December 10, 2014

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post that’s paleo-friendly and low carb, and I didn’t do it on purpose, but it just sort of happened that way. I figure, with the holidays (and all their temptations) upon us, who couldn’t benefit from a great, filling meal that’s a little more figure-friendly. Once you dig into my chicken sausage and apple spaghetti squash pasta, you won’t think it’s low-calorie, it tastes so indulgent.

Lately, I’ve been trying to come up with more recipes utilizing squash, since it’s so easily available during the fall and winter. I’ve had medium success with spaghetti squash, but have yet to strike gold with a butternut squash recipe (if you have any you like, please let me know!).

A couple of weeks back I bought a little spaghetti squash intending to stick to my ‘safe’ method of preparing it: a little salt, a little pepper, a little olive oil, and voila: easy side dish. However, then I came across a recipe making the spaghetti squash the main player in the recipe instead of just side: a delicious (and unusual) cook up of apple, onion and sausage piled high on roasted spaghetti squash. It sounded really good on its own, but I decided to healthy it up a little bit with some tweaks of my own: remove the butter, use low-fat chicken sausage and add some extra creamy flavor with Laughing Cow Light Cheese wedges.

My boyfriend Sean was a little dubious of the flavors at first, but by the second bite, he was a fan. And like I said before, it’s low cal, low-fat, paleo friendly (if you leave out the cheese wedges) and an all around awesome dish. Try it, you’ll love it!

Sausage and Apple Spaghetti Squash Pasta

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash (about 2.5 – 3 lbs.)
• 1 large apple
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp. dry, rubbed sage
• 12 oz. (4 – 5 links) of fully cooked chicken sausage (I used Publix Apple and Gouda Chicken Sausage)
• 2 tsp. chopped garlic
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder
• 1/4 tsp. of salt and pepper
• Optional: 2 Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese wedges

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Microwave the spaghetti squash for 5 minutes to soften it up for cutting. Once out of the microwave, halve the squash lengthwise and scoop out and discard the seeds.
3. Place the spaghetti squash halves, cut side up, in a baking pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until tender, about 40 minutes.
4. Chop up apple and onion into chunks, and slice up chicken sausage into coins.
5. About 20 minutes before the spaghetti squash is done, bring a large skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to low – medium heat.
6. Add the apple and onion to the skillet, and sprinkle with sage. Cook and stir until mostly softened, about 4 minutes.
7. Raise the skillet’s heat to medium, and add the sausage. Cook and stir until hot and browned, about 5 minutes more.
8. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about one minute more. Remove the skillet from heat and cover to keep warm.
9. When the spaghetti squash is done, remove from the oven and use a fork to scrape the spaghetti squash strands out. Place the strands in a large bowl (this should be about 5 cups of squash in the end), and add the garlic powder, onion powder and any additional salt and pepper for taste.
10. Optional: If you want to make the ‘pasta’ creamier, add the two Laughing Cow Cheese wedges and stir them in to the pasta until they’ve melted and evenly coated the pasta.
11. Divide up the pasta among four plates and serve the apple, onion, sausage mixture on top. Dinner’s ready!