Another great dinner! I was on my own tonight and really enjoyed cooking this meal. It got a little hectic at the end, but it was worth it!!
First I cut up a small eggplant and salted it over the sink. I let it sit for a good 30 minutes. This takes out the bitterness. Once ready, I rinsed off all the salt and cut into chunks on a baking sheet along with a medium zucchini and baked them both in the oven on 400* for 26 minutes with just a little salt and pepper.
In the meantime, I reheated my pre-cooked spaghetti squash (6 oz), chopped up 5 bottled kalamata olives, drained some capers, and microwaved 1/2 a cup of jarred tomato sauce. I prefer to use crushed tomatoes (adding my own seasoning) than jarred sauce, but the husband had opened this emergency sauce and we had to use it up! At least it was one of the healthier ones without much sugar/salt. Lastly, I defrosted, peeled and seared 15 frozen shrimp in a skillet with 1/2 a tsp of EVOO.
I like my shrimp to have a nice golden crust on them and the husband and I have had trouble with this in the past (because I never want to use a ton of oil). But tonight I made sure to place each shrimp down with tongs rather than just throwing them in and they sat there without moving for a good 3-4 minutes. They turned out PERFECT with a beautiful brown crust!!!
Then I just layered it all in a bowl…..
Total dinner calories: 300 for that whole bowl!! Would have been nice with some Parmesan cheese but I didn’t feel like washing the grater afterwards. Of course whole wheat pasta is a great health food, but if you are craving lots of toppings, see how substituting spaghetti squash can get that “huge bowl of pasta” feeling without being super high in calorie? You could also do half pasta, half squash if you wanted to meet in the middle.