Sunday, March 16, 2014

Sunday Supper- Spaghetti Squash!

Happy Sunday friends! Did y'all have a good weekend? I did, but I feel like it was far too short! How can the 5 week days feel so incredibly long and the 2 weekend days just fly right by?!

Have you ever had spaghetti squash before? When I began to really start educating myself on what I eat and how the food I put into my body affects me, I quickly understood that standard noodles just weren't doing anything for me. Well, anything good anyway. I grew up a pasta girl, and I really like pasta! Spaghetti noodles with a hearty meat sauce & a good sprinkle of Parmesan cheese is one of my favorite meals. So when I decided to cut processed grains from my diet (or at least try to avoid them most of the time) I really hoped to find a good replacement for my beloved pasta dish. Spaghetti squash came up quite a bit on recipe blogs, in recipe books, and in any general Pinterest search. I was extremely skeptical, squash instead of noodles? Eh, I don't know about that. But it works. It really does. The great thing about spaghetti squash is that the taste is extremely mild, like a plain noodle would be, so when topped with a hearty meat sauce you almost forget that you're eating super healthy squash & not pasta! :-) And my husband LOVES this dish. He asks for it all the time, our grocery store does not always carry spaghetti squash in store and he's always super sad when I tell him no spaghetti squash that week.

Bonus, aside from the task of chopping the squash up this recipe is EXTREMELY EASY. We love that. Make sure you use a sharp knife and you'll need a little arm power- these gourds can be a bit tough to cut through but the work is worth it! 

Ingredients:
1 large or 2 small spaghetti squashes
Olive oil 
Salt & pepper to taste
Your favorite spaghetti sauce, I used organic ground beef & bottled Glen Muir tomato sauce

Step 1: preheat oven to 375 degrees. I generally use 1 large spaghetti squash but I couldn't find a good one today, so I went with these 2 smaller guys.
Step 2: cut off the tops and bottoms of the squashes:
Step 3: cut the squash in half longways like so:
Step 4: scoop out the seeds & pulp & throw those bad boys away:
Step 5: line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup. Liberally coat both sides of the squash with olive oil. I just use my hands to make sure the oil gets in every nook & cranny.
Step 6: season rind side of squash liberally with salt & pepper.
Step 7: roast rind side DOWN for 30-40 minutes.

Step 8: while your squash is roasting go ahead and make your fave sauce. All I do is brown a lb of ground beef and then add a jar of spaghetti sauce:
Step 9: when your squash halves are done roasting it's time to scrape out your "noodles"! Place a squash half in an oven mitted hand, using a fork just scrape out the insides into a bowl.

 The squash will come out very easily and look a little like this:
Top with your favorite meat sauce or butter & cheese or whatever you think sounds good!
Enjoy!










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