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!
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
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)
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!