Cheese Glorious Cheese!

I hope it's not against the rules to use that quote from the long ago commercial as my title here! But I just can't help myself!

After five long years of being completely dairy free, God has healed me of my dairy intolerance! So now I can have cheese again! I am so thankful.

I am also enjoying having yogurt in my smoothies. I'm surprised that I haven't enjoyed ice-cream as much as I expected, though. I never imagined ice-cream could be an acquired taste! My first latte with 'real' milk was also a disappointment. The milk had a 'game-y' taste. Maybe I'll stick with soy milk in my coffee. Maybe it is because i've had reasonable substitutes for ice-cream and milk these past five years. But the fake cheese was just not the same! It didn't have much food value either. So I am definitely enjoying real cheese again!

To celebrate, here is a recipe I've made a couple of times lately. I started with one I found on-line, but I changed it quite a bit. So I don't know if I can say it is my recipe but it is my version of it anyway. I'll include a link to the other one and you can compare them yourself. Here is mine:

Sharon's Cheesy Italian Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken Italian sausages from Sprouts - removed from their casings
• 2 T olive oil or more as desired
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• ½ onion – diced
• ½ cup diced green bell pepper (that is a rough estimate. It was actually 2 hands full. We keep a bag of diced bell pepper in the freezer. So I don't know how much of a pepper that is.)
• 4 oz. can sliced mushrooms – drained - cut up more
• Black pepper – fresh ground, to taste
• About 2 cups pre-cooked spaghetti squash
• Generous amount of shredded cheese of your choice (I used the fiesta blend from Walmart, which is a mix of: Monterey jack, cheddar, queso quesadilla and asadero cheese)
• Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Pour oil in large skillet
2. Remove sausage from casings and put in skillet with oil. Add onion and bell pepper.
3. Cook and crumble sausage in skillet with oil, onion and bell pepper until meat is no longer pink. (Start cooking on high heat and turn down a little when it starts to sizzle well.)
4. When meat is no longer pink, stir in the mushrooms and tomato sauce and black pepper. Cover and simmer on medium-low heat several more minutes until onion and bell pepper are tender.
5. While sauce is cooking spread cooked spaghetti squash strands in the bottom of an ungreased 8” square glass baking dish or similar sized pan. Spread the meat sauce over the squash. Cover it generously with fiesta cheese blend to cover top and sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese as desired.
6. Bake at 375°f for about 30 minutes until bubbling and cheese is browning on top

Notes:
•    Serves 4
•    It is naturally gluten free 
•    Nice with fried potatoes on the side and a green veg or just the potatoes (or baked tater tots.) —after all the spaghetti squash is a veg 😊.
•    This reheated nicely in the oven. I put it in, uncovered, for the last 6 minutes while the tater tots baked at 450°f. The cheese got crisp on top again. It was yummy.

I forgot to take pictures until we had eaten half of it!

Here is the link I promised to the other Italian Spaghetti Squash recipe:
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/amp46758/tuscan-spaghetti-squash-recipe/