If You Only Try One Spaghetti Squash Recipe...

Steve & I did a happy dance when we found out we were getting a spaghetti squash in our Week 15 box (along with another fall tease: apples!). We definitely already had something in mind for it, which brings me to the title of this post: if you only ever try one spaghetti squash recipe, it needs to be this one.

Stupid Easy Paleo Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs on PaleoPot

Of course, that's easy for me to say, because this is really the only thing we've ever made with spaghetti squash. It's not a very informed directive. But this slow cooker dish is both one of our favorite fall meals and seriously the easiest thing to pull together. And then there's the added bonus of the slow cooker, because what's better than being at work and knowing that dinner is going to be ready and waiting for you when you get home?

Okay, so this might not be the most appetizing looking meal out there, but trust me: your taste buds will not know the difference. This is straight-up, low carb comfort food!

Used From Our CSA (Week 15)
spaghetti squash
garlic

Thoughts on the Recipe

• If you work full-time like Steve & I do, this is one of those slow cooker recipes that I used to find terribly inconvenient for a weekday, because it only cooks for 5-6 hours. Pretty unhelpful if you're not going to be around at 1 pm to flip on your crock pot. Enter this $7 dinner-saver: an outlet timer! Pure genius, right? Maybe this is self-evident to everyone but me, but finding this suggestion online some time ago opened up a whole new world of weeknight slow cooker meals to us, since before that we were limited to recipes with an 8+ hour cooking time. It has become such a staple for us that we just store it inside of the clean crock pot, so it's always on hand when we need it.
  
• Pay attention to the funny business regarding the amount of sausage the recipe calls for. The ingredients list calls for 1 lb., but as the instructions admit, you're only going to be able to fit about 1/2 lb. into the pot. No need to run out for a whole pound, if you already have a half-pound on hand in your freezer (speaking from experience, here).  

Even though I clearly swear by this dish, I really hope that we get a few more of these squash in coming CSA weeks, because I am starting to feel an itch to try something different next time around. Here are three dishes, all some variation of stuffed spaghetti squash, that have caught my eye over the past few weeks:

left: Lasagna-Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

top-right: Sausage, Kale, & Spaghetti Squash Boats

bottom-right: Tex-Mex Baked Spaghetti Squash

What about you: do you have a favorite go-to dish for spaghetti squash?