Veggie casserole for dinner

Last night I made a recipe I found on pinterest, my hubby was a bit scared when he saw the ingredients did not contain meat of any kind. I got this recipe from http://greenlitebites.com/2007/12/16/zucchini-and-spaghetti-squash-lasagna/, the recipe was super easy but what I love most about the website is she really makes the spaghetti squash preparation so simple with her step by step plus video instructions. 

I had to do some searching for my spaghetti squash, as much as they are pinned on pinterest you would think it would be an easy find. I usually do my grocery shopping on Saturday or Sunday and try to plan out my dinners for the nights I'll be home to cook. I do a lot of planning from my pinterest food board. I recently cleaned up my pinterest food board, deleting anything I pinned that just looked good but wasn't something I was ever going to actually cook. After the cleanup my meal planning is much much easier. I went to Meijer for my Sunday grocery trip because it is extremely close to my house, usually I can find just about everything I need, but their selection changes up a lot. The selection changing is not a bad thing, I found some things that I really like but can be hard to find, like burrata mozzarella and Ben & Jerry's half baked fro-yo, but the spaghetti squash was not in-stock on Sunday. I made a trip to Fresh Market yesterday after work to find my elusive spaghetti squash, they had a sign for them in the produce section but there were yellow onions next to the sign. I found a friendly produce manager who went in the back and picked me out a nice big spaghetti squash, sometimes all you have to do ask. 

 I picked up some Delallo marinara sauce, ricotta cheese, and shredded mozzarella to top off my casserole. Typically I try for all organic ingredients, but at Meijer that can be difficult, so I picked up the best ricotta and shredded mozzarella they had available. To quote Jessica Alba from her Honest Life book, "do what you can do," that is her fantastic philosophy on living a honest life, meaning green life. I do my best to do what I can do but sometimes you just have to give in and pick up a packaged processed food, cosmetic, cleaners, etc.

There is my spaghetti squash after it has been pierced with a knife and microwaved for 15 minutes and cooled for 10. I have 2 zucchini in the picture but only needed one, not sure what I'm going to do with zucchini number 2 yet.

 So this is what the inside of a spaghetti squash looks like before scooping out the seeds and shredding all the flesh.

 Above is the casserole before gong in the oven and below is the after picture. I used about half the jar of marinara and all of the squash and one zucchini sliced very thin. Next time I make this I will squeeze the squash after I shred it and try to get some of the juices out. I cooked mine at 350 for 40 minutes, this was not enough time but me and the hubs were starving by this time. I would change it to 375 and 45 minutes baking time. It was still yummy but the zucchini needed a bit longer to get more tender and soak up the flavors of the cheese and marinara. Overall I give this a thumbs up and will be keeping it on my pinterest food board.