Life is full of opportunities. Sometimes we don’t recognize opportunities are everywhere because many of them look like challenges.
~~~
So last night I was doing some meal planning and decided to get ahead of the week and throw a spaghetti squash in the oven while I was working on dinner. If you’d like to know how to properly cook a spaghetti squash, click here. This post is for those of us who have experienced a spaghetti squash “fail”. When cooked properly, spaghetti squash should look like spaghetti – like this:
The trouble is, every oven is different and sometimes you cook your squash too long resulting in a mushy, non-spaghetti like consistency … basically it turns into mush. Such was the experience I had last night. Daniel and I were in the middle of making dinner when I decided to get multiple things done and be super (I thought) efficient by baking a spaghetti squash at the same time. I put the squash in the oven just as dinner was getting done and it was supposed to cook for 40 minutes on 375.
We decided to finish watching Vertigo over dinner (Hitchcock + dinner = a-maze-ing) and we were over an hour and a half in before I realized … I had completely forgotten about the spaghetti squash!! Daniel went into the kitchen and mentioned he was going to turn the oven off when I leaped from my chair (which is extremely dangerous for us clumsy types) and raced into the kitchen. I pulled the squash out and put it on top of the oven. The skin looked like it had bubbled up from the heat and I was sure the whole thing was ruined.
After examining them and realizing that the stringy, spaghetti-like texture was just not going to happen. I started thinking … What if I could turn this into some sort of mash or soup? Butternut Squash is used for soup. Why not? And I am happy to report that a new recipe is born!
Spaghetti Squash Mash
Ingredients:
1 Over-cooked Spaghetti Squash, scraped from its skin
2 T Butter (or ghee)
1 T Chives
1 t Garlic Salt
1/2 t Onion powder
1/2 t Salt
1/4 Pepper
Salt to taste
Take your spaghetti squash (while it’s hot) and mash it up with a spoon. Then place the squash in a blender or food processor. Add butter and spices. Blend until everything is pureed together and you have a mashed potato-like consistency. Add more salt or butter to taste. That’s it! Super easy 🙂
Spaghetti Squash Soup
Follow the directions for the mash except add chicken or vegetable broth and continue pureeing until a soup-like consistency is achieved. Yum!
So the next time you have a spaghetti squash fail, it’s really just an opportunity to try this recipe. So, enjoy!
~ Kate