Chicken and Broccoli “Pasta”

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Hi friends. This one I made up out of my own brain with a little inspiration from those mouth watering recipe videos popping up all over social media. I don’t know about you but I can’t stop watching them. They all look so good but most of them are made with ingredients I know wouldn’t be good for me. I decided to put a healthy spin on a pasta dish I saw and this “pasta” dish was born. Ok, by now you’ve guessed something is up with what I’m calling pasta. As you know I stay away from real honest to goodness pasta so my go-to in the substitute pasta department is either the yummy zoodle (featured here) or …ta-da…. the fabulous spaghetti squash!

By now some of you may be a little sick of all the veggie love I keep pouring out in most of my posts but I can’t help it. I’m a veggie loving girl and spaghetti squash is one of my big loves (please no hate mail on how this is technically a fruit or whatever I know, I know). Now to those who have never tried it, this squash is a good pasta alternative, but if you’re looking for it to be super close to pasta you will be disappointed. This is not the same but to me is still delicious with a slightly sweet, nutty flavor that is so yum. Also for me it is as filling as pasta and I think is just as good while being a whole lot better for you. It has tons of vitamins A and C (see here for more health benefits). This can be a little time consuming in how you cook and prepare it so here’s a little tutorial on how I did it. First cut it in half (get a good sharp knife and watch your fingers!). Then scrape out the seeds just like you would do with a pumpkin at Halloween.

From here you can boil it, bake it in the oven (instructions on that here) or microwave it like I did. I put the cut sides down on a large plate, added a little water to the plate to help steam it and microwaved for 30 minutes. It took that long because this was a large squash, you’ll find with smaller ones it may only take 15-20. Test for doneness using the time honored fork poke, it should be fairly tender and give easily. Once it’s done you will want to wait a little until it’s at least cool enough to handle with oven mitts. Using a fork you then scrape the guts out of it. I get a little aggressive here and strive to get every last strand. Watch out because once the guts come out the skin may start to fall apart.

Here’s my finished yummy pile of “noodles”.

That’s it! A little time consuming but so worth it. Sometimes I eat them just like this with a little oil and salt or with a homemade spaghetti sauce. The great thing is you can do so much with it! Finally, I cooked up some chicken and broccoli with a few spices and chicken broth and tossed it with the oiled and salted squash. Both kids liked it, though only one ate it for dinner, I still consider it a win. Hope you like it and tell me how you prepare your spaghetti squash. Or if you’ve never tried it I hope you will now. Happy squashing (hee hee)!

Chicken and Broccoli “Pasta”

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts diced

1 large broccoli crown chopped

1 spaghetti squash (obviously the bigger the squash the more noodles it will make)

Oil to toss with the noodles and cook the chicken in (avocado oil is my favorite here)

Salt to taste (again to toss with the squash)

Garlic and onion powder to taste

1 cup of chicken broth (this helps keep the chicken tender and steam the broccoli)

Directions:

Prepare squash as shown above, toss with oil and salt and set aside. Cook chicken in a large pot with oil over medium high heat until cooked through, add salt, garlic and onion powder to taste. Next add chicken broth to help keep the chicken tender then add broccoli to pot and cover until steamed. Add squash into pot and toss with chicken and broccoli. You can serve right away or have my terrible manners and keep eating it out of the pot. Either way, enjoy!