Spaghetti of the Squash Variety

Spaghetti for dinner!

No, not noodles… Squash!

I purchased a giant spaghetti squash a couple of weeks ago and it has been waiting patiently for me to use it to create a delicious dinner.

Tonight was the night!

After prepping the squash, I set it in the oven and let it bake away while messing with Sadie. Sometimes she is just so fun to terrorize. 😉

I think she thoroughly enjoyed dancing and twirling to Bonnie Raitt.

“Let’s give ‘em somethin’ to talk abooooout!”

After 40 minutes in the oven, the squash was ready for noodleizing. (You may read about how I prep spaghetti squash here.)

Once I had a bowl full of squash noodles, I topped them with Newman’s Own Sockarooni pasta sauce and a bucket load of Parmesan cheese.

Newman’s Own pasta sauce was buy one, get one free at my local grocery store so I nabbed two jars. Ryan selected the Sockarooni flavor that we used tonight and it is a winner! Loads of flava!

Sadie clearly wanted to sample it as well…

Though my bowl of spaghetti squash was quite large, I still wanted a little somethin’ somethin’ when I was done eating, so I popped open a cup of Chobani strawberry banana Greek yogurt to enjoy while I blog away.

Now I’m off for an evening stroll with Ryan and Miss Sadie.

Enjoy your night!

Library Card

Guess what I did after work today?

I got myself one of these babies:

My very own library card. 😀

As a kid and high school student, I loved going to the library. My mom is basically a library super-fan, and would take me and my sister to our local library to browse books, magazines, DVDs and CDs for hours. We loved it!

I walked to the Orlando Public Library and within five minutes of filling out a form and handing over my driver’s license, I had a library card!

I’ve put off getting a library card for so long because parking downtown to actually go to the library is a huge pain. When one of my colleagues told me that our library actually delivers books to your home for free, I was singin’ a different tune. You can select books, DVDs or CDs through the library’s catalog system and ask them to deliver them to your doorstep. How cool is that!?

Plus, I work within walking distance of the library, so I can easily return anything we check out after work or during my lunch break.

I’m also excited to check out some of the free classes offered at the library. I sure could use some extra help when it comes to website design and html code. That stuff is way over my head and as a blogger, it would be very beneficial to gain some knowledge about the “behind the scenes” stuff.

With my spiffy library card in tow, I headed home to get crackin’ on dinner.

Dinner

Ryan and I have plans to head to St. Pete this weekend for some wedding-related appointments, so we had to use up the fresh veggies we had waiting in our fridge.

I prepared a veggie plate to enjoy along with a bowl of spaghetti, which did the trick!

My veggies included roasted Brussels sprouts and parsnip fries, served with some ketchup for dippin’.

The veggies were pretty filling and coupled with a big bowl of pasta, I felt very satisfied after eatin’ this meal!

Of course Parmesan cheese made an appearance in the pasta bowl.

As Ryan and I headed into the kitchen to clean our dishes, we caught Sadie in the middle of some Brussel sprout thievery.

What a little sneak!

St. Lucia, Here We Come!

Ryan and I are off to book our flights to St. Lucia for our honeymoon! Now that our hotel reservations are all set, we gotta book transportation to actually get to the island… 😉

Good news: Tomorrow is Friday!!!

Easy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

Hold the phone.

Tonight’s dinner was fan-flippin’-tastic.

Who knew making a homemade buffalo chicken sandwich could be so simple and so tasty thanks to only two ingredients?

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

To begin making our sandwiches, I first baked two Murray’s family farmed chicken breasts in the oven at 400 degrees for approximately 25 minutes.

Once the chicken was fully cooked, I pulled it using two forks before tossing three ounces of the cooked meat in the buffalo sauce I made by combining one tablespoon of Franks RedHot Wings buffalo sauce and one tablespoon of grated Parmesan and Romano cheese.

Along with our buffalo chicken sandwiches, we enjoyed cold cucumber slices to distract our taste buds from some of the heat from the hot sauce.

If you’re a fan of buffalo chicken wings, you must make this sandwich!

When I saw Lisa make a buffalo chicken salad using this two-ingredient buffalo sauce that she saw on Hungry-Girl.com, I knew it would be a winner, and boy-oh-boy it is!

If you’re weary of the spiciness, don’t be! It definitely has a kick to it, but I’m terrible with spicy foods and I didn’t think it was too hot.

YUM.

Easy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich (adapted from Hungry-Girl’s Buffalo Chicken Choppity Chop Salad)

Ingredients

• One 3-ounce cooked chicken breast, pulled (You may also used canned chicken to save time)
• 1 tbsp. Frank’s RedHot Wings Buffalo Sauce
• 1 tbsp. Grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 whole wheat hamburger bun or sandwich thin

Directions

Combine pulled chicken, Frank’s RedHot Wings Buffalo Sauce and Parmesan cheese in a bowl until chicken is fully coated. Microwave approximately 35 seconds until warm. Place buffalo chicken on top of whole wheat bun and enjoy!

Good Things Come in Fours

One of the great things about having a blog that chronicles my meals and often details healthy recipes is that my friends and family are constantly talking to me about yummy meals they’ve prepared. 

I am always taking mental notes about all the ideas they give me and I owe tonight’s dinner to my friend Leah, who told me about this easy recipe this weekend. 

Dinner a la Leah

It’s no secret that I love fish, but I tend to gravitate to more flavorful fish like salmon and trout.

I often steer clear of tilapia because I find it a little bland. However, I nabbed two tilapia filets at the grocery store last night because they were the cheapest white fish available behind the seafood counter and Leah’s recipe called for a white fish.

To prepare the fish, I lined a cookie sheet with foil and sprayed it with cooking spray before placing the tilapia filets on top. I then sprayed the filets with cooking spray and sprinkled them lightly with garlic salt. After broiling the fish until it was fully cooked (less than 10 minutes), I topped the filets with a mixture of Parmesan cheese and basil and placed them back in the oven to broil until the cheese became slightly brown and crisp.

Parmesan Basil Tilapia

 The result was a very flavorful and cheesy fish filet!

Flavorful Fish

Another Yummy Bite

I enjoyed the Parmesan basil tilapia with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts for some added nutrients.

Gotta love and easy and delicious dinner!

Of Possible Interest

• 5 Healthy French Fry Alternatives (FitSugar.com)
• Healthy Family-Friendly Dinners Under $10 (Health.com)
• Decoding Food Labels (dailySpark.com)

Four Your Enjoyment

I saw this cute little post on the new blog ChicagoCuisineCritique.blogspot.com and thought it would be a fun one to duplicate on PBF! I always love learning more about you guys, so feel free to participate on your own blog or share four things about yourself in the comments section of this post.

Four Jobs I’ve Had

• Lifeguard
• Public Relations and Marketing Assistant
• Marketing Manager
• Writer/Editor

Four Places I’ve Lived

• Harrisburg, PA
• Palatine, IL
• St. Petersburg, FL
• Orlando, FL

Four TV Shows I Love

• Friends
• So You Think You Can Dance
• Cash Cab
• Man v. Food

Four Places I’ve Traveled To

• France
• Costa Rica
• Hawaii
• California

Four Blogs I Visit

(Note: I visit a lot more than four blogs daily but thought you might enjoy these blogs that are not from the healthy-living blog community.)

• J’s Everyday Fashion (This girl has serious style)
• Style Me Pretty (FANTASTIC wedding blog)
• The Didactic Pirate (A hysterical college English teacher’s  random musings)
• The Daily Puppy (Not a blog, but it features an adorable picture of a new puppy every day)

Four of My Favorite Foods

• Ice cream
• Peanut butter
• Shellfish (clams, mussels)
• Pasta with marinara sauce

Four Places I’d Rather Be

• Romantic vacation with Ryan
• At home with my family
• At the beach with friends
• Back in Chicago with my girlfriends

Now it’s your turn to tell me four things about you:

• What are your four favorite foods?
• What four TV shows do you love?
  

I Wanna Goooo

Do you ever have those days that go by so slowly that you cannot fathom how only 10 minutes have passed since you last checked the clock?

Today is one of those days for me! I think it’s because I’m so anxious to get off work and head south to my parents’ house for the weekend. Ryan and Sadie are coming with me, and my sister is in town, and I want the fun to begin! C’mon, Time… getta move on!

Snack + Lunch

I thought my sweet potato hash wrap from this morning would have kept me fuller for longer, but I was really hungry within and hour and a half of breakfast. (The lack of protein, maybe?)

I dug into my mid-morning snack a bit early and enjoyed a turkey roll up (turkey + Laughing Cow Swiss cheese + tortilla).

Turkey Roll Up

Yum!

When I was filling up my mug with a second up of tea this morning, I noticed something that called to me from the vending machines.

I’m normally not tempted by vending machine treats (perhaps because I never carry cash and rely solely on my credit card?). Today, however, a marketing strategy worked on this Peanut Butter Fingers-loving girl.

I was suckered in by the old “Limited Edition” trick. I rummaged around my purse and found the $.85 needed to purchase a Limited Edition triple chocolate Twix bar. Hey, it could be gone tomorrow, I had to seize the day!

Triple Chocolate Twix

I split the bar with a coworker. We both agreed that it was tasty, but we like original Twix bars better.

Lots o' Chocolate

After snacking my way through the morning, it was time for lunch!

Hooray!

I had a big ol’ bowl of pasta with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.

Pasta!

Noodle Bowl with Veggies

I topped the noodle bowl with Classico four cheese pasta sauce (aka my new favorite!) before sprinkling everything with Parmesan cheese.

Deeelicious!

Weekend Plans and Goals

Immediately after work I am heading to St. Pete for the weekend. Ryan and I are meeting with the catering manager of the Vinoy (where we’re getting married) to begin wedding planning discussions tomorrow morning.

Saturday afternoon we’re meeting with a woman at a nearby restaurant we’re considering for the rehearsal dinner. It’s a wedding-filled weekend!

The GOAL for this weekend is to finalize the guest list so we can send out save the dates! We have 160 people on our list at the moment and are hoping to condense it to around 120… This could get tricky! 😉

If you are married, how did finalizing the guest list go for you?