Cooking For Dummies

We all have our pet peeves, right? One of mine is going into the break room at work to find this:

Who does this?

This happens pretty much every day. Who leaves this much coffee in the pot and then puts it back on the hot burner so that it turns into burnt sludge? I'm not even exaggerating that this is how I find the coffee almost every single morning. Stop being lazy and make another effing pot of coffee. Or at the very least, don't leave the burner on.

Shut up, Yoda.

Annnnnnyway, I find it highly irritating, obviously.

I decided to attempt to make spaghetti squash this evening. I know, right? I mean, sometimes I forget how to even get to the kitchen, I make things so rarely. I'm like a college aged male bachelor when it comes to all things domestic. But all of the cool kids are eating spaghetti squash these days, so I decided to jump on the cool bus.

Hey, there's my ride!

First, preheat the over to 375 degrees. Cut the squash length wise.

I recommend using the biggest knives ever for this task.

Cutting a spaghetti squash is some serious business. It's damn near impossible to cut it in half. Luckily, I have vast culinary experience (and by "vast" I mean none at all) so I figured wedging another insanely sharp knife into the thing and pretty much hacking and prying until it split in half was the preferred method of splitting a spaghetti squash.

This is what I imagine doing when I find coffee pots empty.

At this point I was actually a little frightened that I may lose a finger or two while trying to force the squash in half. Eventually, it split in two very uneven halves. Whatevs.

Having never made spaghetti squash before, I first thought maybe the strands inside are what you eat as "spaghetti". But then I remembered that I read somewhere that you scape the seeds and strands out before you bake it.

I briefly considered baking the seeds to see if they tasted
like pumpkin seeds, but then I remembered I'm lazy.

According to Master Google, you place the halves face down on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes. When the edges are soft and sort of browned, take a fork and see if you can easily pull the strands away, thus making "spaghetti".

Lesson #1: It tastes better if it's really, really cooked. After 45 minutes, it was still a little too "crunchy" for my liking so I cooked it until the edges were more caramelized, which ended up being over an hour.

After the edges are brown, use a fork to scrape the sides to create "noodles".

Lesson #2: It's a good idea to drain the strands or put them on a paper towel to absorb moisture instead of putting it directly into a bowl. Otherwise, it will be watery at the bottom like spaghetti noodles that are not allowed to drain in a colander.

So there you have it. The beginnings of a delicious paleo meal...until you dump Ragu on it like I did. Not so paleo then. But delicious. Next time, maybe I'll use a better sauce but I'm going with baby steps here.

What did you expect? I'm no Martha Stewart.
I'm lucky I didn't burn my house down.

So now I can add spaghetti squash to my fairly small list of things I able to prepare. Check!

In other news, remember when Tara and I did that 12-12-12 Virtual Race? My medal came today!

Front

Back

Pretty cool for a race that cost me $12.12. And the medal is cute. Check out her Facebook page if you want to get in on one of her races.

Insanity

I've made myself seriously sick.

I'm feeling pretty mad at myself because I had planned to go out and do a 6 mile run tonight, but I've been sick most of the day. The cause? Eating things my body rejects.

Yup. I'm a dummy.

Now, I've been pretty dedicated to a gluten free lifestyle, because I've already proven (multiple times. See a pattern?) to myself that gluten gives me horrible heartburn and stomach cramps. The problem is, I will often just skip grains all together, and I think that makes me feel even better.

Then slowly, I start eating more and more of things like rice and other gluten free carbs and after awhile, I start to get sick. I'm also suspicious of having a problem with dairy since I've been sick after eating too much of it several times...like today.

Now I don't want to sound like some whiny whackadoo. Trust me. I love all things made of gluten. I could live solely on bread and pasta. Then add cheese and I'm in heaven.



I know, me too.

I'm actually a little depressed over this because, hell, what am I supposed to eat? Just meat, fruits and veggies? I guess that actually sounds pretty healthy, but yikes. Boring as hell. But the other option is to feel poorly.

If someone tells me I have to give up coffee, I may throw myself off of a bridge. For real.

Now I'm behind in my marathon training, which at this stage in the game, is probably not that big of a deal. I'm still beating myself up over it, though.

Hopefully, I will feel better by Monday and can start anew.

                       Stupid baby is showing me up.           (source)

What I Didn't Eat Wednesday

I know of at least three different blogs that do some variation of a What I Ate Wednesday, where they post all sorts of healthy salad-like concoctions. Let me present what was brought into the office for lunch today: El Pollo Loco.

All I ate was the chicken. Okay, I did put dressing on it, but I managed to avoid the rice, beans, mac and cheese, corn bread casserole and chips. I should get some sort of prize for my restraint.

That's my edition of What I Didn't Eat Wednesday. I did eat a huge bowl of frozen fruit, so if it looks sparkly, rest assured it did not come from the Cullen family.

The sparkles make it better!

I did actually go running tonight. I did a speed work out which was an improvement over last night's workout, which went a little something like this:

1. Changed into my running clothes at work.
2. Drove straight from my office to the park.
3. Spent 15 minutes surfing the web on my phone in the parking lot in my car.
4. Said, "screw it."
5. Drove home.

And that, folks, is how winners are made.

Day 3 of not eating grains was a challenge. Seriously. I'm not kidding when I say I could polish off a huge portion of that container of rice all by myself. I'm feeling Homer Simpson-ish just thinking about it. Mmmmm....rice....

But it I'm feeling a lot better. I can't deny it. I'm not sure how long I can keep it up, but I've been gluten free since September, and that's gotten easier over time. My mood is certainly better and I feel a lot less tired.

Doing a speed work out tonight (speedy for me is more snail-like for other people) made me excited for a few races on the future. I really wanted to PR at the 2011 Disneyland Half since it was my one year anniversary of doing half marathons, but my time was horrible because I got really sick about half way through. I'm really hoping I can pull off a PR for the DL Half 2012.

Now if there was just some way I could go on Space Mountain every day, things would be great!

That's a super secret gang sign I'm flashing.
And T has jazz hands. Woot!