Spaghetti Squash with Mushrooms and Stuff

After a successful first attempt at Spaghetti Squash, I followed it up a few days ago with this recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Mushrooms.

Tonight I'm kind of doing a combo of the two but adding some asparagus and roasting some garlic with the squash as an experiment.

A lot of recipes I see for spaghetti squash include parmesan cheese, since we try to be low-cal/low-fat we either omit it or just grate a little over the top at the end.

Reese's Spaghetti Squash with Mushrooms and Stuff

• 1 medium spaghetti squash
• 8 cloves garlic
• olive oil (in a sprayer)

• 1 tbs olive oil (or more depending on your pan)
• 6oz mushrooms cleaned and sliced
• kosher salt
• pepper
• 1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed* and sliced into 1" pieces
• 1/2 jar marinara sauce of choice (I used Newman's Own Sockarooni)
• 2 Field Roast Italian Sausages, sliced on the diagonal into 1" slices

• Homeward Bound SparkPlug Hot Sauce
• Parmesan cheese (optional) for garnish

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out all of the seeds and discard them. Spray cut side with olive oil and place four cloves of garlic in each hollow, flip to place cut-side down in a baking dish or cookie sheet (I put parchment down to save on cleanup) so that garlic is underneath the squash while it cooks.

Bake for about 30 minutes, squash is done when fork-tender. Flip squash cut-side up and let cool. (Transfer roasted garlic to your pan during the asparagus section.)

While squash is roasting, collect and prepare the remainder of the ingredients. 

With about 10 minutes left on the timer for the squash: In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil and add mushrooms, sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt and a twist of pepper. As mushrooms start to get juicy, add asparagus and cover (add roasted garlic now), allow to cook for about 10 minutes (on about medium/low - my burner was at about 3.5), stirring periodically. (Depending on your pan, you may need to add a little olive oil - I gave the asparagus a light spray.)

Once the mushrooms and asparagus are mostly cooked (but not quite all the way), lower heat. 

Scrape the squash into the pan with the mushrooms, asparagus and garlic and stir to combine. Add spaghetti sauce and raise heat a bit to heat through if necessary (my squash and pan were both still hot enough to counteract the temp of the sauce coming out of the jar).

If you like things a little spicy, add about a tablespoon of Homeward Bound SparkPlug (I would stir it into the sauce before adding the sauce to the veggies).

*I was told by my Mother once that asparagus will snap naturally in the place where it becomes less fibrous, so by snapping each piece individually you won't end up with pieces of asparagus that are too hard to chew.  It may seem like you are wasting more this way, but you don't eat the non-chewable parts anyway so this way you are throwing them away at the beginning instead of the end when they are left on your plate!