Creamy Dreamy Spaghetti Squash

This recipe is a dream come true! It is the most satisfying substitute for macaroni and cheese  ever- I honestly love it more than pasta- based mac n cheese!

Basically, to make this dish you just replace the noodles with spaghetti squash and otherwise treat it like home made mac n cheese... which means if for whatever reason you don't like my recipe (not likely) you can just as easily use your grandmothers mac n cheese recipe- if that's your fav.

What you will need:

• 1 large spaghetti squash
• butter, milk, flour
• cheese!
• onion (sweet, white or yellow)
• broccoli
• olive oil/cooking spray
• salt and pepper
• a ceramic baking dish, with lid

To prepare the noods,

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Cut your spaghetti squash in half, (hot dog way) and scrape out the seeds.
• using your cooking spray lightly spray a little oil to the squash so it doesn't dry out in the oven, and season with salt and pepper
• Roast for 45-50 minutes, or until a fork easily punctures the flesh of the squash. If the squash seems to be drying out while baking, brush with an additional tablespoon of olive oil, or an extra spritz of cooking spray
• remove from the oven and allow to cool enough to handle
• using a fork, scrape out the stringy "noodles" and put them in a ceramic baking dish to await the CHEESE

While your squash is cooking, make sure you are multitasking! 

• start dicing up that onion (I used about a quarter of 1 large onion)
• begin steaming or lightly boiling little florets of broccoli

once your squash is baking, your onion is diced and your broccoli is steaming/boiling, Imma teach you how to make a cream sauce (very valuable stuff)

• In a sauce pan, melt a tablespoon or two of butter
• just when it melts add a spoonful of flour, just enough for the butter to saturate 
• quickly add a splash of milk!
• then a little more milk
• then a little more
• basically keep adding splashes of milk every time the mixture starts to thicken up and bubble
• this requires constant attention or the mixture will begin to burn and congeal to the bottom of the pan... and don't bother putting the cap back on the milk until you are done because you will be adding milk every 30 seconds or so)
• This allows it to become thick and creamy, if you add all the milk in at once the sauce will be a lot thinner and- milkier. By the end you probably will have added about 2 cups of milk and the mixture is starting to thin out a little. (this is where I like to season with a little black pepper). 

Now that your creamy base its done, its time to add the cheese.

I would suggest using cheddar cheese, but I actually just use bits of cheese that I needed to use up from my fridge, the more cheese types the better! This dish had some shredded mozzarella, shredded nondescript 'orange' cheese, monterrey jack and cream cheese. (I think the cream cheese really made it fantastic!) 

So I added all this cheese right in with cream sauce and stirred it non stop until it was a melty, gooey, creamy bowl of awesomeness! 

At this point your broccoli should be ready to drain (cooked but still firm) and lets assume you cooked your squash ahead of time and the noodles are patiently waiting in the ceramic bowl. 

mix the broccoli and the diced onion in with the squash noodles and mix it all together with the cheese sauce until everything is even and coated in cheese. If you have crispy french fried onions, I highly recommend topping off the dish with them (I didn't have any this time). Put the lid on the dish and bake for about 20 minutes at 350F. 

remove, let cool and enjoy!!

I am an excellent multitasker (and had a boyfriend in the kitchen helping) so we pan-fried some brussel sprouts to have on the side (my favorite) 

So, Okay, this recipe calls for butter and bowl of gooey melted cheese but at least we nixed the carbs introduced by pasta and replaced it with fiber and vitamin filled squash! Ultimately, we had veggies with veggies, with a side of veggies and that deserves a self-five... even if some of them were coated in a cheesy cream sauce...

This was also a very inexpensive dish to make. A spaghetti squash usually costs about $1.50 and it produces A LOT of food (this made about 4-5 servings). We had all the other ingredients in our refrigerator and cupboard- nothing fancy! So if you need to use up cheese, or salad toppings (broccoli, peas, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc.) it might be time to buy a spaghetti squash and try this out! 

*This recipe is also helpful if your little one is at that delightful stage when he only wants to eat mac n cheese and you need a creative way to sneak some extra veggies into his diet ;)