Guest Blogger: Skip the Noodles, Bring On The Spaghetti Squash!

It’s Saturday afternoon, and we need to prepare a healthy dinner for 11 by 6:30pm. I look around my kitchen searching for a healthy option that will feed my entire family and decently fast. I start to panic a little bit thinking I can’t possibly pull it off in two hours. What if there isn’t enough food for everyone? What if no one likes what I make? I internally started to question my hosting abilities, and then I see the three beautiful spaghetti squash sitting on our counter. Lightbulb! 

Spaghetti squash is the perfect healthy substitute for pasta and it’s also a vegetable. (I don’t do noodles.) But what can I put with it to make it more of a meal and less of a side dish? I didn’t have to look far, because I soon realized that chicken breast and broccoli would make a great addition to this food. I’m a big fan of mixing all of my ingredients together in a bowl and making it a casserole, so that’s what we did. 

What you will need: 

• 3 spaghetti squash
• 8 chicken breasts
• 3 cups frozen broccoli
• dash of garlic pepper
• 2 cups cheddar cheese
• your favorite seasoning

I cooked three spaghetti squash (375 degrees for 45 minutes) and in the meantime, cut up eight chicken breasts and sautéed them on the stovetop. We also steamed about three cups of frozen broccoli in the microwave for 15 minutes with a little garlic pepper. When all ingredients were finished cooking individually, we mixed it all together in a large bowl and added two cups of cheddar cheese and my favorite seasoning: Trader Joe’s 21 Salute. We put the squash mix into two large baking dishes and put them in our oven at the same cozy 375 degrees as before. We baked them for about 20 minutes and pulled them out to fill our home with a delicious new aroma. We simmered some garlic spaghetti sauce on the stove and made some wheat garlic toast sprinkled with some mozzarella cheese. 

Our guests began arriving, and in buffet-style the plates were dished and we anxiously awaited the reviews. Slowly forks started hitting ceramic and talking turned to chewing all around our house. And then one-by-one the reviews rolled in. ‘This is so good!’ ‘Mmmm!’ and countless head nods in approval. For some it was the second and third helpings that said everything we needed to hear. It was official; Spaghetti Squash Casserole was a hit in our tummies and not on our wallets.

Let us know how you liked our healthy, yummy option! 

Happiness and Health Team,

Hope