File this one under accidental recipes. Last week I added spaghetti squash to our grocery list thinking I would bake it and serve with sausage and sauce as a pasta alternative. JD was not too keen of that idea, he never is. Pasta replacements are not appealing to him, though he does like chickpea pasta! One quick survey of the pantry later — we have all of the ingredients for taco salad. Spaghetti squash burrito bowls it was. This was so insanely easy to throw together! This recipe is going directly onto my list of quick and simple meals to make when I’m feeling particularly lazy.

First start by roasting the spaghetti squash. Preheat your oven to 400°, wash your squash and cut in half lengthwise. Drizzle with olive oil, place one a lined baking sheet, and bake for 30-40 minutes.

While the spaghetti squash is in the oven cook your meat of choice. We used ground turkey spiced with homemade taco seasoning, but you can really use whatever you prefer. To cook the ground turkey, add olive oil to a pan over medium heat, then turkey once the pan is hot and cook until no pink remains. Then add the seasoning with a little water and stir until mixed in. Continue cooking until the water boils out.

For the seasoning, combine equal parts black pepper, crushed red pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, chili powder, onion powder, and a little bit of salt.

Note on the chili powder—we like spicy and so I tend to go overboard with the chili powders. We like to use ancho chili and cayenne together, sometimes chipotle. As JD says when trying to make it himselfl, I tend to “add more than you think you need”.

While you wait for your squash to cool, in a mixing bowl combine turkey, black beans, corn, salt, and pepper.

Once the roasted squash has cooled, use a fork to scrape the spaghetti insides and add to a mixing bowl.

Add mixture from bowl back into the carved out squash, top with cheddar cheese, and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve, and enjoy!

There you have it, a very easy dinner idea that happened on accident but will absolutely be making it into regular rotation over here!

Will also say that this also makes excellent nachos! We did this with our leftovers for lunch the following day and oh I am still thinking about it. Need to make this one again soon!