New foods and movie

Mr. V has some weekends off. He works in a factory so there are some weekends (many weekends) he's working pretty much the entire time. He had this weekend off and we enjoyed a new recipe and a movie. Since we have a 2 year old, most of our family movies are animated or family oriented, and last night was no different.

So, we sit down to dinner with Spaghetti and garlic bread (doesn't sound so new, does it?) however this spaghetti has no pasta. I wanted to try out spaghetti squash and make a more healthy version of a popular meal. And we start the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". If you haven't watched the movie and you WANT to watch it, go on and stop reading because this is what I think on it and spoilers. Or skip the paragraph text and move on to the recipe for the spaghetti squash spaghetti.

Anyways, we all know how the book goes. I've always taken Max to be a little boy, 6 at the oldest. In the movie he's around 10, ignored and left ALONE a....LOT.  And when he acts out, instead of looking at herself (the mom) or the older sister (who LEAVES HIM ALONE), he's the one that's punished, (apparently the Mom never thought that he'd act BAD to get ATTENTION.) So he runs off and ends up in the land of the Wild Things. He becomes their king and is put in charge of making everyone happy (impossible task and doomed to fail and he does.) And when his best friend, Carroll, is unhappy with him and goes on a destructive rampage, he leaves to go back home. And Carroll understands his mistakes and makes it just in time to see him sailing off. Max ends up back home and eats supper. The end. The movie is depressing and really doesn't do the book justice. I understand that they have to take some creative liberty because the book isn't long. However, the beginning part irked me because of the obvious neglect, but the overall tone of the movie wasn't one of wonderment like you get from the book. It's just depressing because in this boys imaginary world he STILL couldn't please anyone. Shoot, not only is his reality depressing he can't even imagine a world without disappointment and depression. Ugh, needless to say, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'm glad that they got the wild things right in the costumes, but the story just is blah.

OK, end of movie review and spoilers. Now onto the dinner.

Since I had never fixed spaghetti squash before, I didn't do much. Which made for a rather bland spaghetti, but that's ok, because I can make it much better next time.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

2 Medium Squash
1 Jar Spaghetti sauce (store bought or you can make yourself)
1lb Ground beef (chili grind)

Cut the squash in half lengthwise. scoop out seeds and strings and brush with olive oil and garlic salt. Turn flesh side down on cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour at 350°.

While squash cooks, brown ground beef and drain.

Add spaghetti sauce to meat and heat to warm.

Remove squash from oven flip flesh side up and let cool for a moment. After it cools slightly, I used tongs to pull the flesh out and put into sauce. Mix it up and serve with parmesan cheese on top and garlic bread.

Overall it was more bland than I expected, but I didn't use a very strong tasting sauce. I know to use a more robust sauce next time.