Eric and I have been quite obsessed with HGTV and DIY Network for some time now. We know all the shows. All the hosts. Bryan Baeumler fan girl/boy right here! We can recite all the annoying commercials by heart (ugh). We watch repeated episodes multiple times to the point where we could recognize the homeowners on the street. Eric is tormented by the fact that we’re renting right now and can’t really do anything major to spiff up this place. Not that it’s a bad place to live, but it doesn’t really feel overly personalized for us. It doesn’t quite feel like home. He’s so desperate to build things he didn’t complain once when putting together an Ikea cabinet the other week! How does that even happen?
The point of this story, however, is that the DIY shows are brainwashing me.
Proof? I’m entertaining Eric’s idea of gutting an old house from top to bottom. That’s on his bucket list. His dream is to buy the crappiest, oldest, creepiest house on the block and gut it to the bones. We recently went to look at a 100-year old house that hadn’t been updated since the original owner moved in. Green cabinets, knob and tube electrical, scary stains in the basement, rotary phones. It was straight out of a horror flick. Isn’t that every girl’s dream? Can I even survive that kind of torment? Who knows. Watching them make it look so easy on TV makes me feel like it’s possible though (or insane, depending on the day).
I hate to be a dream crusher, so I’m entertaining this idea. Plus, I love when he’s happy and doing what he is passionate about. I just don’t want a house gutting to be a marriage gutter, you know what I mean? I recall the renos we did in our previous house and it wasn’t always puppy dogs and rainbows. There were tears, fights, hefty bills, excruciating trips to Home Depot (loathe), dust, and more dust. Did I mention dust? Maybe renting isn’t so bad after all.
I’ll keep you posted on what we end up doing. In the meantime, feel free to share your own home renovation stories with me! Are you living through any right now?
Something that isn’t a marriage crusher? This recipe right here. Smiles and happy bellies all around with this meal. As per my theme of Vegan Glow in September, this meal was super easy to throw together. In fact, I think I’m going to put it on the rotation every week! It’s also a great way to boost your vegetable intake significantly.
When the squash is done roasting, season it with chili powder, cumin, oregano, and more salt and pepper. I go wild with the spices. Then layer on a hefty serving of black bean guacamole. I repeat: go wild.
aaaaand feast!
Tex Mex Spaghetti Squash with Black Bean Guacamole
Yield
2-3 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A satisfying and healthy dinner for two! Recipe inspired by Whole Foods.
Ingredients
For the spaghetti squash:
- 1 medium spaghetti squash
- extra virgin olive oil
- ground cumin
- ground chili powder
- dried oregano
- salt & pepper
For the black bean guacamole:
- 2 avocados, pitted and flesh scooped out
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 1 small tomato, seeded and diced
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed (about 1.5 cups cooked beans)
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
- fine grain sea salt, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- red pepper flakes, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice off the stem of the squash and place the squash cut side down on a cutting board. With a chef's knife, carefully slice through the squash lengthwise to create two long halves. Scoop out the seeds and guts with an ice cream scoop. Brush some olive oil onto the squash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place squash halves cut side down on the baking sheet and roast for 30-50 minutes, depending on how large your squash is. When the squash is tender and you can easily scrape the strands with a fork, it's ready. I like to check the squash after 25-30 minutes to make sure I'm not over cooking it. Be sure not to cook for too long or it will turn mushy.
- While the squash is roasting, prepare the black bean guacamole. Mash the avocado flesh in a large bowl. Fold in the onion, tomato, drained and rinsed black beans, and cilantro. Season to taste with lime juice, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
- Remove squash from the oven, flip over, and scrape the flesh with a fork in vertical motions. Do this until you've scraped all the strands off the skin. Now sprinkle on some chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper (as much or as little as you want). Top the squash with guacamole and serve warm. You can also plate the spaghetti squash, if preferred.
Tip:
For a step by step photo tutorial for roasting spaghetti squash, see this post.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Angela,
I love your recipes. Lately, I enjoy the peeks into what else is going on in your life. This makes me feel more connected in the blog world-a good thing!
New to your blog and love it. Waiting, rather impatiently, for the cookbook to come out in Spring.
Thank you, I’m happy to hear that! :)
All my favorites in one recipe… I die! Thanks for making my day :-)
Hi, Angela! I have recently stumbled upon your website, and am I glad I did. What a wealth of information here. Your ideas are so accessible, fun and beautifully presented, and your love of real food and good health truly radiates out to the rest of us lucky folks. This year marks a huge dietary transition for me, as I divest myself of GMO food, factory farmed meats and a 4-1/2 year addiction to acid blockers. Many thanks for helping make that journey an inspired one.
As for “old house reno” projects, I had to laugh when you wrote about that — I live in a house built in 1799, and when I bought it in 2009, it was barely habitable. It had NOT been kept up well in recent decades, and worse, it smelled horrible. The very first project that came up, after a few weeks of scrubbing, was when I took my first bath in the beautiful clawfoot bathtub, drained the water… and heard an odd splashy sound in the basement. Turned out there was a partial blockage just before the septic tank (a plastic bag of disposable razors, no less — who flushes bags of razors??) which had caused the large volume of bathwater to back up into a disabled section of the waste pipe that had burst many years ago (unbeknownst to us, as the broken part faced the wall). We had to dig a largish ditch in the front yard and replace the outside pipe. I learned how to mix and apply cement, and how to test the viability of a septic tank — two of numerous new skill sets I now boast.
Maybe it’s just the rescuer in me, but I feel my house is like a living “person” that I was meant to own and fix up. You already know that passion is what drives us to our right destinies. You’ll know when the right house speaks to you! Please do keep us updated on those adventures.
This looks incredibly, now I just have to convince my non-avocado loving husband to try it!
As for the renovation project, it sounds like a epic and scary amount of work. That being said, it’s always something I have dreamed of. If you do it, I hope you post every step of the way on here. It would be wonderful to follow along.
P.S. The new recipe printer app is working great, but I really wish there was a picture included with it. It’s nice to see what it is I’m looking at making without having to read all the ingredients. Just a suggestion!
I gutted my master bathroom all by myself and remodeling it little by little. We entering month 5. Thankfully, we have another bathroom that we can use. Hope to have it done by Christmas. Not something I’d like to do again. Can’t imagine doing an entire house.
Love this idea. Thanks so much and I’m so excited that its finally squash and root veggie season!
UGGHHHH to home renos. I’m currently waiting at home for a couch to come from the Brick – between 10 am and 1 pm they say – which will be the second last touch on our basement apartment that we’ve been building for THREE MONTHS. List of things I have learned:
1. Home Depot is a energy sucker (as previously mentioned)
2. There will NEVER be enough storage space for everything
3. I hate holding things up for excruciating lengths of time – I’m always holding the level while the man of the house does the nailing, screws, etc.
4. Your reno budget? Yeah, try tripling it.
5. Picnic dinners on the floor are now a common thing.
On the bright side, all we need is a sink and renos will be done! Now to find a place to put all of the paint, equipment, caulking tubes, etc….
Thank you so much for having this site! My bf was recently forced to change his entire diet and we are both lost to find good tasting food that we can make that are GF and Dairy Free. I am so excited to try this out tonight – he loves guac!!! I will be following you :) btw – Thanks to The Berry to showing me!!!
My husband and I own our house, and we’ve limited ourselves to one “major” home renovation a year. We bought it as a “pretty-good-shape house” from the 70s six years ago, so we do smaller stuff as needed (like replacing the locks), but we’re going to own the house a long time, and any project that takes more than an afternoon has to wait its turn. This year’s project was replacing the smaller windows in the house. Next year we’re doing the big windows. We split them up because our house has weird windows that all have to be special ordered because they’re in a size no on seems to have used anywhere else in the space/time continuum other than my neighborhood.
It’s slower, but it means we’re only doing the stressful “home improvement” trips (and the fighting) for a couple weeks a year. We’re going to be living here a long time, so we’d rather go slow, take our time, and have time to have fun with each other in our first home (and some pocket money) than rushing to get a HGTV level home. We’ll get there, it’ll just take us a couple of years. :D
Totally unrelated to this post, but I’ve pre-ordered your cookbook – I’m SO excited for it to be delivered to my door…whenever that may be. :)
aw thank you so much!!
Spaghetti squash should be showing up in the markets around here any day now, I’m bookmarking this recipe to try when I get my hands on one!
My parents did a lot of renos and I am just amazed that they stayed together. It wasn’t THAT horrible, but I just know I wouldn’t put my relationship through any major renos. I can stay in a bad mood for days if things don’t go my way. =/
I’m currently in an apartment I hate, and I look forward to my new place. May 2014 can’t get here any sooner!
I fell in love with black beans over the summer so this recipe is right up my alley! Thank you for sharing!
It is a must then to go to wavyglass.org to ask for help. They are a great group of people who have old homes and are working in them ( cause it’s never done done) and give out great advice. They all use to be on oldhouseweb.com until the spam got to bad on that site.
We have a 113 yr old home that was actually in fairly good shape. We had the kitchen remodeled and upstairs bath ..survived both. We did a small bath remodel ourselves and our marriage is still intact..
Recipe looks awesome.
Love spaghetti squash! Always happy to add a new recipe that I’m sure my hubby will enjoy!
My husband and I are surviving a Reno right now. You and Eric sound exactly like us when we were renting. So we bought a fixer upper.
After living through a Reno my advice is to never live in the house your renovating. First, there is the dust, second it makes it more like a job in that you actually have to get up, make a plan and go over and work on it. Lasty, when its done you can move in and enjoy your hard work without any dust. This is what we have found to be the real key to a renovation addiction and a happy marriage. Keep that rental while your working on it!
Um, WHAT is Eric drinking and can you send me some to shovel down my partner’s throat so HE wants to build things, too, and goes through withdrawal symptoms when he’s not engaging in home improv? I can’t even get him to hang up pictures. Everything home related gets done by me, but I am severely limited in both skill and know-how. Marrying someone who itches to do home improvements? That’s on MY bucket list. :)
This recipe looks amazing.
Re home renos — I would not recommend wallpapering together! In fact wallpaper should come with a warning label. But other projects have been fun.
Hi Angela!
I made this for dinner tonight (added a bit of chopped grilled chicken and an extra squirt of lime) and OH.MAH.GAWD. So so so delicious! Thanks for suggesting a tex mex way to prepare spaghetti squash! It was so amazing!
Laura
Imagine my surprise when I opened my Canadian Living and there you were. It was like an old friend had made the big time! Congrats.
Aw thank you Sandra! :)
Made this for dinner tonight for my roommate and me. And it was amazing. The only thing different I did was use a little bit of taco seasoning from Trader Joe’s. Thank You. Your dishes are always flavor packed and fun to make.
How convenient, I happen to have a garden full of spaghetti squash that is taunting me!
We are actually in the process of just finishing building a new house out on a farm. Luckily, we maintained our current house the whole time so didn’t have to live thru renos, but there is no doubt that it takes all of your spare time and effort. Every weekend and several evenings after work for the last year have been spent working on the house. Focusing on how great it will be when it’s all done is the best way I’ve discovered to maintain sanity when we are tired and patience is low. It’s just about done now and we are actually starting to plan a move in date.
My absolute favorite show is Rehad Addict. I think it would be such an awesome experience to completely renovate an old house like she does! I love that you and Eric are getting the chance to bond over some home DIY projects and TV show watching :)
Spaghetti squash is my absolute favorite. New ideas are always welcome and this looks delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Cannot wait to make this recipe! Though today is going to be 79 so I have vowed not to eat any cinnamon, pumpkin, squash etc! Tomorrow though….
I can totally relate to the house renovations – we have built 2 houses and remodeled one. We vowed this house will be the one we die in – but who knows where life will take us. We built this house 9 years ago, moved in 8 years ago with a plan to have it completely ‘done’ within 5 years-HA! not quite. We are in the middle of our addition (garage and mudroom which was part of original 5 yr plan). It can be stressful and is such an extra thing to have going on in the middle of already busy lives – but it is worth it and we could never have just bought a house like this on our salaries. It will be nice though to be at the point where all we have to do is maintain and paint here and there as needed/wanted.
I did love seeing your renos when you were doing them – you have great taste! If you redo an old house, it would be a blast to see it progress!
Spaghetti squash is the best! Thanks for this interesting take on the typical “pasta” dishes. I’m excited to try it.
Make sure to be mindful of feng shui when you buy your house!
The HGTV and DIY Network are so addicting. But instead of renovating my house, I much rather cook this recipe. It looks delicious!
This just became my new favorite meal! I think I will sub green onions for red next time as mine were a little potent. I’m thinking next time wi be tomorrow!
My husband and I are closing on our first house next week!!! it’s a real fixer upper. I’m not as interested in fixing up an old place but my husband is ecstatic. I’ll be busy in the kitchen making this spaghetti squash dinner while he gets to work!
Greetings from Scotland! I’ve just discovered this blog and I have to say that it is changing my outlook on food – I’ve just ordered my first batch of chai seeds & jars to make your portable oatmeal recipe and can’t wait to try a Green Monster! I’m not vegan, but feeling as though I need to be eating less meat and far healthier food, so your blog is an inspiration.
This recipe looks fantastic and can’t wait to try it – still trying to get my head around conversions to UK measurements etc. but looking forward to experimenting! Your food always looks brilliant, I love when recipes are fully illustrated and your photography work really compliments the food.
Can I ask a question not specifically related to this recipe? When you mention nut butters in your recipes, are these equivalents to typical peanut butter in a jar, or are these something you have made yourself?
Thanks, and sorry for the possibly silly question – very new to some of these ingredients! Will your book be published in the UK? Would be very useful to me!
Thank you and congratulations on a fantastic blog!
Hey Pam! So glad you found the blog :) I’m so happy you are enjoying it so far!
As for nut butters, yes they are equivalent to store-bought nut butters so you can use what you prefer. I do always use “all natural” nut butter though. I also have some recipes on my blog to make it at home. All my best!
AND FEAST… is correct! This looks delicious and I love the presentation of it.
I am so glad I found your blog, I need a recipe like this to feed my body, ever since I became vegetarian I haven’t had a clue of what to make, but now I come here and finding amazing things like this to make!
Thanks
This looks awesome! I usually don’t prefer spaghetti squash but this recipe definitely makes me want to try it again.
This recipe is exactly what I needed on my meal prep Sunday, as I happened to buy all the ingredients! Perfect!
look great. and will definitely get my family on board. finally..
Made this for lunch and hubby could not get enough! Thank you for an easy, delicious, and satisfying meals that even a husband could love!
Haha you are right about the dust….and the millions of trips to Home Depot. We have been married 4 years and are living in our third house! The first two houses were cosmetic changes but the one we are in now is a total gut and rebuild! We literally have torn up every floor, ceiling, wall in half our house and put them all back together and now we are ripping out the other half!!! We are crazy but we love it and makes our marriage stronger somehow! You can see our before & after pics here: runtoradiance.com/2013/08/28/before-and-after-photos/
This was an awesome meal! My family of men loved it. ;-)
do you peel your delicata squash? This looks amazing! I totally love your recipes!!!!
Loved this. My boyfriend who is not vegan, but enjoys vegan meals must of said “baby, I really love this” 9 times.
This dish sounds great! I love the idea of combining two awesome-sauce foods like spaghetti squash and guaccamole. YUM!
As for renos – we are not handy, nor do we wish to be haha ;p
Yummy! I made this for dinner last night. My whole family loved it. I omitted tomatoes and red onion because I didn’t have both, but it was still satisfying. I may cook some onions instead of eating raw ones.
made this lastnight and it was so awesome! Definately will be made over and over ino ur house..we had some guacamole left, and i’m going to make the chickpea pancake tonight and spread that on top :0)
Made this last night and we loved it! Thanks!
I made this last night for my family and they loved it. My husband took it to work for lunch today. I will definitely make this again. Thanks!
Just made this for dinner and it is a new favorite already! Thanks :)
This was so yummy…and so simple! My hubby and I both loved it and will be having it again soon. :-)
Good looking spaghetti squash spaghetti (SSS) recipe. And well done on the photo layout. That takes a lot of time, huh?
My market mislabeled a bin of butternut squash as spaghetti squash! We made this a couple of weeks ago with spaghetti squash and loved it. Unfortunately, this time I did not notice the squash difference until we’d already cut it open. Both look very similar outside, but butternet squash has seeds limited to one portion of the squash, whereas in the spaghetti squash the seeds are more evenly distributed. Here’s hoping it’s just as delicious!