“Spaghetti Squash, where have you been all my life?!”

Honestly, its crazy that healthy foods are trendy. I saw a sign in Whole Foods yesterday that said “Collards=The NEW Kale.” How silly. Collards are wonderful and kale is wonderful. So is spinach, turnip greens, beet greens, swiss chard, and mustard greens! I understand that farmers and grocers need to make money and drumming up publicity for different foods is important for getting them into the market, but collards are not the “new” kale, they are collards. And they are delicious. (End of rant.)

That being said, I am SO happy that spaghetti squash is trendy! Spaghetti squash is truly the NEW spaghetti! I don’t know how I have missed out on this for 25+ years of my life. My mom made us eat all kinds of crazy things growing up and we never had spaghetti squash. How is that possible? I am seriously done with regular pasta. Why eat all those empty carbs and gluten when you can have a super healthy vegetable that tastes better than  plain old pasta. And its pretty much just as easy to make!

Lets get down to the nitty gritty, I was really scared to cook my first spaghetti squash. Its rather intimidating. Its hard to cut into and how in the world do you get from the hard squash to the stringy “spaghetti?” Turns out a little Googling will get you a long way. After you hack into the squash (thats the hardest part, I swear!), all you have to do is scrape out the seeds and toss it in the oven. DONE! Top it with whatever pasta sauce or cheese, or just some good ole EVOO and basil. Bam! Easy, delicious, goodness! Haha

Here is my favorite way of roasting the perfect spaghetti squash.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash

• 1 spaghetti squash
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise (from stem to the bottom.) This will take a little muscle, just hack it if necessary.  Once in half, scrape out the seeds and the fleshy part in the center of the squash. I usually use a grapefruit spoon for this, be careful not to scrape out the outer flesh. Place the squash halves (skin side down) into a baking dish with sides. Drizzle squash with a little extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add about an inch of water to the pan and place it in the center of the oven. Roast for about 45 mins to an hour or until the squash can be scraped and the flesh comes apart in strings. You should be able to stick a fork into the flesh and tell if its done or not. It should be tender. Once done, take the squash out of the oven and allow to cool slightly before using a fork to scrape out the stringy flesh. Top with your favorite pasta sauce.