I enjoy cooking, but sometimes I hate all the prep needed for a recipe. That’s why, I love to be able to prep ahead of time and freeze for future.
Spaghetti squash is SO easy to prep and have ready. I have found that a sandwich zippie bag is enough to nicely fill the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish which for most of the recipes I use is a ½ recipe. If I want to make the full recipe, I’ll use 2 bags in a 9×13 baking dish. Here’s how I do it:
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (not necessary but easy clean up). Wash off the squash and then pierce the skin with a fork or knife in several places. Place whole squash on baking sheet and bake for an hour and 20 minutes or a bit longer if the squash isn’t easily stuck with a fork by then.
Today, I took the squash out of the oven and let it cool. Once it had cooled well, I cut the top & bottom off the squash and then cut in half lengthwise.
I then scooped out the seeds and put them a separate colander to clean up and sort through to save to see if I can plant them next summer. (I bought my squash at CostCo which usually has organic produce so going to give it a shot at saving the seeds).
Then go to town with a fork or spoon to “make spaghetti”. This is SO simple – just start scraping and it separates into the spaghetti strands.
Put the shreds into a zippie bag and as you close it, squeeze out any air. TIP: to keep the outside of the bag pretty clean and the zipper clean for best closing, turn down the top until it’s full. Then turn up and zip closed.
Once a bag is filled up, I lay on a small baking sheet and squish as flat as possible. Freezing in consistent sized and flat(ish) objects results in more efficient freezer storage (I.e., you can fit more in the freezer without a bunch of wasted space)
Then freeze until you’re ready to use. When you’re ready to use, you can thaw in the fridge.