Spaghetti Squash

When I purchased this spaghetti squash at the store:

the checkout lady asked me what in the world I planned on doing with it. She said she has seen people buying them and she knows they are edible, "But...how?!"

I told her it is actually ridiculously simple and I will explain to you exactly how I explained it to her.

You take the lovely yellow squash, you give it a quick rinse and you throw it into a preheated 375 degree oven for an hour and you are done.

I know!  It's ridiculously simple, right?!

You will know it is done because a sharp knife will pierce through it like butta. That's the most important part is to make sure it is cooked through.  If you can't slice through it easily, throw it back in for another 10 minutes.

Cut the squash in half and make the comment about how it must be related to pumpkins because the insides are almost identical! (It is, in fact, related to pumpkins.)

Just like you do a pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and the gooey-ish inside.  Using a fork, you will be able to scrape the actual "meat" from the squash and it will separate like individual strands of spaghetti (hence the name). The scraping is the most time consuming part, just to warn you.

Once you have scraped out all the spaghetti squash, throw it onto a skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in some butter (about 2-3 Tbsp, depending on amount of squash), a couple of minced garlic cloves, salt, pepper and some fresh parsley or basil (about 1/4 C).  Give it a good stir and make sure it's all heated together.

Throw it all into a serving bowl and add some parmesan cheese on top (about 1/4 C or so) and stir it until the cheese has melted into the squash.  

I served ours with a salad because spaghetti squash is quite filling.

  My children were leery of the name, but both girls loved it.  Julia ate all of hers and she is 3.  It's supposed to have some crisp crunch to it, so don't be alarmed by the texture.  It's a lovely fall meal and you should definitely go out and try it (especially while they are in season and so cheap at the stores!).

Enjoy!