Time to share another healthy, low carb recipe! I had a hankering for a big 'ole plate of spaghetti with meat sauce...but I didn't want to blow my diet either. So I decided to make spaghetti squash with baked meat sauce.
Here are the ingredients you need to buy and the nutrition facts for the recipe:
It was fairly inexpensive and VERY easy to make. First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Lightly spritz it with olive oil and then sprinkle with salt and pepper (if desired). Put the squash in a casserole pan and bake for 45 - 50 mins. While the squash starts cooking, brown the ground turkey (I also added italian seasonings to the meat) and then combine it with the marinara sauce and cottage cheese. Put the meat mixture in a separate baking dish and put it in the oven with the squash for about 25 - 30 mins (or until hot and bubbly).
The squash will be very hot so i recommend picking one side up with an oven mitt on. A silicone mitt is best so that if you get squash on it you can just wipe it off. You could also just wait for it to cool a bit if you want. Take a fork and scrape from the top all the way to the bottom, the squash will come off in shreds that look like "noodles".
Put all the squash "noodles" back into the casserole pan you baked the squash in.
Pour the meat mixture on top and then top with the mozzarella. In my pic I had put the mozzarella on top of the meat mixture when baking but then it made it hard to get it evenly distributed in the big pan.
I'm not going to say that it tastes EXACTLY like spaghetti, but it was quite delicious and really cured my craving for pasta :) And it was Ryan approved even though he's not a huge fan of squash or zucchini. Yay!!
I am a part time quilter, full time engineer and hope to one day become a full time quilter. Feel free to read along as I explore quilting, cooking and anything else that strikes my fancy.