October in Review + Halloween Light Show

I noticed that I have a few new followers... WELCOME! It's actually quite perfect timing for you to stop by because it's time to review October!  Here's a quick look at what happened here at Wealth is Health last month...

Killer workout 1, 2, and 3

Delicious eats: pumpkin spice dip, chocolate chip pan cookies, chewy pumpkin spice cookies, and spaghetti squash lasagna 

Ran a half marathon (unofficially)

 Apple orchard/pumpkin patch adventures

Joined Motivate Me Monday

Ran my first 10 mile race... by the way I got my official results!
Chip Time = 1:31:47  
Gun Time = 1:32:01
Overall Placing = 87/130
Age Bracket (20-29 years old) = 7/9

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I of course had to go and see my niece and nephew in their costumes...best looking prince and princess I've ever seen!

And now for your viewing pleasure...

I heard about this house on the news, so my family and I decided we had to go check it out.  This family spent hours synchronizing their lights to the music.  They had three songs that they used and the music was played on a separate radio station... I can't even begin to imagine how they did this whole production!

Hope your All Saints Day isn't a drag from all that Halloween candy last night ;)

Happy Halloween + MMM: Spider Finger Lasagna

Okay, so I wouldn't normally call the lasagna I made "Spider Finger Lasagna", but it's Halloween so I had to! So today that is what it will be called, any other day of the year it is Spaghetti Squash Lasagna.

For those of you coming over from Motivate Me Monday, I hope you love this healthy twist on lasagna as much as I do!

MMM Link up #2 Topic:  Share a healthy recipe!

In case you missed my MMM post from last week check it out here.

Spider Finger Lasagna/Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

1 spaghetti squash

1/2 box lasagna noodles

26+ oz pasta sauce (I used red meat sauce)

12 oz frozen broccoli 

1 c seasonal frozen blend (onions & peppers)

1 1/4 c mozzarella & Asiago cheese w/roasted garlic (Sargento)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut spaghetti squash in half and remove seeds with a spoon.  Place squash halves on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. 

While the squash is baking, take your broccoli and seasonal blend out of the freezer to defrost and cook your lasagna noodles according to the package directions.

When the squash is done, pull it out of the oven, you can let it cool or be very careful using hot pads. Using a fork drag it along the inside of the squash to create squash strings (aka spider fingers lol). This is really easy to do, so don't worry about not being able to do it correctly. Once the inside of the squash is scraped clean turn the oven up to 375 degrees and begin assembling the lasagna. 

Squeeze the liquid out of the broccoli to prevent a watery end product. Begin with a layer of pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Then layer with noodles, squash, broccoli, seasonal blend, cheese and sauce. (Note: you can use whatever cheese you'd like, I just liked this kind of cheese because it had so much flavor!)

Cover lasagna with tin foil and bake lasagna for 25-35 minutes at 375 degrees or until everything is warm.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this dish!  And my boyfriend even liked it, and he doesn't like squash or trying new things... his exact words were, "I like it, I don't love it, but I like it".  I know he wasn't just saying it to make me happy because he had 3 servings!

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Happy Halloween!

P.S. Don't forget if you don't want to keep all of your Halloween candy, consider giving it to the Halloween Candy Buy Back Program!

  

What did you dress up as this weekend or what will you be dressing up as tonight?

Are you handing out candy tonight?  Or are you taking kids out?  Or do you just opt out of the holiday all together?

3 Ways To Use Your Pumpkin Guts

Many of you may be carving pumpkins right now in preparation for Halloween next week.

What will you do with all the guts that you scoop out?  Here's what I did...

ONE.

Roasted pumpkin seeds.  Consider this your warning, do not dry pumpkin seeds overnight on paper towel... you will spend A LOT of time trying to scrape the paper toweling off the seeds the next morning.  This is a fact (don't ask how I know).  Next time I will wash my seeds, place them on two paper towels so that the majority of the moisture is sucked up, then move them to a towel overnight to suck up the remaining moisture.  I ended up wasting all the seeds you see on the mess-of-a-paper-towel below because I got sick of trying to save every seed.

How did I season my seeds?  Sea salt + a little stevia.  Bake for about 25 minutes (stirring after 10 minutes) at 325 degrees.  Eat.  Enjoy :)

TWO.

Smoothies!  The pumpkin that you scrape off the sides of your pumpkin to make the wall a little thinner, thus easier to carve, save that stuff!  Put a handful of it into a blender and blend away (it will turn into a liquid-like substance).  My favorite smoothie combination thus far is blended pumpkin + vanilla yogurt (1/2 c) + blueberries (1/2 c)!  Both the pumpkin and the blueberry flavors stand out so much in the smoothies, it's awesome!  Oh yeah, and healthy!!

THREE.

Cookies! I borrowed a recipe that I found on Ashley's blog A Happier Healthier Bear, and modified it with ingredients I had on hand and tried to healthify it. (Note: Don't hate on the fact that "healthify" is not in the dictionary.)  Here's my version of the recipe...

Chewy Pumpkin Spice Cookies (modified)

1/2 c applesauce

1 1/4 c packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c fresh pumpkin (blended as seen above)

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour 

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 

Chocolate chips 

(I used less than a half bag since that's all I had left, wish I had more since I like everything chocolaty)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream applesauce, sugar and eggs together. Mix well. Add vanilla and blended pumpkin.  Stir in dry ingredient to the wet mixture. Add chocolate chips (or nuts, raisins, etc. if you want).  Drop by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet, bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool.  

The cookies are still in the oven as I write this post, so check back here in the comments of this post or check Twitter (@wealths_health) for the results!  

What other ways do you use the guts of a pumpkin?  

PS If you're wondering what we carved in our pumpkins, you'll have to wait until Halloween!  But I'll give you a hint... mine has to do with one of my favorite cities in the US.  Can you guess it?