Baked Chicken and Spaghetti Squash

We had a fun new dinner tonight.  It might not seem terribly exciting, but it's at least not one of our usuals.

The kids love chicken drumsticks.  They call it "chicken on the bone" because that's what their cousins call it.

We recently purchased a package of 12 drumsticks for $5.  That comes to just $0.42 per drumstick (ok, 41.67 cents).  I knew the chicken would be great for dinner, but I just didn't know how to bake it.  So of course I consulted the internet.

We also picked up a spaghetti squash.  I had ordered spaghetti squash as a side at Ruby Tuesday, and I loved it.  So again, I had to see if anyone on the internet could help me figure out how to turn a whole squash into the tasty side I was hoping for.

For the chicken, I used this recipe from cooks.com.  I removed the chicken skin, dipped it in just plain skim milk, and dipped it in a crumb mixture.  The crumb mixture was made up of Italian bread crumbs, black pepper, seasoned salt, and grated Parmesan.

I baked the coated chicken on a foil-lined cookie sheet at 375 degrees for a little over an hour, flipping the chicken after 30 minutes.  I meant to take the chicken out at one hour, but I got too busy with the squash.  So our chicken got a little extra brown.

 
But I have to say that I'd probably do it about the same next time.  The outer coating was crunchy and delicious, and the meat inside was super moist.  As Jared gobbled down his third drumstick, he said, "Seriously, this is one for the books."

For the spaghetti squash, I used this recipe.

It had pictures, seemed simple, and required the same baking temperature and time as my chicken.

I used a wooden skewer to poke holes in the squash (I just left it whole).  I baked it on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for one hour.

I let it cool a few minutes and then cut it in half lengthwise.  Then I had to scoop out the seeds, which look very much like pumpkin seeds.  There's also a little bit of squash around the seeds that's a bit slimy, so I discarded that.  Here's what my squash looked like after I removed the seeds and slimy part:

I started scraping it with a fork, and it very easily came away from the skin.  You can see that it is shaped like skinny spaghetti noodles.

Here's one half fully scraped:

And here's all the spaghetti squash ready for flavoring:

I sprinkled salt and pepper on it, and I thought it was pretty tasty.  Jared thought it still needed something, so I added about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and tossed to distribute evenly.

Jared and I both really liked the spaghetti squash.  Nolan liked it at first but got tired of it before he ate all of his.  We just told Griffin and Nora that it was noodles, and they didn't suspect that it was squash.  Griffin tolerated it, and Nora convinced herself that she didn't like it, regardless of what her tastebuds had yet to tell her.

We rounded out the meal with some Schwan's multi-grain bread (we all love it).  I topped mine with the last bits of my jam from Tanner's Apple Orchard.  It's definitely time to make another trip out there!

So there you have it.  I made a meal that was cheap, relatively low in carbs, pretty low in fat (no chicken skin, no oil, no butter), and somewhat new and exciting for us.  I am very satisfied!  Now that might not happen again for quite some time. :)

Jessica