Be yourself

Normally, I don't like foods that proclaim to be "almost like [X other less healthful or non-dietary restriction-friendly food]." If you're going to be vegetarian, just don't eat meat. If you're going to go for a low-carb diet, don't make special super-duper low-carb bread with genetically engineered wheat-derived flour. As a general rule, food is better if it isn't pretending to be something else.

But every once in awhile, you gotta break your own rules.

I've been eating a carb-heavy diet lately, both in terms of meals and snacks, and resolved today to get back on the wagon. And every once in awhile I get a craving for Morningstar's surprisingly good fake meat products; the "Grillers" veggie burgers and Italian sausages, the latter of which I just happened to have in the freezer, are my favorites. Thinking back to the end of my last semester of undergrad, when I made Italian sausage and pepper subs using those Morningstar sausages, I decided to break out my spaghetti squash and make a "spaghetti" version of it.




Spaghetti squash isn't my favorite in terms of taste (that would be butternut), but it's so much fun! Okay, fine, and it was on sale. But really, dragging a fork through the roasted squash half and watching the angel-hair-thin strands come out is entertaining. Plus, the empty skin is a convenient receptacle for vegetable waste!



Half a small squash, half a bell pepper, half an onion, three sausage links, and three mushrooms led to this behemoth of a portion that I daresay any Italian grandmother would be proud of.



After I took this picture, I immediately put half of it in a Tupperware for tomorrow. And still had enough to stuff myself, along with a few leaves of what it should be clear by now is my favorite vegetable: kale. I'm getting increasingly minimalist with the stuff. It used to be "toss with olive oil and a careful blend of salt, pepper, citrus juice, and spice." Now, you're lucky if I bother to salt it.