Roasted Spaghetti Squash with White Beans, Fresh Herbs & Parmesan

I have always loved squash. I love summer squash, acorn squash, butternut squash and spaghetti squash among others. In an effort to cook more seasonally I decided to try a new spaghetti squash recipe that turned out to be delicious! Ryan raved about it and I was surprised at how good this simple meal was.

Roasting the Squash
Spaghetti squash can be really hard to cut through when uncooked, so I poked a few holes in it and threw it on a pan in the oven whole. You're going to want to cook it at 375 degrees and I would suggest checking it after 45 minutes. I cooked mine for a little over an hour and it was over-cooked.
Once it is cooked (you can tell if it's fork tender), cut it in half length wise and spoon out the seeds. Then gently scrape out the flesh with a fork in long strands.

The rest of the meal:
Meanwhile, saute two chopped shallots and a large clove of garlic in about 2 tblspn butter. Cook just until softened and then add about a cup of cannellini beans, a tspn fresh chopped thyme and a tspn fresh chopped rosemary (your kitchen will smell amazing at this point). Stir in squash strands and heat the mixture through. Serve with fresh Parmesan on top and crusty bread on the side.

Note: We are buying a fancy new camera this week in preparation for Mr. Baby Shannon, so my future food pics will be so much better than these iPhone shots!

Happy Eating!

Mini Broccoli & Cheddar Quiche

Now that I am pregnant, it's more important than ever to focus on getting enough protein in my diet. I just can't bring myself to eat meat every single night though, so I turned to my trusty, protein rich friend the egg. Now I love breakfast for dinner and have since I was a kid (it was a weekly staple in the Cook household), but Ryan is just not a huge fan. I started looking up other egg "dinner" recipes and found one for mini-quiche made in a muffin tin. How fun! As I always do, I tweaked the recipe a little and came up with something that turned out to be surprisingly delicious and something we both (or all 3) loved.

Mini Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche
- about 2 cups broccoli florets - cooked just until tender & chopped
- 1 cup milk (1% or higher)
- 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
- I cup graded cheddar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- salt & pepper to taste
- a tspn nutmeg

Heat the oven to 350 and grease the muffin tin. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, cream, eggs & egg yolks. Stir in cheese, salt, pepper & nutmeg. Add chopped broccoli. Pour egg mixture into prepared muffin cups, filling each one. Bake about 25 minutes or until set and no longer jiggly. Let them cool slightly, then invert onto a baking sheet.

These were very tasty as made, but the great thing is that you could add different things to switch it up. We're thinking next time we might try turkey sausage and mushrooms. I served these with french fries and biscuits (because I'm pregnant and I wanted curly fries and bread ;-) But they would go great with a side salad, roasted asparagus or maybe fresh fruit for brunch.

Happy Eating!

Easy Apricot Chicken

Wow, it has been too long since my last post. I have to tell you though, pregnancy really messes with your taste buds. I really haven't been eating (much less cooking) anything worth blogging about. Unless of course anyone would want to read a weekly review of Papa John's and kraft mac n cheese. However, now that I am fully in the middle of my 2nd trimester, I have been feeling much better and my taste buds have been more cooperative. I have also found myself with much more energy and have actually felt like cooking again! Yay!

Tonight I whipped up a yummy, super easy staple in our house and decided it would be worth sharing. It's inexpensive, healthy & completely flexible!

Apricot Chicken
- chicken breast
- salt & pepper
- apricot preserves
- spicy mustard

That's it. Seriously. The recipe is wonderfully flexible as well. Basically season the chicken well with salt & pepper and cook it. Sometimes I cook it stove top and sometimes I bake it.You could probably bread or fry it if you wanted. Next, to make the sauce heat 2 parts apricot preserves and 1 part mustard in a small sauce pan (taste and add more mustard or preserves if you like). Heat slowly while stirring until well blended. Simply pour the sauce over the chicken and enjoy.


I promise you will be surprised at how tasty this easy meal is. I usually make this with a side of roasted veggies. I think sweet potatoes and red onion go really well.

Happy New Year and Happy Eating!!