Spaghetti Squash

Monday, January 5, 2009

I was first introduced to spaghetti squash when I was on Weight Watchers a few years ago. When striving for low-point meals, variety can be hard to come by when you're a picky eater like I am. But spaghetti squash sounded like something I'd like, so we gave it a try.

After that, we made it pretty often. Since then, it has sort of fallen off our dinner radar a bit, and we went a long time without having it. Last week, when we were picking up the butternut squash to use for our butternut squash fries, we decided to pick up a couple spaghetti squash as well.

On New Year's Eve, we decided to make it so we could have a light meal before going to our party (and I'm just now getting around to posting it). It occurred to me that there are probably a lot of people who aren't familiar with spaghetti squash, so I figured I'd blog about it, even though it's not really a recipe.

Spaghetti squash is extremely simple to make. All you have to do is cut it in half, and scoop out the guts and seeds in the middle. Then, place each half into a baking pan, cut side down. Bake on 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. You'll know it's done if you run a fork over the flesh and it very easily starts shredding into "spaghetti."

The consistency, however, is a bit different than actual spaghetti. It's supposed to have a little bit of a "bite" to it, so if it's a little bit on the crunchy side, it doesn't mean it's undercooked.

It's obvious how this squash got it's name.

There are many different ways to serve spaghetti squash. Our favorite way is to treat it just like spaghetti noodles, and eat it with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.

It's actually also quite good on its own. A little parmesan cheese, maybe a little olive oil or butter/margarine... yum. I'm sure there are many other ways to eat it as well; ways that I am not even aware of!

So if you've never had it, I encourage you to give it a try. Add spaghetti squash to your healthy food menus!

Completely unrelated, but an update... OK, so that light I mentioned I was excited about getting to help improve my photos? It came today, and I'm not that impressed by it. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it's bigger and bulkier than I thought and I can't imagine actually setting it up every time I want to take a picture of a meal or something. Not convenient. I'm about 99% sure I'm going to be sending it back. Boo, back to the drawing board. I'm looking for alternatives now. Hopefully I'll be debuting much better looking nighttime photos very soon!

8 comments:

Amber Bass January 5, 2009 at 9:45 PM  

Hi Heather... I never gave spaghetti squash much thought. I love zucchini though, so maybe I'll give this a try. It looks so good in your photos with the sauce and parmesan on it. Hey, I love your new banner!! It's really nice looking!!

Unknown January 5, 2009 at 9:54 PM  

Hey Heather,

I was wondering if you could give me some puppy advice. We just got a baby girl mini dachshund (well, she's 15 weeks old), and we're having a hard time playing with her and training her.

Was Tessa difficult to potty train? Any suggestions on what worked best?

How do you play with Tessa? Our dog is so excited ALL. THE. TIME. and she just loves to run and jump around like a maniac. When I come home from work, I'm exhausted, so running after her (especially since she isn't potty trained yet) is quite exhausting.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Elizabeth

Anonymous,  January 5, 2009 at 10:19 PM  

YUMY! We are making some spaghetti squash this week for dinner. Such a great alternative to pasta! :)

Heather January 5, 2009 at 10:54 PM  

Amber--It's actually my old banner (what I had prior to Christmas). :) I wanted to redesign it for the new year, but the creative juices aren't flowing. But anyway, thanks!

Elizabeth--I'd be happy to talk dachshund puppies with you. It might be easier if you e-mail me? roadtotheaisle@gmail.com. I can just imagine how cute she is... Tessa was a-DOR-able at that age. But yes, the puppy energy can be quite exhausting. But anyway, drop me a line through e-mail and I'll be happy to help in any way I can.

Sara January 6, 2009 at 4:43 AM  

Man I have never even herd of this! I am going to give it a try this week.

Ellen Mint January 6, 2009 at 10:03 AM  

My best friend uses spaghetti squash as a way to get her husband to eat vegetables.

Her 4 year old will happily eat anything leafy or green but not so much her hubby.

MehganDrake January 21, 2011 at 11:13 AM  

We love spaghetti squash, too! Before I bake it, I rub it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I usually make meatballs and spaghetti sauce to accompany mine. It's a big hit.

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