Chicken Parm with Spaghetti Squash

Nothing makes you crave a hearty meal like the cold, snowy weather we've had here in MD this week. It has been just dreadful and so of course I'm craving warm carbohydrates…great.
BUT you don't have to give up your favorite dishes just because you are on the right track with diet and exercise. You can make any of your favorite meals at home- and with a few minor tweaking they are instantly lighter by hundreds, yes I said hundreds, of calories! It just takes some ingenuity, deep thought, and contemplation- yea right who has time for that! Go online and get yourself some good healthy recipes!! Work smarter not harder!

This week I was craving chicken parmesan..Now I'm not usually a pasta person- HOWEVER- every once in a while I get a good craving for either chicken parm or shrimp scampi (recipe to come for that during the next snowstorm I'm sure). My stomach was carving that oozy mozzarella pasta goodness but my brain said " I can hear you getting flabby" so I cam up with plan B- this recipe.
First, I substituted pasta for spaghetti squash- hundreds of calories and carbs gone!
Second, instead of slathering the entire dish with cheese, I jut added a few slices for the flavor. Again- hundreds of calories slashed away! Now you can get more into this and use sugar free pasta sauce but in reality- I'm not a bodybuilder prepping for a competition. I just want to keep my jiggly bits where they belong- I'm sure you can relate. So lets get real and say- Ragu is just fine…

Here's the lowdown on the recipe..

Ingredients:
1/2 of a large jar of Ragu (whatever flavor you like)
4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cayene pepper (optional)
pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil (or 3-4 dried leaves grated up)
1 spagheti squash
part skim mozzarella cheese (8 thin slices needed )

Directions:
Fill a 13x9 pan with 1 inch of water. Cut your spaghetti squash in half longways and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash cut side down in the pan and bake on 350 for about an hour. (You are just looking to steam the squash).

Meanwhile add cut up chicken and garlic to a large skillet greased with a dab of olive oil or chicken broth. Cook on medium until the chicken is just barely cooked about half way through (undercook a bit here because it will keep cooking in the sauce and again in the oven- and none wants to feel like they're chewing on a tire). Add your sauce and seasonings. Reduce heat to lowland cover for 5 minutes.

Once your squash is done let it cool and begin to shred it with a fork. It should come apart easily and resemble spaghetti (hence the name- clever).

Dump out the squash water from the 13x9 pan and put the shredded squash back in it.

Cover the squash with your chicken and sauce mixture and stir to mix together. Place you thin slices of mozzarella on top and place under the broiler for just a few minutes to get the cheese bubbly.

Presto! Carb free chicken parm!
No guilt just yum.