My Final Weight Loss Journey

This is unbelievable!!!  That is the word for this dish!  UNBELIEVABLE!  Oh My Stars!  If it weren't so hard cutting a spaghetti squash in half I would having this every single week!  I just may have to make this part of our Thanksgiving menu this year!  As my "Cookie Friends"  would say...Man noises were heard!!!  Throughout my house!

This recipe actually came from one of my "Cookie" friends that I met on the WW Boards, Josephine Tomato (Jo).  Thanks Jo for posting such a good recipe.  My hat is off to you!  I did make some changes and I hope you don't mind!

My Changes:  I did use  2% cheese but I could not find just Monterrey Jack so I used the Monterrey Jack and Cheddar mixed cheeses.  The other thing that I did was I added the jalapenos back into the dish when I added the sauce to the shredded squash.  We like foods with a kick.  My jalapenos were hot but adding the jalapenos back in did not make the dish fiery.  It just gave it that good jalapeno flavor. 

Servings: 8
HU's: 3 (as written below)

NOTE:  If you change the cheese to 2% it changes the nutritional value to:  63 Cal, 3 Fat, 0 Fiber which calculates to 2 HU's.

1 whole spaghetti squash - about 3 lbs.
2 cups skim milk
3 whole jalapeno Chile pepper - stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Monterrey Jack Cheese - shredded

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cut squash in half lengthwise and use a spoon or melon baller to remove seeds and surrounding fiber.  Put squash, cut side down, on a lightly buttered baking sheet and bake until tender when flesh (inside of squash) is pierced with a fork, 30 to 40 minutes.  Or...poke several holes in skin of quash with a fork and microwave it on high 10 minutes.  Squash should be tender when pierced with a fork; if it isn't microwave on high in 1 minute intervals until tender.  Let sit until cool.

(My Note:  I did this in the oven and got confused with flesh and skin!  LOL!  I truly think that the next time I make this recipe I will try the microwave!)

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm milk and jalapenos until bubbles form along the edge of the pan.  Remove mixture from heat and let sit 15 minutes.  Strain and discard jalapenos.

When squash is cool enough to handle, use a large spoon to scrape the strands out of the skin and into a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 2 Tablespoons butter.  Whisk in flour and salt and cook, whisking until flour smells cooked (like pie crust), about 3 minutes.  Slowly pour in jalapeno-infused milk while whisking.  Reduce heat to medium and continue whisking until mixture thickens slightly, about 3 minutes.  Pour mixture over squash and stir to combine  Transfer mixture to a buttered 2 quart baking dish.  Sprinkle with Jack Cheese and bake until bubbling and brown on top, about 30 minutes.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 116 Calories; 7 g Fat (57.1% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 21 mg Cholesterol; 405 mg Sodium.

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