Creamy Pesto Chicken Bake

Okay guys, this is it.  This is hands-down my best invention ever.  I cook some pretty fantastic things that I've read about elsewhere, but i am proud to say this is 100% my own creation, there is no base recipe or inspiration really.  I was sitting at work, thinking about how delicious pesto is, and wondering how I could work it in to a baked spaghetti squash dish somehow (we make regular baked spaghetti squash all the time, with marinara and ground beef).  But pesto isn't saucy enough.  Sometimes when I'm not stressing on calories I'll add cottage cheese to our spaghetti squash bake (similar to how people put ricotta in lasagna, cottage cheese was my dad's cheap version lol) and it's tasty.  I don't know why, but my brain suggested processing the cottage cheese in with the pesto... Would that not make sauce?  And wouldn't a creamy white sauce taste best with chicken?  And if we're talking creamy chicken and white sauce, why not go all the way and splurge on some sundried tomatoes?  On that night, a star was born.

Now, this is not low-calorie.  If you cut it into 6 slices, they are 475 each.  You'd want to pair it with a vegetable side (sautéed greens, brussels sprouts, something light but filling) and exercise that day.  Most of your calories are from cheese.  But, this does taste like Jesus made it so it's a fantastic splurge and a wonderful dish to make for non-health-conscious individuals and shock with the fact that it's totally grain-free.  I give you your next dinner party dish, and undoubtedly your biggest main-dish hit.  Introducing...

Creamy Pesto Chicken Bake

Ingredients:
1 medium spaghetti squash
1 16oz container cottage cheese
1-2 lbs raw chicken breast, cut into small pieces
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup shredded or shaved fresh Parmesan
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp almond flour or meal (I use this instead of pine nuts, its cheaper and I have it on hand)
1 tsp sea salt
5-10 sundried tomatoes
1 8oz package shredded mozzarella cheese
Dash of dried parsley
Parchment paper... for everything

Put the whole spaghetti squash in oven, and heat to 400.  No pan necessary, just the whole squash, uncut, right on the rack.  Leave in for 20-30 minutes, until you can sorta pierce it with a fork.  Not easily... just sorta.  This step is only to ensure that you can cut the squash without cutting your hand and/or arm off.  Then take the squash out and either let it cool or handle with oven mitts... I'm impatient so I use oven mitts and kitchen tongs.  You'll cut it in half lengthwise and then scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon, only out of the very center, just like a pumpkin.  Leave the flesh alone for now.  Put both halves on a cookie sheet face down (on parchment paper!) and put back in the oven for 20-40 minutes depending on the size of the squash... You can check the doneness by flipping a half and lightly dragging a fork over it... If something that looks like spaghetti peels off, you win.

In the meantime, heat the oil of your choice in a frying pan and cook your chicken.  You want it to be *just* done, not too much or it could overcook in the dish.  Once you have both squash and chicken, you can put them in the bottom of a roasting pan, casserole dish, whatever you want to use.  On parchment paper, duh.

In the rest of the meantime, make some pesto.  You should probably make pesto every day because it's amazing and you can eat it on everything.  Here is a photo I'm quite proud of to sum up pesto:

Put the basil, parmesan, olive oil, almond flour, salt and garlic cloves in a food processor and process until you get a chunky green paste.  If you were making pesto, you'd be done.  But you're making awesome sauce, so add the whole container of cottage cheese.  Keep processing.  It's a thick sauce, and I'm sure it'd be excellent as a dip or spread, if you cut the garlic down to one clove.  But since this will be baking it's garlic-loaded.  I was concerned about the thickness at first but since spaghetti squash is more watery than spaghetti, this evens out the texture of the dish as a whole beautifully.  

Now normally I'd layer but I tried, and since this sauce is so thick it stays put, to the dish's detriment. Plop it all in the pan...

...wash your hands, and dig in.  No, really.  There is no better way to more evenly distribute this.  It's kind of fun.  Enjoy yourself ;)

Mush it all up and push evenly into the bottom and all corners of the pan so you have a nice, flat bottom layer.

Now, cut up your sundried tomatoes... I use kitchen scissors for cutting just about everything, because it's easier.

Spread the sundried tomatoes evenly over the top of your smushed together layer, and then add the whole package of mozzarella (keep in mind you could use less and lower the calories, I'm just trying to be decadent here).

Then, lightly sprinkle the dried parsley on the top to add some color.

If you were going to make this ahead you'd put it in the fridge at this point, it should stay okay texture-wise for a couple of days like this.  If I'm meal prepping on Sunday I try to make pre-assembled casserole-type things within the first 3 days of the week.

Bake at 400 until cheese on the top is melted and slightly browned... this will totally depend on your pan and oven but it'll be from 20-50 minutes, toward the longer end if you had stored it in the refrigerator beforehand.  I'm not a big stickler on times, or temperatures... things tend to look done when they are.  Like this:

And, there you have it.  If you can believe me, it's even BETTER when microwaved at work the next day.