One Pan Is All You Need
You’ll never make traditional spaghetti and meatballs again. This lightened recipe combines butternut squash noodles with tender meatballs and savory red sauce for a healthy meal that tastes downright naughty. Every family needs a reliable spaghetti and meatball recipe, and it’s a happy bonus that this one is light and lean.
It’s downright embarrassing how messy my kitchen gets during a long cooking session. So in an effort to reduce the mess in my life I’ve come up with this one-pan dinner. Here’s to keeping your kitchen much cleaner than mine!
1 pound ground beef
¾ cup grain-free bread crumbs (this flat bread, ground, works well)
⅓ cup Basil pesto
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
6 cups Butternut squash noodles
1 (24 ounce) jar of marinara sauce
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with olive oil.
Use your hands to combine the beef, bread crumbs, pesto, sea salt and black pepper. Roll the mixture into about fifteen 1-inch meatballs. Place the meatballs in the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove the meatballs, setting aside on a plan, and drain off any liquids from the pan.
Spread the noodles in the pan. Pour the marinara sauce over the noodles and toss gently with tongs to coat. Add the meatballs back to the pan, gently nestling throughout the noodles. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 7 minutes. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for another 3-5 minutes.
Remove the pan from oven. Toss to coat the noodles and meatballs with the sauce. Season generously with sea salt and black pepper and garnish with fresh basil.
Save time buy purchasing pre-made butternut squash noodles. For this recipe I use 2 (10.7 oz) packages of Veggie Noodle Co Butternut Spirals. The single ingredient in this product is butternut squash that's been peeled and run through a spiral slicer to create long, thin noodles. Could you make your own at home using a whole butternut squash and a spiral slicer? Certainly! And if you have the time then that process can even be fun. But it's wonderful to have fresh, time-saving options like this to make truly wholesome cooking convenient and quick for busy nights!
Calories: 289
Fat: 10g
Carbohydrates: 23g
Sodium: 860mg
Fiber: 4g
Protein: 26g
Sugar: 11g