Ok – after trying all kinds of things over the years with squashes – (Discovery Channel has Shark Week, I am declaring this week to be SQUASH WEEK here at GiryaGirl.com !!), last night in an odd moment I saw that the organic spaghetti squash I had stashed on top of the fridge was ripe for conquest. Erm, I mean… there was this kinda… not so good looking little spot on it – and well, it was time to do something about it and get it into usable form asap. Years ago I used to just poke holes in spaghetti squash with a fork and microwave it – the texture usually turned out pretty ok with next to zero clean up. I’ve eschewed microwave use for the past 8 months or so – mainly because I don’t want to give up the counter space, or even worse, add in a kitchen cart etc. Besides, I think it would be mainly used for just leftovers and spaghetti squash – and there’s an angry* vintage oven here that does rather well with those tasks.
It’s not too late to participate in Monday’s Squash Week activity – the “what’s your fav squash” survey on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/questions/215829525153713
While taking a break from writing and web development work last night, I decided to poke around and see what alternatives to “cut the spaghetti squash in half, bake forever” were out there. Eventually stumbling on this little gem – preheat oven to 375 Degrees, wrap spaghetti squash in foil, bake for 1 hour or until you can stick a knife through it easily. I used a metal skewer to test. And for microwave nostalgia’s sake (I say this because I don’t know if it is necessary or not) put some little fork holes around the squash before foil wrapping and baking. So last night very late, the spaghetti squash was done, and the texture was FANTASTIC – nearly like al-dente noodles – I scooped them out and put them in pyrex containers in the fridge for the next few days. For lunch today I browned some grass fed ground beef in the trusty skillet – added some spaghetti sauce made last week (spices, capers, etc.) then folded in the pre-cooked, but not overcooked spaghetti squash threads – look what it made!!!!!!!
I’m pretty sure even my legendary vegetable-hating strength coach would eat this – actually, I’ll see if we can get him to try some. If you aren’t avoiding dairy adding some fresh parm to the top of this would rule. The other great thing about dishes like this – you can pre-cook everything and then just heat it all together – great for busy people, and I suspect this would be kid friendly too. I don’t know though, since there’s all of 2 kids in this building and since seeing me beat the dirt out of the rug over the banister they’re officially afraid of me. So if your kid eats this and likes it, please tell us in the comments area!
Alternatives to meat sauce and spaghetti squash would be to toss the threads with an herb infused olive oil and serve alongside a sirloin steak and salad. I’m going to try and bake up some of it with eggs into a fritatta, not sure – its SQUASH WEEK who knows what will happen!!!!
*It runs a little hot.
And don’t forget, if you want to heat up the house a little with the oven, here’s a handy guide to veggie roasting!
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