Spaghetti Squash – Fervent Foodie

Spaghetti Squash with Feta Cheese and Tomatoes {easy recipe}

October 30, 2012 3 Comments

When it comes to squash, spaghetti squash is my favorite. Granted, it took me a while to master how to halve a spaghetti squash without losing a finger, but I now enjoy a big plate of faux spaghetti (injury free) at least twice a week during squash season. 98.7% of the time, I top my squash with marinara. It’s not very creative, but it gets the job done PLUS it temporarily satisfies my persistent pasta cravings.

Tonight, after channeling my inner Arnold at body pump, I was ravenous. I could already feel the signs: tightness in my shoulders, tingling in my arms, and weak in the knees. Why, hello, low blood sugar, we meet again! Luckily, I pre-cooked a spaghetti squash last night (halved, then baked in a 375 degree for 20 minutes). Bonus points for thinking ahead, but sadly I neglected the absence of marinara fixin’s in my pantry.

Dang! Time to get creative!

Recipes

Spaghetti Squash with Sausage, Pesto, and Tomatoes

February 1, 2012 4 Comments

Although it may seem like I eat meatballs at every meal, I occasionally opt for different meats of the non-ball variety. (Like when I’ve run out of meatballs and don’t have the necessary ingredients to make more.) Tonight was one of those nights. With a grumbling belly and nary a meatball in sight, I decided to remix my usual spaghetti squash with some ingredients I had on hand.

Enter Spaghetti Squash with Sausage, Pesto, and Tomatoes:

Recipes

How to halve a spaghetti squash without losing a finger.

January 30, 2012 27 Comments

Right or wrong, perfect sense or nonsense, I often do things a certain way simply because that’s the way I’ve always done them. A prime example is my method for tying shoes. I remember attempting to learn the whole bunny goes round the tree and jumps in the hole spiel on a wooden practice shoe back in elementary school. I’d memorized the story line, but my bunny wanted nothing to do with that stinkin’ tree and my index finger kept messing up the loop-around (I blame it on my big hands). Honestly, I didn’t see what the big deal was. For weeks I’d been using my own method (the make-two-bunny-ears-then-crisscross-then-fold-one-under-and-pull-to-tighten approach) and my shoes were staying on just fine.

I have a lot of these little quirks, especially in the kitchen, where it’s well established that my knife skills border on horrifying (trust me, you’d shudder if you saw me chop an onion), but hey, I get the job done. Even though I’ve nearly severed several fingers over the years, not to mention the time I impaled my pinky with a steak knife while slicing a bagel, I’d never really given much thought to the dangerous method I employed to halve a spaghetti squash. I always proceeded in cutting a spaghetti squash as if it were a giant rock-hard avocado—with a knife painstakingly seesawing around the perimeter of the squash. I’m not sure what events occurred that caused my subconscious to one day realize this was a horrible HORRIBLE idea. I’m just thankful it did before I’d involuntarily amputated something.

Recipes

Baked Spaghetti (Squash)

January 11, 2011 9 Comments

When I was trying to decide what my belly wanted for dinner, it didn’t take me long to start salivating at the idea of some oven baked pasta with some melty cheese and garlic bread.

Ohhhh yes.

I’m kind of obsessed with spaghetti squash these days, so any time I’m looking to cure a pasta craving in a healthful way, it’s my go-to-gourd. Okkkk… so it’s a squash, not a gourd (and yes I googled it).

I can remember being a young teenager and watching my mom scrape out spaghetti squash as the rest of the family piled mounds and mounds of traditional spaghetti noodles on our plates. Back then, I didn’t get it. And, I was wayyyyyy to stubborn to even taste the squash. Even when my mom swore up and down it tasted good, I wanted NOTHING to do with it.

Ohhhhh how the tables turn.

Over the past year or so, spaghetti squash has become a weekly staple in my meal planning. I’ve made it with turkey, chicken, sausage, veggies, chili… I even tried to use it as a pizza crust once, though that didn’t turn out nearly as well as I had hoped. One thing I’ve never tried is using spaghetti squash to make an oven-baked pasta dish. Tonight was the night my friends!

First up, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I oh-so-carefully sliced the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, then sprinkled on some salt and pepper. I put the squash halves cut side down on a cookie sheet that I had sprayed with cooking spray. Into the oven for 30 minutes (for a smaller squash, check for doneness after 20 minutes).

Meanwhile, I cooked up 4 ounces of 99% fat free turkey breast in a small skillet. Once the turkey was white, I tossed the turkey onto a plate to hang out.

Meanwhile, I chopped up 4 baby bella mushrooms and some red onion and minced up 3 cloves of garlic and sautéed in the same skillet I used for the turkey.

Once the veggies were soft and onions were caramelized, I added 1 cup of Nature’s Basket Garlic tomato sauce, tossed the turkey back in, and then seasoned everything up with some garlic powder, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and onion powder.

I let the sauce simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes.

Around that time the spaghetti squash was done, so I used a fork to scrape out all the squash leaving the squash strands in the skin rather than dumping onto a plate.

Next, I tossed 1/2 of the sauce onto each of the squash halves, then topped each with 1 lite babybel cheese round that I had roughly chopped up in my food processor.

Spaghetti squash + yum-o sauce + babybel

Into the 400 degree oven for about 7 minutes (until the cheese was mellllllty!):

For my “garlic bread” I sliced up half of a ciabatta roll, and topped each half with a couple squirts of butter spray, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, and a bit of parmesan cheese. Then I popped them into the oven for five minutes until the cheese was melted and the bread was crisp

Xtreme amount of grub:

Strike that… Xtreme amount of DELICIOUS grub:

You know that look Homer Simpson gets when he sees a doughnut? You know, eyes rolled back into the head and quivering lips with drool running down? That’s how I look when I look at this picture:

WOWZA.

Stats on one half of the baked spaghetti squash with 1/2 of the meat sauce and cheesy goodness: 281 calories, 35 g carbs, 7g fat, 26g protein, 8g fiber.

Recipes

Turkey Time

December 8, 2010 6 Comments

I swear every time I make meatballs I forget to write down what I threw into them. Ohhhh, the elusive turkey meatball recipe… changes every time. Yet, always tastes delicious.

I bring you spaghetti squash with turkey meatballs and garlic mushroom marinara:

Easier than it looks, I promise!

(Check out this post for some tips on cooking up your spaghetti squash)

While my spaghetti squash was doing its thang in the oven, I got to work on the meatballs. Here’s what went into them:

Your guess is as good as mine. Winking smile

Alriiiiiiiiight, here’s approximately what went into the meatballs:

10 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey breast
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 egg
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp dried oregano

This mix gave me 10 2-bite meatballs:

I sprinkled each meatball with a little olive oil (about 1 tbsp for all 10 meatballs). I cooked these in a 400 degree for 15 minutes, flipped them over and cooked for another 10.

Meanwhile, I sautéed 2 cloves minced garlic and a couple handfuls of sliced baby bella mushrooms in a sauce pan:

Then added 1.5 cups of Prego sauce to the pan along with some garlic powder, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and dried oregano. I popped a lid on the pan and let it simmer away on low heat until the meatballs and spaghetti squash were done cooking:

I promise you–this dish will totally satisfy your pasta cravings. Look how tasty:

As an added bonus, I was able to get 3 servings out of this batch. Hello tomorrow’s lunch and the day after tomorrow’s dinner!

Stats on 2 cups Spaghetti Squash with 3 Turkey Meatballs and 1/2 cup sauce: 320 calories, 37g carbs, 10g fat, 27g protein, 7g fiber. Molto bene!

Since the ground turkey comes in a 20 ounce package, I decided to use the remaining 10 ounces to make up some of my beloved Turkey Meat Muffins Open-mouthed smile

Only thing I did different this time was to omit the oil. I didn’t notice much of a difference, so I think I’ll stick with the oil-free version in the future.

I LOVE these guys for several reasons.

They are pre-portioned and super cute.
They satisfy my belly in a healthful way.
Leftover meatloaf sandwiches rock my socks off.
Saying “meat muffin” brings an unavoidable smile to my face 😀

Nom.

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