domestication take 2

for the record, one definition of "domesticated" per urban dictionary says "gettin civilized. stop sellin drugs, goin back to school, and gettin everything str8 wit yo baby's momma!!!!!!!!!"

something like that... in my sweet, innocent, drug-less world i recently found myself tinkering in the kitchen again. i feel compelled to learn some sort of domestication before tying the knot. i make a pretty good homemade pizza, and while i know josh wouldn't mind eating pizza every night, i think i need to master some other dishes.

i forget where i first read about it, but i've been meaning to try my hand at spaghetti squash for a little while. thankfully the food store clearly labels the spaghetti squash, otherwise i definitely would not have known what to buy. i'm still not very skilled in this department of home ec (or any department for that matter).

i googled "how to cook spaghetti squash" and easily settled on the nuke for 10-12 minutes option. although recipes often say "only x minutes of prep time", i can guarantee that i will need to at least double it. the other options were to boil for like 30-45 minutes (my "furnished" apartment doesn't have a big enough pot) or to bake for an hour.

after microwaving, i removed the seeds and pulp. it wasn't easy with it all tangled together. (please pardon the crappy i-phone pictures).

left side still needs to be de-pulped.

then i took a fork and scraped out the noodles. in some areas it came off easier than others... i am assuming that is from not cooking long enough? after a while i got tired of scraping and had a tupperware full of noodles, so i quit. i think if i had pasta-tongs (and cooked it longer) it would not have been such a battle.

that's probably too much left in there huh? oh well.

in the end, the spaghetti squash turned out alright. some parts were little crunchy, but from what i read that's common. effort wise, i would just stick to pasta noodles in a box!! health wise, spaghetti squash is the way to go at only 40 calories per cup. oh, and all those other nutrients and stuff too. money wise, i think this squash cost me $5-6 and i can probably get 3 servings out of what i scooped out. perhaps had i scraped and/or cooked it longer i could've gotten 4-5 servings.

it felt like it took forever, but i'd still like to make it again with the bake or boil option instead with hopes that it won't be as hard to scoop. this time i just topped it with spaghetti sauce out of laziness, but i'd like to try it with spinach, tomatoes and maybe some feta cheese. we'll have to see; i'm no rachel ray.

i also separated all the pulp gunk from the seeds and roasted them. bonus: seeds are a decent source of protein! (i have been slacking way too much on protein)