I was very proud of this dish of spaghetti. It tasted very unlike my normal spaghetti does. Which isn't to say my normal spaghetti is bad, just that this was really good. And there was no meat, or spaghetti in it.

1 spaghetti squash

1 jar herb and garlic spaghetti sauce

1 green and 1 red bell pepper

1 cup chopped green beans

1 package Enoki mushrooms ( I got from the asian super market. If you have the option, I recommend these highly)

1 package fried puffed tofu (also from the asian market. If you want tofu, but with a thicker more tearable texture, these will be your friend)

olive oil

salt and pepper

So I started by baking the spaghetti squash, cut in half, with some salt for 1 hour at 350 degrees. In a large sauce pan, I sauteed the sliced bell peppers in olive oil until they were soft. I added the green beans, mushrooms, and sauce and simmered for 10 minutes. In another pan, I heated some veggie oil, and fried the puffed tofu, turning until crispy and set out on a paper towel. Once the squash was done, I shredded it with a fork and added it to the sauce along with the tofu and served. I put Parmesan on mine, but you could do nutritional yeast if you want to keep it vegan.

I made this one morning when Jeremy was here with Grizz. It was super easy considering I had all the ingredients already in the house.

3 medium, very ripe bananas

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

2 Tbls molasses

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

I crushed up the bananas, mixed them with the applesauce, vegetable oil, and molasses. In other dish, I mixed up the sugar, flour, baking soda and seasonings. Then I mixed all that stuff together. Finally, I greased a baking pan, and cooked in the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Right when I took it out to cool, I sprinkled some more cinnamon and sugar on top, and let it cool for 20 minutes. It turned out good, but next time I'd make sure my bananas were more ripe, and I'd probably add nuts to the mix, or maybe dried cranberries, or both.

I was scanning through an Alton Brown book I have, I'm Just Here for the Food, and I saw this recipe. Meat is expensive and tofu is not so I gave it a shot.

1 pound extra firm tofu 1 package hoagie rolls

1 package onion clover sprouts

1/2 pound Jack cheese

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

1/4 cup hot sauce

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 Tbls minced garlic

Salt and Pepper

(3/4 cup dark beer, I did not include this in my recipe opting to use more BBQ, hot sauce and vinegar)

I started the day before to allow ample time to marinade. The first step was the drain the tofu. In order for it to absorb as much sauce as possible you first need to get out as much water as possible. I cut the tofu into 6 pieces length wise, layed them on a paper towel, put another paper towel on top, placed a baking sheet over it and a two cans of beans to weigh it down. I switched this out once after it became saturated over the coarse of 30 minutes.

While this was working, I mixed up the BBQ sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, and garlic. After squeezing the tofu dry, I placed it in a Tupperware container, poured on the sauce, and closed the lid. I gave it a good few turns to make sure the tofu had good sauce coverage, including the area between the slices. The next day, I heated a pan on the stove. Tossed on the tofu and let it sear on each side. During this time, I sliced and toasted the hoagies, and melted a bit of sliced jack cheese on each roll. Then I put it all together with the sprouts and topped with a little more BBQ sauce and ate it all up.

Cooking time took maybe 10 minutes. The recipe made 6 sandwiches. I made them in two sandwich batches on three consecutive days. The tofu keeps in the marinade during that time no problem.

I just made this dish tonight. I was inspired this morning when looking through Alton Brown's book I'm Just Here For the Food, from which I pulled the chicken piccata and baked potato recipes. The green bean idea came from a dinner I had over at my friend Cat's house last week. I'd been craving them ever since and felt I needed something green on my plate.

I started first with the baked potato:

4 russet potatoes
vegetable oil
kosher salt
cheese and butter (for a topping)

I preheated the oven to 350. Washed the potatoes and pierced their skin many times with a fork. After drying them off, I rubbed a healthy amount of veggie oil on the outsides, and liberally added some kosher salt. I put them in the oven for an hour, then pulled them out, and topped with Parmesan, butter, and cheddar cheese. The oil and salt on the outsides made the skins perfectly crispy.

The Chicken Piccata:
3 chicken breast, pounded flat
Kosher salt
pepper
veggie oil
2 Tbls flour
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic
juice from 1 large lemon
1/4 cup water
splash of Mirin
splash of fish sauce
1 Tbls capers
1/2 cup chopped parsley

After pounding the chicken, I seasoned with the salt and pepper, and dredged with the flour. In a large hot skillet with a bit of veggie oil, I browned the chicken on both sides. It stuck to the pan quite a bit, but Alton Browns recipe said if that was the case you are doing it right. I pulled the chicken out and let it sit, while tossing in the chopped onions, and chopped garlic. I mixed up the water, lemon juice, Mirin and fish sauce in a measure cup (the recipe called for 1/2 cup vermouth but I had none so I used some other sweet liquids). After the onions had become soft, I poured in the liquid, did a quick deglazing, and added the chicken, capers, and chopped parsley and covered to braise for a few more minutes. After that, I turned off the heat and let it rest for a few minutes while finishing up the green beans.

Green Beans:
1 lbs green beans
3 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
salt
pepper
chili powder

I love green beans but they always take so long to go bean by bean trimming the tips. I trimmed them, then added them to a pan with a little hot olive oil and let them sautee. After they had gotten maybe half way cooked, I added the garlic, lemon juice, and seasonings. I stirred that up occasionally, and when the lemon juice had mostly evaporated, it was done.

My families recipe, altered a tiny bit.

2 cans tuna
1 bag frozen peas
1/2 bag of egg noodles
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper
1 Tbls sweet chili sauce
1 cup shredded cheese
salt and vinegar potato chips, crumbled

Boil the noodles until they are cooked, and drain. In the same pot, mix back in the noodles, with the tuna, cream of chicken and mushroom, milk, chopped parsley, and seasonings. Pour into a large casserole dish, and top with cheese. Put in oven at 350 from 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the soup mixtures are bubbly. Serve in a bowl with crumpled potato chips on top.

green leaf lettuce
2 chicken breasts
thyme
sage
salt and pepper
garbonzo beans
cucumber
green onions
red bell pepper
black olives
feta cheese
lemon (juiced and zested)

I started with putting the garbonzo beans, shredded cucumber, chopped onions and bell pepper, olives, crumbled feta, and lemon juice together with some salt and pepper.

I also seasoned the chicken with the thyme, sage and salt and pepper and pan fried it. When it was done, I chopped it up into chunks and added it to the garbonzo bean mixture. This was the major base of the salad, but to eat, I just chopped up enough lettuce to make a plate, topped with the wetter mixure and tossed.

Other than the lemon juice, juices from the veggies and the mixed up creamy feta, there was no salad dressing.