Day 16 - Meal 3

Dinner was perfect! I made the spaghetti squash pizza and I am so glad I did! It was such a different and unique way to use the ingredients instead of as pasta and a bolognese sauce.

I bought the spaghetti squash on my way home from the office and was able to microwave it instead of baking it in the oven to save time. In order to prep it in the microwave, I cut the squash in half and put it face down in a baking dish. I added an inch of water so that the squash would steam and microwaved it for 10 minutes. After it was done, I used a fork and scraped out the spaghetti strands! This saved so much time rather than baking it for 40 minutes before even assembling the dish!
 

The rest of the dish was very simple to put together. While the spaghetti squash was cooking, I added my ground sirloin and onions to a pan over medium heat and cooked it until the meat was cooked through. I then added pizza sauce (no sugar!) and mixed it all together.

When the spaghetti strands were scraped into a baking dish (I used 9x13) I added the meat/sauce mixture and stirred to combine. Then I added 3 egg (beaten) and mixed everything together well until the eggs were completely combined.

 

This baked at 350 degrees for 1 hour! I cut it into 6 servings and ate 1 for dinner and had another for breakfast (Day 17)! So many leftovers and I am so happy. This will make a great hash for breakfast another day but it was a great alternative to my vegetable omelette on Bar Method days!

While the pizza baked I was trying to think of a side dish. I had baby mushrooms and some leftover cashew cheese that I wanted to use up but I didn't want another salad. Instead, I made cashew cheese stuffed mushrooms! Best decision I ever made. It was a kitchen sink combination - cashew cheese, spinach, mushroom stems and bruschetta from Trader Joe's. I combined all of the ingredients and mixed well and then added the mixture to the mushroom caps. I baked these with the pizza at 350 degrees for 25 minutes! These were so simple, so delicious and can be made with any ingredients and vegetables (and bacon) and the cashew cheese added great flavor! I didn't miss the parmesan or mozzarella that usual stuffed mushroom recipes call for!

The rest of the evening was nice - Ryan and I watched Cosmos and True Detective. Because my dinner took so long to cook, I ate at 7:30pm and was so full through the night. I love that feeling and it was something I never felt before Whole30. I was always hungry a couple of hours after dinner - well not really hungry, but craving sugar and something sweet. Now I don't and it's so freeing!