Paleo Spaghetti - Catheryn Grivna

As you probably already know, I have been attempting the Whole30 program this month, but have failed. Even though I indulged in a fair share of non-compliant foods, I have still been eating clean when we are cooking at home!

One of my favorite Whole30 recipes is Paleo Spaghetti. Instead of using regular pasta noodles, I use spaghetti squash. You save so many calories by doing this and you are fueling your body with the right kind of food!

For the sauce, I found a Whole30 Approved marinara sauce at Trader Joe’s. You can also choose to make your own, but this one I found is very tasty.

We typically get lean ground beef to mix in with the sauce, but you could also do ground turkey or even chicken sausage! There are several healthy, lean protein options for this dish.

Honestly, this dish is super easy to make and doesn’t take much time if you factor out the baking of the spaghetti squash!

Total Time: 1 hour (only 15-20 minutes of real work though)

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash
1 lb ground beef
1 jar of Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Sauce
Parsley for garnish
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Cut your spaghetti squash in half and scoop out the seeds inside.
Once the seeds are scooped out, I put a little olive oil and salt and pepper on the spaghetti squash.
Place the spaghetti squash face down on a baking sheet or pan.
Cook in the oven at 375 for 40 minutes (this bake time can vary tremendously based on the size of the squash – start at 30 minutes if you think yours might be smaller than most)
Once the spaghetti squash is done baking, let it cool for a few minutes.
While it cools, you can brown the ground beef in a pan on the stove. This typically takes 5-10 minutes on medium/high heat.
While you are browning the meat, you should also warm up your tomato sauce in a saucepan on the stove (low heat).
Once the ground beef is completely cooked, transfer it into your saucepan with the tomato sauce. Stir together well.
Your spaghetti squash should be cool enough by now to take a fork and pull it apart. It is hard to explain, but you basically just take a fork and kind of spoon it out. You can then transfer it directly to your serving plate.
Once you have a desired amount of spaghetti squash on your plate, you can top it with your meat sauce and garnish with parsley!