Adventures in Dinner: Spaghetti Squash Edition

I’m attempting (again) to post on a regular basis. To that end, I bring you “Adventures in Dinner”

I’ve been following a low carb high fat (lchf) diet going on two years now. I was on it very well the first year and lost almost 70 pounds. I’ve been sort of on it this past year and am maintaining a loss of 50 pounds (so yeah, I gained back 20 – but I’m still down 50 from my starting weight and am determined NOT to return to that!)

Anyway, because I wanted to incorporate more veggies into our diet, I’ve been exploring hidden veggies with pretty good success for a while now (Brian no longer wants to know what I use for soup bases). Last night: Spaghetti Squash!

I’ve used it before and I like it. I think Brian tolerated it. Darling Daughter hasn’t liked it. I try to tell her it’s like al dente pasta and she corrects me, “It’s crunchy. Like UNCOOKED pasta.” In the past, It’s been on the side and we add a sauce to it. Last night, I put the spaghetti squash into my Instant Pot, set it for 17 minutes and relaxed for a bit*. After it was done, I cooked some ground beef, tomato sauce and spices, giving the squash some time to cool off. Sauce done, squash cool(ish), I cut it in half**, got the seeds out and scraped the rest into a bowl. It was more than I needed so I’ve got about half of it in my fridge to play with this weekend. I then poured the sauce over the “noodles,” covered it in cheese and baked it. Two hopes here: 1) it’s covered in cheese which helps hide the veggie and 2) cooking it some more hopefully softens the squash some more.

Taylor came downstairs and walked into the kitchen.
Her: Oooo! What’s this??
Me: Sketti…
Her: *kind of excited gasp* Sketti??
Me: Yep
Her: Yay! … wait a minute. What’s in it?

She ate it. Didn’t complain (much). Brian and I loved it so she’s likely out of luck in the future of “spaghetti”
(As I was typing this, “The Times They Are A’Changin'” came on my playlist. Coincidence?)

* Instant Pot. Electric Pressure Cooker. OMG if you don’t have one, get one. 17 minutes for a whole spaghetti squash. Seriously. Get one.
** Yes, I cooked it whole. Cutting them in half while raw is a good way to lose skin or a finger. It’s more difficult to get the seeds out (small serrated knife helps), but I handle difficult seed removal better than I handle a seriously cut finger.