Spaghetti Squash Cheese Kugel

Ma's basic lukshen kugel that Owen would sell his soul for is rather simple: cooked egg noodles, 1-2 eggs, cottage cheese, sugar, vanilla sugar, oil in the pan and a little drizzled on top, 350° for an hour. Mmm. 

My initial foray into "healthiness" converted the egg noodles into whole wheat egg noodles. Owen was horrified, obviously, so I never particularly managed to succeed in my attempts.

Then I got the squash bug. Resistant starch fiber, Pop Pop! (Community reference, if anyone got that.) Then there was a large and lonely package of farmer cheese in the fridge. 

I purchased two small spaghetti squash, eyeing it carefully as the last two I bought were distinctly old and tasted as much. These, thankfully, were in their prime, and after one struggling attempt to cut them in half I simply stabbed them all over and shoved 'em in the oven at 375° for an hour or so. 

The insides flaked out beautifully, in very large amounts. I slowly mixed in the farmer cheese, one egg, sugar, vanilla sugar, and poured it into an oiled 9x13 pan, drizzled oil on top, and placed in 350° oven for an hour. After being in there for forever, it still wasn't dark enough so I flipped on the broiler for a minute or two. Then the top browned and the sugars intensified. 

OK, now this is pretty amazing: Owen ate it. Well, on the sly—he wouldn't quite admit it that he was going for seconds. I was very considerate and looked the other way.

There is also the option of making it savory, like mixing the squash with sauteed onions, mushrooms, leeks, shredded carrots, and so forth. Sounds like a nice alternative to a potato kugel.