Spaghetti Squash? Interesting.

So I picked up a spaghetti squash at the store the other day to see what the deal is with it. I love spaghetti, I like most kinds of squash...why not try a combination?

I got really nervous when I cut this thing open, a huge blast of Halloween hit me in the face. Spaghetti squash looks, feels, and more importantly SMELLS exactly like a pumpkin. Understandable, right? They're both part of the squash family. But this scared me just a bit, as I do not like pumpkin anything other than carving and making a super huge mess.

Anyway...the overall dish was delish once you get past the texture violation. I'm very sensitive to texture, and this was completely unnatural(ha- squash is more unnatural than processed noodles), but it tasted very good.

So if you're interested, here's what to do:
Get yourself a spaghetti squash and cut it in half lengthwise.
Scoop out all the stringies and seeds (if you love roasted pumpkin seeds, you could probably roast these with the same taste results).
Place squashes insides down in a glass pyrex dish and bake at 375 for 30 to 40 minutes.

Once baked, let cool and then take a fork and start scraping out the guts, horizontally, into a large bowl. This part is fun :) You'll see exactly why it's called spaghetti squash, it does look exactly like spaghetti noodles :)

Then add your favorite spaghetti sauce! I used Ragu's no sugar added kind and it worked great.

I also added some parmasean cheese to mine.

You can add meat balls or whatever your heart's desire. I added grilled chicken strips to mine. I got lazy and didn't grill my own chicken but tried this instead:

As you can see it packs in the protein :) And it only takes about 3 minutes to microwave!

Throw your meat/protein on top of your faux-spaghetti and viola!

As you can see on my plate, it gets really watery, so drain well and don't tip your plate!

If you are texture sensitive like me, this will not be the easiest adjustment. But if you also LOVE spaghetti like I do, you'll be willing to make the sacrifice in order to enjoy a post-op friendly meal that does satisfy that craving :)