"Spaghetti" and Meatballs (Paleo)

Have you heard about the spaghetti squash? Apparently you can substitute it for pasta. Now in our family, squash only makes an appearance during Fall. And it's usually seen in pie form. In fact, it's really the ONLY squash my husband will eat (or at least THINKS he'll eat) and it HAS to be MY pumpkin pie or it's a "no go". 

I won't lie, squash and I don't REALLY get along. Unless it's already in a can and I'm turning it into pumpkin pie. Even then, though, the first 10 minutes of pie making are BRUTAL. But I have to say, hearing the words "spaghetti squash" INTRIGUED me. The girls are PICKY about pasta, so how could I go wrong with trying out a spaghetti squash, right?! 

And in truth, saying squash and I don't get along, isn't COMPLETELY honest because we really have never given it a chance. Growing up, Joshua's side of the family killed squash for him. On my side of the family, zucchini never really sat well with me; unless it was in bread or stuffed by a high school friend's Mom. Other than pumpkin pie, there was NO squash loving going on for me and absolutely NONE going on for my husband.

So, with Joshua gone on again, I decided it was time to try out the spaghetti squash. And if I could win the kiddos over, I would HAVE to be successful at winning the husband over. (Right? That IS how it works?)

I had found a couple recipes online for paleo meatballs. And a couple different recipes for paleo spaghetti. And seriously, the zucchini pasta looked JUST like noodles in the photo (8th one down), so I HAD to try it. (I'm weird about food, remember? :) The REAL challenge was going to be HOW to make this appealing to the kidlets. 

My eldest is INCREDIBLY particular about food (JUST like her mother was growing up); especially pasta (at least it seems that way). So to make supper appealing to her took some thinking. FINALLY, I figured it out. A CONTEST! We'd sample our meal and decide which items we liked best. We each even received our own piece of paper to make our tallies and then we'd discuss after eating (or while eating) what part of the meal everyone liked best.

"Spaghetti" and Meatballs
(made 26 Jan 13)

This recipe posting will be slightly different than what I've done in past posts. I literally made three types of meatballs and two types of pasta. Because I wasn't sure HOW this meal would go, I only used two zucchini and one small spaghetti squash (and I mean SMALL).

I had some ground beef and some hot and sweet italian chicken sausages. Because I KNEW the kidlets wouldn't like the hot sausage, I turned them into larger meatballs by squeezing them out of the casing and rolling them. The sweet italian sausage I knew the kids could handle and made meatballs the same way as the hot italian sausage. To the ground beef I added Italian seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, oregano, and maybe some onion. Rolled them into balls and placed everything in it's own area on my meat cutting board. (I did NOT want to have the hot italian chicken sausage meatballs get mixed in with the others, plus how would we know which meatball we enjoyed most if they were all mixed together? And I'd NEVER win my kidlets over if they ended up with a hot italian sausage meatball. Never.)

Sweet Italian chicken on the Left, Hot Italian Chicken in the Middle, and Mommy's Meatballs on the Right

I coated a pan with some coconut oil and let the meatballs cook. Before tossing (and keeping a VERY close eye on them) the meatballs in the pan, I prepped the spaghetti squash and zucchini. I won't lie, I WISH I had this julienne peeler; I need to pick one up, because I cut the zucchini by hand. And let's just say that although they DID end up looking like spaghetti, I think they'd have been WAY more awesome had I used the "correct" tool for the job.

And of course, I didn't snap a photo of my sliced up zucchini.

I just set the zucchini in a bit of water on the stove, let the water boil, and cooked the zucchini until it was fork soft.

The spaghetti squash, I think, terrified me the most. WHAT IF it didn't curl like all the photos I've seen? WHAT IF it tastes more like squash than pasta? WHAT IF trying to make supper a competition totally doesn't work and the kidlets are put off further by pasta?

This recipe helped me get over the fear of not cooking the spaghetti squash properly. What I didn't grasp from said recipe, or any of the other ones I looked at was that you have to fork the spaghetti squash in order to get the noodle look. I don't know WHY, but I thought upon pulling it out of the oven it'd be all curly for me. So imagine my disappointment and heart sinking when I pulled the squash out of the oven (375 degrees F, for 45 mins - face DOWN) and it still looked the same as when I put it in. I won't lie, I was CRUSHED. I had TOTALLY psyched myself up for this meal only to end up with NOT spaghetti squash noodles. I decided to fork it and see if maybe the flesh just hadn't loosened enough. 

What the squash looked like straight out of the oven on the left and forked squash on the right.

And what do you know, I had NOODLES! I think my heart actually skipped a beat! I actually had spaghetti noodles out of a squash! Of course, I still had to win the kidlets over, but I managed to NOT mess up the scariest part of the meal.

I also threw together a pasta sauce. I've made pizza sauce, so I figured I could handle making pasta sauce (despite having failed in the past). It seemed simple enough. Instead of tomato paste, though, I used tomato sauce because although I could just add water to the paste to get the consistency I wanted, I LIKE the consistency of tomato paste and it has worked wonderfully in the past for pizza sauce. This is another moment of add your favorite Italian seasonings and mix it all together until the taste test comes back satisfactory!

I assembled the kidlets' plates the same (except for the youngest; he just wants FOOD and could care less how it is presented, just FEED HIM):

Zucchini noodles and Spaghetti Squash Noodles; each with a Sweet Italian (Top) and Mommy Meatball (Bottom)

And of course, MY plate. Err, bowl. FILLED. With yumminess.

And of COURSE, a FRESH sprinkling of cheese (Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago; all combined) on top ALWAYS helps with winning kids over too. At least, in my house it sometimes works. Or maybe that just works for me.

Surprisingly the zucchini pasta won over the spaghetti squash, but seriously I couldn't choose between the two, they are both SO good. And both meatballs won, but I think Mommy's meatball won by one or two votes more than the pre-made Sweet Italian. But I think it's because I called them "Mommy's Meatballs"; I mean, who wants to break Mommy's heart? No one is going to tell me my meatballs were terrible, right?