spaghetti squash

I nearly slit my hand open tonight with a giant knife.

First, when I cut off the stem of the spaghetti squash, I noticed that the skin was really tough. This didn't stop me from thrusting the knife blade deep into the center of the squash.  Once it was in there, I couldn't really move it... at all. The skin was so hard! As I tried to pull it out, I realized that I was probably going to lose a finger if I continued to try to cut through this squash... and Bert wasn't around to staunch the blood and rush me to the ED. I suffered a quick flashback to the year that I tried to carve a pumpkin by myself as my mom was occupied on the phone. Almost lost my thumb that day. This time, I put the knife down before hurting myself and decided I was not going to cut it in half first. There must be an easier way, and there was.

I turned the oven to 375/convection. I punctured a few more holes into the skin, carefully, then put the whole thing in the oven. I baked it for about 50minutes.  When it came out, I was able to easily cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and shred the insides.  There was plenty for two nights.  I served it with Francisco Ronaldi's heart healthy sauce with added dry basil and oregano. We also bought some turkey meatballs in the refrigerator section, which I heated with the sauce.  The meal turned out really good! I could probably also consider heating the frozen eggplant slices for next time. We ate the pasta with crusty French rolls which I wrapped in aluminum foil and warmed in the oven for 4 minutes. 
The food this week has been so good! Bert loves spaghetti squash and meatballs.