Butternut Squash Lasagna

Fair warning: I'm currently OBSESSED with butternut squash. So, you're going to be hearing a lot about it. 

Particularly since I bought 4 of them last week. Also an acorn squash, just cus. 

That's a damn lot of squish. Ya know what? I'm gonna eat it ALL. Well, most of it, I'll share some...

I finally got to make the lasagna I've been dying for since early summer. Guess. What?! It was delicious!

This is a pretty simple and very tasty option. Wanna know how I did it? Of course you do!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

2 lbs ground beef, turkey or sausage

2-3 cups marinara sauce (from a jar or homemade!)

Optional: mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400, brown meat in a skillet (we used ground beef and added spices to make it taste like sausage. Hint: the key is FENNEL), drain and set aside. 

Peel and slice squash into planks or medallions about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. I had a large squash and only used the neck to make medallions (with my trusty mandoline!) I reserved the peeled and seeded bulb for other tasty uses. 

Time to start layering! Spoon a layer of marinara onto the bottom of your casserole dish (as thick or thin as you like, I love LOTS of sauce. This will prevent your squish from sticking. Lay out your squash planks or medallions, let them overlap if you went on the thinner side and leave them side by side if thicker. Add half the meat and then top with more marinara. Add some cheese if you're into that sorta thing. Continue layering until you run out of room or ingredients...

Make sure the top layer is marinara (or cheese over that). Place dish in the oven for 30-40 minutes. 

I took it out at 30 for slightly more firm squash. The sauce should be bubbly. Let sit for at least another 15 to allow sauce to thicken. This'll help it stay together and look very pretty once plated. :)

This makes for fantastic leftovers too, by the way. Once the flavors have had a day to meld together. Make extra!

Evil food thingys

Wow, I learned a lot of things today. Not good things. Like just how thoroughly soy products are KILLING me and just how badly I can't afford pastured/grass-fed meats and organic produce, even though I really want to. Sigh. Today was a rough day. 

If you want to be as thoroughly terrified and depressed as I, feel free to read the same crap I read:

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/dangers-soy/

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/what-is-wrong-with-grains/

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/just-cows-pastured-pork-poultry/

Anyway, I spent much of the rest of the day looking into CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture, also known as a co-op).  Unfortunately, I think I've had this revelation too late in the season and it either wouldn't likely be feasible or allowed to join now for the remaining couple of month. This makes me very sad because I found a meat CSA that does pickups that are only a 20 minute drive from me, hosting a selection of pastured chicken and eggs and grass fed beef. Pout. 

In the meantime, I will just have to suck it up and buy the gross factory farmed stuff and try to justify one expensive and probably delicious piece of meat every couple weeks... This whole thing is actually an important part of the foundation of the Paleo/Primal (for anyone wondering, my best understanding of Primal is that it allows for significant consumption of high quality dairy, a methodology that I unfortunately cannot follow) diets: high-quality, organic/pastured/grass-fed food sources. Not only is there a significant ethical purpose to this, this stuff is actually so much HEALTHIER. Vegetables bathed regularly in chemicals just sound so appetizing, right? How about cows that are weak and fatty and have antibiotics shoved down their throats? One part of the Paleo Diet Lifestyle article on meat that I just loved was this: "The problem is with the industrial food system, not with you". It's not your fault that this is what you can afford, you don't intentionally try to mistreat these things, unless you're one of these farmers...  Here's where vegans generally get their fuel, but my response is, why does that say we shouldn't eat meat? We have an evolutionary right to do so, but there's no saying that we have to abuse the animals first in order to eat them!

If you can, try to give the good stuff a try, not just from the ethical standpoint, but because it also benefits YOU. The happier animals actually are the healthier animals. Go give that article a read, they'll give you all the sciency bits so I don't have to try. 

Man, I babbled again. Gosh, this whole thing really spun my head. I'm pretty pumped to join my first CSA this Spring. How about any of you? Anyone here tried one?

Butternut Squash Personal Pizzas

I had a serious facepalm moment today. I've been pretty pumped to make some butternut squash lasagna since I heard about it a few months ago. It's finally butternut season! I nabbed a squish last night on sale and was happily thinking of how I was going to put it to use. Was it time to make lasagna? Or did I just want some squished squash as a versatile side? Hmm, delicious decisions. 

Anyway, the facepalm moment came when I was lurking my favorite food pages and surfing from recipe to recipe. You know those Wikipedia spirals that happen when you search an article and keep clicking links in each subsequent article until three hours later, you've gone from Tesla to toilet paper?  I have those with food and wellness articles and recipes. I was checking out a recipe I recalled seeing before for cauliflower tortillas (those WILL happen, and I promise to share every detail) and I stumbled upon a recipe posted on Empowered Sustenance for a butternut squash pizza crust. Insert dropped jaw here. 

Of course, I had to read about this. And guess what? It's so damned simple! I, who have been aching to try butternut squish lasagna for months, never thought about making personal size pizzas. *sigh* I love pizza and its certainly not easy to recreate in a Paleo fashion. I have made a cauliflower crust once before, but that was a damn complex process that I will share another time. This, butternut squash pizza, is the Paleo of English muffin comfort-food pizzas. I needed to experience this. I miss English muffin pizzas. 

But, it's alright. I quickly remedied this sad fact. I like this BETTER than English muffins. Why? The English muffin never lent anything to the pizza, it was simply the means of holding the toppings in place so silly things like forks became unnecessary. The squish (yes, I'm doing that on purpose, by the way) in this method is tender inside and crunchy on the outside and sweet all the way through. Topped with whatever you darn well please is a recipe for delicious success. Here's how to replicate it:

Butternut Squash Mini Pizzas

1 large butternut squash

1-2 tbsp olive or coconut oil or ghee (clarified butter)

Pinch of salt

Toppings of choice (marinara, precooked meat and veggies, cheese if you're into that sorta thing)

A squash with a wider stem area is best for this purpose. The bulb area, as it's hollow, will not be useful for pizza. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Peel your squash and slice it into approximately 1/4 inch thick medallions. I put my mandoline to work here.

Place your medallions onto a Parchment paper lined baking sheet and brush both sides lightly with oil and sprinkle with salt. 

The rest of the butternut can be baked right along with your medallions for other nomming purposes. 

Baked for 15-20 minutes, flip slices over and continue baking for another 15-20. The bulb of the squish will need another 10-20. 

Top your beautifully crispy squish slices with your choice of tasties. I used some marinara and precooked sausage leftovers that were kicking around in my fridge. 

Broil for a few minutes to heat your toppings (and melt your cheese if using). 

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Happy eats!

Dessert Time: Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

So, I had a doughnut yesterday. Don't judge me. I see you, just sitting there with your judgey face going "a doughnut? How is that Paleo? How is it even low carb?"  Well, it was my first doughnut in 5 months. I think I've earned it. I simply couldn't resist when I heard about an allergen friendly bakery merely one town over. When I read that they made doughnuts only on Saturdays, I knew I had to partake. Was it the exact same as I remembered? No, it definitely had that dense, cakey texture of gluten free baking, but it was definitely a doughnut. Even more so, it was a doughnut that I knew would not cause any side effects one to three days from now. 

Indulgences every once in a while are important. Ya just gotta relax and enjoy life and food... Within moderation. But sometimes, you want that indulgence and don't want to step off track for even a second, which is perfectly understandable. But that's ok, there are options for that too. 

So, lets talk ice cream.  Don't give me that look again, I swear this is healthy ice cream. I've actually had this for breakfast before. Also, I'm bringing back bananas again. 

"Chunky Monkey" Banana Ice Cream

2 bananas

2 tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp chocolate (I prefer Enjoy Life dairy free chips)

Peel 2 overripe bananas and freeze them until solid (best guess, plan ahead, I don't know how long this takes, I just keep a collection of frozen bananas). 

Chop the frozen bananas into 1 inch pieces and add to a blender or food processor. Blend until creamy (trust me, it works). 

Add the almond butter and chocolate and continue blending until slightly mixed. You should get swirls of each!

Plop into bowls and serve. I recommend two bananas as my blender does not much like a single banana at a time, but I also highly recommend finding a friend to share dessert or refreezing the extra as bananas are very high sugar. 

Excuse the awful picture, I was simply too excited to eat to play photographer. Ice cream was pretty much my favorite thing on the planet in my dairy years. Finding a perfectly acceptable substitute that tasted not at all like a compromise was heavenly. Seriously. 

Anyway, in this one, rather than chocolate chips, I used my homemade dark chocolate in the mix. It's liquidy at room temperature and solid when frozen or refrigerated, so it hardened into chocolate fudge swirls during blending. Mmm. 

Oh, want to know how to make your own chocolate? Are you sure? It's dangerously simple. 

3 Ingredient Dark Chocolate

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup raw honey/agave/maple syrup

2/3 cup cocoa powder

Mix ingredients together well, add additional sweetener if needed. Pour into molds or a parchment paper lined tray and place in the fridge for at least an hour or the freezer for half that if you're really in a rush. 

Can also be used at room temp as a fudge sauce. 

I'm personally a fan of my R2D2 and Han Solo in carbonite molds. :)

Happy desserts!

"Cheating" and guacamole dogs

So, if no one is reading this, does that mean I'm talking to imaginary people? Does that make me crazy?

My mind is racing today. Not over anything useful whatsoever. I'm babbling internally (ok, so I probably am crazy anyway) over people I know (or don't know well enough), places and things I want to do and see. I can't do a damn thing about them yet. 

I think that's why food has become such a good outlet for me. It's something I have near complete control over. I can control the ingredients, the nutrients and tastes of what I put into my body. Cooking has become both exciting and relaxing for me. I get to discover new things and experiment with old things. There are thousands of recipes available on countless blogs from people with all takes on flavor, culture and nutrition. 

Plus side of this discovery of what I can put into my body? I feel better than ever and I've lost 15 lbs. Boom. I'm not seeing a single damned negative side effect to this. It's not like I've even deprived myself of anything. Yesterday, for dinner, I made chili and ate it on a hot dog. Yes, on a bun. Know what? It was delicious. I earned it. Sometimes, you just gotta let go. If it's not going to kill you, just relax and have that tasty, tasty evil food thing. Aside from the bread, it wasn't really all that much of an indulgence anyway. But, it most certainly was delicious. I can't wait to make that chili again and share it with you, Imaginary Reader. It needs perfecting, so I'm keeping it secret for now. Very hush hush. So don't pry. Mind your business. 

Anyway, tonight was a "I need food and don't feel like expending energy towards it" night. Despite loving cooking, sometimes those nights happen. Work felt like such a long day and then I had to go clothes shopping, which is always an emotional experience. So, I got home, and the rest of the larger large box of delicious natural casing hot dogs was right there, sitting invitingly in the fridge... and avocados, extremely overripe, need-to-be-eaten immediately, delicious avocados. So, what was dinner? Guacamole dogs of course! Now don't judge me, I went bread-less tonight. I decided to get a bit crazy, I mean creative, so I could have the delicious guacamole dog flavor without the unnecessary bread add-on.  Wanna know what I did?

I made the hot dog into the bun!

Tada! Guacamole stuffed hot dogs! It was as simple as slicing down the dog and spooning on/in a pile o' guac.

Mmm.  Totally worked. Protein! Healthy fats!  Perfect dinner, right? Right?

Oh, come on, you know you agree with me. I know I got looks that said "you have issues", but I thoroughly enjoyed my nomming. 

I'll cook something real tomorrow, I swear. 

Two Ingredient Banana Pancakes

Tonight I tried Brussels sprouts for the first time since my early teens... and liked them. I am now quite convinced that my mother just did something terrible to them (but don't tell her I said that). I've now successfully written off sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts from my very short list of Foods I Loathe. Yay!  Coconut is still a work in progress... I will now consider it tolerable, though likely never desirable. It's amazing how essential coconut is to Paleo living! I go through coconut oil like no one's business. It's useful for cooking, baking, coffee and moisturizer, just to name a few. 

Coconut oil coffee has become a favorite of mine. Fortunately, it tastes not-at-all coconutty when blended into a cup of coffee. Think I'm crazy? I swear it's a thing! The benefits of coconut oil coffee are many. Coconut oil is essentially pure fat, so a tablespoon is a great morning boost of fuel, not just the caffeine fuel, but pure ketogenic energy. Are you into intermittent fasting? Some IF proponents believe that consuming small amounts of fats while fasting helps maintain energy and reduce the mid-fast brain fog without pulling one out of fasted state since there are no proteins or carbs for the body to process. Coconut oil is also high in MCTs, which are... good for you. Google it, don't just believe me.  

Anyway, 1-2 tablespoons in a cup of coffee lends a flavor very similar to cream in your coffee. The key is to blend it. Otherwise, you risk an oil slick on the surface of your coffee, a less than pleasant texture. Eiw. If you want to give it a try, go easy on the coconut oil to start, it can really mess with your digestion. I've worked my way up to about 1.5 tablespoons in my morning brew. 

Mmm, all this is making me think about breakfast. Now I want pancakes. Maybe I'll have pancakes tomorrow! No, it's not cheating, shush. At least the pancakes I'm likely to make aren't. Ready for this? They have TWO ingredients. I hope you like bananas...

Two Ingredient Banana Pancakes

2 eggs

1 ripe banana

Mash the banana in a bowl thoroughly, crack eggs into the bowl and mix well. Alternative option is to put the ingredients in a blender. I've found this leads to a much smoother consistency and thinner pancake. Optional additions: vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate chips...

Warm cooking oil of choice (here's the perfect spot for some coconut oil!) in a skillet over medium heat. Add small dollops of batter to make medallion size pancakes. When edges turn brown and crisp, they are ready to flip. 

Top with almond butter, fruit or real maple syrup if you want it extra sweet!

 

The less pretty ones are an example of what happens if you attempt to make crepe size cakes...

They were delicious anyway! See?  Mmm, almond butter and puréed strawberries. 

Happy eats!

Slow cooker curried drumsticks

Wow, I guess fall decided to show with a vengeance this week. Days still average a beautiful, sunny 75, but nights and mornings are supremely chilly. I take offense, official summer must have at least a week left. I'm not ready to be cold. *sigh*

Oh, well. I guess it's very good timing for me to have gotten a sudden urge to use my beloved Crock Pot for pretty much everything. Yesterday was a vineyard hopping day. 4 vineyards and back home in 5 hours. I was rather impressed with how many we did (and of course impressed with how delicious they all were! Three words guys: chocolate raspberry wine. It tasted like a liquified chocolate raspberry. I was floored. Anyway, being out of the house for 5 hours in the afternoon made it a perfect slow cooker chicken day. I've learned from much research that chicken should not be cooked for longer than 4-5 hours or it may start to get tough.  So we tossed everything in the pot and raced out the door to be back in time! ...We still took more like 5 and a half, but it was quite tasty... :)

I was feeling curry and it was the simplest thing to put together that we couldn't resist. 

Slow Cooker Curried Drumsticks

10 chicken drumsticks

1 can full fat coconut milk

1 large Vidalia onion

3 tbsp curry powder

2 bay leaves

5 cloves garlic, minced

Cayenne pepper

S&P

Pull the skins off your drumsticks and chop the onion into wedges. 

Right in the bowl of your crockpot: mix coconut milk, curry powder, garlic and bay leaves. Add cayenne and S&P to taste. Once you're satisfied with the flavor, mix in your onions and drumsticks. 

Mix thoroughly, ensuring drumsticks are fully coated in the sauce. It might be easier to mix the sauce in another bowl and pour it over the onions and drumsticks, but I was going for as few dirty dishes as possible. 

Mmm, that's ready to go!  Set it to low and walk away for 4-5 hours. 

Mine was accidentally left for 5 and a half and it was falling off the bone. So it depends on what your going for. 4 will leave it tender, but still able to eat on the bone, 5 means it might be forkable. 

Liiiiiike that. Mmm, serve over sautéed vegetables, cauliflower rice or regular rice if you're into that sorta thing. 

Potatoes!

Wow, it's been a while. Time flies when you're running around like a crazy person. But hey, there's always food! I have been making some pretty tasty and, even better, simple things. Wanna hear about them? No? Too bad. I feel a food babble coming on. Let's talk potatoes. Potatoes were pretty tough to give up. Mashed, fries, chips even. Mmm, au gratin... I miss au gratin. I haven't quite worked that one out yet. 

But mashed, fries, chips and even home fries, I've totally got covered. In some cases, the alternatives are better. Just the other night, I NEEDED some French fries. Not so much the taste, but the crunchy finger foodiness was very necessary. So I chopped up a couple bags of carrots. Now, hold on, before you decide I'm crazy, hear me out. You can make fries out of pretty much any root vegetable. Carrots are a surprisingly mega-success. The centers get nice and soft and the outsides crisp up nicely with a layer of olive oil. My next attempt will likely involve parsnips. Mmm, French fries.

Don't those look good? And they're a super simple way to satisfy a craving without compromising on health one bit. 

Here's the deal:

Baked Carrot Fries

Ingredients:

Carrots

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Wash carrots and cut into matchsticks. Thinner fries will work better. 

Lay onto a baking tray and lightly toss with oil, salt and pepper. Don't go too heavy with the oil. Don't want soggy fries!

Spread on the tray, avoiding overlapping. Bake for 30-45 minutes, watching after 25 to avoid burning. 

Serve immediately. They go great dipped in Paleo mayo (I make mine chipotle style).