Hellloo comfort food! If there's one thing I can never get enough of, it's making a nice warm meal and then proceeding to devour it on the couch with Man-Hands while we watch Star Wars or he watches Winnie the Pooh with me (for the millionth time like an angel). This was an absolutely perfect Monday night meal for us! Mondays are my school days when I do all of the initial work I have for the week for school: the reading material, the quizzes, and the discussion board posts. I usually take 3-5 hours every night doing homework and studying, but I usually tend to be around 5 on Mondays. So, Mondays tend to be the time where I need something quick and yummy that allows me to take breaks from my work periodically to cook it. This is absolutely perfect. Now I now last week we did a video to go with the recipe. I did a video, and I hated it, so we're skipping the videos for now. Once we have more time, I may get back into doing the video thing and seeing how I can make it work. For the time being, just the regular blog posts, sorry guys!
This recipe is super simple, and worth a try at least once! I tried finding the smallest spaghetti squash I could find and it was still a little too much for the 2 of us. Not bad for the leftovers though :) Let's get started!
First thing's first, here's what you'll need:
Next you'll want to cut your squash in half length wise, and clean out all the seeds. This is a much simpler task when it's raw rather than after you've cooked it. Man-hands can attest to this. Whenever we make spaghetti squash, we always cook it in the microwave since it's quicker so we always have a heck of a time trying to pull all the little slimy seeds out. When it's raw, you can just take a large spoon and scoop out the insides like it's nothing. Brush the insides of your squash boats with oil and place them skin side up on a cookie sheet. Slide that into a 400 degree oven and roast them for about 30 minutes.
When they're done, they'll be extremely hot so make sure that you let them rest for a few minutes to cool off before you flip them over again. KEEP THE OVEN ON. I can't stress that enough! If you turn the oven off it'll make this recipe 10x longer. You may want to turn the broiler on at this point, but that's entirely up to your taste and if your broiler is like my old one and sets the smoke alarm off every time it goes over 400 degrees.
Start on the filling portion while your squash boats are in the oven. Brown the meat and season it, drain it and put it back in the skillet. Add in your pasta sauce and your cup of cheese (ricotta or cottage). We used cottage cheese 1. Because I couldn't find ricotta in any store today (a very annoying experience at best) and 2. Because it may be a little healthier (don't quote me on that), and I thought it sounded interesting and we should give it a try. Did not disappoint with the cottage cheese by the way. Mix all of those yummy things together in the skillet and cover it, let it simmer for a few minutes until everything is heated up and your cottage cheese is a bit melty. At this point your boats should be sufficiently cooled off, so flip them flesh side up. Take a fork and scrape the insides and the edges to fluff them up a bit and pull the spaghetti from the sides. Take your filling and put as much or as little as you'd like in the boats, then top with as much shredded cheese as you like. If you like your cheese browner, turn the broiler on. If you're like us and like your cheese white, just keep the oven at 400 degrees. Pop the boats back into the oven until the cheese is the color and texture that you like it. Take them out, let them cool a little bit, and enjoy!
Well guys, I'm super sorry that I don't have a lot of pictures of the process this week. We tried to make a video and it didn't really turn out well. We're gonna hold off on the videos until we move and can get a few cameras in the kitchen with us while we cook to make things better so we can take pictures and still make videos. Anyway,
Ingredients:
1 Small Spaghetti Squash
1 T oil for brushing
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 pound ground meat (turkey or beef work well)
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 cup ricotta or small curd cottage cheese
Shredded Mozzarella to taste
1. Cut open spaghetti squash length wise and brush the insides with oil. Place on baking sheet skin side up and roast in 400 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and place flesh side up to cool while preparing the rest of the dish.
2. Brown ground meat in a skillet and drain excess fat. Return meat to skillet and mix in jar of spaghetti sauce and ricotta cheese. Cover and let mixture simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
3. Rake fork across insides of spaghetti squash halfs to fluff up "spaghetti". Pour meat mixture into spaghetti squash halves and top with as much shredded cheese as you'd like
4. If you prefer browned cheese, turn broiler on. If not, keep oven on at 400 degrees and place spaghetti squash back into oven until cheese is melted and to your liking.
5. Enjoy!
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