Comfort food made healthy.
If you’re in search of a comforting, warm and tasty meal that the entire family will enjoy, this recipe is for you! Personally, I’m quite the fan of comfort food meals – especially this time of year. They’re filling, they’re tasty, and almost always pretty simple to make. However, it’s not uncommon for these classic comfort food recipes like casseroles, hot dishes, pasta dishes, creamy soups and slow cooker meals to be made with ultra-processed ingredients, cream of this or that, not enough veggies and 1,000 milligrams or more of sodium in just one serving. A combination that might leave you feeling overly full, tired and blah! But that’s why we’re here. To take your most favorite comfort foods and turn them into something that’s not only wholesome, but also incredibly delicious and that makes you feel GOOD.
Allow me to introduce Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie.
An Italian-inspired, grain-free, dairy-free and Whole30-friendly recipe that just might remind you of your favorite pasta dish, such as spaghetti or lasagna, but without the pasta. Instead, this recipe calls for spaghetti squash, a winter squash that resembles the texture and look of angel hair pasta, but is much lower in carbs and calories yet much greater in nutrients. Using spaghetti squash is an easy hack to lighten up your favorite pasta dishes while maintaining the filling volume and providing an extra boost of awesome nutrients!
The secret is not only in the squash, but also in the sauce. Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie is made with Primal Kitchen Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce.
This marinara sauce is made with organic tomatoes, full of flavor, has no added sugars and is Whole30-friendly. Here is the full ingredient list: Organic Diced Tomatoes, Organic Tomato Puree (Water, Organic Tomato Paste), Organic Basil, Avocado Oil, Sea Salt, Organic Onions, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Oregano, Citric Acid, Organic Garlic Choosing a marinara sauce can be overwhelming with the endless options to choose from at the grocery store. So a big thanks goes out to Primal Kitchen for taking it upon themselves to create their own marinara sauce that’s made with organic, real food ingredients, no added sugars and tastes amazing! You’ll definitely want to get your hands on this sauce and make it a staple in your pantry like it is in ours. P.S. They also came out with a creamy and totally tasty dairy-free Alfredo Sauce!
Made all in one oven-safe skillet = quick kitchen clean-up!
Ahh…music to your ears. Recipes that can be made all in one dish are always a win in our book. Fewer dirty dishes result in a quicker kitchen clean-up! Yes, please. For this recipe, I like to use either a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or a 12 inch oven-safe skillet. However, if you don’t have either of those on hand, no worries! You can simply transfer the ingredients to a 9×13 casserole dish to bake.
Did I mention that this recipe is freezer-friendly, too?!
We all experience those nights when cooking sounds like quite the dreadful task. It’s maybe even the last thing you want to do. The solution –> making sure you have a freezer stocked with last-minute meals. This Grain-Free Spaghetti Squash is the perfect freezer-friendly meal. I like to divide it into 1 to 2 servings per freezer /oven safe container, then you can reheat exactly what you need for how many people you are feeding. To reheat, place it in the oven set at 350ºF and reheat until cooked through. You can do this from either frozen or thawed.
It’s time to give this Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie a try!
Plan ahead and bake the spaghetti squash the day before. This will help speed up the time it takes to make this dish the night it’s on your menu. If you’ve never cooked a spaghetti squash, here’s a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to bake a spaghetti squash. And lastly, if cheese is part of your diet and you’re not following a Whole30 at the moment, by all means add the cheese! I like to top this Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie with a little mozzarella and/or parmesan cheese. This recipe calls for grass-fed beef. Curious about red meat? Read this blog post to learn how to choose quality red meat.
Comment below with your favorite comfort food dish?
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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you! This post was made possible by our friends at Primal Kitchen. Although we received compensation for this post, the opinions expressed here are – as always – 100% our own. Thank you for supporting the great companies we work with thereby allowing us to continue creating great recipes and content for you.
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