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!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Can you hardly believe that Thanksgiving is tomorrow?! I am so excited, and also really amazed that it is here already! This year, Harris & I are going to be staying home and enjoying our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. While it would be super nice to be able to share the time with our extended families, we are really looking forward to starting some of our own traditions this year (that do not involve cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner in one crockpot I'm looking at you Thanksgiving 2012!).

To kickoff the holiday season, we are going tomorrow to get our first live Christmas tree! I am super excited about this. Growing up, we always had artificial trees, as I am pretty sure was the norm for everyone I knew. I have vague memories of being about 3 years old and my Nana & Poppy having a real tree back then, but the majority of my life has been spent in Christmas tree artifice.

There is a decent possibility that I have gone a little Christmas Crazy in the ordering of new ornaments, an extravagant new tree skirt, lights, new family stockings, and so on and so forth, but I just can't help myself! It is so darn fun and I am so excited about our first holidays as The (capital T required) Ligons.

Now, I know I am being just as bad as all the marketing folks at our favorite stores right now and completely skipping over Thanksgiving to talk about Christmas, but I really am excited about Thanksgiving. I am baking a turkey breast and making all of our favorite side dishes (dressing & gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, butter beans, homemade bread (for leftover turkey sandwiches, as Harris requested)). I am also trying out a recipe for an eggnog pie. Now, I know, I know, eggnog is really for Christmas. But we loooove eggnog, and it gets so little time on the calendar, and, well the pie looked yummy, and, well there you have it. I will let you know how this all goes!

Here's to all of us getting our fill of turkey and pumpkin and Macy's parades and football and naps! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!