What’s for Dinner? Wednesday Spaghetti Squash with Chipotle Meat Sauce
It’s What’s for Dinner? Wednesday! This week I’m sharing a recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Chipotle Meat Sauce . I’d been looking for a way to use up the extra chipotles from my new favorite scallop recipe so I was really excited to find this recipe in my IDEA Fitness Magazine.
The other more personal reason I was excited to discover this meal idea? It let me get some extra pepper pronunciation practice. I only recently realized that the chili pepper involved in this recipe is called a chipotle and not chipolte. In fact, I’ve been calling chipotles chipoltes since I first ate at Chipotle in 2007 so I’m not sure why no one ever corrected me before. I can’t be the only one who has made this mistake though, right?….
Chipolte, chipotle, toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe. No matter which way you say the name of either veggie, both are delicious and part of the ingredients you’ll need to pick up to enjoy this week’s meal.
Ingredients you’ll need to serve this week’s meal to four:
2 medium-sized spaghetti squash
olive oil cooking spray
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1lb extra-lean ground beef
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 chipotle chili peppers in adobo sauce, minced
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin powder
pinch of black pepper
pinch of salt
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Step One: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. While your oven is heating up, you have to make a choice. You can either:
a.) Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and then cook it for 40 mins.
b.) Stab the squash a few times now, but leave it whole. Cut it after cooking it for 1hr.
c.) Abort preheating the oven and microwave your squash for 10-20 mins on high (stab or cut
it first to avoid a mess!)
After testing out no less than 7 kitchen knives on the first option (Mr. Fit Armadillo was on a business call), I determined it was too dangerous for me to try (I do have a history of accidentally cutting myself). However, if you aren’t a hazard to yourself, you might want to try this option. You’ll save yourself about 20 minutes of cooking time if you do.
If you cut your squash open before cooking it, you can save yourself some time and mess by scooping out the seeds before you stick it in the oven. If you decide to wait until later to cut the squash, don’t stress. The potential seed mess isn’t too bad 🙂
Step Two: Start your sauce. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and start things off by adding your onions. Cook them for 4 minutes and then add in your garlic, mushrooms, and bell peppers. Continue to cook your vegetables for 3 more minutes. Then, remove them from the skillet so you can cook your meat.
Step Three: Cook your meat. Add your ground beef to the skillet you used to cook your vegetables. Cook it for 5 minutes or until it is no longer pink.
Step Four: Add your veggies and all your remaining ingredients besides the basil and cheese to the skillet with your beef. Allow them to simmer for about 8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in your fresh basil. Mmmm does that smell good, or what?!
Step Five: Once your squash is cooked, get ready to have some fun making it into “spaghetti!” Don’t worry, you won’t have to take out your old play dough spaghetti maker. Just take a fork to the flesh of the squash after you’ve cut it in half and scrape it down starting at the skin side. You should easily be able to get beautiful strands of “spaghetti!” It’s so fun, it feels like magic! Make sure to scrape out the seeds before you start this step. If you like pumpkin seeds, you might want to save the seeds and roast them! Mr. Fit Armadillo did it for me and they came out muy deliciouso 🙂
Step Six: Once you’ve scraped out all the squash and only have skin left, divide it amongst four bowls and top each with 1/4 of your meat sauce and 1/4 of your Parmesan cheese.
Are you going to cook this meal with us tonight? If you do, make sure to share a picture with the hashtag #w4dw! Share your thoughts about this recipe, spaghetti squash in general, or your favorite Play-Dough spaghetti machine memory by leaving a comment below:
