Garden of Eatz

I’m a huge fan of spaghetti squash. I have four different ways of making it, but by far this one is my favorite. Eventually I’ll add the other three, but first and for most: Pesto Parmesan Spaghetti Squash. you can follow my previous pesto recipe, or by all means go get your own! This recipe is great with chicken…meat lovers…you’ll thank me later.

Servings: 1-2

What you’ll need:

• Cutting board
• Very large and sharp knife
• Oven
• Cheese grater
• Oven pan
• Aluminum foil
• Food processor (only if you are using my homemade pesto recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium to large sized spaghetti squash
• Pesto (I would recommend my previous pesto recipe, or the beloved vegan cashew kale pesto from Trader Joe’s)
• 6-8 Cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Avocado oil (about 1/2 cup)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes
• Nutritional yeast

Instructions:

• Cut the spaghetti squash into half evenly
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees
• Remove the insides (seeds and squishy part) using a knife or fork (I would recommend cutting a small circle around the inside layer and then using a fork to take them out)
• Spread a light layer of avocado oil on each half
• Sprinkle salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and nutritional yeast on each half
• Place both halves on a cooking pan lined with aluminum foil
• Place pan in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes
• While the squash is cooking, chop 6-8 cherry tomatoes into half
• Place tomatoes in a small bowl and pour 1 tablespoon of avocado oil on top
• Season tomatoes with salt and pepper
• Once the squash has been cooking for 20 minutes, briefly remove from oven and place tomatoes on one side of the pan
• Let both cook for a remaining 20 minutes
• Once 20 minutes is up, remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes
• With a fork, vertically slice through the squash to form spaghetti-like strands
• Keep the spaghetti squash strands inside the original squash
• Add pesto sauce to each half and mix
• With a cheese grater, add about 1/4 a cup (4-ish strokes) of Parmesan cheese to each squash half
• Microwave both halves for 30 seconds
• Remove from microwave and add roasted cherry tomatoes

Enjoy!

Must. Try. Seriously. Okay, I was fooling around in my kitchen one day and had a bunch of leftover cute little baby peppers. They are LITERALLY (!!!) so cute and colorful, the only thing that made sense was to turn them into teeni, tiny potstickers. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 4 baby bell peppers
• 1 chicken apple sausage
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup rice
• 4 pieces of broccoli
• Pesto sauce
• White truffle oil
• 1 cup of vegetable broth
• curry powder (to taste- I’d recommend about 2 tablespoons)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Before beginning, wash and dry all produce. First, preheat oven to 350 degrees. The next step is to cut the peppers in half and take out all the seeds and any inside parts. In each baby pepper, spread a layer of pesto and white truffle oil. Once the oven is preheated, cook for 15 minutes. While peppers are cooking, cook rice and quinoa until soft. Remove both peppers and stuffing from the heat and set aside. Dice chicken apple sausage into small pieces, and add to a small pan with vegetable broth and coconut aminos. Sauté on medium heat until lightly browned. Remove from heat and set aside. Cut broccoli into tiny diced up pieces. Add to small pan with vegetable broth. Cook on medium heat for five minutes, covered. Combine chicken apple sausage, rice, broccoli, and quinoa into a bowl with curry powder. Mix ingredients thoroughly. Now, the peppers are ready to be stuffed. Using a spoon insert stuffing into pesto peppers. Enjoy!

I was originally inspired to create a healthier pesto recipe, when the pesto I had been trying started to make my food super oily. I decided to make a pesto made with good-for-you ingredients like basil, cashews, kale, and spinach- less olive oil all around.

Ingredients:

• 5 1/4 cups of cashews (150 grams)
• 2 cups hot water
• 4 cups basil leaves with stems
• 1 lemon
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 stalk of kale
• 3 cups spinach
• 3 tablespoons of sunflower seeds

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total prep: 10 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Directions:

Bring three cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add cashews to water and let cook on medium heat for fifteen minutes. Drain the cashews, but save two cups of the cashew water for later. Purée cashews for 2 minutes pausing and stirring at thirty second intervals, in a blender or food processor (medium speed). Once the cashews reach a fine texture, slowly add the warm cashew water 1 tablespoon at a time. The mixture should be creamy.

Next, add the basil leaves and blend for 1 minute on high speed. Add remaining ingredients, and blend for 2-5 minutes. Depending on what type of blender or processor you use, the time may very. Blend until the texture is creamy. Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite recipes and most simple! For someone who absolutely loathed broccoli until her sophomore year in college, I understand the hesitation. Luckily, I’ve created a way to disguise the plain, wet, and crunchy taste of plain broccoli, and turn it into a pretty good substitution for a barbecue chicken pizza from Dominoes. Enjoy my recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 Broccoli and kale crust (affordable and high quality offered at Trader Joe’s)
• 1 bag of Broccolini
• 1 cup Broccoli
• Pesto sauce (I would suggest the vegan, kale, cashew, and basil pesto sauce available at Trader Joe’s)
• Barbecue sauce
• 1/2 cup Feta cheese
• 2 Chicken apple sausage
• 2 cups Spinach
• 1 tablespoon Garlic
• 1/4 cup Onion
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

To start, I would suggest laying all of you ingredients out on an open counter area where they can easily be found. Wash all produce! Take the frozen crust out of its packaging and place on a pizza board- let this sit for about five minutes. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cooking and cutting instructions:

• Remove 4 large pieces of broccolini and cut the flowers off. Set these aside for later.
• Cut the ends off of 1 cup of broccoli and dice into small circles. Set aside.
• Place pizza in the oven once preheated to 450 degrees. Set a timer for 10-12 minutes.
• Obtain two chicken apple sausages and cut horizontally into half. Cut each of those halves in half. Dice vertically. Set aside.
• Dice onion until very fine.
• Once your timer has ended, remove pizza crust and let sit for 5 minutes.
• Spread pesto across the entire crust.
• Drizzle (recommended) or spread barbecue sauce on top of pesto.
• Scatter broccolini flowers and broccoli onto crust.
• Next, spread chicken apple sausage pieces onto crust evenly.
• Place spinach around the outer ends (right before the biggest part of the crust).
• Sprinkle feta evenly.
• Sprinkle garlic evenly.
• Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Place entire pizza with toppings back into the oven and cook for 5-7 minutes.
• Remove pizza and let sit for at least 10 minutes.
• Slice and enjoy!

Sharing my passion for cooking and health. Enjoy!