Paleo-ISH Buffalo Chicken Pasta

A couple weeks ago I did a 7-day cleanse and lost 9 Ibs.  It was crazy to see how much you can lose by not filling yourself with processed food and dairy!  If you want to read more about that cleanse you can check it out here:  The GM Diet.  Anyways-- coming off that diet I researched the Paleo diet because it had some of the same characteristics--- I pinned some recipes on pinterest but haven't honestly gotten serious about it-- but a lot of the recipes looked YUMMY.

One of them I pinned was from PaleOMG.com for Buffalo Chicken Pasta because who doesn't love buffalo anything??   I used the "basis" of the recipe from the site but tweaked it a bit because quite honestly the Paleo mayo sorta freaks me out at this point and I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand!  So...in the end that is why I am calling my rendition Paleo-ISH because the basic concept is there but not all of the ingredients are strict Paleo (olive oil, mayo).

Here is what I did:

Paleo-ISH Buffalo Chicken Pasta
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breasts, cubed
• 1 Carrot, finely diced
• 2 Celery Stalks, finely diced
• 1/2 Sweet Onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1/2-3/4 cup of buffalo wing sauce ( I bought Wing-Time Brand bc it had no dairy in it)
• 2 tbs mayonnaise (I used Earth's Balance Vegan Mayo)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.   Cut squash in half lengthwise.  Line a baking sheet (with sides) with foil and place squash open-side down on foil.  Roast 25 minutes (or until skin feels soft).  Let cool until easily handled.
2. While squash is cooking-- heat 1 tsp olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add finely diced carrot, celery, sweet onion, garlic and cubed. (the more finely diced the veggies the better in my opinion for this recipe!  I used my Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor and it did the trick!)  Saute, stirring frequently until veggies are tender and chicken is cooked (approx 10-12 min).  (at this point I did add some salt & pepper to the chicken/veggies while cooking.)
3. By now your squash should be ready to handle- using a discard seeds.    Start using the fork to pull out the threads of squash making "spaghetti".
4. Transfer squash threads to skillet with veggies and chicken.  Add buffalo wing sauce and 2tbs mayo.  Mix well and heat through.
5. I sprinkled some parsley on there for some color -- If I would have had some diced green onions I would have used them as a garnish!

Enjoy!

~Melissa