One of my goals (starting now, who needs to wait until the New Year?!), is to utilize my healthy resources I already have within my reach. LIKE, local farmer's markets. I always find the best stuff every time I go, and love the overall ambience of them. I was recently invited to the downtown Overland Park Farmer's Market by Shawnee Mission Health, as they have been working with the farmer's market in partnership with their MyHealthKC resources this fall.
MyHealthKC is an online, community-based, healthy living environment that shares content created by health professionals at Shawnee Mission Health for parents and young professionals alike. MyHealthKC is your resource for living well in Kansas City. You can explore recipes, guides, local wellness
events, and more to support your daily health journey.
My favorite part about the MHKC site is that the SMH Nutritionists share their favorite well-balanced meals and snacks - showing you how easily you can swap in healthier options. They also provide healthy living guides, that are easy downloadable PDFs, so anyone can read, take and implement (like the Farmer's Market Cookbook).
Eating well and healthy doesn't have to be hard when you can utilize your community's local flavors and items that are in season. I picked up a few things, but most excited about getting Spaghetti Squash. These are currently in season, and a great substitution for carb heavy pastas!
The biggest draw back to buying squash is how hard it is to cut! But the nice lady who sold these two to me gave me an awesome tip! Use a fork to poke holes all around the squash, wrap a wet paper towel around it, and then microwave ~5 minutes (pending your microwave power). This really softens up the outer, and allowed me to cut them in half much easier!
Taking a note from
Bev Cooks, I made spaghetti boats with these cooked babies - using a bit less cheese, my favorite, no added sugar tomato sauce from
Thrive Market and 1/3 of sausage.
And it was delicious, and SO filling. From farmer's market find to dinner:
I'm already excited for the next Farmer's Market challenge I give myself - and can't wait to make more Spaghetti Squash boats this fall and winter. Thanks to Shawnee Mission Health and MyHealthKC for sponsoring this post!
