Breaded Chicken Alfredo with Spaghetti Squash

I discovered "spaghetti squash" a couple of months ago and was really excited about trying it but was unable to find it. Last night I happened upon it at my favorite grocery store and coincidently a friend of mine just posted an article on her blog about spaghetti squash.  So, the time had come.  I purchased the squash and this is the recipe I made.

Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
1.5 lbs of meat (I did boneless, chicken thighs)
Veggies of your choosing (I did mushrooms, garlic, onions, bell peppers, and swiss chard)
Stuff to make a sauce (typically Parmesan, cream and butter)

How to's: 

1) Bake halved and de-seeded squash for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remove and let cool to handle.

2) Increase oven temperature to 400 . Season chicken tenders and bread.  (I dip them in a bowl of seasoned flour, then in a egg wash mixture, and finally dredge through bread crumbs).  Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

3) While chicken bakes, heat a little oil in a skillet. When warmed, cook veggies of your choosing.  I did onions, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers and then at the last minute threw in swiss chard.

4) In another skillet, make a light roux (flour and butter or oil).  Add whole milk, water (or chicken broth) and cheese (I did feta and Parmesan) until you get desired consistency.  I also put a couple tablespoons of butter.*

5) To remove noodles from squash, simply take a fork and scrap away the flesh of the squash throughout.

6) Add veggies and "noodles" to alfredo mixture and let combine.

7) When ready to serve, place baked chicken on top of pasta mix.

I am intentionally not specifying what seasonings to use and trying to leave the recipe open for interpretation.  One of my favorite things to do in the kitchen is to take a recipe and make it my own so I hope that you will do the same with this.  For instance, the chicken can be prepared differently (baked but not breaded or just grilled) or you can use another meat such as shrimp, and you can choose which vegetables you have in the house already (or in the garden!).
 
*There are other simple ways to make a true alfredo sauce of just cream, Parmesan and butter.  Simply google how to make an Alfredo sauce to find them.  I wanted to use what I already had at home so that is the concoction I came up with!

Bon Appetit!