Spaghetti Squash and Baked Turkey Spinach Meatballs

Happy (late) New Year! I'm finally able to blog after much work and a lot of classes in nutrition. I try to take a few classes to keep up to date on anything medical and health related, especially things I deal with in my work.  So anyway, it's January and it's cold and likely snowy in other part of the world that are not the south. So I come baring comfort food, that doesn't break the New Year's resolutions! Unless of course your resolution was to be vegetarian or vegan... I would totally use Tofu in place of the turkey, and swap in a vegan egg. 

This is probably one of my favorite meatball dishes, and a favorite spaghetti squash dish as well.
I love this recipe, I came up with it  Tuesday this week ( I simply didn't have the energy Monday to do anything special for lunch other than salad) after seeing like a ton of meatball recipes. I decided I'd make a much healthier version of Spaghetti and Meatballs. The recipe is below  remember to try to use Organic if possible! 



Spaghetti Squash and Baked Turkey Spinach Meatballs


* 1 Pound Ground Turkey ( or tofu) 
* 1/2 Cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs 
* 1 Egg 
* 1 Cup baby Spinach Chopped
* 1 Spaghetti Squash
* 1 Tbsp Olive or Grape Seed Oil 
* 1 tsp Garlic Powder 
* 1 tsp Italian Seasoning 
*  Your favorite pasta sauce recipe or favorite prepared sauce
 ( here's a nice recipe for sauce http://wellnessmama.com/8907/pasta-sauce/ )



Directions : 
  
Prepare a baking sheet. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees. 
In a large bowl add the turkey, bread crumbs, egg, and spinach. Combine well with your hands. Begin rolling the mixture into 1 inch size meatballs and place on the prepared pan. After you have rolled all the meatballs, bake them for 30-45 minutes or until done
( always be sure to use a meat thermometer! Internal temperature for meatballs should be 165 degrees) 

Once the meatballs are done, remove them from the pan and put them into a medium to large sauce pan, cover and set aside. 

Next wash the Spaghetti Squash well, and slice the top ( the part with the stem) off. Slice the Squash in half ( long ways) and scoop out the seeds. Next drizzle oil over each half of the squash and salt to taste. Bake at 400 Degrees for 50 minuets or until done.  

Once the Squash is done, add your pasta sauce to the sauce pan with the meatballs, bring that to a boil and reduce heat, allow it to simmer for 2 minuets. While the sauce simmers, using a fork, scrape the squash flesh out of the hulls. Place the spaghetti squash flesh into plates. Sprinkle garlic powder and Italian seasoning over the squash. Once the sauce is finished simmering, add sauce and meatballs to the plates. 

Enjoy  :)