Living Gluten Free (and a great recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs)

Since I had a few friends ask about the recipe I used and how it turned out, I decided maybe it was a good topic with which to step back into blogging after quite the hiatus.

First, a life update...

Most of my friends and family know that I am gluten intolerant. This is something I found out after several months of very unpleasant digestive issues and efforts to combat the digestive disruption to my life with an IBS diagnosis, meds, blood test, upper GI scope and then finally eliminating gluten to see if my symptoms improved (which they did). So I discovered my gluten intolerance in 2015 and I'm going on four years without the G. (Gluten joke, not funny I guess...)

I've since learned how to live life without gluten, and while it wasn't a fun month or so cutting out all my favorite dishes cold turkey (literally every single favorite food of mine had gluten so now I just really love cheese - that's my post-gluten favorite, seriously) it really doesn't seem that difficult now and I have no intention to "go back." Let alone the fact that any tiny bit of gluten wrecks havoc on my digestive track if I ever accidentally eat it, so the idea of reintroducing gluten to my body is super unrealistic this far in.

Going on four years gluten free, eating while traveling isn't always fun but I can pretty much manage holiday gatherings, parties and dining out with friends. Cooking for one, on the other hand, isn't easy even when you CAN eat gluten. So I had a very short list of my go-to single serving meals and didn't get too adventurous in the kitchen over the years. Because... it honestly seemed like a waste of money. Gluten free alternatives can be expensive and to go the route of cooking foods that didn't require gluten to begin with meant me expanding my food horizons and I wasn't interested in buying enough of a vegetable to feed a family of four only to throw out more than half and have to figure out how to cut it, cook it and actually learn to like it. So I didn't.

Fast forward to 2018, I meet my boyfriend Darrell. Our first date happened to be dinner and so right off the bat we discussed our food allergies and intolerance. I can't eat gluten, Darrell can't eat poultry, nuts or legumes. You can imagine the joy we are to servers everywhere!

Why am I sharing this on a blog post about spaghetti squash, you ask? Well first, I am frequently asked questions about living gluten free and second, I've decided to share more recipes and our experiences cooking without gluten, poultry, nuts and legumes. It seems only appropriate I first explain WHY we cook this way. Additionally, I know a lot of people are interested in eliminating a certain food and aren't sure how to make the lifestyle change that doing so would require. It's not as "scary" as it seems. And the food doesn't taste like cardboard either.

So this spaghetti squash with meatballs... IT WAS DELICIOUS! I can't wait to cook it again! I'm not sure why I had been so hesitant to try this meal when I've heard such great things from friends. But last week, Darrell and I decided to try three new recipes for our dinners over the three-day weekend.

I came across this recipe on Primavera Kitchen. This site has a bunch of low-carb, Whole 30, paleo and gluten-free recipes. It's a well-organized website, making it easy to find recipes that work for our needs.

Below, you'll find my notes detailing anything I did differently from what the recipe suggests. The notes are organized by the numbers assigned to the steps of the recipe.

Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs

Ingredients

• I opted for onion powder instead of actual onion because I'm not a fan of the texture of onions!

• Additionally, we're lazy and didn't want to make homemade tomato paste, so I swapped that out for a jar of meat flavored Prego.

5. When making the meatballs, the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of the meatball mixture to form a single meatball... This seemed like way too much and I questioned how it would cook thoroughly. I recommend using 1 tablespoon of mixture.

7. I had to cook the meatballs longer than 4-6 minutes... I don't know exactly how long I cooked them, but until the center of a test meatball was cooked.

8. I dumped out the oil from the meatballs, rinsed and dried the skillet before adding the oil for the spaghetti squash. I'm not sure that it was necessary, but the skillet had way too much oil and meatball bits in it for my liking.

Find the recipe HERE.

I cooked asparagus as a side item to round out the meal.

Have you tried spaghetti squash? Did you use a different recipe? I'd love to hear what you've done differently or if you give this one a try!

More posts coming soon about cooking with food allergies and intolerance!