Sauteed Spaghetti Squash and Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

Finding new ways to eat vegetables for many people can be quite challenging. Eating vegetables as your main meal is really under-rated too. I have been trying to cut out the refined carbs and sugars from our diet and incorporate more veggies with our meals. So far so good I must say. I prepared a spaghetti squash dish and a purple cabbage (I made the cabbage because my husband is not a fan of squash at all) dish that was delicious and perfect for those watching their figure. They were pretty much the same recipe I just switched out the cabbage and squash for both dishes.

Spaghetti Squash/Cabbage
1 small spaghetti squash and or 1/2 head of purple cabbage
1 onion
2 tbsp. butter or olive oil
3 garlic cloves
4 green onion stalks
1 package turkey bacon (you can use veggie bacon if you want to make this meal vegetarian)
1 lemon (juice and zest)
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

If you're making the squash the first thing to do is pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Then you'll cut the squash in half, remove the seeds and the gooey stringy parts, season with sea salt and put on a roasting pan. Transfer to the oven and allow it to cook through. Next take a foil-lined cookie sheet, spray it with cooking spray and lay the turkey bacon strips on the pan. Also put this in the oven. You might have to do this in two batches because I don't think one package of bacon will fit on one pan. While the bacon and squash are cooking, begin dicing your onion and mincing the garlic. Using a large skillet or wok, add the butter or oil and allow it to get hot. Transfer the onions and garlic to the pan and begin to sauté.

Once the onions are cooked through, remove from the heat. By now your bacon should be done. Remove the strips from the cookie sheet and transfer to your cutting board. Chop it up into bite-size pieces. Take the squash out of the oven and using a fork, begin to "rake" up the strings, transferring it to the pan with the onions and garlic. Combine well and add the turkey bacon. Now would be a good time to add the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Allow the dish to simmer for a few minutes on med. heat. While that's going on, zest a lemon, and juice. Add the zest and juice to the pan and incorporate well. Lastly, slice the green onions and combine with the rest of the ingredients, reserving a handful to garnish. If you were feeling adventurous you could add capers, or mushrooms to this dish- I would have but didn't think of it until after the dish was done.

If you were making this with cabbage, all you would do is slice the cabbage so that it kind of looks shredded, and sauté after cooking the onions and garlic. You would make the dish the same way as the squash from this point forward.