Spaghetti Squash with Ground Turkey Marinara Sauce

What I cooked and why

I cooked Spaghetti Squash with Ground Turkey Marinara Sauce. I have wanted to try spaghetti squash for a bit now. I have seen it in a few of The Biggest Loser books that I've gotten. I didn't really think that I would like it, but I needed to try it. I had never even seen a spaghetti squash before, but I have now!

The process

The most difficult part about this process was cutting the squash in half. I had to have my husband do it, and even he had difficulty with it. The exterior of the squash was very hard. I think he ended up stabbing the squash and then slicing down from there. Putting the knife on the top of the squash with the whole blade the length of the squash was just not working. Once he got it cut open, it was all pretty easy from there. The inside of the squash was similar to a pumpkin. It had all of that stringy gross stuff with the seeds. The "meat" of the squash was quite firm and scraping a spoon around to dig out the seeds and stringy stuff took some effort. Once it was sliced and gutted, it was simple to finish up. I sprayed a cookie sheet with some olive oil. I used my Misto to do this. I love my Misto and use it just about every time that I cook. I put the squat cut side down on the cookie sheet. I then stabbed each half of the squash with a fork about four times. I cooked it at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. I think the books have had a shorter cook time, but that seems to be the came with everything I make. While it was cooking, I cooked up the ground turkey and put the marinara sauce in the pan with the turkey. 

I pulled the cookie sheet out of the oven and flipped the squash over to turn it into spaghetti. This process was easy enough, but a bit cumbersome and time consuming. You're basically racing the clock to get this thing shredded without burning your hand or letting the food get too cool. I tried to hold it in place with an oven mitt on my left hand as I scraped at it with a fork in my right hand. I scraped down from the stem to the bottom. 

Once I was done, I mixed it in with the sauce and turkey. I then put it into two serving bowls and sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese. I used the expensive shredded stuff instead of the cheap grated stuff. One squash made enough for three servings. They were good sized servings too since we didn't have a side dish with it. 

The Results

Both of us liked it well enough, but we weren't in love with it. The squash had a bit of a bite to it and we decided that it should have been cooked longer. I didn't really like any of the bites where I only had the squash and the sauce. The turkey really added the flavor in this dish. My  husband said that he's heard that spaghetti squash picks up the flavors of the things it's cooked with and I didn't spice it. The books have mentioned putting basil in it, but I forgot to do that. It was good enough that we are going to try it again and we even bought another spaghetti squash today. I'll let you know how that one goes!