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)
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!