Spaghetti Squash Alfredo with Spinach and Tomato

This whole thing was an accident. It started when I put my bag of fresh baby spinach in the freezer rather than the refrigerator. Whoops. Guess I can't make a salad with that anymore. In case you didn't know, fresh spinach, when frozen shrinks up and gets very watery. Not very pretty.

And then my daughter put a spaghetti squash in the grocery basket thinking it was a cantaloupe or melon of some sort. I've made spaghetti squash once or twice before and I knew it was a great thing for my low-carb diet. I was just trying to figure out what to do with it.

Then I was moving things around in my pantry to make room for this week's groceries and found a jar of alfredo sauce. One thing led to another and yada, yada, yada . . . dinner. Because I used the jarred alfredo sauce and the spinach was already wilted, this did not take long to throw together. Just a little advanced time needed for the spaghetti squash. (Be sure to slide past the recipe for two cool things!)

SPAGHETTI SQUASH ALFREDO
WITH SPINACH, TOMATOES, AND CHICKEN

1 Spaghetti Squash
1 jar alfredo sauce (I used Classico)
1 bag (6 oz) baby spinach (fresh or accidentally frozen)
4 plum tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
1-2 cups chicken, chopped (I had leftover rotisserie chicken)

Cut squash in half and scrape out all seeds. Brush pulp with olive oil and cover in foil. Bake in 350 oven for about one hour. After cooking, use a fork to scrape out the pulp. Keep warm. In a saucepan over medium heat, pour in alfredo sauce. Add spinach and chicken and stir well. Heat 5-10 minutes. Add tomatoes, stir and immediately pour over spaghetti squash.

Lessons learned: If you're on a low-carb diet and want spaghetti squash to satisfy your craving for pasta, forget it. This meal was delicious, but next time I think I'll just pour the sauce over a piece of chicken.

OTHER NOTES:

My friend Mara over at What's For Dinner is having a yummy Alouette cheese prize giveaway. Be sure to check it out.

And I want to shout out a special thanks to Katie at Salt and Chocolate. I won a bottle of her homemade Bourbon Vanilla Extract. It smells SOOOO good. I can't wait to use it. Thanks!!