Spaghetti Squash hold the Spaghetti

A couple weekends ago, we headed out to the beach on the later side of a Friday afternoon.  It was way too late to get to the house and first start preparing dinner, so we met my in-laws out at Serafina for dinner.  Generally I try to avoid too much Italian food as I always feel heavy and bloated after.  It seems to be the easy go to with family since there's something to please everyone.  I was tired and didn't want to start searching for other options, so agreed to go.

And I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised with the menu!  There were a number of options for me (which is rare when we eat out at a non-vegetarian restaurant).  I'm usually stuck with the one vegan option.  I'm not picky, so it works out okay most of the time, but it's a real treat to have options;)

I decided to stay away from the pasta and fried eggplant, zucchini, whathaveyou to attempt a lighter dinner.  I ordered the spaghetti squash and I totally fell in love.

I'm a serious squash girl as you can see in this recipe, or this one, or this one, or a ton more on this blog.  That said I historically would pass right by the spaghetti squash every time I saw it in the market.  I thought it was boring and watery and blah.  I entirely overlooked the fact that is was a perfect carrier for other bold flavors.

Furthermore, it's supereasy to cook making it an amazing family dinner option.

I bought myself some prepared pesto and beans and frozen limas and poof, dinner was served.

Here's how I did it:

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash
• store bought pesto (vegan of course)
• 1 can of (Eden brand) cannellini beans
• 1 can of (Eden brand) northern beans
• frozen lima beans
• juice of half of a lemon
• sea salt
• (and although I forgot them on the counter) toasted pine nuts (as many as you like...a few tablespoons will do)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds.
3. Place the squash cut side down in a baking tray and add 2-3 cups of water to the bottom of the pan until it is covered in water.
4. Cook the squash until fork tender (apx. 35-45 min).
5. When finished, remove the squash and flip it cut side up to start to cool.
6. Meanwhile, rinse the beans and defrost the limas (by running all 3 under hot water in a colander).
7. When it's cool enough to touch start to scrape out the meat with a fork (scrape it width wise, not length wise).
8. Place a portion of squash on a plate.
9. Add a couple tablespoons of pesto, a heaping spoon of the beans, a sprinkle of sea salt, and pine nuts.
10. Serve immediately and savor.

(Oh and I served this with cinnamon sautéed sweet potatoes and carrots.)