I tried spaghetti squash for the first time last fall. I loved it, but for some reason didn’t start thinking about it again until recently. Boy am I glad I did. Earlier this week I needed a quick & easy dinner idea. Using up some of the stuff already in our cabinets or refrigerator was just an added bonus. The only thing I picked up from the store was the spaghetti squash itself!

Mushroom & Spinach Spaghetti Squash Bake
Ingredients:
1 medium spaghetti squash
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 cups pasta sauce of choice
2 cans chunky portabella mushrooms
2 handfuls baby spinach, torn into pieces
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried basil
fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9×9 in. pan.
2. Cut squash in half (the most difficult part of this whole recipe!). Remove seeds. Place one half on microwaveable plate & microwave on high for 7-8 minutes. Repeat with other half. When squash is cool, use a fork to loosen the “spaghetti strands”. Place “spaghetti” in a large bowl.
3. To the bowl add; Greek yogurt, pasta sauce, mushrooms, spinach, red pepper flakes, garlic salt, pepper, & basil. Mix until all ingredients are combined.
4. Pour spaghetti mixture into prepared pan. Top with mozzarella cheese slices. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through & cheese gets melty. Fresh mozzarellla really doesn’t melt as well as shredded mozzarella so you may need to put it on broil for a few minutes, but be sure to watch it very carefully if you do so.

The possibilities are endless with this dish. You could add sooo many different vegetables. The one thing I would be wary of is adding anything with a super high water content (ie: zucchini), as this was already a tiny bit watery as is.

The creaminess of the Greek yogurt & the zip of the red pepper flakes made this remind me a bit of Noodles & Co. Penne Rosa. It would probably be great with shredded mozzarella melted throughout, but the fresh mozz melted on top was such a treat.

My husband took a bite without having any sort of clue what he was about to eat. I was a little nervous to tell him, as he can be quite picky, but he kept right on eating & even went back for seconds!

Quick, healthy & delicious and most definitely happening in this kitchen again sometime soon!

The very same night that I made this, I clicked over to Kristin’s blog discovered that she had made a seriously drool-worthy butternut squash gnocchi. I will most definitely be testing out that recipe soon too!

Are you on the squash bandwagon? I think it’s safe to say I’m on the gourd bandwagon in general. I’m putting pumpkin in just about everything these days. This recipe was seriously so easy. I can’t wait to try out a few other ideas that I thought of!