Smoked Brats W/ Spaghetti Squash

Dec 04 2017

If you are like the wife and me you don’t like a lot of bread on a sandwich. Lately I have started using, flat bread, pita bread and Naan. Last night I toasted some Naan on a griddle for brat buns. I did a spaghetti squash in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour.

I had 4 brats and a small sweet potato I did on my smoker 45 minutes at 250 degrees and 45 minute sat 285 seg. I placed the brats in a heated skillet while I toasted the bread. My wife had some mustard and kraut on her brat, I just had Maille mustard. Tasted good.

Sorry not doing too great on the photos but will try to get better.

My supper

Italian Sausage Sauce over Spaghetti Squash

Feb 08 2017

Tonight’s supper was tasty and pretty easy to make. We both like spaghetti squash, my favorite is just as a side with butter & garlic salt. The wife likes it with spaghetti sauce over it so I make it that way for her once in a while. You can make this in a bout 1 ½ hours.

The squash is hard shelled and hard to cut raw. I usually nuke it in the microwave 4 to 5 min. to soften and then cut in half. My small one tonight had a bad spot I had to cut out and was able then to cut in half. Some people cook them whole but I like to get the seeds & gook out of the center before cooking. I season them with some garlic salt and then place on a foil lined cookie sheet with a pat of butter under. I bake them at 350 deg. for one hour.

For the sauce I use ground chuck or Italian sausage or brats. Tonight I had 4 Italian brats from my butcher. I removed it from the casings and browned it up and then add in chopped onion, green peppers and garlic. I let that simmer about 5 minutes and then add in the sauce let simmer 15 to 20 minutes. My sauce tonight was Classico’s 4 cheeses. You can use any sauce you want or make your own. I usually rely on Classico or Newman’s Own for my sauces rather than make my own.

For a side I sautéed some sliced fennel, onions and garlic. I should have waited to near the end to add the garlic since I burnt it. It still tasted good.

I served the meat sauce over the squash, topped with some mozzarella and melted some under the broiler. We had toasted English muffins with it. Sorry I missed a shot of the finished sauce in the skillet.

Note: You can use the half squashes to serve from too. Just spoon the spaghetti sauce in the center of the squash.

Ingredients

Squash ready to bake

Brats browned, onions, green peppers & garlic added

The fennel

My side, bread & butter

My supper

Spaghetti Squash in the Shell

Nov 22 2014

As much as I have fixed spaghetti squash it’s a wonder I didn’t think of this before or see the recipe. If you search there are a lot of different recipes for baking it in the half shell and then scooping it out and mixing with goodies and then back in the shell to bake a short time. I looked at several recipes and made this one up.

I think it is always fun to make a dish for the first time. I found two small squashes so would have 4 halves; enough for me, the wife, daughter in law and grandson. I had a pound and half of ground chuck I browned up with some onions, green pepper, dried garlic flakes, salt, pepper and Italian herb blend. My sauce was Newman’s Own marinara sauce. I sautéed a little onion and green pepper in a sauce pan and then added the sauce to heat up. For the cheese topping I used some shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan.

I had to make these three different ways to please all! I cut the squash in half and scooped out the seeds. They went on a baking sheet cut side down over a pat of butter. I poured about 1/3 cup of water in the baking sheet and they went in a pre-heated 375 deg. oven for 30 minutes. For larger squash you will need more time. While they were baking I browned up the ground chuck and got the sauce on heating up.

I let the baked squash sit a while to cool. I scooped out the squash from one and mixed in a Tbs. of the sauce and then back in the shell that was for the grandson he doesn’t like much sauce. He had popped in and said just meat on his and no cheese.

I scooped out the squash from the other three into a bowl and mixed in 4 ladles of the sauce. It was divided among the other 3 shells. A good portion of the ground beef went on two for the wife and me. I then topped all 3 with a ladle of sauce, shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of Italian herb blend. They went back into a 350 deg. oven for 15 minutes. My wife had salads made for us and I had some good bread left over to have.

We all thought this was extra good and a different way to have spaghetti squash. We had some French fried onions for topping the salad and I had some Greek Yogurt blue cheese dressing I thought was extra good. It’s about 60% fewer calories than regular dressing and I thought the sour from the yogurt went well with the blue cheese.

Ingredients

Browning the ground chuck

The sauce

Shells baked

Ready to serve

My salad

My supper

It's Good!