Almost Perfect Sunday

I really enjoyed my day today - perhaps because it was the first time I got to relax all week! I just wish I could have spent some time with the husband.

I took off of exercise, mostly because I didn't want to feel obligated to do it. I feel pretty chunky today, which could just be water weight from the weekend, but I need to get back on track and get off this extra poundage!

I decided to make my mom's homemade tomato sauce for dinner. It's one of those "simmer on the stove for 2 hours and fill the house with the most amazing smell" recipes from my childhood. I think I did a pretty good job replicating it!!

Warning: This meal took a long time to prepare. Save it for a lazy Sunday!

This afternoon I baked the spaghetti squash to put the sauce over. If you have a thick sauce or lots of veggies, spaghetti squash is the PERFECT way to deliver flavor in a healthy way. It's full of fiber, tastes great (if you like squash!), and is very low in calories for the portion.

The squash baked at 350* for about 45 minutes.

Here's the spaghetti squash after scraping it from the skins:





While I was baking squash, I threw in a butternut too to have during the week. It's now scraped out and in tupperware to have as a snack!



Now on to the sauce......

I started with 2 huge tomatoes, 4 on-the-vine tomatoes, and 1 pint of grape tomatoes. They all got chopped up, briefly drained, and then added to a pan with some sauteed garlic:

Draining...


Simmering...



After they cooked for about an hour and thickened quite a bit, I added the following:

• 1 can tomato paste
• 1/4 cup sherry
• 1 tsp sugar
• Handful of oregano and basil from our garden plus some dried versions of each (just dried would be fine)
• 1 tsp sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped (optional)
• 2 T roasted red peppers (optional)

Then I simmered for about 15 minutes more to get this consistency and color:



Next I heated up the pre-prepared squash in the microwave and divided between two bowls, topped with half the sauce (yes, we ate this as TWO servings!), and topped with a smidge of Parmesan cheese:







But you know what? I couldn't even finish it!!! I saved what looks like 1/5 of the recipe for a snack tomorrow.



Volume Eaters, get excited:

The entire sauce recipe was about 470 calories, which is roughly 235 per person. Topped over 70 calories each of squash, this HUGE bowl of spaghetti is only about 300 calories!!!

Considering I was full after about 240 calories, I'd say this recipe will be making some more appearances.

Including the Parmesan cheese, I'd say I had 250 calories for dinner, and I'm saving the other 60 calories or so for tomorrow.

That brings my calorie total to 1185 calories today. Barbara Rolls (Volumetrics plan) would be proud. I'll probably have a dessert/snack later, but it's still pretty exciting that I wasn't really hungry all day today. and my meals were filling and healthy. Perhaps it was getting 11 hours of sleep? I have a theory that the more sleep I get the less hungry I am. Makes sense, and I think there are studies to prove it.