Spaghetti Squash, Yellow Squash, and Spinach

I'm not quite sure how to title this dish, but let me tell you, that my Super Bowl dinner was amazing. And the Ravens won. So, it was a great night. I had more success cooking my spaghetti squash this time than I did last week... it really tasted pretty darn close to pasta, especially when I smothered it in a low carb jarred sauce. I topped my spaghetti squash with yellow squash and spinach, sauteed in olive oil, garlic, basil, crushed red pepper, and almonds... Finished off with a little Parmesan cheese... And eek, it was REALLY good. This would probably also be great as a side dish with whatever your protein of choice is, but... it also was delicious all on its own! 

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 6 cups fresh spinach
• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tbsp. dried basil
• ¼ cup slivered almonds
• Sauce of choice (I used Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo)
• Parmesan cheese

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 F
• Cut spaghetti squash down the middle. Scoop out seeds. Brush with olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Bake, cut sides up, for ~50 minutes.
• Meanwhile, you can prepare your yellow squash and spinach. Add a little bit of olive oil and two cloves of crushed garlic to a pot. Heat.
• Add spianch leaves, and cook until wilted.
• Add chopped yellow squash, saute.
• Add red pepper, dried basil, and slivered almonds. 
• Set aside.
• When the spaghetti squash is fully cooked, remove from oven, and allow to cool enough for you to handle.
• Take a fork, and begin scooping out the "spaghetti" strands, placing them in a pot. Add 1-1.5 cups of a no sugar added pasta sauce of your choice (Alfredo sauces are usually pretty safe, but red sauces often have added sugars--read the label!) Heat and mix the spaghetti squash and sauce.
• Serve yellow squash and spinach over the spaghetti squash and sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese.

Orange Cranberry Muffins

Clearly, my "low carb" baking is going to get me into trouble, especially when I start incorporating small amounts of honey and fruit in my recipes.. But ahhh, I have such a sweet tooth! I guess I sorta see it as a challenge to create yummy things without using sugar and flour, but I really should be more careful with honey and fruit. Regardless, these were tasty. This was my first successful experiment using coconut flour (I failed at making coconut flour cupcakes a few days prior to this... I think it might have been because I used light coconut milk instead of the real deal? Oh and I burned them... lucky for ya'll, I don't post about my failed recipes!)

Ingredients

• ½ cup coconut flour
• ¼ cup almond flour
• ½ cup + 1 tbsp. Splenda
• 2 tbsp. Smart Balance Butter Spread, melted
• 4 eggs
• 3/8 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tbsp. honey
• ¼ cup of dried cranberries
• 2 tsp. orange extract
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Combine dry ingredients (coconut flour, almond flour, splenda) in one bowl.
• In another bowl, beat eggs. Add melted butter, cream, honey, orange and vanilla extracts.
• Combine the wet and dry mixtures, stir together.
• Fold in cranberries.
• Spray muffin cups with cooking spray (I didn't do this and they stuck to the paper), and fill muffin cups with batter.
• Bake for 17 minutes.

Pecan Sandies

So, I mentioned a week or so ago that I ordered myself some Carbquik. In all honesty, while it's low carb (and pretty much all dietary fiber), I am skeptical when I look at the ingredients... Maybe someone will prove me wrong and convince me that I shouldn't be worried about eating things like "enzyme-enriched wheat", "vital wheat gluten", and "unbleached patent wheat flour"... so yeah, I probably will be cutting down on the recipes that I bake that use Carbquik. If that didn't scare you away, this recipe for Pecan Sandies which I found on the Carbalose website, uses Carbquik in relative moderation. I thought that they were pretty tasty--a little dry, but... They're Pecan SANDIES. Of course they're dry. I really did enjoy them though. I used half vanilla extract, half almond extract (caramel extract sounds like it would be delicious though).

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup Carbquik 
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1 egg white 
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted 
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Splenda or liquid equivalent
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or caramel extract (I used vanilla + almond) 
• Dash cinnamon 

Instructions

• In a small bowl, mix all ingredients well. 
• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and drop dough in 24 small mounds. Place baking sheet in freezer 5-10 minutes to firm up the dough. 
• Remove from freezer and roll dough into balls; put back on baking sheet making sure to space them evenly.
• Cover the balls with plastic wrap and with the bottom of a cup, and press down firmly over each ball of dough. Be sure to press all the way down to the baking sheet. Peel off the plastic wrap and repeat until all the cookies have been shaped. 
• Bake at 325º 20 minutes, or until golden brown.