Oh So Easy Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs

Pasta is another one of those foods that I always associate with comfort eating. And I have to admit that I was worried this would be one comfort food I would just have to learn to live without.

Enter the humble spaghetti squash. I was dubious when I picked it up for the first time. I'm not a fan of most squash dishes, but I was craving some meatballs in marinara sauce with noodles and this seemed like the best place to start to feed that fix.

I found this recipe over on the Paleo Pot blog that looked both appetizing and easy. So I went straight to the produce department and grabbed up a spaghetti squash for my first experiment.

I am not going to re-post the recipe here because I didn't change anything the first go around. It's easy and yummy and I highly recommend it. So click on the link and check it out for yourself.

With that said, I'm going to post the slightly different approach here that I have adopted. Ya see, as easy as the original recipe, I found a way to make it both easier and more complicated. Let me explain...

My local grocery store carries a jarred marinara sauce sweetened with honey and without any "forbidden" ingredients. So I stopped making the marinara from the original recipe. And then, to change things up some more, I started making my meatballs separately. First off, I was only able to fit about 6 meatballs in the crock pot with my squash, so I always ended up making more anyway. And then my better half bought me an awesome meatball pan that I just fell in love with and makes meatball preparation a breeze! And then to veer a bit further from the starting recipe, I found the Italian sausage a bit salty so I went back to beef for my meatballs.

In the end, I guess about the only part of the original recipe that I have kept is that I steam the spaghetti squash in the crock pot with the marinara. It works great and is very little fuss on my part to prepare the squash.

Anyway ... without further ado, this is my version of things ...

Oh So Easy Spaghetti Sauce & Meatballs

Stuff You Need:

• 1 medium spaghetti squash
• 2 jars HEB Texas Marinara
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 8 oz chorizo, casing removed
• 1 cup minced onion
• ½ cup diced bell pepper
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp chile powder
• 1 Tbs roasted bell pepper & chipotle spread (you can substitute adobo sauce here)
• 2 Tbs yellow mustard
• 2 Tbs agave ketchup
• black pepper and salt to taste

What To Do:

1. Dump both jars of marinara in a 6-8 quart crock pot.
2. Cut the squash in half (crosswise), scoop out seeds, and place cut side down in the marinara.
3. Cook on low for 5 hours.
4. About an hour before the squash is done preheat your oven to 350F degrees. If you prefer you can prepare these a day ahead and just reheat when ready to use them.
5. In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. It's messy, but using your hands is the best way to get everything distributed just the right way.
6. Roll into meatballs and bake for 30-45 minutes (depending on how thick you want your meatballs).
7. Remove the squash from the crock pot and use a large fork to pull the spaghetti out. It will resemble the size and texture of angel hair noodles.
8. Ladle the marinara on top of the squash, top with meatballs, and DIG IN!

This recipe makes quite a lot of "noodles." I typically get 6-8 servings of spaghetti out of one medium squash. And thankfully it holds up really well if you reheat it in the microwave which makes this a favorite for week day lunches.

On top of the ease of this recipe, it turns out that spaghetti squash is quite tasty! It has a slight sweet flavor to it, but nothing strong enough to compete with the tang of the marinara. So in the end, we ended up with a great, easy recipe that we all can enjoy and I can return another comfort food to my list of go-to dishes.