Thursday, January 3, 2013

Do you Spaghetti Squash?

Thanks to Pinterest, I found out about spaghetti squash and then became obsessed with trying it as a pasta substitute.  Justin and I are not huge pasta eaters, but, I've been trying to mix up our weekly dinners and I knew that so long as I added meat to it, Justin would give it a try.  So, last week at Publix I finally found spaghetti squash and quickly put it in my cart.  I found this recipe from Michael Chiarelloon on the FoodNetwork.com website:

Ingredients

  • 2 whole spaghetti squash
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Gray salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 cups prepared (jarred) marinara sauce

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Split the squashes in half and scrape out seeds. Line an oven tray with aluminum foil. Season the spaghetti squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place flesh side down and roast for 30 to 40 minutes until fully cooked. Remove from the oven and let rest until cool enough to handle.
Meanwhile heat the marinara sauce in a large saute pan.
When squash is cool enough to handle, using a large kitchen spoon scrape the strands of squash from the inside of the skin. Toss the spaghetti squash in the pan with the hot marinara for just long enough to get hot. Serve and enjoy.


Changes I made:
(1) I only used one spaghetti squash;
(2) I used coconut oil instead of olive oil;
(3) I used sea salt instead of gray salt (I don't even know what the hell gray salt is); and,
(4) I added grass fed beef to the sauce.

Verdict: It was very good - even Justin thought so.  It is definitely making it into our dinner rotation.  However, I wouldn't go as far as to say that you wouldn't know you weren't eating pasta...you can definitely tell it wasn't pasta.  Oh, and, fyi, one spaghetti squash made a lot of "faux-sta" (ha!).  Justin and I both ate dinner and I had enough leftover for 2 lunchs for me.

Are there any new foods you've tried lately?


xoxo,
M

2 comments:

  1. Ha ha! Loved this! Spaghetti squash is good but certainly not pasta! And what the heck is gray salt?!?! I love recipes from budget bytes these days!

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  2. I googled it - "gray salt retains all the minerals found in the sea, echoing your body’s mineral content exactly. Slightly moist with a chunky texture, it’s full of magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and iodine."
    Translation = expensive salt. ha!
    oh...I need to check out budget bytes!

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