Spaghetti *Squash* and Meatballs

Lately, our girl has been in an eating funk. I'm telling myself it's just a stage, but her "favorites" (read: MAC AND CHEESE) are getting shot down the same gusto as, I dunno, green beans? I'm fairly certain Saturday she subsided on nothing but Trader Joe's cereal bars, applesauce packets, manadarin oranges, and bananas (although, her new fave game is "You better give me that whole banana and not banana slices. Slices get fed to the dog."). Oye, If this is a preview of thirteen, we're going to need a major intervention.

Anywho, being a mom with a few tricks up my sleeve, I decided to whip up one of her faves--and mine too! This was the first meal that she actually had the EXACT same thing as the hubs and I for dinner. Huge victory over here for the Fit Foodie Fam! I could see the light at the end of the "I-cook-two-dinners" tunnel!

I adore the flavor the meatballs take on while cooking all day in a bath of yummy spaghetti sauce. But I equally adore that the whole meal comes together in the crock pot...even the spaghetti squash! But I MOST adore that this is definitely 21 Day Fix approved! I count the meal as one red (meatballs), 1-2 green (this may be a little off, but squash, sauce, and then bell pepper/onion in the meatballs. I filled my green container with shredded squash first, then loaded on a red container with the meat sauce combo), and a blue for parmesan cheese ;)

Enjoy!!

Everyone gets nestled in there real tight!

Spaghetti *Squash* and Meatballs

Final result is kiddo AND mama approved!

Ingredients:

1 M/L spaghetti squash, halved with seeds removed  (TIP!! Pop your squash in the microwave for five minutes before you try and cut it in half. Much less likely to make a trip to the ER that way!)
1 lb ground turkey or beef (your choice! Nitrate free/Grass fed/Organic)

½ yellow onion, finely diced

½ bell pepper, finely diced

2/3 cup oat flour (just put rolled or steel cut oats in the blender and grind into flour!)

1 egg

1 tspn garlic powder

1 tspn basil, dried

1 tspn oregano, dried

1 tspn rosemary, dried

½ tspn thyme, dried

1 tsp salt

1 jar tomato spaghetti sauce (sugar free! I found a brand called “Mom’s” that was DELISH!)

Parmesan cheese (for topping)

Preparation:

Spray crock pot with cooking spray, or use a crock pot liner (aka my BFFs). Mix all ingredients from meat thru salt together (you will want to use your hands for this) and form into golf-ball-sized balls.  Drop balls in bottom of crock pot. Cover meatballs with spaghetti sauce. Place spaghetti squash cut side down on top of meatballs (in my crock pot, one piece lay flat, the other was layered a bit; I've also had to cut the squash into quarters to make it fit). Cook on low for 6.5 hours (my crock pot stayed on the “warm” setting for an additional 4 hours and turned out just fine--although the meatballs lost their shape a bit)