Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Pintried: Spaghetti Squash and Veggie Marinara 


     Have you ever thought about adding a vegetarian night to your meat routine but have some picky eaters in your house? Then this is the recipe for you. Pintried and PinFabulicious! Even my hardest critic, my meat loving southern raised father, thought it was divine! I would say quick and easy. However, the cook time on the squash does take some time.  I think you'll find it is worth the wait.

Ingredients:

1.) One Spaghetti Squash 

(and here's the great part...whatever else is in your pantry or fridge!)

Here is what I added:

2.) 1-2 cans tomatoes drained (I like two but my husband likes one!)

3.) 1 package fresh mushrooms or 1 can

4.) 1 can black olives

5.) 1 onion sliced (Leave it out if you want to. I did for my friend who can't do onions and it was just as tasty)

6.) 1 can black beans rinsed... if you want the protein 

7.) 1 small yellow summer squash

8.) get creative...corn, garlic, peppers, zucchini (I've tried it all in a pinch and it's all good!)

9.) grand finale... parmesan cheese if you do dairy 


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350, cut spaghetti squash in half the long ways, place in greased (olive oil) casserole dish and cook for 45 minutes to one hour. You should be able to easily push a fork easily through the skin when it is done.  Once you remove the squash halves from the oven, gently take your fork and scrape out the seeds. After you remove the seeds use your fork to fluff the "noodles" out of the squash. Meanwhile sautĂ© the onions, add other veggies and allow to simmer. Add salt, pepper and other seasoning to taste. I like Italian seasoning. Viola, you are done! Below is a picture of my most recent marinara. I would have taken a picture to post of the meal put together but we were starving and ate it all! 

                                             


PS Keep in mind, this is not pasta, its squash! Spaghetti Squash has gotten a lot of bad publicity by people claiming it doesn't really taste like spaghetti. It's not supposed to, but keep an open mind and you'll love it. (or you can always just trick your guests like I did my dad and refuse to tell him what's in it until after he tried it)


Post a comment below and let us know how it worked for you!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Pinflop - Listerine Foot Soak


Original Pin Posting Listerine Foot Soak


 We like easy tasks, when we saw this pin and its potential to increase beauty and fun time we were ready to try it out! But... you know how the saying goes, "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is!" so is the case for this pin.

We followed the directions of 1/4 cup of Listerine, 1/4 cup of Vinegar and 1/2 of water for 15 minutes.  Immediately we were suspicious because there wasn't enough liquid to cover our feet, reference the picture below. 

But we wanted to stay true to the original pin so we improvised with the following:
Needless to say, only the bottoms of our feet were covered by the solution. Truthfully that is the problem area that we were targeting, so no complaints at this point. 
We set our timer and prepared for a blissful 15 minutes of soaking and girl time. 
Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock.... TIMES UP!

Sadly the skin did not simply wipe away as suggested in the above pin. Our faith did not waiver!!! We simply increased the solution to cover our feet and soaked again for another 15 minutes. PINFLOP, again. So we decided to triple the recipe and soak for a total of 45 minutes. 

So, what did we and what can you take away from this PINFLOP? 
Save your time and money and go to the salon. We tried purchasing and using both Listerine and Generic Mouthwash. I didn't make a difference. Listerine is expensive. Invest your time and money in a professional pedicure. You're worth the time and money spent on a professional pedicure. If you're like us working all week long, paying attention to family and household responsibilities you have earned some me time. Unfortunately this pin is not going to give the me time it advertises. 

Other negatives about this pin:
1. The soak was not relaxing it burned our feet. 
2. It turned our feet green and blue respectively.
3. The soak's smell was not pleasant or refreshing.