Takin’ the Pasta Out of Spaghetti

Spaghetti with meatballs may be one of my all time favorite comfort foods. The only problem with this dinner is that I like to eat a biiiig helping of the pasta and am left feeling overly stuffed every time.

I recently discovered a wonderful substitution for the noodles: spaghetti squash.

Sliced Spaghetti Squash

To begin making tonight’s dinner I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and had Ryan cut the squash in half (it’s very tough, so be careful).

I removed the seeds and placed the squash face down on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

Seeded Spaghetti Squash

Ready to Bake

I let the squash bake for around 40 minutes, though you could bake it for a little less time if it’s a smaller squash. Once the squash was tender, I forked out the “spaghetti” strands.

The "Noodles"

This squash yielded a lot of “spaghetti.”

Lots of Squash

I placed a large amout of the squash in a bowl and topped it with roasted zucchini, squash, marinara, Morningstar Farms crumbles and Parmesan cheese.

Morningstar Farms Crumbles

Dinner Time

Dig In!

Once I stirred it all up, it looked a lot less attractive, but tasted phenomenal!

Looks Gross, Tastes Good!

I have a tendency to love disgusting-looking food. I think I get this from my dad. Our plates at Thanksgiving are utterly repulsive. We mix everything together: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas… the works!

I’ll never forget one of my first dinners at Ryan’s mom’s house. She served mashed potatoes with gravy and peas and I stirred mine all together. She said she knew I was “one of them” when I turned such an attractive meal into a plate of delicious mush! I guess this will be a tradition Ryan and I will continue together!

Question: What is your favorite nasty looking food?

Slow Digesting Carbs = Slow Posting Blogger

This post is a recap of last night’s dinner since I took the night off blogging to read Dan Brown’s fantastic new book! (Mama, what chapter are you on now?)

Since dinner consisted of whole wheat pasta, a slow-digesting carbohydrate, I figured it was appropriate to post on it a little late, since I’m only now beginning to digest it. Riiiight… 🙂

Whole Wheat Pasta

I boiled up some Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta noodles to serve as the base for our dinner.

Oodles of Noodles

Ryan chopped up yellow summer squash and zucchini and I threw them on the griddle, sprayed first with cooking spray.

Sizzlin' Squash

While the noodles boiled and the squash sizzled, I microwaved some MorningStar Farms Grillers Recipe Crubles (they’re meat free!) to add to the pasta.

Meaty... But Not

Once everything was ready, I combined it all in a big bowl with delicious marinara sauce.

Pasta Bowl

Yummy

Of course, I topped it off with some Parmesan cheese.

Parmesan Pleaser

Stirring this big ol’ bowl caused quite a… stir. 😉 It was a messy dinner that overflowed a bit, but I was full and happy afterward! Pasta is just so darn delicious.

Pasta's Number One Fan