Second post of 2020 {you can read my first post HERE} and you are about to be just as SHOOK as I am. To start, I made spaghetti squash this week for the first time in 10 years. Yes! 10 years! I vividly remember living alone in the big Chi City and experimenting with spaghetti squash for the first time! Living in my very small, but adorable and perfect-for-me-at-the-time rental apartment meant that I had time to do things that I love, like conger up delicious meals in my tiny kitchen.

With that, I had always loved to cook and that was the year I made more new meals than any! I would come home from my days of teaching, decide what I wanted to make, grab the ingredients from the Whole Foods that was literally IN MY BUILDING, and then go upstairs feeling eager to get to “work”. I was always so excited about what I was going to create, and even though it was all based on trial and error, I had fun with it and never took myself too seriously as a home chef!

If what I made was delish, my friends who lived in my building would come over and eat what I was cooking up, or I would enjoy it myself in front of the TV. I will truly never forget that special time in my life!

Anyways! It’s now a completely new decade, I have a husband, 2 kids, and live in a legit HOUSE in the Chicago suburbs. My oh my has life changed! I loved where I was at then but nothing beats the life I live now! Still cooking in the kitchen as many nights a week as I can, I continue to enjoy creating my own recipes!! However, for some reason, lately I’ve been sticking to my go-to tried and true recipes. Nothing wrong with that, but I decided 2020 is the year I, once again, get ambitious in the kitchen!

So, when I was at the grocery store last week, and saw spaghetti squash, my first thought was, it’s 2020 and I need that in my life. My second thought was, why did I only cook with it once and never again?!? WEIRD and actually, very much not like me!

I am so pumped to share that my second experience with spaghetti squash will not be my last! And I won’t be waiting 10 years to buy it again! It’s amazing and consider me obsessed!! Seriously can’t wait to create all the recipes with it :) Whyyyyyy, you ask?? Because not only is it super healthy, with 2 cups coming in at less than 100 calories, and is more than half the carbs of traditional spaghetti, but it’s delicious and EASY TO MAKE!!!!!!!!!! If you didn’t know, now you know!

My method for cooking Spaghetti Squash:

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
• I cut the squash in half, lengthwise, with a big sharp knife that can handle a raw squash. I promise it’s easier than it sounds!
• Then, I take out all the seeds and stringy guck.
• I put both halves of the squash onto a baking pan, face down.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until it’s soft!
• Let the halves cool, then fork out all the spaghetti squash noodles into a bowl.

See! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Ok, so now that you have your squash prepared and ready, there are 5 million ways to use it in a recipe!!! I’m going to share the easyyyyyy and delish recipe that I came up with using just 4 {!!!!!} random things in my refrigerator!!!!! Who’s excited?

When I tried this meal for the first time, it was love at first bite. Oh! And you should know, that the kalamata olive tapenade just covers the noodles and shrimp, they are definitely not drowned in it. The flavor is full but the end result is still light. Truly the best combination! I’m still seriously SHOOK from it. And I know you will feel the same!

Please PIN this post so you have it saved for the future! Feel free to also email it to yourself or to your friends and fam! Be sure to use the pink buttons directly below this post to do that!