spaghetti squash bolognese
the coziest meal prep for a hot girl winter
New York City was an Arctic tundra last week and this meal prep absolutely slapped. The universal sign of a 10/10 meal prep is when you have it for lunch and actually crave it again for dinner.
This is the perfect cozy meal to make for the winter when all you want is a nice comfy bowl of pasta but still want to be healthy. Every year, I forget that spaghetti squash exists- it really feels like you’re eating a big bowl of spaghetti but you’re really eating a big bowl of veggies. I just throw the spaghetti squash in the air fryer because I’m a lazy chef and the rest of the cooking is basically just cooking up some lean ground beef with celery, onion, and carrots and adding in jar of your fave sauce.
ingredients:
one spaghetti squash*
1 lb lean ground beef (or your fave ground meat, turkey would work really well also)
carrots, celery, and onion (use as much or as little as you want- I usually go veggie heavy so I did 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, 1/2 small onion)
one jar of your fave marinara sauce (mine is Rao’s)
optional: microgreens or parsley, parm (lots ᵕ̈)
steps:
cook spaghetti squash: cut your spaghetti squash in half**, scoop out the seeds, spray with oil, season with salt and pepper, and place both halves with the scooped side facing up in your air fryer on 350 for 25-30 mins.
make sauce: brown your meat in a hot pan and remove. add in carrots, onion, and celery with a little oil and saute for 3-4 mins or until soft. add your meat back in along with the marinara sauce (I usually add a little water in the jar and shake it to get every last bit of sauce). Simmer on a medium low heat until your spaghetti squash is done or for 5-10 mins.
assemble: scoop spaghetti strands out of the squash using a fork and twirl onto a plate in a little mound (as if you were serving actual spaghetti- you don’t have to do this but I’m all about the vibes). spoon as much sauce as you want on top of the spaghetti squash. top with a nice blanket of parm and some microgreens.
notes:
*I know it’s tempting to get the biggest spaghetti squash you see at the grocery store but if you’re a lazy girl like me and airfrying- choose one that will actually fit in your airfryer. (If you’re not a lazy girl and using your oven, get as big a spaghetti squash as your hard working heart desires!)
**Cutting the spaghetti squash was probably the hardest part of this whole recipe. I recommend microwaving it for 5 minutes to get it a little bit softer and easier to cut! Also, remember to cut your squash in half the long way so that you have two long halves (like if you were cutting a cucumber in half) instead of two short halves. This is so that your spaghetti strands are nice and long!
