Frugal Recipe: GAPS Spaghetti Squash Pasta
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Note: Aside from the fact that this recipe is budget-friendly, this is also very healthy as 1 cup serving of cooked spaghetti squash only contains 42 calories, too low compared to a cup of cooked pasta which contains 221 calories. This is a great alternative if you are maintaining a low-calorie diet.
One of the newest crazes to run through the dietary world is the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (or GAPS) meal plan. This comprehensive diet seeks to alleviate physical complications with digesting food while at the same time increasing mental output with key nutrition. Persons on the GAPS diet have claimed that their food sensitivities and intolerance have slowed down or even reversed once they begin to adhere to the protocols of the diet. You can make a quality GAPS spaghetti squash pasta and then store it securely if you are looking for a taste bud-friendly recipe in their diet litany.
Since spaghetti tends to be a family food, with recipes that can be simple or complex, staying true to family lore or seeking new experiments to jazz up the status quo, there are many ways to get your ideal spaghetti squash pasta to taste just like the real thing. In fact, you can create the squash pasta and sauce separately, freeze either one, and simply heat it up whenever you are in the mood for a fast and tasty dinner.
Begin with a medium sized spaghetti squash, cut in half with the seeds removed (you can keep the seeds for baking or flavoring). Bake the two sides for about thirty minutes until the noodles are a bit crunchy but not too brittle. Melt four tablespoons of butter over medium heat and sauté one onion (yellow, white, or red) and a bell pepper for a minute. Add any ground meat you prefer, beef or pork or turkey, but not tofu. Add three and a half cups crushed tomatoes, lower the heat, and bring the sauce mix to a simmer. Put in Italian seasoning and salt to taste.
Scrape out the cooked spaghetti squash into a large bowl and mix in two tablespoons of tomato paste with three cloves of garlic. You can either combine noodles and sauce to make a meal, or put store one or both for future meals. The sauce will keep for two to three weeks in a sealed container when refrigerated, but the noodles will dry out in about a week or so. Both can be frozen for up to one year without worry, but the sauce will need to be thoroughly defrosted if it is put in a freezer.
Photo Credit: Healthy Living Awaits
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My wife and I have just recently started eating spaghetti squash and love it. We both are eating very different for health reasons and being able to have a great spaghetti has done wonders for my ability to stick to the changes.
I’ve always avoided squash spaghetti, just because it “sounds” icky. But I avoid pasta in general because it would counteract all of the endless hours i put in at the gym! So maybe I just need to get over thinking it’s icky and try it, I have to admit I do miss eating pasta. MMMMM pasta…..