Three Cheese Spaghetti Squash

I am determined to get through that never-ending tub of ricotta cheese in my fridge! I hate to waste food and am a VIP member of the clean plate club (for better or for worse).

Tonight’s dinner was a one bowl meal of spaghetti squash topped with three cheeses:

• Ricotta
• Gouda
• Mozzarella

I microwaved everything in one bowl until it was steaming and all the cheeses were ooey gooey.

Three Cheeses

My Dinner Bowl

I added a lot of cheese to this mix, and the spaghetti squash flavor was definitely overpowered by the three cheeses. It was tasty, but I think I prefer my spaghetti squash topped with marinara and Parmesan cheese. Oh well, at least I used up some of that remaining ricotta!

I just polished off a fudgesicle and see another one in my future…

Last Laugh

Why you should always check your child’s homework:

Homework

Follow up email:

Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.

Mrs. Harrington

Junk Food = Depression?

I’m slowly pluggin’ away at the massive tub of ricotta cheese I have chillin’ in my fridge from Tuesday’s roasted eggplant lasagna dinner.

On Wednesday night I baked a spaghetti squash to have ready for eatin’ for lunch or dinner throughout the rest of the week.

I used a bunch of the forked-out squash in a “pasta” bowl for lunch today.

Thursday's Lunch

I topped the squash with portobello mushrooms, marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese before adding a large dollop of the remaining ricotta cheese. (Maybe the amount of ricotta was too big to be considered a dollop?)

Ricotta Marinara Spaghetti Squash Bowl

All Stirred Up

This meal was really tasty! The ricotta cheese really took it to another level.

I can’t believe I still have almost an entire tub of ricotta remaining. What to make… what to make… ???

Is Junk Food Making You Depressed?

A registered dietitian with the MayoClinic recently addressed the relationship between junk food and depression on the MayoClinic’s web site, which I found pretty interesting:

“Some preliminary research suggests that having a poor diet can make you more vulnerable to depression. Researchers in Britain looked at depression and diet in over 3,000 middle-aged office workers over the course of five years. They found that people who ate a junk food diet — one that was high in processed meat, chocolates, sweet desserts, fried food, refined cereals and high-fat dairy products — were more likely to report symptoms of depression.”

Junk Food

I can honestly say that the process of eating junk food makes me happy, but I rarely feel elated or energetic afterward. I usually enter into a food coma, and find that indulging in sweets triggers my sweet tooth and I keep wanting more and more sweet treats!

How does junk food make you feel?

Cake for Breakfast

Though I love my protein brownie, I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t for everyone and can be a little dry. (Tip: Spreading peanut butter on top makes it taste even better!)

Yesterday when I stumbled across April‘s recipe for a protein cake, I was extremely intrigued. I figured it would be more moist than my protein brownie due to the addition of pumpkin or applesauce and figured starting my day with some cake would be a nice treat!

I combined all of the necessary ingredients and used All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder as my base.

Protein Cake Ingredients

I stirred everything up until a thick batter formed. It looked like real cake batter!

Batter

After slightly less than 70 seconds in the microwave, my cake was ready!

Done!

I loosened the cake with a knife and it popped out quite easily.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Protein Cake

Yummmm

The great thing about this little cake is that it’s portable! April recommended spreading peanut butter between the cake halves and taking it as a to-go snack. Yum!

I enjoyed mine topped with Greek yogurt.

Cake + Yogurt

The cake was pretty moist, but I think that making it with pumpkin instead of applesauce would make it even more moist. I’ll definitely be making this again soon!

The protein cake kind of reminded me of the five minute chocolate mug cake, but about a bazillion times healthier.

Protein Cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 scoop protein powder (15g)
• 1 egg white
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. pumpkin or applesauce

*Note: April’s recipe calls for2 packets of Stevia, but I omitted this since I used a flavored protein powder.

Directions

In a microwavable mug, combine all the ingredients and stir well until you have a thick batter. Microwave for 60 to 70 seconds.

Loosen the edges of the cake with a knife, pop it out of the mug and enjoy!

Workout

My workout today was pretty decent.

I started with a 10 minute warm up on the elliptical before taking a 30 minute spinning class. After spinning, I still wanted to read more of the latest issue of Cooking Light, so I hopped back on the elliptical for another 20 minutes while folding down every other page in the magazine to mark good lookin’ recipes.

My legs are feeling a little sore today, so I followed up my cardio workout with five minutes of stretching.

You wouldn’t want to see pictures of me stretching since I’m sure it’s highly unattractive, so here are two pictures of Sadie gettin’ her stretch on this morning.

Sadie's Morning Stretch

Ahhh, Feels Good

She’s such a little yogini. 😉