spaghetti squash

Paleo Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

February 22, 2017

Spaghetti squash is one of my favorite ingredients to cook with. It’s incredibly healthy, low in carbs, delicious, and generally pretty easy to cook. It can also be swapped out in a lot of your favorite recipes, not just spaghetti!

I have topped spaghetti squash with everything from chicken enchiladas to beef stroganoff. But one of my favorite recipes is this spaghetti squash lasagna!

Now if you have never worked with spaghetti squash before you may be a little bit intimidated. I totally get it. I was right there with you once. Fortunately, my mom has been making spaghetti squash for years, way before it was cool, so I have learned a lot from her.

The hardest part, by far, is cutting the darn thing! It’s seriously a pain in the butt, but I have a couple recommendations to make it a bit easier.

Microwave the whole squash for 1 minute. This will soften the squash slightly, making it easier to cut.
Before cutting around the squash, cut off the stem. It will ensure you get to evenly sized halves.
Use a serrated knife which will help cut through the outer shell.
Don’t cut using a saw like motion. Cut by sticking the tip of the knife all the way through and then pressing down with the base of the knife. It may take a couple cuts to get all the way through.

Once the squash is split in half, I scrape out the seeds then drizzle the flesh with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then off to the oven it goes!

There are of course other ways to cook a spaghetti squash, but when time is not really an issue, oven roasting them is my favorite! The flesh gets very soft, but also a bit caramelized, which makes it taste so much better.

After a few minutes in the oven, the squash is ready to become spaghetti. Its as easy as dragging a fork across the surface. The flesh should be soft so that this doesn’t not require a lot of effort. If it does, pop it back in the oven or microwave until it’s soft.

Ok, while the spaghetti squash was roasting, I worked on all the other components of the lasagna. First up, the meat sauce. I seasoned some ground beef with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic. Then I added in some whole tomatoes, which I smashed down into a sauce.

The next component is the ricotta cheese. Or in this case, nut cheese. Did I mention this was Paleo?

Don’t worry, you won’t miss the cheese. Nut cheese is surprisingly delicious and super flavorful. I love it because you still get that salty, savory, creaminess you would get from normal cheese.

Nut cheese is also pretty easy to prepare. I basically blend up some soaked cashews with a bit of oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper until its just short of cashew butter. It should still have a bit of texture, but not chunky.

Finally, it’s time to assemble. I like to spread the nut cheese over the top of the spaghetti squash. You will probably pull up some of the noodles, but it’s okay – it doesn’t have to be pretty. I then top all of it with a generous helping of meat sauce.

Now if you wanted to be a rebel and use real cheese, this would be where you swap in the ricotta and top this off with some mozzarella cheese. It won’t be Paleo, but it will still be a heck of a lot more healthy than your classic lasagna.

After another quick bake in the oven so that all the components get nice friendly with one another, this Paleo spaghetti squash lasagna is ready to eat! Since everything was basically pre-portioned in the spaghetti squash itself, there is no messy cutting and serving of the lasagna. You know what I’m talking about.

So the first few bites of this spaghetti squash lasagna are good and all, but when you get into the center where all that nut cheese is, it gets really good. The creamy savory-ness of that nut cheese just rounds out the whole thing, making you forget that there really is no cheese in this entire dish!

Can you tell I love this recipe? That’s probably why I make it whenever I’m looking for something healthy, but comforting all at the same time!

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Paleo Beef Stroganoff

February 19, 2016

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I grew up with a working mom who rarely had anytime to make big fancy dinners. In fact, one of my favorite meals as a kid was something we liked to call “meat pie”, which is essentially Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough pressed out in a pie pan, ground turkey mixed with tomato paste and spices, then baked under a layer of cheese. Sounds kinda good, doesn’t it? Maybe I will make it for the blog sometime.

This blog post isn’t about meat pie, unfortunately. It’s about Beef Stroganoff. When my mom did have some time to cook up something other than meat pie (she actually cooks a lot of other things, don’t get the wrong idea), she would make up her version of a healthy Beef Stroganoff. Healthy is sort of relative. It was loaded with butter, sour cream, and noodles. It can definitely get healthier.

Which is exactly what I attempted to do during my Whole 30 challenge. It did seem a little daunting when the key ingredients are sour cream and noodles. But I have become so accustomed to substituting in coconut milk and spaghetti squash, it was a no-brainer.

I started this off by roasting the spaghetti squash since that was going to take the longest. While the spaghetti squash was in the oven, I seared the beef then cooked the onions and mushrooms. Since I wasn’t using a heavy cream or thick sour cream for my sauce, I wanted to thicken up my coconut milk a bit. Fortunately, coconut milk is already pretty thick, so I just used a bit of agar agar powder to get it a bit thicker. I then poured the sauce over the beef, onions, and mushrooms, and let the flavors marry and sauce thicken.

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To serve, I just spooned a healthy portion of the beef stroganoff right on top of the spaghetti squash, which I had already pulled apart with a fork.

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It may not look it, but the resulting Stroganoff is rich, creamy, and has a hint of heat from the red pepper which my husband and I both liked (our personal twist to the recipe). It was definitely one of his favorite recipes during my Whole 30 and I have even made it since completing the diet because it was that good.

If you are not on a Paleo diet, but are looking for a healthy alternative to Beef Stroganoff feel free to use Greek yogurt instead of coconut milk and agar agar. You can also serve over zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice.

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Light and Healthy Chicken Alfredo

April 25, 2014

I can honestly tell you I have no idea when the last time I ate fetuccini alfredo. My husband orders it fairly often when we go out to eat, but I never make it, because it is typically so unhealthy. All that cream and fat. No thanks!

This Alfredo sauce is made with pureed cauliflower, sauteed garlic and onions, Greek yogurt, a bit of non-fat milk, salt, pepper, and parsley. Other than the oil I used to sautee the garlic and onions, there is no fat in this sauce at all.

To make it extra light and healthy, I served my sauce over spaghetti squash (full disclosure, I made whole wheat pasta for my husband). I substitute spaghetti squash in almost all my pasta dishes. I find that it just as easy to make as pasta, and takes less time. First I cut the squash in half, length-wise, then place the squash cut-side down into a shallow microwavable dish with just a bit of water. I cover the dish in plastic wrap and microwave for 7-8 minutes. After it’s done microwaving, I let it sit and steam for an extra 1-2 minutes then it easily forms little “spaghetti noodles” when pulled at with a fork.

If you are a vegetarian, the chicken is totally optional. I this dish is hearty even without the added meat. Because I have to feed a 6’6″ man, I need to add in some extra protein or else he will still be hungry (and whiny).

Despite being “light” and healthy, this meal didn’t feel light. I was pleasantly full and felt completely satisfied. And because the sauce and the pasta are so healthy, I didn’t feel guilty about piling my plate high. And believe me, I did.

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