1-1/2 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C water
1/2 C applesauce
2 t vanilla extract
2 t balsamic vinegar
1/4 C powdered sugar
Strawberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with wax paper.
   
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add water, applesauce, vanilla, and vinegar and mix thoroughly.
   
3. Pour into cake pan and bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool well and sprinkle with powdered sugar, and if desired, sliced strawberries.

Note: To make a layer cake, double the recipe and bake two cakes. When cool, place strawberries between the layers.

Love is in the air, and this year I have a brand-new apple of my eye (apologies to my fiancé). My new crush? Spaghetti squash. How have I been living life—totally unaware of its existence—for this long?  

While out to dinner last month, I noticed an Italian-inspired dish made with “spaghetti squash” on the menu. Wow, I thought, that is brilliant. Make the “noodles” out of squash instead of carb-laden pasta, and your dinner instantly gets healthier. So I ordered it, loved it, and lamented the fact that I didn’t own whatever fancy gadget I assumed I needed to make spaghetti squash at home.

A couple weeks later, I was thinking about that glorious meal (so I enjoy mentally reliving meals, ok?) and decided to see just how much it would cost me to obtain the necessary equipment . That’s when Google gave me the shock of my life.

“Spaghetti squash” does not refer to a method of cutting squash, as I’d assumed.  Rather, it is the name of specific type of squash that makes the “noodles” within itself simply by being cooked.

The instructions popping up in every search result told me all I had to do was purchase this mythical “spaghetti squash” at the grocery store, cut it in half, clean out the seeds, and then put it in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes. After that, the squash’s insides would simply fall out into noodle-like strands. 

I thought for sure I was reading it wrong. Nothing this healthy and delicious could possibly be so easy. But link after link assured me that, in fact, it was that easy.

Obviously I immediately rushed to the grocery store and purchased two large spaghetti squash. They were pretty big and heavy, and therefore a semi-pricey produce purchase, but I was willing to risk it for the chance this might actually work.

I cut both squash in half, pulled out the seeds (much like you would when carving a pumpkin), dusted the four halves with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and placed them face down on foil-lined cookie sheets. Then into the oven they went –450 degrees for 40 minutes—followed by a painful (for impatient ol’ me) 5- to 10-minute cool-down period. It worked! It actually worked!

I was gleeful as I scraped at the innards with a spoon and they just fell out, into the promised spaghetti-like strands, straight into my bowl. Literally everything comes out of these suckers, straight down to the skin. There is no waste! The strands just kept pouring out. And out, and out. Those two squash yielded so many “noodles” I could’ve hosted my own spaghetti (squash) dinner. So, memo to file, one spaghetti squash is definitely enough to feed two people.

Topped with some marinara sauce, this was a real treat of a meal. I felt like I unlocked some high-level secret and pretty much didn’t stop talking (and Tweeting and writing) about it for days.

Of course, as it turns out, much of the world is already aware of this genius fruit (while hotly debated on the Internet, it seems spaghetti squash is technically a fruit). The masterminds behind The Vegan Cheat Sheet were on to its glories long before the great Gahagan Squash Revelation of 2014. In their “Sauce on Top” recipe section (page 126), they suggest spaghetti squash as a go-to base and offer recipes for seven amazing-looking sauces to pair it with.

Hmmm, seven sauces. . .now I can continue my love affair every single day of the week.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Share your food crushes with Erin on Twitter, @erin1217.

Polar vortex? More like pasta vortex. What is it about ludicrously cold temperatures that makes me want to carbo-load? If I’m expected to function in icy, subzero temperatures, you better believe I’m going to do it fueled by comfort food. Now, if only there was a way to do this healthfully. . .

Aha! I know. I’m going to pull out The Vegan Cheat Sheet and make the coziest recipe I can find. Hmm, where is that book? I haven’t seen it since December, when my diet switched over to cookies, pies, candy, and wine for the better part of a month.

Once I’d located the poor neglected book and dusted off the candy-cane residue, I hit the recipe jackpot: Baked Ziti/Spaghetti Pie (page 109; see recipe below). Pasta prepared in casserole form? My carb dreams have come true!

The first attractive thing about this recipe is that it requires only six ingredients, one of those being my treasured nutritional yeast (check out my November 1, 2013 post on the great Stuffed Portobello Mushroom adventure).

The second is that the recipe is clearly written and easy to follow, truly the thing I appreciate most about this book's No-Brainer Recipes.

Step one: Blend spinach, tofu, and salt together into a creamy mixture. The recipe says to “blend with an immersion blender, blender, or food processor. . .or whisk with a fork.” I don’t know what an immersion blender is* (although I‘m intrigued), and I don’t own a food processor, so this left me with the blender option. I threw the ingredients in and gave it a whirl. This was not a resounding success; since I don't have a terribly powerful blender, half of it cooperated and the other half just refused.

But, being the flexible cook I am (ok, I nearly choked writing that—I can’t stand it when Plan A doesn’t work, but it was fun to pretend for a second), I cut my losses and moved on to the “whisk with a fork” option. Worked like a charm.

Sidebar: The spinach/tofu mixture above tastes amazingly delicious on its own. It’s so rich and creamy! I almost felt like I was eating cheese (and you know how I feel about cheese). I want to mix up a big container and use it for everything! Bagel spread, sandwich filling, party dip—the possibilities are endless.

Back to the Baked Ziti/Spaghetti Pie. Once the spinach/tofu mixture was all set, I mixed it with cooked whole-wheat rigatoni (you can use any type of whole-wheat pasta) and a jar of marinara sauce in a casserole dish. Top that with nutritional yeast, pop it in the oven for 15 minutes, and it’s done!

The end result? Mouthwatering, cozy comfort food—the perfect antidote to the latest blizzard outside.

However, Mother Nature? Even though I’ve discovered a delicious way to survive winter, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t welcome an early spring. Just saying.



Bond with Erin over comfort food on Twitter at @Erin1217.

*Editor's note: An immersion blender (also called a stick, wand, or hand blender) is a longtime staple of restaurant kitchens. It allows you to quickly blend ingredients directly in their vessel (bowl, pot, pan, etc.).

1 (14-ounce) box silken light tofu, drained
1 pound fresh baby spinach, steamed to wilt, and squeezed to remove excess water (or frozen, defrosted and squeezed)
2 teaspoons salt
1 (1-pound) box whole-wheat pasta, cooked al dente
1 (25-ounce) jar oil-free marinara
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1. In a medium bowl, blend tofu, spinach, and salt with an immersion blender, blender, or food processor until creamy, or whisk with a fork.
2. In a 9 x 13-inch lasagna pan, mix pasta with tofu-spinach blend and sauce. Top with nutritional yeast.
3. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and serve hot.