please join us for dinner

You are invited to join us for dinner. Tonight I'm cooking one of my favorite dishes, Spaghetti Squash Primavera. I'm cooking this for two reasons one because it's good and easy and two because my lovely friend Lesli over at Keeping up with the Kovics has inspired me to get back on WW and lose the baby weight. This recipe is one I found when I was following the South Beach Diet to lose the baby Rhett weight. Speaking of babies before we start cooking we'd better make sure baby is happy and situated...

Now that we have the cutest baby in the world happy and confined we need to get out our ingredients.
1 teaspoon EVOO (extra virgin olive oil, for those of you who are not Rachel Ray savvy)
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4 cup diced zucchini
1/4 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup diced carrot
1/4 cup sliced green onions

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 plum tomato, diced (AKA a Roma)
1 tablespoon red wine

1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups cooked spaghetti squash
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Here is my fancy picture of my mad chopping skills
You need to cut the squash in half and spoon out all of the seeds and yucky squash guts. R loves to help me with this step.

Once the squash is hollowed out place it face down in a Pyrex dish with about two tablespoons of water in it. Then cover the dish with plastic wrap. Cook the squash in the microwave for around 10-15 minutes until it feels soft. You will have to repeat this step for the second half of the squash (I know you knew this but I'm just saying someone may not have).
While the squash is cooking, add bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, carrot, green onions, oil and garlic to a skillet on low heat. Let all of this cook for 10-12 minutes or until crisp-tender stirring occasionally. This time I added bacon, well because it's BACON people and the boys in this house can't survive on veggies alone! Sometimes I add shrimp as well but I really liked it with bacon.
At this point the baby is crying and the microwave is beeping to let us know our squash is done so we've gotta stick a paci in crying baby's mouth and fork out the center of the squash, just make sure you don't get the paci and the fork confused in the above instructions or the baby will definitely not be happy.


Okay so baby's not happy so prepare yourself to cook the rest of this meal while he's screaming but don't worry we are almost done...Now it's time to stir in tomato, wine, basil, salt and black pepper; cook for 4-5 minutes stirring once or twice. If baby is still crying, I suggest you go ahead and drink some of the wine now!

Now that the squash and veggies are all done serve the veggies over the squash and voila...you've got a very healthy, and fancy looking dinner all ready to serve your family. It only took me about 30 minutes to prepare from start to finish. Now here pull up a chair and join us...

Oh and please please don't be too jealous of my designer salt and pepper shakers...LOL

ENJOY!!