Baked spaghetti-like squash casserole

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File this under “tastes way better than it looks.” For this casserole dish I heavily cribbed from PaleOMG’s Almost 5 ingredient pizza spaghetti pie. What caught my eye was the pizza part of the name. But the taste most definitely reminded me of a baked spaghetti/pasta dish (yes, I know I just ranted about how this squash doesn’t taste like pasta … baked like this I need to rethink my original declaration). The kiddo, upon further investigation of her plate, actually asked, “Mom, is this… spaghetti?”

Now, what a decision point. Do I lie and say yes, with the hope that she’ll eat it? I mean, I’ve already committed a lie of omission by not mentioning the chopped onion. Do I dare test the karmic waters?

“It’s spaghetti… squash!” I exclaimed. Couldn’t do it. Eventually she would figure it out and then would use it against me, I’m sure. And fortunately for us she still ate most of her portion.

So, this is a baked casserole, made with our favorite pizza ingredients: sausage, mushrooms, onions. Rather than repeat PaleOMG’s recipe, I’m going to send you all there, and list out the tweaks I made here:
Instead of ground pork sausage, I used two Mild Italian Chicken Sausage links (approx 3/4 lb) from Whole Foods, which I cooked/browned then sliced before adding into the sauce mix.
I added sliced mushrooms to the sautéed onions, and used Italian Seasoning instead of dried basil.
I beat two eggs with 3 tbsp of liquid egg whites.
I also grated a small amount of Parm-Reg on top while it rested, which I easily could have done without. I’m playing to a mixed audience, here.

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Presented with a salad and steamed broccoli.

The verdict was three thumbs up. Husband went for thirds. I probably ate more than I intended to. Reheated the next day for lunch, still great-tasting.

Brinner

Over Christmas break I was nominated for Mom of the Year when I put a plate of salad in front of the kiddo and told her to pretend she was a bunny. Eat up! Surprisingly she ate the deli turkey and carrots. Not one of my better dinners. In my defense I didn’t expect her to eat much since we had gone to Five Guys earlier that day.
Not going to repeat that anytime soon. Today we stopped at Whole Foods nod picked up a yam, sausages (chicken, mild Italian & ginger/soy/pineapple) and a kid-picked yogurt. Husband had some pancake batter already in the fridge. You know where this is going … BRINNER!!

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The ginger soy was interesting, not kid-approved. A curiosity experiment, wasn’t interested in the breakfast sausage option.
Even dessert was breakfast themed. I used the rest of the pumpkin purée to make pumpkin oatmeal muffin. As you might recall I had considered more pumpkin pancakes, but since we already had regular pancake batter ready, that seemed silly. So glad I changed my mind. This recipe, which I halved to account for the amount of purée I had, contains no oil, no butter. Out of the oven they were moist.

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Hopefully they are still good tomorrow. If the husband has left us any.

Hot dog? Hot dog!

“Lily, what do you want for dinner?”

“Hot dog?”

“Really? Do you know what a hot dog is?”

“Pizza?”

“But last time you didn’t eat the pizza.”

“Hot dog. Hot dog! HOT DOG HOT DOG HOT DOG HOT DOG.”

Come to think of it, hot dogs sound pretty good. Only we don’t eat hot dogs in this house. How does she even know what a hot dog is? How about some sausage instead? With some grilled peppers and maybe some sweet potatoe fries on the side? Yeah. That’ll do.

sausage and peppers via chattycha on flickr

For anyone curious as to how Lily learned about hot dogs, I suspect this book may have had something to do with it (the dramatic ending includes a huge hot-dog shaped blimp).