Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna 

The other day my neighbor left a spaghetti squash on my chair when she returned a couple of dishes. I never cooked a spaghetti squash before so I went on line and looked for an inspiration. 

I wanted more than just butter and salt I wanted to make a real dinner.

I did find an idea. Spaghetti  Squash Lasagna. I liked the idea but not the recipe. 

So I put my twist on the recipe and it turned out awesome! 

Here it is:

                    Spaghetti Squash Lasagna 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Use half of the ingredents if only cooking half the squash

Read below for other options

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

1 can of tomatoes with peppers and onions

1/2 cup of Spaghetti  Sauce

1/2 onion

1/2 pepper

2 mushrooms 

2 cups of Ricotta cheese

2 good scoops of sour cream

Sea Salt

Fresh ground pepper

1 Teaspoon of Italian Seasoning

1/2 pound ground beef

1 teaspoon of garlic

1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt

1/4 shredded Italian Cheese 

Directions: 

                  

1. Cut the Spaghetti squash in half and put it on a microwave safe plate and place in microwave for 15 minutes. Its not that hard to cut. Use a steak knife to cut though the ends of the squash. Works well.

2. When the squash is cooked use a fork to loosen the squash. It will look like spaghetti.  Leave at least a 1/4 " of squash along the sides so that the squash will be firm enough to hold the ingredients.

3. While the squash is cooking brown your ground beef.

4. First chop the onions and cook until they start to become more transparent. 

5.  Then add the garlic and cook with the onions for about 30 seconds. 

6. Now add the beef that has been broken up and 1/2 teaspoon of  Italian seasoning  and cook.

7. When the beef is cooked add the tomatoes and what ever vegetables you have on hand that you want to add to the sauce. 

8. Cook the tomatoes and vegetables for about two minutes then add the spaghetti sauce.

9. Cook all the ingredients until well blended.

10.  While the sauce is cooking make the Ricotta.

11. Place the Ricotta in a bowl and add two good scoops of sour cream 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and the garlic salt.

12. Everything is now ready to assemble. 

The bottom layer start of the Ricotta, then the sauce and repeat one more time.

13. Place in oven and cook 15 minutes (you want to see the sauce starting to bubble a little)

14 Top with the shredded Italian cheese and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Let stand for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven before serving. Then pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy!

First you do not have to use all these vegetables. This is what I had in the refrigerator and the freezer so I used them. I like a lot of vegetables in my sauce you may not.

You can just buy your favorite sauce and use that and skip all but browning the ground beef.

The sauce I used was  Hunts spaghetti sauce about the cheapest thing on the market and I was able to freeze half of the sauce.

After layering the squash I found I had half of the sauce I made left over so I put it in a container and froze it to use for my Christmas Lasagna. All I will have to do for Christmas dinner is defrost the sauce mix the Ricotta with the shredded 5 cheese Italian cheese (the additional cheese is part of a recipe from my friend George and it is so good!) and assemble. Maybe a toss salad and dinner will be ready. How easy will that be? 

If this is too much squash for you to eat then do what I did and share half of it with a neighbor or friend.

You also can use half the ingredients and cook only half of the squash.  Then use the other half as is with salt, pepper, and butter it is really good this way as well!

I will make this meal again I enjoyed it and ate the whole thing.

This is unusual for me. I have a small appetite so eating this much shows how good it turned out!

How ever you choose to make it I know you will love it just as much as I did.

Enjoy!!!