Happy Monday! We have been crazy busy at work the last few weeks…well basically all of September! I finally got some much-needed R&R this last weekend. It was fantastic. Plus…. tomorrow is September 30th meaning it is almost October! I love October!!! I am pretty sure it is my favorite month of the year. Football is in full swing, the leaves start changing, it becomes completely appropriate to have pumpkin-flavored things at EVERY meal! I have slowly started making a few pumpkin-recipes and I will be sharing those with you soon……
This particular recipe has zero pumpkin in it, but it does have my favorite winter squash — spaghetti squash! If you have not tried spaghetti squash then you need to. The other day I made Turkey Meatballs and served them over spaghetti squash. It is extremely versatile….you can use it in place of pasta but, just FYI, it does not taste like spaghetti pasta. It tastes like squash. If you like zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, etc.. then give this one a try.
Cooking spaghetti squash is really easy. You can roast it in the oven, use a slow cooker, boil it, or for a quick way, you can cook it in the microwave. Cut the squash in half length-wise. I place mine in a microwave-safe glass dish that has about 1/4 inch of water. Place the spaghetti squash cut-side down and cook on high until the skin is soft. The amount of time it takes to cook depends on the size of the squash, it has taken me anywhere from 10 minutes all the way to 30. Let the squash cool and then pull the inner flesh apart with a fork. It will come apart in strands that look similar to spaghetti noodles.
As the squash was microwaving, I dug through my refrigerator for ingredients to add in. I chose to go very simple and use red onion, broccoli, and tomatoes.
I sauteed the veggies in 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil. As the veggies were cooking, I added salt & pepper to the spaghetti squash and also 1/4 tsp butter. It does not take very much butter to add a lot of flavor. I served my spaghetti squash & veggies with some chicken sausage. We bought a package of chicken sausage at Sam’s Club. They have several flavors but this particular one is Spinach and Asiago. It is delicious! We like keeping chicken sausage in the freezer for those times we don’t want to put a lot of effort into cooking (aka Monday’s!). I defrosted one link in the microwave. I cut it up into several pieces and then finished cooking it in the same pan I had used to cook the veggies.
Super easy and oh-so-yummy! You could make this same meal with a different protein. Try it with chicken, white kidney beans, steak, whatever you have on hand or whatever you are craving!
- 2 1/2 c spaghetti squash, cooked
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 c red onion, diced
- 1 c broccoli
- 10-12 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 tsp butter
- salt & pepper to taste
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook 3 minutes. Add broccoli and cook 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until broccoli is tender. Mix butter into spaghetti squash. Add salt & pepper. Top spaghetti squash with cooked vegetables.
