This Southwestern Style Stuffed Spaghetti Squash is a budget friendly healthy meal that is packed with flavor! Gluten-free, vegetarian and can be made quick using your pressure cooker!
It’s The Recipe ReDux time! This month’s theme is one I think we can all get behind: Budget Eats!
“Budget Eats: How low can you go? Can you make a meal for less than $3 per serving? Whatever your budget, show us your healthy entree recipe to help keep food spending in check in 2017.”
Creating meals that are healthy and delicious while being easy on the wallet is something I am hoping to do more of this year. My husband and I are looking to buy some property and build a house in the next year or so and really want to buckle down on our budget and save money where we can.
Food and groceries is one area I want to focus more on this year. Being a food blogger, I see all the other food bloggers coming up with these elaborate recipes with new, specialized ingredients. I see them and I want try the food and then I want to make something with it and share it with you all. The thing is, sometimes being too creative in the kitchen adds $$ to my food bill. Finding some of these specialized or specific ingredients that I usually don’t have on hand can be costly. Sometimes they are lower cost, but not always. I seem to justify it by telling myself I’m a food blogger and need to explore more foods.
While I still enjoy trying new foods and ingredients, I want to get back to basics this year by creating more recipes with simple ingredients the average person has on hand. This Southwestern Style Stuffed Spaghetti Squash is no exception. Spaghetti squash has had a surge in popularity due to the gluten-free fad. People are swapping out their gluten- and carb-containing pasta for these gluten-free, low-carb “noodles”. One good thing is that it tastes good, is healthy and goes well with a variety of flavors! You could make it sweet, savory or anywhere in between.
Besides the spaghetti squash in this recipe, the rest of the ingredients are things I almost always have on hand and are inexpensive. Canned tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, black beans, frozen corn, diced green chilis, some seasonings and shredded cheese. With this making 6 servings, the cost came out to be approximately $1.58 per serving! Time saving + cost saving + health saving 😉 = I’ll take it!
Spaghetti squash cooked in 10 minutes using your #PressureCooker! Share on XI made this recipe for the first time a couple weeks ago on a whim when I wanted to try out my new pressure cooker. The first thing I made in it was spaghetti squash. I sliced it in half, scraped out the seeds, plopped it into the pressure cooker and pressed start. And it only took 10 minutes! I was impressed.
Now that I had this perfectly cooked spaghetti squash I needed to make a meal of it! So I quickly grabbed ingredients in my cupboard, mixed them together and stuffed them into the spaghetti squash. I tossed the whole thing into the oven to make it nice and hot, then voila: I had a tasty, healthy meal in a snap the whole family loved.
This will definitely be a regular on the menu plan rotation!
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Southwestern Style Stuffed Spaghetti Squash [Pressure Cooker]
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Entree
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Southwestern Style Stuffed Spaghetti Squash is a budget friendly healthy meal that is packed with flavor! Gluten-free, vegetarian and can be made quick using your pressure cooker!
Ingredients
- 1 medium spaghetti squash
- 1 can (8 ounce) no salt added tomato sauce
- 1 can (15 ounce) no salt added diced tomatoes
- 1 can (15 ounce) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed
- 1 can (4.5 ounce) diced green chiles
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or mozzarella), divided
- diced avocado, optional
- cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Cut the stem off the spaghetti squash, then cut in half length wise. Scrape out all of the seeds and discard.
- Place 1 cup water in the pressure cooker. Put the two halves in the pressure cooker and cook on high for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of your spaghetti squash. Allow to slightly cool.
- While the spaghetti squash is cooking preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and prepare the “stuffing”. In a medium bowl combine the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, diced green chiles, cumin, garlic salt, and chili powder. Stir in 3/4 cup of the shredded cheese.
- When the spaghetti squash is finished cooking and is slightly cooled, place the halves cut side up in a baking dish. Using a fork, gently scrape the spaghetti squash in the same direction the strands run. Continue this until all the strands are loose and slightly separated.
- Add the tomato mixture to the spaghetti squash halves, dividing it equally among them. Carefully stir the mixture with the spaghetti squash until evenly mixed. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the two halves.
- Place in preheated oven and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until heated through and the cheese on top is melted.
- Remove from oven. Garnish with diced avocado and cilantro, if desired, and enjoy!
Notes
If you do not have a pressure cooker you can use the oven method: preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash, cut-side down, onto a baking dish. Pour in about 1/2 cup water (enough to cover the bottom of the dish). If you want, you can cover with aluminum foil (to help with the steaming). Put in oven and bake until tender, about 45 minutes (time may vary depending on the size of your spaghetti squash). Remove from oven and allow to slightly cool.
Be sure to click over and check out all the other budget-friendly healthy eats created by other Recipe ReDux’ers!
- Lunch Ideas for Busy Moms - July 10, 2024
- Why Sharing Mealtime Responsibility with Your Kids is a Game-Changer - June 20, 2024
- 10 Best Bedtime Snacks for Kids - June 5, 2024
