Spaghetti Squash Fish Dish
Who needs spaghetti when you can eat spaghetti squash? Spaghetti, whether it be whole wheat, green like spinach, black, quinoa based or whatever these fancy brands are displaying in your local “healthy food” markets are these days, may be the cause for your high cholesterol, high blood pressure and central adiposity (fancy word for belly fat!)
As a New Yorker, pasta is in my blood. However, being overweight is in my blood too, so every day, I get to choose what I put into my body so that my “fat gene” isn’t woken up. I love being lean and a fit machine. I therefore reserve my pasta binges when I go home for the holidays and I throw some pizza in the mix while I’m at it too (and NY bagels too-so? Don’t judge me!)
But my staple, or my every day normal nutritional habits, are low glycemic. In my opinion, all yams are in the low glycemic family compared to rice, other potatoes and certainly bread. I avoid cereals and oats and for the most part, all grains. So how do I survive? I invent amazing dishes that taste so dang good. I feel like I am living, yet living on fuel that is not only good for my body, but that tastes off the charts amazing!
So allow me to share with you so that you can bring healthy eating into your home. Break your chains from the bad stuff. Nothing is worth it…For me, living an optimal life is worth more than a spaghetti dish that only bloats me and makes me want more of it…So, instead of fattening spaghetti-do spaghetti squash. There is so much you can do with spaghetti squash, but for now, here is what I ate for dinner:
Ingredients:
- 1 spaghetti squash (in the potato section in produce-looks like a yellow pumpkin without the grooves)
- broccoli (3 cups)
- spinach (obviously all organic) (2 -3 cups)
- fresh garlic
- low sugar marinara sauce (trader joes and whole foods carry their own brand for less than $2-delish!)
- wild scallops (1/2 pound)
- 1/4 pound wild shrimp
- butter
- pepper
- crushed red pepper (I love a kick)
- fresh Parmesan cheese (to sprinkle)
Now what? (my NY way of saying Directions)
Ok-so first take the spaghetti squash and put the whole thing into a microwave safe bowl with some water on the bottom. Put the dish into the nuker for 15 minutes. (I know, this is just for time sake, so if you are like my dad who is completely anti-microwaves, then have fun waiting forever while you put this thing in the oven!)
In the meanwhile, in two separate pots:
Small pot: add marinara sauce along with crushed fresh garlic, some garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and stir on a very low flame (my flame was too high and the sauce splattered all over the stove and walls – oy!)
Deep pan: butter based with fresh crushed garlic. Heat up. Add scallops. Scallops easily overcook so watch them and after 4 minutes, add in broccoli to cook. I bought precooked shrimp but if you buy raw shrimp, then put them in with the scallops. Then throw in hand fulls of fresh spinach. It will wilt and blend in with the dish. Mix and flip the scallops and shrimp. Make sure you keep an eye on that marinara sauce on the pot next door cause that stuff can easily boil up…
Once the spaghetti squash is done, take it out and do not touch it-dang I did and of course it cost me 3 minutes of my life under cold water…Hot hot hot…
Once it cools, then ladies, have your man slice the squash length wise with a big knife. Then, have fun peeling out the pumpkin like seeds and with a fork, scrape the contents lengthwise to get spaghetti like strands that you can gather into a separate dish. Once you are done scraping both halves, then you can take half the squash scrapings and put them onto a dinner plate. (this equals a bit more than a cup) Pour some marinara sauce on there. Then, go to the fish pot and gather fish to place over the spaghetti. Add a tad more sauce around the fish ingredients and sprinkle the whole dish with a tad of Parmesan cheese at the end. Then, bon apetit!
This serves two! Want more? Add accordingly!
