Spaghetti Squash, BAM!

Theoretically, I love vegetables. In real life, vegetables give me the chills. Not in a good way, but in a literal shaking as a negative physical response to their taste. I will not go into details, but feel free to find my blog "Vegetable Chills" if you want to read more about that. Jayme does not get the vegetable chills, but that is only because he does not give his body a chance. With the exception of raw spinach,which I mix with lettuce in his salads, vegetables are not allowed in. This is what made his newest decision most interesting!

Recently, Jayme decided he wanted to follow the Paleo diet. For those of you thinking, "Paleo as in Paleozoic era? Must be some sort of caveman diet." I know. That was my first thought too. And, you are exactly right. It is great because it takes eating back to nature. A person following a Paleo diet eats unprocessed foods. Things should be organic, and should be eaten the way they grow. Even meats should be natural. Beef, for example, must come from cows eating grass only, since that's what they eat in the fields. Fruits, vegetables, and raw nuts (meaning not salted or roasted, etc.) make up the snacks. And, here's the kicker, a Paleo dieter eats more vegetables than fruit.

Now, I pride myself in my supportiveness of my sweet husband. I am happy that Jayme wants to rehab his typical American, processed food diet, and there are many ways that I can see it being a great fit for him. He loves fruit, meat, and nuts, but "a Paleo dieter eats more vegetables than fruits", and Jayme allowing vegetables to breach his system might be a stretch. I pointed this out, but he insisted that he wanted to TRY, so I promised to try too.

Last night for dinner, I officially tried. I found a recipe from PaleOMG for spaghetti squash & meatball muffin cups. 25 minutes prep. 20 minutes to bake. I could totally handle it!
Jayme saw me fighting to cut the squash and voiced his concerns, stating that "trying" never meant squash. I just kept going. I finally split that squash, made a mental note that it smelled ridiculously like a pumpkin, baked it, rolled some grass fed beef meatballs, and simmered them in plain tomato sauce that I added a bunch of spices to. When the smelly old squash finished baking, I used a fork to get all the threads out. I suppose the threads are supposed to resemble spaghetti, hence the name, but I promise you that I was not fooled. I put the squash threads in the muffin tins, placed a cooked meatball in the center, poured a little egg white on top of each one and then covered with extra sauce. The whole time I was smelling a pumpkin smell that I did not approve of anywhere near my meatballs, but I powered through.

I baked that bad boy until the timer beeped, removed the squashy muffins from their tins, and served some up for my Paleo dieting husband. Thankfully, the pumpkin smell was gone by now, so I served myself some too. I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top, and closed my eyes to keep the vegetable chills at bay. Then I took my first bite, and umm, let me just say it was delicious! Mind you, I had to keep the amount of meat, sauce, cheese, and squash well balanced on my fork for it to taste good, but it DID taste good. I ate four of the squash muffins and Jayme ate five. We were full, we were nourished, and we DID it! We both ate our vegetables, and enjoyed them!

Spaghetti Squash, BAM! We owned you!