A Most Unusual Spaghetti Dish

So about two weeks ago I bought some squash I was planning to use for a vegan macaroni and cheese dish. I don't know much about squash, so I bought these two huge yellow things KNOWING that they would be enough for my family. When I got home, I excitedly began to cut off the ends only to find that the skins were about half an inch think and nearly impossible to cut through! Then I saw the little sticker pasted on the side of the squash. These were spaghetti squashes and the instructions said to cut them in half, oil a casserole dish, place them facedown on the casserole dish and cook them for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that they were called spaghetti squash. I figured it was like butterhead lettuce. It doesn't take like butter, does it? I was so disheartened. I had been looking forward to this macaroni and cheese recipe for quite some time and now I knew I would have to plan something else for dinner. I dejectedly put the "spaghetti" squashes (is that how you say it plurally?) back in the bottom drawer of the fridge and saved them for a later day.

Today was that later day. I obediently followed the sticker instructions and thought I would make a pasta sauce and parmesan cheese topping to add to the squash. Yes, I knew my kids would probably complain about having to have a huge piece of squash covered with tomato sauce for dinner, but that's life.

When I opened the oven to test for doneness I poked the squash with my fork and what to my surprize, it magically separated into tiny spaghetti-sized pieces, like this...


(Oh, and here's what it looked like before I poked it with a fork...)


...and when we served it up on a plate...]


I felt so gleeful to know that this really and truly looked like spaghetti and that maybe, just maybe, my kids would think it was cool. I set the table, placing a quarter of each squash in a serving bowl, the spaghetti sauce in another bowl and the parmesan cheese in it's fancy green plastic container. You know the one. After the prayer, I told my kids that I would need to show them how dinner was to work. I grabbed a squash quarter, scraped the "spaghetti" onto my place, spooned warm spaghetti sauce over it, then told them they could add parmesan cheese if they wanted to. They each enthusiastically grabbed a squash, began scraping, covered it with sauce and cheese (the vegans among us used nutritional yeast instead of parmesan, as it gives foods a cheese-like flavor).....and LOVED it! All except one, that is, but six out of seven ain't bad! (The 17-year-old boy was decorating the gym for prom, so wasn't able to join us for dinner.) Here's what it looked like...


You can imagine how good it felt to be feeding my kids a vegetable main dish instead of white flour pasta! I never would have imagined that they would like it so much. And you know I usually like to show proof of how much they liked it by posting pictures like these...




(Can you guess which baby is which?)

Here's the simple step-by-step...

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2: Cut your spaghetti squash in half, remove the seeds and lay the halves face down on a oiled casserole pan.

Step 3: Bake 30 minutes or until soft or to desired texture.

Step 4: Set your table with your favorite pasta sauce, parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast (Here's what that looks like, by the way)...


...fresh parsley and the like, and enjoy!

And now, for the daily feature - What I ate today (in case you care)...

Breakfast: 1 1/2 Homemade almond butter and raw honey sandwich on whole wheat
-a glass of almond milk

Lunch: Asparagus sauted in avocado oil and sea salt
-spinach salad with ginger miso dressing and pine nuts
-a baked potato with raw vegan faux sour cream and salt and pepper
-a slice of raw vegan lemon cheese cake

Snack: Fresh strawberry slush with macadamia almond whipped cream
-a few pieces of asparagus

Dinner: Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and nutritional yeast

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