Faux Spaghetti aka Faux-s'ghetti

Faux Spaghetti aka Faux-s'ghetti

I LOVE pasta. Italian food is my favorite food, I could eat it every day (and there have been plenty of periods in my life where I have). I always buy whole wheat pasta because it has way more nutrition than normal pasta, but I still want a healthier choice. Cue the spaghetti squash: the fun to eat, nutritious, perfect spaghetti alternative. If you're unfamiliar with it, which you should change ASAP because it's delicious, it's a type of squash that shreds into thin spaghetti-like strings when cooked. Usually I eat it as a side dish with butter and parsley, but I wanted to make it the star of my meal so I decided to treat it like real spaghetti and fill it with meat sauce. Wowza. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it came out fantastic! The squash has a nice little crunch and an oh-so-slightly sweet flavor that tastes delicious with the meat sauce. Dare I say, it was even better than the real stuff! (Sounds crazy, I know, but I'm totally serious.)  Here's how I made it: I cut the squash in half and put the flesh side down in a glass baking dish, filled the dish with 1 inch of water, and microwaved for 18 minutes (cooking time will vary depending on the size of your squash,  mine was small). It's done when a fork easily pierces the flesh. While that's going,  I browned about 1/4 pound ground beef, drained, then added about 2 cups of pasta sauce (I used an all natural kind from a jar, but I'll use homemade next time.) Let the sauce heat through then spoon into the squash half, and done! Seriously, it's that easy. And seriously delicious.

Sarah's Review

Ease: 4/5

Taste: 5/5

Comments: Sprinkle on a little parmesan cheese and parsley at the end to finish it off. For an even healthier version, sub ground turkey for the ground beef.