Meat Sauce Over Spaghetti Squash

After a busy weekend, by Sunday night I was ready for a nice relaxing pedicure.  My very sweet hubby offered to make the pasta sauce for the spaghetti with meat sauce I'd been craving for a week.  Friday I had taken a personal day and since the bikinis are out I tried a few on.  It wasn't too bad but I need a few weeks of cutting back to feel really great.  I decided to cut back on the carbs a bit by mixing in some of the spaghetti squash I had roasted earlier with a little Ezekiel Pasta. 

When I came home from my pedicure, the sauce bubbling on the stove smelled unbeleivable.  I took a taste and it was so rich and flavorful I must have said ten times how amazing it was.  I would have thought it is was made completely from scratch.

Here is what was in the mix.

Meat Sauce (served over spaghetti squash)

Ingredients

Olive Oil or Canola spray
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 8 oz package of sliced Portobello mushrooms

1 tsp minced garlic

Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning (I know this sounds weird but this is what he used.)
1 lb organic, free range, grass fed, extra lean ground beef
1.5 jars Muir Glen Organic Garlic Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce
Good quality red wine, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat.  Add the onion, pepper and mushrooms and sprinkle seasonings, to taste.  Sauté until soft, about five minutes.  Turn the heat down a bit and add the garlic. Sauté an additional two minutes.

2. Add the beef and some additional seasoning, salt and pepper, and cook until browned.  Drain the fat and add the pasta sauce and red wine.  Taste it to see if you need to add some additional seasonings and adjust accordingly.

3. Turn heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes to 1 hour. (The longer the better apparently)

4. Serve over pasta, spaghetti squash or a mixture of the two.

Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash
Liquid to cover up sides of squash about 1/2 inch, I used chicken broth
Garlic Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Split spaghetti squash lengthwise and scoop out seeds.

2. Place squash face down in a baking pan and pour liquid to half inch up the sides (you don't have to be exact, just guestimate).

3. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the rind of the squash can be pierced easily with a fork.

4. Let cool a bit then scoop out strands of squash, season with salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil to taste.