How to Cook Spaghetti Squash (The Best Way!)

Cookie and Kate

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash (The Best Way!)

Let’s talk about spaghetti squash for a minute. I’ve been working on a new spaghetti squash recipe (coming Friday), and I noticed that there are quite a few different ways that people suggest cooking spaghetti squash.

Here are the methods: Baked or microwaved whole, steamed in a pan of water in the oven, sliced into rings, halved lengthwise or crosswise, baked cut-side up or down.

All of those options will work, but I have a strong preference for one method, which reduces the amount of moisture in the squash and yields golden, caramelized edges that add extra flavor.

Here’s my trick: Cut the spaghetti squash in half from the stem end to the base, rub the inside lightly with olive oil, and roast it cut-side down. There’s a little more to it than that (see the recipe below), but that’s the gist.

Easy, right? No fuss, no mush, just tender and delicious spaghetti squash! This way, the moisture can pool on the pan instead of collecting inside the spaghetti squash, and you end up with a perfect built-in bowl that you can load up with toppings.

Continue to the recipe...

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Ambitious Kitchen

30 Favorite Finds at Fresh Thyme Farmers Market

It has been what seems like forever since I shared my most recent grocery finds with you. I know you all love them, so I’m making an effort to share more of the things I love to get in hopes to inspire you to try something new! A few weeks ago Abra and I headed [...]

The post 30 Favorite Finds at Fresh Thyme Farmers Market appeared first on Ambitious Kitchen.

A Couple Cooks

Pretty Simple Cooking Cookbook is Here!

It’s here! Our cookbook, Pretty Simple Cooking: 100 Recipes to Make You Fall in Love with Real Food, has officially launched as of February 6! Thank you so, so much for all your help in getting to this point. It’s because of you, dear readers, that we’re here in the first place. This book is not just a book to us: it’s a journey. And the journey has been on so many levels: a journey of finding each other, falling in love with the kitchen, and the long walk of finding family. If you’ve heard our story, you know that our journey to find our son Larson coincided with the steps of writing a book. We couldn’t be happier to reveal that the book is dedicated to him, the dream that came true while we were writing the book! Check the first page of the cookbook when you receive it. Here’s a short Q&A about the book now that it’s out in the world, including the book trailer, preview recipes, book tour, and more!

If I love it, should I share? 

Yes, yes and yes! If you make something from Pretty Simple Cooking and love it, we’d love to see a photo of what you try! Just tag @acouplecooks and use the hashtag #PrettySimpleCooking. (Instagram is our platform of choice, but we’re on Facebook and Twitter too.)

***If you have 2 minutes to spare, we’d LOVE a brief Amazon review! Here’s the Amazon page to head to.

If you’d like to join our virtual Pretty Simple dinner party on February 17 to cook one recipe from the book on the same night, we’d love to have you! Shoot me an email to join, sonja@acouplecooks.com

Do you have any previews?

Here’s a list of Pretty Simple Cooking press mentions, most of them including sample recipes, from the Washington Post, AOL, Food52, our favorite food blogs, and more.

How can I find it? 

Pretty Simple Cooking is available on Amazon // Barnes and Noble // IndieBound // Books a Million // iBooks

In Indianapolis, is available at The Garden Table // Goose the Market // Ezra’s Enlightened Cafe // Silver in the City

Got a book trailer? 

Yes, we do! Here it is:

Are you going on a book tour?

We are! Check out our cookbook page for all the confirmed events, in Indianapolis and around the country. A brief outline of confirmed cities:

New York City, February Chicago (TBD) Minneapolis, April San Francisco & LA, April Denver, May Nashville, May

If you have an idea that would bring us to your city, please shoot us an email: sonja@acouplecooks.com

What’s the cookbook all about?

Pretty Simple Cooking isn’t just a healthy vegetarian cookbook, it’s our lifestyle-based approach to getting in the kitchen. What’s pretty simple cooking? Food can be both pretty (delicious and beautiful) and simple (approachable and nourishing). Home cooking with whole foods and lots of vegetables isn’t easy, but can be pretty simple once you rethink the way you approach the kitchen. We also share our top 10 lessons for a lifelong practice of home cooking. Here are a few things that we think make Pretty Simple Cooking stand out:

 It includes 100 new, creative recipes—all vegetarian, but intended for all eaters. The recipes in the book are in our signature style: beautiful and creative, yet functional and accessible for the everyday home cook. Many are also gluten-free and vegan. People tend ask us, How can I eat more vegetables? Here’s 100 of our favorite vegetable-centric recipes, tested in hundreds of real kitchens around the country. We started calling it a vegetarian cookbook for non-vegetarians—and it stuck.  There’s a full-color photograph for every recipe. Confession: we rarely make something from a cookbook if it doesn’t have a photograph. From an informal survey of friends and family, we found most people feel the same.  We share our top 10 “secrets” to surviving and thriving in the kitchen. People ask us how we do it all the time. And we say things like: We slowed down and prioritized cooking. We almost always cook for or with people. We learned to enjoy the journey. These “secrets” are what keep us going in the kitchen, and what we wanted to share about in our cookbook. Each lesson has a beautiful watercolor by Ashley Rodriguez.  Simplest and quickest recipes are easy to find. Have you ever tried to find something quick and easy in a cookbook, but it’s impossible to find? In our book, each chapter starts with the simplest recipe. As you page along through the chapter, the recipes get more involved. This way, you know if you start with a recipe in the beginning of a chapter, it should be relatively simple.

 

A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living

A Sweet Pea Chef

One Pan Chicken Bruschetta

This one pan chicken bruschetta is fresh, flavorful, healthy, and ready in less than 25 minutes!

A few years ago, I shared a super tasty Tomato Basil Bruschetta recipe with you guys.

And, while I’m a super big fan of bruschetta as an appetizer  <– I mean c’mon, we’re talking about fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar on a thick slice of baguette.

It’s really not even a competition.

But.

There’s this whole clean eating thang we’ve been doing ’round here that doesn’t really jive with the whole baguette thing.

Maybe on a cheat day, but not all day every day, like I like my bruschetta.

So, I looked at my fave bruschetta recipe and considered how I could make it a cleaner, higher protein option that I could enjoy more often, feel great about, and — essentially — make it possible for me to enjoy bruschetta more often.

Big shocker: Boneless skinless chicken breast was the answer.  It’s lean.  It’s high protein.  It’s clean.  It’s perfect.

But wait.  Let’s make this EVEN better.

Let’s make this a one pan meal.

Yes, let’s do that.

One pan chicken bruschetta FOR THE WIN, people.

This meal is ALL of the following…

easy healthy clean eating gluten-free high protein fresh flavorful ready in 25 minutes amazeballs

As one could’ve probably predicted, this meal has become one of our absolute faves.

 

What Cheese To Put On Chicken Bruschetta?

What about the CHEESE, you ask?

I’m right there with you.  Cheese is amazing, but the wrong cheese can mess up the flavor.

While you can easily leave the cheese out of this chicken bruschetta recipe to keep it dairy-free, I love to add a slice of fresh mozzarella. The creaminess and tender texture balances the flavors perfectly.  You could also add a little parmesan cheese grated over the top, if you’d like.

Hello: deliciousness.

Can You Freeze Chicken Bruschetta?

This chicken bruschetta also makes great left-overs, which is always a winner for us during the week as part of our meal prep.  Just add it to a meal prep container and place in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.  If you want to freeze the chicken bruschetta, it will work, but the tomatoes wont retain quite the same consistency once frozen.  They’ll still be tasty and will be edible, just not as perfect as fresh.

To freeze the fresh mozzarella, you can choose to freeze it separately, wrapped in it’s own packaging or tightly wrap with plastic wrap.

To reheat, just allow to thaw in the refrigerator the night before and then reheat in the microwave for about 2 minutes or in a pan until heated through.

One Pan Chicken Bruschetta

If you’re looking for a great, fresh dinner and you love bruschetta like it’s going out of style, I know you’re gonna love this one pan chicken bruschetta.

One Pan Chicken Bruschetta

This one pan chicken bruschetta is fresh, flavorful, healthy, and ready in less than 25 minutes!

1 tbsp olive oil 1/4 tsp sea salt 1/8 tsp black pepper 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts 2 cloves garlic (minced) 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 1 cup grape tomatoes (halved) 6 oz fresh mozzarella (thinly sliced) 10 leaves basil (for garnish)

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Season the boneless, skinless chicken breast with sea salt and ground black pepper. Add the chicken to the hot skillet and cook until well-browned and cooked through, about 4-6 minutes per side. Add minced garlic and balsamic vinegar into the pan and cook until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add thinly sliced fresh mozzarella over the chicken breast, and cover for 1-2 minutes to melt. Scoop up the balsamic sauce from the pan and drizzle over the chicken and melted cheese, then add the grape tomatoes into the pan. To serve, garnish with freshly sliced basil.

This post contains affiliate links for products that I use regularly and highly recommend.

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