Have you ever heard of Million Dollar Spaghetti? Basically it’s a casserole-like dish with spaghetti, lots of butter, yummy creaminess, and gooey cheese. I am pretty sure it gets it’s name because it is so rich and delicious! A couple weeks ago, I was thinking of this recipe and thought it would be a great one to tweak to make it more macro friendly. I was beyond impressed with the results! It was so creamy, yummy, and I got to eat a huge plate full of it for just 366 calories, or 19F/21C/29P.
I started by subbing out the spaghetti for spaghetti squash, which is a fairly easy substitution. Then I left out the butter, chose to use light cream cheese, cottage cheese, and sour cream (you could try to use fat free for some/all of these, too, but I didn’t have them on hand and I’m always low on fat anyway!). The result was so creamy and delicious, and my whole family was into it.
If you have a family member who isn’t a fan of spaghetti squash, I have a couple of ideas for how you could make this work for your entire family. First, you could choose to do half spaghetti and half squash in the casserole, so everyone gets a bit of both. This will change the carb content, though! Next, you could just cook spaghetti on the side and serve the casserole over spaghetti noodles for anyone who wants them. Or, you could make half of the casserole in a smaller dish with spaghetti squash only, and use the other half to make a spaghetti noodles only casserole in a separate dish. You’ll have a lot of leftovers if it’s just you eating from the spaghetti squash pan, but I promise you won’t mind. I ate this for 3 days in a row and was so satisfied with it each time!
Million Dollar "Spaghetti"
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash (670 g cooked spaghetti squash strands)
- 750 g 93/7 lean ground turkey (about 1.5 lbs)
- 1/2 onion (120 g)
- 3 tsp minced garlic
- 4 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- garlic salt, to taste
- 2 24 oz jars Spaghetti Sauce of choice (I used one whole jar + 470 g out of a second)
- 1 8 oz brick Light Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 cup 2% cottage cheese (238 g)
- 1/4 cup Light Sour Cream (60 g)
- 1 and 3/4 cups Mozzarella Cheese (196 g)
Instructions
- Begin by preheating oven to 400 degrees. Wash and rinse a spaghetti squash, cut it in half length wise, and then scoop out the seeds from the center of both halves. Place halves of squash flesh side down in a 9X13 pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until tender.
- Once spaghetti squash is tender, use a fork to pull out strands of the flesh. Remove as much flesh as possible from both halves and place them in a bowl. Mix strands of spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce from the jar until they are coated. I did not use the whole jar, just 470 g. Add sauce according to your taste preference, but keep in mind that the more sauce, the runnier your casserole may be.
- Brown turkey, onion, and garlic together in a pan over medium-high heat, until the turkey is cooked through. Crumble the turkey as it cooks. Add in 3 teaspoons of Italian seasoning and garlic salt to taste. Drain off any excess liquid from the pan. Add 1 whole jar of spaghetti sauce to the skillet and stir to combine. Turn off heat and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, combine softened cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese (84 g), and 1 tsp of Italian seasoning until thoroughly combined.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9X13 pan with cooking spray. Place the spaghetti squash evenly in the bottom of the pan. Layer on the cream cheese mixture evenly over the spaghetti squash. Pour turkey/spaghetti sauce over the cream cheese layer. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese (112 g).
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 35-45 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
