Spaghetti Squash~A New Favorite Food

  Are you looking for a healthy alternative to pasta?  Do you need to cut your carb intake?  Do you have Celiac disease?  Maybe you don’t need to change anything in your diet however, you  just like to try new foods.  Whatever category you feel you fit in I wanted to share with you my recent find.  Spaghetti Squash!  Over the years I had heard of it, however never tried it.  I love pumpkin, though and zucchini is grown in our garden every year!  I have started on a journey to go gluten free and more maybe rawish, if that is a word.  I haven’t eaten meat in almost 3 years and I feel better from that.  I haven’t been diagnosed with Celiac but have some the same issues as people with it  and figure it can’t hurt, right?  What is bad about eating more healthy?  A few weeks ago we went to my sister’s for dinner.  I suggested spaghetti and meatballs because it is an inexpensive dish for larger crowds (2 hubbies and 3 teenagers plus the rest of us is a lot of food).    My sister said that she was going to have spaghetti squash also.  I thought this would be a good time to try it.  If I don’t like it the rest wont be a waste of money as I throw it to the chickens.  It was delicious!  I had to add it to my favorite foods list!  It is also versatile as you will see. 

         So here goes my scoop on this squash.  First you want to pick a good squash.  Your squash should feel heavy for its size.  They should be about 4 lbs.   Here is mine with the holes pierced for cooking. 

Second, is storing it.  You can store your squash your squash in the fridge however due to the moisture in there it will deteriorate faster.  The best place to store it is on the counter, or in the pantry.  If you happen to purchase one that is green you can put it in the sun to let it ripen.  If you  store the squash between 50 and 60  degrees it will keep for several months!

Third, cook it!  You can cook this a couple of ways.  The easiest is to pierce it a few times and cook it whole in the oven for about an hour at 375 degrees. You can even put it in the microwave whole for about 15 minutes.  I haven’t tried this as I prefer the oven over the microwave.  If you cut it into chunks it will cook skin side up in about 20-30 minutes.  You do have to use some muscles to cut it and to get the seeds out, when it is raw.

Fourth, prepare to eat.  Once the squash is out of the oven and on a cutting board you are ready to scrape out the strands.  Check out how the strands have pulled from the skin.

  Check out the “spaghetti strands”!  I have to say I was surprised when it really did look like actual pasta!

You are going to completely scrape all  the strands out, which practically fall out of the skin!

 

It mostly all came out.

Now to eat.  You can dress this with a pasta sauce, a bit of butter or olive oil, or as I did,  sauté (in olive oil) green peppers and onions then tossed with the squash.  I have also scrambled eggs and made the squash, eggs and peppers.  Lastly, I sautéed it will broccoli and black eyed peas.  This wasn’t my favorite because of the peas. I love black eyed peas, just not with this.   I have to say that my favorite was the squash with farm fresh eggs and peppers!

  I think the squash has a slightly sweet smell and a light taste.  My kiddos wanted to give it a try and their response was that it didn’t taste like anything with out sauce on it.    It is very filling and with only 27 calories, compared to the 158 in pasta it is the lighter alternative.    This is definitely going to be a staple in my house from now on! 

Give it a try and let me know what you think!