JoJo's Spaghetti Squash Boats

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the pause again! Mama Lanette and I are finding that this blog is more work than we expected! That's not a bad thing, but we need to work better at getting our two recipes a week in! But I'm happy to say that we're coming back with what I think is a really good recipe! Let's get to it!

Ingredients:
2 small spaghetti squash (Or one medium)
1 pound of meat of your choice. We picked some ground Italian pork because it was cheap. But feel free to do ground turkey or whatever you want.
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/2 cup of chopped green pepper
1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella, or cheese of choice
Salt and Pepper to taste

First preheat your oven to 375 degrees. As your oven is preheating cut your spaghetti squash in half. Now if you have a medium one this can be a struggle. There's been a few times where I could be found sitting on the kitchen floor with my knife fully stuck in a spaghetti squash trying to bang it on the floor to get it all the way through. It gets easier though! But as I was saying, you're going to want to cut the squashes in half and then gut the seeds out of it. Like a cantaloupe! Once that is done you will place them gut side down on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

While those are cooking, start browning your meat of choice. Don't worry about seasoning it this point, just brown it and drain it. As you're cooking that, take the time to dice up your onions, tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms. Make sure to dice them small, but not small enough to be considered minced.







Once the ground meat is done, remove from the stove and drain all grease. We will then add all of the chopped veggies and seasonings. We will cook these on low until the onion is cooked fully and the flavors get a good mixture.

Depending on how long this takes, your squash should be done or close to done. Remove the squash from the oven and give it 5-10 minutes to cool. It will still be hot to the touch after this but not so much where you can't touch it when needed. Flip the squash over and, using a fork, scrape out the insides. Now make sure you leave some inside because we will be using the "shell" later on. Take about a cup out of each half if using two small ones, or two cups of each if using a big one.





Add the squash into the skillet with the meat mixture and mix well. Cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes, until all liquid has evaporated. Make sure to mix once about every two minutes.








As you are cooking the mixture, take time to shred the cheese. You might have bought preshredded too, but just so you do know, the way that they keep that cheese from clumping in that bag is they add wood pulp. Cleaner foods equals a better you!








Once you are done with the cheese and your meat mixture, take the four, or two, shells that you have and equally put the meat mixture in the squash shells. Bake these at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Once those are done add your cheese and bake for about another 5 minutes.






And there you go! Not only do you have an amazing dinner that tastes oh so good, but you are also eating something healthy! And this is something that you can play with and make healthier if you wanted.

And as an extra treat I have a second recipe for you. Now this is something that I literally dreamed up. I've really been thinking about rice bowls lately. Trying to figure out a way to make them with spaghetti squash. I don't really have pictures for step by step since I wasn't even making this for the blog, but after eating it and seeing how good it was I wanted to share. Not only did this get the thumbs up by BBB, but my picky eater friend Stephy Bee also nommed this down!

Ingredients:
Four cups of spaghetti squash
One cup of frozen peas
One cup of carrots chopped up
One cup of cabbage shredded
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
3 tablespoons of water

Bake spaghetti squash with the same instructions of above recipe. As squash is baking, heat up sesame oil and saute the veggies. Once squash is done, take a fork to it and get about four cups of "noodles" out. Mix veggies and squash into a decent size bowl. Take soy sauce, brown sugar, and water and mix together, and then pour into the squash and veggies and mix well. Set aside and fry up your four eggs. Split the squash mixture into four different bowls and lay one fried egg onto each bowl. EAT AWAY!!!

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!

Hey Everyone! Happy (early) Easter. Alyssa JoJo here with a short and easy recipe for ham for the crock pot! Lets get to it.

Ingredients:
6-8 pound ham. (We accidentally bought already pre-cut ham but it made no difference.)
1 can of Coca Cola
1/2 cup of brown sugar
3 tablespoons of dry mustard
Molasses





Now just pour that can of coke right into the crock pot. See... look at how easy that first step is.












Now take that jar of molasses. Now what I did was pour some into a bowl and dipped my fingers in that sweet dark syrup and rubbed it all over the ham. Gave it a nice good massage. Add enough to make sure the ham has a good goopy dark tone to it.









Now mix that brown sugar and that dry mustard together in a clean bowl. Once again just dip your hands into that and rub/pat it onto your ham. I go a little easy until I make sure that the full ham is covered, and then cake the rest on. (See! Again look at how easy that is!)







Now just stick that ham into the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. BAM HAM! Sorry, no finished pictures from just pure laziness and righteous hunger!  Have a fantastic holiday!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I began making this chocolate-chip banana bread about six years ago when I first moved to Minneapolis and in with the S.O.B.  He had a horrifying penchant for Nutri-Grain bars for breakfast, naively taken in by the shrewd marketing ploy of using the word “Nutri” in the name of the product (I am still screaming in horror a bit inside).  Although chocolate-chip banana bread is not symbolic of healthy, nutritious eating, its ingredients are controlled by preparing at home, there are no preservatives or unknown additives whose names I cannot pronounce, and as the S.O.B. likes to say in a sappy voice, “It’s made with loooove”.   Ahem…it also freezes extremely well, so making a large batch is well advised.  

As a tip: I prefer to use bananas that have been frozen.  What?!?  You throw over ripe bananas away?!?  NO!  Stop doing that!  When your bananas become overripe, throw them in the freezer, people!  What, are you some fancy pants rich person who can afford to throw bananas around aimlessly and without thought?  The plus side of freezing ripe bananas is when you need a banana or two for a smoothie or baked product, they are right there, happily waiting to be used for a higher purpose.   Just a forewarning, though, when frozen bananas thaw, they become a little nasty looking.  The peels turn black, and they are super squishy; however, for this recipe, it removes the step of mashing them.  A minute saved is a minute gained for something fun, like shopping for Clinique products, buying a new Coach bag, or just a good old French tip manicure.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

4 bananas, mashed

5 tablespoons milk

½ bag chocolate chips (4 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder,salt, and cinnamon. In stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream sugars, butter, and vanilla.  Add mashed bananas and beaten eggs to creamed mixture. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk and chocolate chips. Spread into oiled and floured miniature loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Test by  poking with a toothpick, if it comes out clean, the loaves are done.

Yield:

Mini loaf pans = 8

Muffin pan = 12

Regular loaf pan = 2

After removing from oven, remove loaves or muffins from pan and cool on a baking rack.  Once cooled, wrap in freezer wrap or plastic zip bag, and store in freezer.  Serve as needed.  I take one out in the mornings and pop it into the S.O.B.’s lunchbox.  By the time he wants his breakfast, it is thawed and ready to go.  If not, he sticks it in the office microwave for about 30 seconds, and it is reborn to its original warm and melty, chocolately-chippy glory.  If overnight guests, stick them in a warm oven for a few minutes.  They will taste like they are freshly baked, and your guests will be amazed at how early you got up after drinking that gallon of sangria just to bake them a breakfast treat!

Next week, fellow freaks!  <3  Mama Lanette