Spaghetti Squash - How to Bake & Prepare It for a Recipe

Ever heard of it or even tried it?
It's actually pretty good!

It's a member of the winter squash family and is supposedly fairly easy to grow. 
We'll see! 
I may try to plant a few this year and see what happens.
It can be used in a variety of dishes but makes a great substitution for pasta. A low-carb version of pasta.

Here's how you can bake it.

Before cooking I always wash my veggies. I don't care what kind they are...you never know where they have been.
So wash the outside of the squash!
Cut the ends off of the squash. This can be a challenge if you aren't using a good knife so Be Careful!
Slice the squash lengthwise.
Remove the seeds and pulp from the center.
Place the squash, cut side down, on a greased cookie sheet. (as pictured above)
Take a sharp knife and pierce several holes in each squash half.
Place in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.
Remove and let cool a bit.

Now take a fork and pull from the outer edge of the squash to the center thus creating your "spaghetti".
You can use this immediately while it's still hot or you can store it in the fridge for later use which is what I did.

Tomorrow I'll show you the yummy dish I made with mine.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Dessert

Here's my diabetic chocolate spin-off of the strawberry pretzel dessert that I shared yesterday.
Actually, it's not totally sugar-free but pretty close.

You know, just because you have diabetes doesn't mean that you can never enjoy dessert again. You just need to improvise a little and know your limits.
Don't go eating the whole thing at once!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Dessert

1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp. Splenda
1 small box sugar free chocolate pudding
1 small box sugar free vanilla pudding
3 1/3 cups milk, divided
2 tsp. peanut butter
8 oz. tub of Cool-Whip (the sugar-free kind)

Place pretzels, butter & Splenda in an 8x8 baking dish.
Mix well and then press into the bottom of the pan.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 6 minutes.
Let cool completely.

Once crust is cooled begin making your pudding layers.

In a bowl, mix by hand (no electric mixer) the vanilla pudding with 1 and 2/3 cup of milk.
Whisk in the peanut butter.
Fold in half of the container of Cool Whip.
Spread mixture over top of pretzel crust.

Now make your chocolate layer.
Mix by hand, the chocolate pudding and 1 and 2/3 cup of milk.
Fold in the rest of the Cool Whip.
Spread on top of the vanilla pudding layer.
Refrigerate and ENJOY!

You may remember the mousse pudding from THIS post last year.
The only differences are that I used less peanut butter in today's recipe and placed it all on a pretzel crust.
The saltiness of the pretzels goes great with the sweetness of the pudding.

It's getting late so I'm off to bed.
Night!

Peanut Butter/Chocolate Pudding Mousse

This pudding is so creamy that I consider it to be more of a mousse than a  pudding and if you love peanut butter then this one is for you.
You can make it several different ways.
~ go for sugar free and use S.F. pudding & Cool Whip
~ go regular and use full fat milk, regular pudding and Cool Whip
~ (my version) whatever you have on hand which in this case was 1 box regular, 1 box S.F. and a lite Cool Whip.
Play with it a bit and maybe try other pudding flavors and leave out the peanut butter.

Peanut Butter/Chocolate Pudding Mousse

1 small box vanilla pudding

1 small box chocolate pudding

3 1/3 cups milk

5 tbsp. peanut butter

8 oz. Cool Whip

Do NOT use an electric mixer with this recipe. Mix by hand with a wire whisk.

In small bowl:

 whisk together vanilla pudding and 1 2/3 cup milk.

Add 2 1/2 tbsp. peanut butter and whisk again.

Add 1/2 of the container of Cool Whip and mix well with whisk.

Spoon into individual serving size containers but leave enough room in each for a layer of chocolate to go on top.

Repeat recipe instructions again using the chocolate pudding.

Spoon over peanut butter layer.

Cover and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

I have to tell you that my mother got this recipe from a friend at work. Her copy was titled Vivian's pudding. Not sure where Vivian got the recipe but I changed the name so as to give you a better idea of what Vivian's Pudding was.

Rugmaking Update:

I managed to get a little bit of time this weekend to begin on my rug. It's slow going as I am new at it. Sometimes I have to remove the loops and redo them but I'm getting the hang of it. I'll have to snap a picture later and show it to you.

That's all for today!

C-Ya

Sugar-Free No Bake Cookies

I made No-bake cookies yesterday to take to our Sunday dinner with the family. The problem is that my Dad is diabetic and if it's there he will eat it.

"It" being anything that has sugar in it that he is not supposed to eat.

So I made a double batch of regular no-bakes and then thought I would try a sugar free version for him.

Dad uses different sugar substitutes like Stevia, Stevia Blend and Splenda.

The only thing I had at my house was Stevia and I didn't think that would do very well in my concoction.

So I went over and asked Dad which he though would work best and he said to try the Stevia Blend. So I got some out of his cabinets and went back home and got started.

They worked!

They still don't taste as good as the "real" thing but I guess when you are diabetic you have to settle for what you CAN have.

Sugar-Free No-Bake Cookies

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup Stevia Blend

1 1/2 tbsp. cocoa

1 1/2 tbsp. peanut butter

1/2 stick of butter

1 1/2 cups oats

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine milk, Stevia Blend, cocoa, peanut butter & butter in a pan.

Stir and bring to a boil on the stove.

Let boil for 1 1/2 minutes.

Remove from heat and add vanilla & oats.

Stir until mixed well.

Drop by tsp. or tbsp. onto waxed paper.

(This makes about 20 tbsp. sized cookies)