, but JUST THAT PART.

Step Four:

Then run your spoon (or fork) just under the tough outer skin to extract the good stuff into a bowl. If you see any seeds, pick them out. Usually where there are seeds, there is more gooey stuff, so if you see it, get it. It’s not pleasant to eat!
Ok, so you’ve made your first spaghetti squash. Now what? You eat it! How? Tune in tomorrow to find out!