Every once in a while I get a serious craving for shrimp scampi but like to keep our meals as healthy as possible, so this time when the craving hit I was prepared. Instead of grabbing the pasta, I reached for a healthier alternative- spaghetti squash.
About an hour before you want dinner ready, turn the oven on to 375 while you prepare the squash. Cut it in half (careful, you will need a big knife and cutting board- it is a very hard vegetable while raw), and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. The halves are then placed on a baking sheet that has been brushed with olive oil cut side up and put in the oven for 45-50 minutes (check with a fork for tenderness to know when it's done).
This beautiful golden color is what you want!
With a fork, gently scrape the insides of the squash and watch "noodles" appear. Set aside and continue on to the shrimp part! The original recipe is here; start with thawed and deveined shrimp (you can keep the tails on or remove them before cooking, I chose to remove them this time), throw some salt and pepper on them, heat oil in a pan and add the shrimp for a flash saute.
Only cook the shrimp until they have barely turned pink and then remove them from the pan. Add in chopped onions and garlic, juice from one squeezed lemon, a bit of white wine, and shrimp stock (I did not have this on hand, but my smarty pants hubby added some water to the shrimp before I cooked it and created a type of stock that worked just as well). Allow it all to cook down for about 5 minutes before adding the shrimp back in and some butter for taste.
Go ahead and throw in the spaghetti squash and anything else you'd like (I added a handful of spinach for color and extra flavor); toss everything together and enjoy!
The finished product! Beautiful, fresh, light and healthy!
My shrimp-eating stud said this was a 4!
To your health,
Jodye
We linked up with Cheapskate Cook Healthy 2Day Wednesday Party!
My shrimp-eating stud said this was a 4!
To your health,
Jodye
We linked up with Cheapskate Cook Healthy 2Day Wednesday Party!