Chipotle Mayo Pork Chops on Spaghetti Squash

I asked my husband to help marinate the pork chops we got and he creatively put this marinade together:

Chipotle mayo
Soy sauce
Mustard

Quite a tasty marinade I must say. The chops were pan seared...about seven minutes on each side because it was so thick. I've started to be daring and take pork to a medium well instead of fully cooking it. It's so much juicier and tender that way. It was served topped with mango salsa (from Costco). The flavors worked really well together!

As for the spaghetti squash...after it was baked and scraped into a large pan, I added all the little extras for additional flavor and texture and color. Hard to go wrong.

Squash
Onion
Garlic
S&P
Tomato
Cilantro
Parmesan

Pesto Chicken Pizza

The pizza dough recipe I used can either make one thick crust pizza or two thin crusts...so here's what I did with the second crust:



Pesto paste
Sauteed chicken slices
Sliced mushrooms
Parmesan Cheese
Fresh Basil after baking



To no surprise the crust was still harder than I'd like...but this was a yummy pizza! Loved the fresh basil on it!

I also didn't have very good pizza baking trays. I'd love a pizza stone one day. In this case, I used the BACK of a rectangle baking sheet. The crust actually turned out better than the one baked on the round pizza sheet. A rolling pizza slicer would also be really handy...but I'm trying to avoid adding anymore utensils or apparatuses into our packed condo kitchen. One day...when we have a house and more cupboards.

Parmesan Spaghetti Squash Bake

I'm not a big pasta eater. It's heavy and I usually feel pretty bloated afterwards. But, I love the sauces....the cheesy, creamy, garlicky goodness. I remember someone saying you can use spaghetti squash like you would pasta so I gave it a shot with just parmesan and some garlic salt (the bare bones seasoning of pasta). The end result...could've been broiled a little longer for some color...but was really tasty! And I could eat the whole squash skin portion without any bloat! A great vegetable side that also kind doubles as a pasta side. =)

Spaghetti Squash
Parmesan
Garlic salt


Bake the halved squash first. Loosen the cooked squash, sprinkle parmesan and garlic salt as you please, return to oven to broil for a couple minutes, then enjoy!

Meatless Rotini Casserole

It was another Meatless Monday and this time I was going to experiment with tofu. I had grown up eating it Asian style...but was told that it really takes on whatever flavors you cook it in...so I was going to use it in a "meat" sauce for a pasta casserole....that didn't have meat in it.

Tofu
Tomatoes
Onion
Tomatoe paste
BBQ Sauce (for smoke)
Basil
Oregano
Parmesan
Goat's milk gouda
Tri-colored rotini

End result....it was really really good! I could still tell tofu was tofu...but it wasn't as if I was trying to hide the tofu in the first place. Now I know that I can experiment more with cooking tofu like meat. However, as most of the soy products in North America are GMO....I also have to be wary about where the tofu comes from. It's unfortunate because tofu can be so good for you otherwise.