New Food: Spaghetti Squash

Working for Weight Watchers I hear a lot about "good for you" foods but don't tend to stray from my regular staples that I eat almost every day (english muffins, cottage cheese, veggie burgers and lowfat chips/bars are among those that I eat very regularly). I've definitely heard of spaghetti squash before and have even seen several recipes that looked interesting. Tonight I finally tried it and I'm quite pleased with the taste and even more pleased about the calories saved. I followed a WW recipe I found on their website:

Spaghetti Squash Marinara

Ingredients
1 medium raw spaghetti squash, (about 2 1/2 lb)
1 tsp olive oil
1 small onion(s), chopped
1 tsp garlic clove(s), minced
14 1/2 oz canned stewed tomatoes, cut up
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Halve squash lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Place squash, cut sides down, in a large baking dish and prick skin all over with a fork. Bake until tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the sauce, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and Italian seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring often, 5 minutes or until desired consistency.

To serve, carefully rake the stringy squash pulp from the skin with a fork, separating it into strands that look like spaghetti. Spoon sauce over squash and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Yields about 1 1/2 cups of squash, 1/4 cup of sauce and 1 tablespoon of cheese per serving.

When you first cut open the squash it looks and smells almost exactly like a pumpkin. I was a little worried because last week I just tried Acorn Squash for the first time and there's a reason you didn't see a post on that one...yuck. When you take the spag squash out of the oven you literally just rake it out and it looks almost identical to spaghetti, it's really weird. There's a lot in there too!! The texture is definitely not the same as regular pasta, it's a bit more chewy and raw. I was expecting a gross kind of squashish-pumpkin flavor but honestly it doesn't have much taste at all which I actually thought was a good thing. I could really enjoy the flavor of the sauce and parmesan I put on it. Would I rather have a bowl of regular spaghetti over the squash? Well of course but I would also rather have full fat creamy ice cream, real sugar in my coffee, chips that don't come in tiny prepackaged portions and gooey 4 cheese pizza every day. The point is; some things are worth sacrificing a little taste to save a lot of calories (in my opinion at least). And if I really want regular pasta I'll have it but in the mean time spag squash is a very nice replacement. Plus I just learned that you can cook a bunch and freeze the "spaghetti". One squash is about 3-5 servings and I've seen it anywhere from $0.10-$0.99/lb.