Spaghetti Squash

Level of Difficulty: EASY
Pots/Pans Used: 2!

Ingredients
1 Spaghetti Squash, ripened (very yellow)
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 TBL fresh basil
1 TBL Earth Balance
1 TBL nutritional yeast
salt & pepper to taste
1 jar marinara sauce

OR

(if you want to make your own sauce)
2 tomatoes
1 can crushed tomatoes
basil
nutritional yeast
onion
shallot
mushrooms
(plus anything else you would like to add)

This recipe was recommended to me by Mike Pineyro. Not only was it a lot of fun to make, but I felt completely guilt-free after eating it. You can prepare spaghetti squash in a lot of different ways, but this preparation is meant to emulate real spaghetti. To be honest, I didn't miss the pasta at all, and it's probably about 1/10 the calories. This is also a great recipe for people who love spaghetti but are gluten intolerant. Plus, Spaghetti Squash is in season!
First, you need to preheat an oven to 375. Next, take your spaghetti squash and cut it length-wise down the center (BE CAREFUL! It's very difficult to cut and you will need a rather large knife!). Once you're squash is cut, scrape out the stringy center with a large spoon. Next, rub Earth Balance on the open face of each half (if you don't have Earth Balance, use olive oil). Next, distribute the garlic and basil evenly into the open face of the squash.

Take a large pan with high sides and fill it with 1/4 inch of water. I didn't have one large pan, so I just used two medium-sized casserole dishes. Put the squash face down into the water (Some of the filling may come out, but not much). Then put it in the oven for 50 minutes. Once out of the oven, remove the water and filling. This is the crazy part... take a fork and scrape at the center of the squash. The entire thing thing will turn into perfect spaghetti-sized noodles like this! Then sprinkle some salt and pepper and 1 TBL nutritional yeast over each half of spaghetti. Mix it up, to give the noodles a bit of flavor. You can either make your own spaghetti sauce or heat up a store bought sauce. Due to time constraints, I used a pre-made one.

If you want to make your own, Mike recommends sauteing tomatoes (cut into wedges), a can of crushed tomatoes (to make it more "saucy"), lots of onion or shallots, more basil, nutritional yeast, mushroom, etc. Basically, just get fancy with whatever kind of sauce you want to make. Just pour the sauce over the noodles, sprinkle some nutritional yeast and eat your heart out! This is enough to serve three very hungry people. I don't recommend making it for just one, because it doesn't do well as leftovers.