Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I have this love-hate relationship with spaghetti squash. For those of you  not in the know about spaghetti squash, here’s one:

It’s called “Spaghetti” because when it is cooked, you can rake the pulp with a fork and it separates into strings that resemble spaghetti. It’s a great alternative to spaghetti as you can top it with red sauce and have a quick and easy veggie dinner.

But sometimes red sauce gets boring.

So, I buy the spaghetti squash and it sits on my counter waiting for me to get inspired as to how to serve the thing. Last week, I did some experimenting and came up with a Spaghetti Squash Casserole… and it was pretty good!

It’s a little more time consuming than your traditional noodle casserole, but it was really tasty and the girls absolutely loved it. So without further ado:

Spaghetti Squash Casserole:

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash.

olive oil

oregano, basil, onion power, garlic salt, pepper (I don’t measure my spices.)

4oz cream cheese

1 jar prepared maranara sauce (2 cups of your own made sauce.)

shredded mozzarella cheese (about 2 cups, divided)

a green fresh or frozen vegetable (we used kale, but you could use broccoli or spinach or peas as well.)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. If you are using frozen kale or spinach or another leafy green, take out of freezer and begin to thaw. You will want to remove the excess water.

3.Holding the squash steady, cut the top inch or so off of the top of the squash. (This will give you a flat base to set the squash on for the next cut.)

4. Cut the squash in half, the long way, and scrape out the seeds using a spoon. Discard seeds. (Take care here, the outside of the squash is hard and it’s shaped like a football. This could be disasterous with coupled with a knife.)

5. Place squash, cut side up, in a shallow baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and spices. Add onion and carrots and roast all veggies for 30-40 min, or until squash is soft when you poke with a fork. (you could microwave the squash, but I like to bake it for the flavor.)

6. While squash bakes, combine the cream cheese and maranara in a large sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir until the cream cheese is all mixed in. Add 1.5 cups of cheese (or less. We love cheese in this house.) Set aside.

7. If you are using broccoli, steam the broccoli a bit (we use the micro) to par cook. Drain excess water.

8. When squash is done, working with one half of squash at a time (and it’s going to be HOT!) take a fork and scrape the pulp into the sauce pan. You can scrape horizontally or vertically or both… doesn’t really matter, just get all of the pulp into the ban with the sauce.

9. Add your roasted onion, carrot and green veg to the sauce pan and stir to combine

10. Transfer everything to a casserole dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake (covered) for 20-30 minute, or until cheese is hot and bubbly and all is heated through.

11. Serve with garlic bread and a salad!

You could prep this during varying points in the day if you don’t have the chunk of time to roast the squash right before adding to the sauce. Spaghetti Squash refrigerates nicely, especially if you are tossing the “noodles” into a casserole.

Let me know if you try this and how your family liked it!
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Related posts:

1. Thursday’s Tasty Treat: Baked Acorn Squash
2. Thursday’s Tasty Treat: Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
3. Thursday’s Tasty Treat: Butternut Squash and Beef Chili
4. Lenten Meal Plan Monday Linkup: French Toast Casserole

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