Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

One of my life goals is to conquer the art of making food that's healthy, and really tasty. Eating healthy is such a big part of being healthy. In fact, diet is eighty percent of weight loss. That's something to think about.

Since I've been married, I’ve had to learn how to make healthy dinners that aren't super expensive. Meal planning has been a big help, right along side Costco, which I endorse for all married couples! I mean, please make a list before going, because you can end up spending a couple hundred dollars in a blink of an eye, but it’s one of my favorite grocery shopping trips we make.

Back to my story, so something I love about Mark, is that he enjoys cooking, and he is really, really good at it. He makes good food, because he loves to eat good food, When we first got married though, this was a somewhat of a hurdle for us, there was a big learning curve on how to cook healthy meals that we both enjoyed.

Lucky for me, Mark is a big veggie eater, before marrying him I did eat my veggies, but it was because I got free food at my job.

I think the reason I wasn't malnourished in college is because I ate a lot of rice bowls and salads, during my two years working at Rumbi Island Grill in Orem. Thank the lord for free food!

Anyway, I wanted to start posting some of the inexpensive,tasty and healthy meals Mark and I have made and loved.

During the summer my sister grew spaghetti squash, and she gave us some. We looked up how to cook it, and ended up baking it with butter and Parmesan. It was really, really good! So the other day while I was out  shopping I picked one up. I had seen that you can use spaghetti squash as a replacement for spaghetti noodles.

I wanted to try it out, After googling recipes, I found this blog :http://www.iwashyoudry.com/2013/09/04/super-easy-crock-pot-spaghetti-squash-meatballs/, and used her recipe as a guide, but I made a few adjustments to mine. Below are my versions of the recipes I used.

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs:

1 medium-large sized spaghetti squash,

1 Jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce- I like the Classico brand.

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp. Minced Garlic

1/2 Cup. Chopped onions

4 Small Roma tomatoes diced

Frozen or homemade meatballs- which is what I did.

Directions:Cut Spaghetti squash in half. If it is a smaller spaghetti squash cut it hamburger style, if it's larger like mine was, cut hot dog style. Clean out the seeds,

Poor your spaghetti sauce into the crock pot, Add tomatoes, garlic, salt and onion. Stir

Place spaghetti squash gutted side down in sauce. Place lid on crock pot, turn it to high and cook for 3 hours.

the last 20 minutes of cooking place the meatballs into the sauce and let cook. Remove the spaghetti squash carefully, as it will be soft and shred with a fork onto your plates.Top with spaghetti sauce and meatballs! enjoy!

I used a recipe off of Allrecipes.com, called Meatball Nirvana. I didn't have all of the ingredients so I modified them, and they turned out really tasty!

Here is my modified recipe version for the meatballs

Meatball Recipe:

• 1 pound extra lean ground beef
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 dash hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®), or to taste
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Directions:Using your clean hands, or a fork/ spoon, Knead all the ingredients together until everything is mixed evenly. Roll the meatballs into "1-1.5" size meatballs, and refrigerate. Cook for 20 minutes.

So, there is a simple meal, that is tasty and healthy. Mark and me liked it so much, we decided it’s going to be one of our go to recipes!