Taco Spaghetti (Squash)

My photo skills are lacking. I do apologize.

 

When I'm making out our weekly meal plan I always struggle the most with my lunches. I'm not sure why, but it's always the last blank I fill in. For breakfast, we have our go-to casserole (recipe coming soon) or egg muffins for Tyler and I am hopelessly addicted to oats with a sweet potato, splash of coconut milk and a few pecans sprinkled on top. (Before our whole30 started I was also throwing way too much brown sugar on top, and holy baloney was it good. Also, oats are not technically allowed on whole30, but I am still eating them because I didn't want to risk a dip in my supply while I'm nursing.)

 

Dinners can be a little harder but I can usually narrow it down to a couple new things, a couple old favorites and have enough leftovers to make it through the week. Same goes for Tyler's lunches. By the time I've used all my brain power to come up with all those meals, my lunch is a pain to figure out. I hate warmed up leftover chicken, I do not know why but I feel like it always tastes weird. I have to have more food than just a salad or I'm hungry and snacky the rest of the day. I try and find something packed with veggies and on the lighter side, because as much as I am doing the whole30 to get my health back in check and fix some of the terrible food habits I formed over nine months of pregnancy and a month of "you just popped out a human, treat yo' self," my real goal is to lose weight. All in all, that's a lot of boxes to check for one meal....

 

The past few weeks I've done two different chicken salads (recipes also coming) so I was out of the cold chicken mood. I had done a spaghetti pizza casserole (also coming) one night for dinner last week, and it got me thinking that a taco version would be awesome. I assumed I could find a recipe that someone else had put out there, but after searching Pinterest high and low I found nothing. So, I decided this would be a good time to transition from heavily modifying every single recipe I make to actually coming up with the recipe myself! I looked at how people had made some similar things, some paleo and some not, and put this together. Let me tell you, it is yummy! Filling, but not too heavy, flavorful and interesting enough that I don't get bored with it by the end of the week. I bury it under a big salad with some dump ranch (this is one recipe I didn't modify other than the type of vinegar I used, so I'll link it. I'll post a video of how easy it is soon!) and it is a perfect lunch.  

 

Let me know if you try it out and enjoy it!

 

Links in the recipe are to the Pampered Chef products I couldn't have made the recipe without. If you are interested in purchasing, please let me know!

 

Ingredients 

• One spaghetti squash, roasted and "spaghettied" (I made that word up. You're welcome.) 
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• taco seasoning (you could us a packet or make your own, recipe included below)
• 1 can tomatoes with diced chilies (Rotel)
• 3 eggs
• 1 jalepeno
• cilantro for garnish
• green onions for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish and add your spaghettied squash.
3. In a medium skillet over medium heat, add ground beef. Use mix n' chop to break up the beef. When it is nearly browned, drain off the grease and add the beef back to the skillet.
4. Add in diced onion and press in garlic. Stir and cook until beef is browned and onions have softened.
5. Sprinkle taco seasoning over the beef mixture and stir well, then add in can of diced tomatoes opened with can opener (no need to drain the liquid from the can). Stir until combined.
6. Pour meat mixture into casserole dish with the squash and mix well.
7. In a small bowl, beat eggs. Pour egg mixture over the meat and squash and then stir until all the eggs are combined.
8. Slice jalapeno into thin rings and spread out on top of the casserole.
9. Bake at 350 until the eggs have set, approximately 45 minutes.
10. To serve, cut into squares and top with cilantro and chopped green onions. Cover and keep refrigerated for lunch all week!

Makes 8 large servings.  

 

 

 

 

Taco seasoning:

#nutritionwithNat