LC Spaghetti / Instructions for cooking spaghetti squash

[hysteria]

I am not a great cook, but I have been craving spaghetti for awhile and remembered reading about spaghetti squash - what a life saver!

I have not plugged the info into fitday, so I do not know the true counts...

-1 jar Ragu LIGHT spaghetti sauce - carb count was 7 g. w/ 2 g. fiber per serving
-1 medium to large spaghetti squash...make sure you have a hacksaw to cut through the outer skin ;)
-1# ground beef
-1 link of turkey keilbasa
-veggie's - mushrooms, green peppers, etc...what you like
-spices - I love curry and added about 1.5 tsp & season salt, pepper

Cut spaghetti squash in 1/2. Place in a large, microwave safe bowl, cut side down in about 1/4 c. water. Cover completely w/ clear plastic wrap. Depending on the size of your squash, microwave 10 - 15 minutes, or until you can easily pierce the skin with a fork. Remove (CAUTION -HOT!) and flake "spaghetti" out with a fork.

While the squash is nuking, start cooking the ground beef and sausage. Once thoroughly cooked, mix in with sauce & spices. I like to cook mine all together - sauce, meats & veggies - for awhile to blend flavors.

Spoon sauce mix over spaghetti squash - ENJOY! :)

[FionaMcB]

hysteria (great name that I can relate to this morning.)

No need for a hack saw. Stick the spaghetti squash with a fork or knife a couple of times, put it in the microwave in a dish, covered with saran wrap for about 5 minutes, let it cool, then cut and proceed to cook as you want. This works for any of the hard skinned squashes, and makes life ever so much easier. Hack saws rust in the dishwasher. ;)

[lcon109]

I've been substituting cooked cabbage for pasta in my spagetti dishes. I slice it very thin so it is in long strands, steam it, and then drain it. After I drain the water off, I place it in a bowl that I've lined with paper towels to draw out the excess moisture. (If you don't do this, you get a very runny liquid in the bottom of your bowl). Then I make our sauce as usual and ENJOY! It tastes very good, mild like pasta and you can eat plenty and at the same time keep the carbs low so you can 'spend' them on something else, like GARLIC BREAD!!

Lisa

[hysteria]

Fiona - THANKS!!! I found out I absolutly LOVE spaghetti squash but was wondering how the heck to get through the skin the next time I fixed it :)

Lisa - I had not even thought of cabbage. I tried the cabbage soup diet a few years back and vowed never to eat cabbage again ;) I might just have to break down and pick up a head. Thanks!

[lcon109]

You know, I forgot that when I started eating the cabbage in place of the pasta.. I made a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of pasta and cooked cabbage. Then gradually phased out the pasta altogether.

Lisa

[jewel777]

Zucchini also works good. Just peel into ribbons with a peeler, saute in oil or steam them or however you prefer. They cook really fast and they taste good too :roll:

[lcon109]

I'll have to try that.. never though about using zucchini or even yellow squash.

Eggplant is also very low in carbs..

Lisa

[yellowman]

I cooked some spaghetti squash the other day, tried it with the butter and cheese but it wasn't my favorite. Is the squash still supposed to be a little crunchy? And I swear it tasted a tiny bit sweet as well. Gonna try to make a baked spaghetti type dish out of it and see what happens.

[hysteria]

Hi yellowman,
I too found the squash has a slightly sweet flavor, but underneather the sauce I make, you cannot notice it.
As for the texture, mine came out soft, but had a "crunch" - I think it should still have some "crunch" to it, b/c otherwise, it would be like eating mush.

[rishamoon]

I bought a spaghetti squash today, I'm going to try this sometime this week... :) I can hardly wait.

[hysteria]

So...

1 cup cooked spaghetti squash has:
42 calories
10 g. carbs
2 g. fiber

and 1 cup is more than sufficient!

I am going to have to enter the rest of the ingredients separately...