From Our Kitchen: Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Is today a holiday for y'all? President's Day is one of those holidays that has always confused me a little bit. I don't think everyone gets President's Day off, thereby, is it a real holiday? This is the first time I have had President's Day off since I started working my current (about to be old!) job. We technically get it as a holiday every year, but each of the previous years, one of the conferences we attend has fallen over President's Day weekend, so I have not actually had the holiday off. At any rate, if you do have today off, happy Monday that's really a Sunday!, and if you don't have today off, well, I am sorry.

Husband does not have the day off. He was supposed to (especially since he put in long hours over the weekend - crisis mode! Okay not really, but it is super dramatic), but this happened and that happened, and, lo and behold, off he trotted to work this morning. Lucy and I miss him, but are somehow making it through.

So what does one do on a holiday that may or may not be a holiday? Well, for starters, I went to Target this morning, and allowed myself ample time to walk up and down aisles I don't normally walk up and down. I picked up a black and white striped maxi skirt, and put in my basket for about 15 minutes. And then I put it back. I tried out a chair I have been thinking about ordering online. I looked for an honest to goodness address book. And I didn't find one. I bought a new lipstick! And I wish it were more red and less pink. All in all, it was a delightful trip.

Then I came home, and set about the task of cleaning out my closet. I am usually pretty good about keeping my closet at least functional. But, after going on a week long business trip, I would usually come home and just dump the contents of my suitcase into the bottom of my closet because, well, I just wanted to put the suitcase away. Logical. Then, as it often does, life happens, and there are a million other more important / more fun / more pressing things to do than hang up the clothes in the bottom of my closet. And then I just start adding to them. And...well, you can see how this all just snowballs. Compounding matters this time around was that I ordered some new clothes last week. So, there was also a box of clothes waiting to be hung up. I am happy to report that the closet has been organized and Lucy is happily napping on a pile of winter clothes that I am putting away simply on the principle that I am very ready for winter to be over with, please and thank you!

I also cleaned our floors, as one does when one runs out of time during the weekly chores / cleaning session to clean the floors because one hates doing the floors and saves them for last just in case cleaning time does expire before it happens. But they are clean now, and that it is all that matters.

And now, the real point of this entirely long-winded post: a delicious recipe for a buffalo chicken spaghetti squash casserole. I found a recipe on Pinterest (duh), but thought it could definitely use to be turned into a casserole, so that is what I did. It was delightful, and American, and buffalo-ey, and the spaghetti squash also made us feel like it was totally healthy! Okay, at least somewhat healthy! If you need a refresher on cooking a spaghetti squash, please to go here.

What You'll Need:
Makes 4 servings

• 1 medium-large spaghetti squash, cooked
• 8oz cream cheese (I use 1/3 less fat)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup hot sauce (I used Frank's because I had it on hand from Super Bowl dip, but Texas Pete will also work!)
• 1/2 cup blue cheese dressing (if you really dislike blue cheese, you can use ranch, but I really dislike ranch, so blue cheese it is!)
• 3 - 4 chicken breasts, cooked 
• Shredded cheese, for topping (I used mozzarella because it's what I had - feel free to sub whatever you like!)

What You'll Do:

1. Cook your spaghetti squash.
2. Cook your chicken. I cooked mine in the crockpot for a few hours and shredded it, but you can cook however you choose, and then cut into smaller pieces. Although, I definitely recommend shredded chicken here!
3. Preheat oven to 350. Spray pam in your chosen casserole dish (I used my 9" Le Creuset pan)
4. In a medium saucepan, slowly melt cream cheese. 
5. Once cheese is melty, add in hot sauce and blue cheese dressing. Mix well.
6. In a large bowl, combine cooked chicken and hot sauce / cheese mixture, until chicken is well coated. 
7. Now add spaghetti squash, and, again, mix well.
8. Spread mixture into casserole dish.
9. Top with as much or little cheese as you desire (I just did a light sprinkling, and it was great!)
10. Baked about 15ish minutes, or however long it takes to get your cheese topping melty (do you like that non-word I have used twice, now?).
11. Enjoy!

Couples Who Cook Together...Love Blue Cheese

As a newlywed, I am finding many, many aspects of married life that I love, especially getting to use the phrase "my husband"! One of my favorite things to do with my husband is share time in the kitchen. I am fortunate enough to be married to a man who not only is an excellent cook, but who also really enjoys cooking. I will be the first to admit that I can easily get stuck in a rut of favorite dishes, or dishes that are easy to throw together, but Harris is always on the hunt for new things for us to try. While he was not thoroughly impressed with his blue cheese burgers yesterday (note to readers: don't stuff burgers with ooey gooey cheesy goodness, and then cook on a George Foreman grill, designed to strip all the fatty goodness away), I was still very pleased with his flavorful turkey burgers. Additionally, while I am almost famous (at least in my own mind) at crock pot cooking, Harris was the one who stumbled upon the buffalo chicken soup recipe, and encouraged me to make it. I made a few modifications - the original recipe would have made an absolute ton of soup, plus I really hate celery, and only buy it when absolutely necessary. My modifications still made plenty of soup - enough for at least 4 adults for one meal, with probably some leftover. I would definitely recommend serving this alongside a crusty bread!

What You Need:

- 1 pack chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I used frozen tenderloins, and then shredded after they were cooked through)

- 16 oz fat free half & half

- 1 can cream of chicken soup

- 1/2 cup (or more) buffalo wing sauce

- 1/2 cup sour cream

- 5 small white potatoes, washed, peeled, and sliced

- 3 carrots, washed peeled, and sliced

- Blue cheese

What You'll Do:

- Spray your crock pot, and place chicken in bottom

- Pour in remaining ingredients, except bleu cheese

- Cook on low for 5 hours, or high for 3 hours

- At this point, if you have opted for frozen chicken breasts, shred your chicken in your crock pot

- Mix in blue cheese (I used about 3/4 of a regular container of blue cheese from the deli section)

- Cook another hour, serve hot!

It's about as easy as it gets, folks. While I am not going to chalk this up to my all-time top crock pot recipes, I will say it sufficiently and satisfactorily did its job - which was to provide yet another version of buffalo chicken "fill in the blank". This brings me to a random, yet related thought - when did buffalo chicken become a craze? I mean, first it was the buffalo chicken dip (albeit delicious, I will admit), and now I see everything from this soup to buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese, buffalo chicken quesadillas, and buffalo chicken hashbrown casserole. Don't even get me started on the variations of buffalo potato chips, or all the other things Doritos is up to these days. I guess when we Americans find something we love, we hold on tight, and don't let go...a good practice for marriage too, not just food.