As I look back over the last few months, one thing that stands out is the amount of time I've spent in restaurants or picking up takeout food. I've let my schedule get busy to the point that it has become appallingly easy to let someone else do all the cooking.

This wouldn't be a problem, except as I've said before, I don't do the "healthy" choices on most menus. When I pick a restaurant, it's usually to find something I don't cook at home. I've still kept a pretty good line drawn around the stove and microwave, not cooking much at home that doesn't fit my plan and needs.

I just haven't cooked enough.

In one three-week stretch in July, I cooked dinner at home twice. I'm not counting hot dog nights or the occasional weekend grill session there. I'm talking about a weeknight dinner involving some lean meat and an actual vegetable of some sort. It just didn't happen. I did plenty of cooking for my son. At 18 months, his menu is pretty much dependent upon my efforts to keep it in order. He can't quite handle a saucepan or a chef's knife yet. Every night, he's got some good protein and a fresh vegetable of some sort. For dessert, he gets fresh pineapple, whole-milk yogurt or some other nutritionally advantageous food.

So why don't I eat like he does? It sounds simple, right? Actually, it is. It just requires a little bit of planning and some careful shopping. We've covered all that before, and will again in future. Right now, though, I want to tell you about the small adventure I embarked upon Tuesday night.

My better half has the habit of buying things I've never cooked before and slipping them into the freezer or produce bin. It's a wonderful thing, and has inspired me to all manner of successes and misadventures. This time, it was spaghetti squash, a big, yellow ovoid that sat there in the bin, mocking me.

I'd always avoided spaghetti squash. It struck me as a "gimmick" food. My squash world is filled quite nicely by the Big Four: yellow, zucchini, butternut and acorn. I know there are other squashes out there, but they've never made the top of my list.

I did some research, and asked my foodie pals over at the Good Eats Fan Page, and got a variety of answers on the best way to cook the squash. Some suggested cooking it face-down in water. Some suggested face-up. Some even suggested piercing the skin and cooking it whole, like a baked potato. Finally, I decided to go with the directions on the label on the squash. I can get behind vegetables that come with their own instructions.

I halved the squash, scraped the seeds and popped the first half face-down into a dish with about ½-inch of water in it. Into the microwave it went, and 10 minutes later I had a perfectly cooked spaghetti squash on my cutting board. I put the other half in to cook, and went after the cooked half with two forks, one to hold the hot squash and one to get the cooked flesh out.

I was amazed to find that, just as advertised, the flesh came out in noodle-like ribbons as I ran the fork tines back and forth. In no time at all, I had a fist-sized pile of squash noodles awaiting further tinkering. When the second half was done and "noodled out," I tossed the squash with some onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil and added a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

The result: delicious. And more importantly, other than the small amount of cheese and the olive oil used for sauteeing, it was nearly fat-free.

See the slideshow at right for a pictorial description of the cooking process, and be sure to e-mail me with any questions.

As the weeks go along, there will be more cooking adventures to come, I'm sure. You'll see them here!

Got a question? Comment? Topic you'd like to see covered? Drop me a line, anytime!