I Love Pasta, No More

I want to share this easy squash recipe, because it is a meal that really helped me kick my addiction of pasta.  When I started my weight loss meal plan last summer, I worked hard to give up foods that I loved or at least thought I loved, most notably; bread (wheat), processed foods, and pasta. Eliminating the BIG 3 from my diet was no easy task, as the majority of my meals consisted of a combination of the 3.  Then I discovered my favourite ‘go to’ alternative for pasta.  Spaghetti Squash!

If you count the non-diet soda on the left, this meal is comprised solely of the BIG 3. I do remember that it was delicious! It's OK, you are allowed to cheat when travelling... especially in Italy.

Lucky for me, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending a dinner party where the main dish was spaghetti squash.  Since that night, this meal has been in our cooking loop, and appears on our table at least twice a month. 

There are many ways to prepare the dish (I have tried several), but the one I will outline here and in the video, is probably the easiest to follow and hardest to screw up. 

This recipe serves: 4

• baking sheet
• oven mitts
• baking pan
• wooden spoon
• fork
• heavy kitchen knife

 Ingredients:

• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1 table spoon butter1 lb ground meat (beef, turkey)
• Spaghetti sauce of your choice and desired quantity (homemade tomato, or store bought)

*Yuk processed food, but it could be a time saver, and the key is skipping the pasta, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t have homemade tomato sauce*

 Directions: 

1.  Wash then cut spaghetti squash in half

• Careful do not to cut yourself! 

2.  Scoop out the seeds

• you can do this before or after cooking, I like to do it before

3.  Place both halves on the baking sheet, rind side up 

• that means the inside of the squash faces down

4.  Preheat oven for at 350C then place squash in the oven and bake for 40 minutes

• make sure you track the progress, you don’t want to burn the house down
•  the key is to get the squash soft enough to scoop out the insides effortlessly

5.  Brown meat on stove top

• I hope you know how to do that
• Just make sure the meat is dry before you start browning, and that you drain the fat before adding the sauce

6.  Take squash out of oven, scrape the inside of the squash with a fork letting contents fall into a bowl and BAM, you got spaghetti squash!

• don’t forget to wear gloves, it is hot
• if you are having trouble scarping it out, you might have to put the squash back in the oven
• if all else fails, just add butter

 7.  Add meat sauce and enjoy!

This easy recipe helped me kick the pasta addiction.  I Hope it works for you!

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