Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Vegetables and Meat Sauce

This is a long cooking sauce. The desire here is to slowly simmer the peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes to bring all the natural flavors out. Since these vegetables are all high in Vitamin C, which is destroyed by heat, it's a trade off. You could also brown the meat, then add the fresh vegetables for minimal cooking which would retain some of those vitamins. However, the final result of this slow simmered wonder is well worth the time and effort, and yes, even a few lost vitamins.

There are SO many variations you could make with this recipe! However, using what's pictured here's what I did. Finely chop 5 big cloves of garlic, 1 large sweet pepper, the large onion and green tomato. Simmer, covered, in 1-2T butter for 10-20 minutes. Meanwhile prep the red and yellow tomatoes. Chopping them into ¼” cubes, set them aside after stirring in ¼c Balsamic-Olive Oil Dressing and 1t-1T Rosemary Seasoning. This filled a 6 cup bowl. After the first vegetables have simmered about 20 minutes, add the other tomatoes. Bring to a high simmer then turn heat down to a slow-bubbling simmer.

Cook ½# of ground round steak, in a separate pan, breaking it into smaller pieces. When completely cooked and nicely browned, add to the tomato sauce mixture. Bring everything to a slow simmer then cover and let it do its thing for an hour and a half. At the end of this point there should still be liquid in the pot and the flavors will be very strong and sweet.

Cook the spaghetti squash until it feels soft through the skin. Pierce the skin several times then wrap in several layers of paper towel. Put in a baking dish and microwave 10-15 minutes or until cooked. You could also bake it in the oven, covered until soft. Remove from heat source, allow to cool 20 minutes or so. Then cut open lengthwise and take the center seeds and fibers out. Once you start scraping and the fibers look like spaghetti, you've reached the edible part. Loosen all the strands then transfer to a serving dish. Top with meat-vegetable sauce. If needed, sprinkle with a little more Rosemary Seasoning, drizzle with Balsamic-Olive Oil Dressing or top with crumbled Feta cheese. Serves 4. . .Lin