Spaghetti squash, the lovely, terribly difficult to cut in half, veggie that makes for an amazing substitute for carb filled pasta seems pretty straight forward to make, right? Just cut it in half, bake, and peel. Well at least that’s what I thought until I discovered that cutting it in half length wise actually makes for much shorter strands of “spaghetti”.

I recently discovered that by cutting the squash into 1″ slices and removing the seeds before baking helped my squash cook more evenly, was a bit easier to peel and produced much longer strands of squash. Though cutting the squash into slices was a bit challenging it was well worth the effort.

Our dinner last night was inspired by our garden. My own spaghetti squash plant has yet to produce anything for me unfortunately this year so we bought a fresh one from a local market along with some ground beef, also from a local farm. Our spaghetti sauce featured freshly picked garlic, onions, and cherry tomatoes from our garden. We finished the meal with some grilled asparagus and rolls (can’t totally miss out on the carbs, right?!).

The whole meal took about an hour and 15 minutes to prepare and it was delicious. I am 22 weeks pregnant with my second daughter and it’s really important to me to work on preparing healthy meals that are also flavorful. My 2 year old kept swiping the asparagus off of the plate on the counter while she waited. I couldn’t get too upset though, at least it was something good for her!

Spaghetti Squash Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
• Cut your squash into 1″ slices
• Cut the seeds out of the middle
• Place the slices on a baking sheet
• Bake for aprox. 40 minutes
• Let cool for 10-15 minutes
• Peel the shell off and shred into strands with two forks