Lately, my biggest fear and greatest hope are the same thing.

Is that the opening verse of a pop song or what??? Call me, T. Swift.

It’s true, though. It’s like I’m so terrified of this thing happening, but I also I kind of desperately want it to………….

So I live in a townhouse and share a wall with neighbors on the left and the right. They are fine folk, kind, agreeable, all that. I work from home so I spend a lot of time inside said townhouse. While I work or do house chores or just generally live, I have music playing. The genres vary depending on my rapidly changing moods. I can go from top 40 to indie to Broadway to Christian to folk to emo jams I used to have as my MySpace songs all in a day’s work. No matter the genre or my mood, I sing along. And I only have one volume. Can you guess what it is? Basically a deafening, blood curdling scream. You would think I would have more consideration for my neighbors, but nah. I’ve got the music in me, what can I do?? I have a sneaking suspicious my neighbors have all heard me at least 39458 times and they make fun of me to their friends. The thought brings me to my knees in terror, but also….do you think they think I’m good? Like, what if they tell their friends that their neighbor is maybe a professional singer and they send recordings of my performances to them to prove my talents??? That would be neat.

Eventually, I’m going to find a strongly worded letter in my mailbox telling me to invest in a muzzle.

Time: 1 hour (prep + cooking) | Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

• 4-6 cups of arugula or mixed greens
• 1 spaghetti squash, halved + deseeded
• 1 butternut squash, peeled + deseeded + cut into cubes
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 english cucumber, sliced thin
• 1/2 a red onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup of kalamata olives, halved
• 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. of Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp. of agave
• 1/3 cup of olive oil + 2 tbsp.
• S+P, to taste
• Pumpkin seeds, for serving

How to:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Arrange spaghetti squash halves on a baking sheet + drizzle with 1 tbsp. of olive oil + some S+P, arrange cut side down
• Line another baking sheet with foil + arrange butternut squash in an even layer + drizzle with 1 tbsp. of olive oil + S+P
• Bake both for 40-45 minutes, tossing butternut squash once in the middle of cooking + checking on your spaghetti squash to make sure it’s not charring
• Once cooled, pull out the spaghetti squash noodles
• Meanwhile, combine apple cider vinegar + garlic + Dijon + agave + remaining olive oil + S+P
• In a bowl, combine tomatoes + cucumber + onion + olives + 1-2 tbsp. of the apple cider vinaigrette, let marinate until ready to serve
• To serve, arrange some greens on a plate + top with spaghetti squash + butternut squash + marinated veggies + pumpkin seeds + a lil more dressing
• Hopscotch your fork from squash to squash, getting a lil bit of everything on your utensil, then slingshot it all into your pie hole, repeat until you are full or your wrist is exhausted from slingshotting