I love this!

I love spaghetti squash!!

We grow a ton of spaghetti squash each year so we have had to be very creative in getting rid of it. Some of the tricks we have learned:

If your time is short, use the microwave instead of the oven. Cut it in half, scrape seeds out, put a bit of olive oil inside and cover open side with plastic wrap. Put in microwave skin side down and cook for 10-15 minutes until soft. Cuts the roasting time and doesn't heat up the house.

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash- Cook the squash and prepare sauce. When the squash is tender, pour the sauce into the area where the seeds were and then top with italian cheese. Put under the broiler til melted. Pretty tasty.


Edited by: CAMP-CHEF at: 3/18/2015 (18:32)

Oh my we eat a lot of zucchini, and spinach here.

Try spaghetti squash "pasta"
you cut the squash down the middle and bake for about 1/2 hour.
While you are waiting for that, make a sauce same as you would for spaghetti. You can make it all veggie or put in some meat, chicken or turkey is even lower cal and fat.
When squash is done with a fork pull the string like pieces out of the squash peel and put them in a casserole dish. pour your sauce over that and top with 1/2 cup shredded cheddar and 1/8 cup parmesan. Bake for 1/2 hour.
Tastes delish!

Instead of drizzeling oil, I bought an oil mister and use extra virgin olive oil and spray the veggies. Then it cuts the oil in half and still has the flavor.

We eat a lot of veggies so having different ways to prepare them that you like is way better than eating the same thing all the time. Then you wont get bored of them. Using a little olive oil you can do easily when the rest of your food is on track.

hmm good idea, I like to smash carrots in sloppy joes! I got that from my mother in law and loved it ever since. My middle child is very picky and refuses to eat it, but she does most things.

I've never actually eaten or prepared zucchini or any squashes really...

I like to add grated zucchini and grated carrots to my spaghetti sauce. In the beginning the kids didn't know it was there, by the time they found out they didn't care.

No problem! I guess it depends on what the purpose of veggies is to you. If it's that they are low in calories, or that they taste amazing as is, then I guess there's no reason to add any oil. If you want to eat them because they are nutritious, but are having a hard time getting your family to enjoy the flavor, some fat might help the flavor.

hmm.. yah I just always thought it defeated the purpose of veggies if you use oil or butter.

I guess the fact that it's veggies.. makes it better in the end.

Thank you.. :)

The same way you would count olive oil in any recipe? I'm not sure I understand the question. It would add about 120 cals per tablespoon that you put in (divided by the number of portions you make). You can use cooking spray instead, but it won't have as much flavor.

Oh I also wanted to ask about the olive oil... I mean how would you count that in that recipe.
Seems like that would be adding a lot of calories to veggies, am I wrong?

https://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?p
ost=the_magical_cooking_technique_that
_will_get_you_to_eat_your_veggies

Magical cooking technique that will get you to eat your veggies!!

I'm gonna try this for sure.

As I've said in the past my hubby and I met at a fast food place and my whole family grew up eating it! We would bring it home every night for dinner! Even after we didn't work at those type of places we didn't feel like cooking after putting long hours at work in and were set in this horrible fast food diet. Not saying all fast food is bad, there are some few healthy choices but let's be real.. we weren't choosing them!

Sooo here I've been a stay at home mom and trying to fix meals at home and boy oh boy. It is really hard to appease everyone. This has been a learning curve for my whole family.

Any meals anyone has to share to try with some picky eaters?

Thank you