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Yummy Spaghetti Squash Bake 

Ingredients:

1- large spaghetti squash

• You can get these oval yellow veggies at most grocery stores through out the year.

1- 15 oz. can tomato sauce

1- 6 oz. Can tomato paste

1- lb. ground sausage

1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Garlic salt

Optional seasonings:

Salt

Pepper

Italian seasoning

Oregano

Basil

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse and dry the spaghetti squash. Though you are not eating the outside and it may not look dirty, it can sometimes carry unpleasant guests from its travel to the grocery store. Take a knife and poke the squash many times around its entire surface. This helps to let hot air escape so it doesn’t explode. Place it in the oven on a pan or directly on the rack and bake for 40 minutes or until the squash is easy to scrape.
2. Brown the sausage while you wait for the squash to cook through. When the sausage is thoroughly cooked, mix it with the tomato sauce, tomato paste and your choice of seasonings.
3. Take out the squash and let it cool. When it has cooled down enough, cut the stem off and then cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds.
4. Take a fork and rake the inside of the squash. It should begin to separate into striated noodle-like pieces.
5. Once all of the “noodles” are loosened you can choose to keep them in the shell, or scoop them out and put them in an oven safe dish. Then take half of the cream cheese packet and spread it on top of the squash and layer on the sauce mixture
6. Put back in the oven for 10 minutes. Add mozzarella cheese and cook for another five minutes.
7. Take it out, let it cool and enjoy.

You can choose to make this meal as nutritious or indulgent as you want depending on the additives you use. To make it lower in calories you can buy lower fat cream cheese, add as little  mozzarella cheese as you want and use leaner sausage or even ground hamburger. This is a great alternative to higher calorie spaghetti noodles.