How to Organize Your Recipes & Make Spaghetti Squash "Pasta"

I mentioned yesterday that during the past few rainy days, I started an organization project. Although Spring is the season for new beginnings, Fall has always been the month that motivates me to start new projects. This month's project was to organize my recipe book.

For one of my bridal showers, John's aunt gave me a beautiful binder filled with family recipes, even including some written in the shaky handwriting of John's great grandmother. It was such a thoughtful gift, and recently my grandmother started giving me family recipes as well. Ever since I received the present, I've wanted to combine it with my own collection of recipes.

I finally sorted through my recipe compilation, which I'd started since first learning to cook back in high school. Going through the old recipes brought back memories of spending an hour trying to learn how to make coconut shrimp. And some recipes which looked good at the time, now seem boring and lacking flavor - those got tossed in the trash.

The result is a book organized by:
Appetizers,
Soups & Salads,
Breads,
Brunch,
Sides,
Main Dishes,
Seafood,
Pasta,
Desserts, and
Holiday.

I also added dividers in between sections to separate soups from salads, slow cooker meals from other main dishes, and actual desserts from my healthy ones. Eventually it'd be nice to go through all of my old Cooking Light magazines and tear out the pages I've tabbed. But for now, I'm very happy with the finished product - it's so much easier to flip through my recipes and pick out dishes for the week.

 As a result, I rediscovered this favorite dish and made it this week for dinner:

Edamame and Shrimp Spaghetti Squash "Pasta"

Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil + a little extra at the end
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup edamame, shelled and thawed
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
8 -12 oz. shrimp
1/2 Tbsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Slice squash in half, scoop out seeds, and lay flat on baking sheet sprayed with cooking oil. Bake squash for 30 minutes.
3. Remove squash from oven, and while you let squash cool, caramelize onions with olive oil and garlic. Cook over low heat until onions are browned, about 10 minutes.
4. Add mushrooms, shrimp, red pepper flakes, oregano, and edamame. Cook until shrimp is done, about 5 minutes.
5. Use two forks to scrape strands out from the squash. (It looks like spaghetti, hence the name!) Add the "spaghetti" to a bowl. 
6. Drizzle olive oil over the squash and toss with onion mixture.
7. Top with fresh parsley and cheese, if desired.