Sketti Squash & Turkey Balls

Hello everyone! Happy Holidays!

I can't believe it's already the holiday season, but I am very glad it's here! I was excited to go shopping with the boyfriend to get some new holiday decorations for our apartment, and for my very first real Christmas tree on my own - like not with my parents. We went to a quaint farm stand in rural VA...

[Cox Farms]

We even dressed up Milli for our tree hunting excursion;

[She hates getting dressed up!]

She had a blast, sniffing all of the farm smells and meeting new friends.

We picked out a lovely tree, perfect for the little corner we wanted to stand it in:

As much as I'm enjoying the holiday season this year, I like to remember that technically it is still autumn until the 21st of December. With that in mind, I present you with this delicious late-autumn inspired meal.

I picked up a spaghetti squash a couple of weeks ago while I was Thanksgiving meal shopping, and as of last week, had yet to crack that baby open. I finally decided to utilize it for a healthy Wednesday evening dinner. I haven't been eating pasta (for three.long.months.) so I was really looking forward to preparing something that I could at least dress like pasta. I thought about what I would like to toss on some pasta and the first thing that came to mind was pesto. I decided to go the true Italian route and make some turkey meatballs for my boyfriend, as well as some Italian-style falafal for myself.

Let me tell you a tale of some failed falafal. I had this great idea to use navy beans instead of chick peas; basil instead of cilantro. Well the navy beans from a can are much mushier than chick peas from a can, so the mixture turned into more of a hummus/spread vs. a less-creamy dough. I firmed them up with some bread crumbs (which I'm not even supposed to be eating) and they really came together.  Then I royally screwed up by adding them ALL to the oil for frying instead of a few patties at a time. They turned into a big globby mess in the oil, breaking apart and turning into a major FAIL. Ah well, I'm going to try again another time. I've been pretty successful with my blog recipes turning out, so I guess I can take one failure every now and again. Womp womp.

The turkey meatballs, however, turned out fantastically I was told. The phrase, "this is the best meatball I have ever had in my life," was exclaimed more than once, so I'll take that as a win for the night :-)

OK, let's get cooking one last autumn inspired recipe before we really have to give way to winter!

Spaghetti Squash with Turkey Meatballs
Servings: 2
Prep time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
1 large spaghetti squash
1 16 oz package grape tomatoes
2 handfuls sliced white mushrooms
2 teaspoons grapeseed or extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 teaspoon kosher or pink Himalayan sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)
1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons pesto, jarred or homemade
1 lb ground turkey
4 teaspoons fresh minced onion
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
1/4 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
3 basil leaves, julienned for garnish

Start by pre-heating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice your spaghetti squash around the center in one inch tick rings, as demonstrated here.

Clean the seeds out of the center of the rings and discard.

Spray non-stick oil on a baking sheet (I love Trader Joe's coconut oil spray!), and place the squash rings on it.  You may actually need two baking sheets to fit all of the rings - I did.

Drizzle the squash with grapeseed oil or EVOO, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and FCBP.

Place the squash in the oven to cook for 40 minutes.

Now, prepare your tomatoes and mushrooms.

Add the tomatoes and mushrooms to a medium sized baking dish. Drizzle with grapeseed oil or EVOO, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon each salt and FCBP.

Place in the oven with the squash to cook for the remainder of the time on the squash, about 35 minutes.

For the turkey meatballs, start by setting a non-stick frying pan on the stove over medium heat. Drizzle about 4 teaspoons grapeseed oil or EVOO into the pan. Let the oil heat up while you make the meatballs.

Add the ground turkey, minced onion, parsley, bread crumbs, cayenne, as well as two teaspoons pesto, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and FCBP to a small mixing bowl.

Use your hands to combine all of the ingredients until they are even distributed throughout the meat.

Roll meatballs a little smaller than the size of a golf ball. Place them on a clean plate after making each one.

Once all of the meat has been rolled into balls, add the balls to the frying pan all at the same time so that they are cooking at the same rate.

Fry the balls on the first side for about 30 seconds, then rotate them to the opposite side.

Keep doing this until all of the sides have touched the heat and are browned and crispy.

Once you are done with this, allow the meat balls to sit over the heat while you shake the frying pan regularly to make sure they aren't sitting on one side long enough to get burned. This will allow them to finish cooking internally. The meatballs should be cooking for a total of about 8-10 minutes.

I like to check one of the meatballs before taking them all off the heat, to make sure the inside is thoroughly cooked. Remove one ball from the pan and slice into the center with a knife. If it's at all pink, throw it back in and cook the meatballs for another couple of minutes.

Once the balls are done cooking, remove them from the heat. Set aside while you prepare your spaghetti squash.

When the squash and tomatoes/mushrooms are done cooking, remove the pans from the oven.

Use a fork to go around the center of the squash to pull the strands away from the rind.

You should have nice long strings of squash.

Add 1/4 cup of pesto to a small mixing bowl, and add half of the tomato/mushroom mixture to it along with two rings worth of spaghetti squash.

Toss to spread the pesto over the squash and tomatoes/mushrooms.

Use a fork to twirl sections of the pesto-y squash and tomatoes/mushrooms and place them on your plate. (You can also just spoon the mixture onto the plate, but the twirling just makes it look pretty!)

Add as many meatballs to the top of your spaghetti squash mountain as you like and garnish with your julienned basil.

Serve alongside something green and enjoy!

Salute!