Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

Sometimes you just get some cravings; lately mine are mexican food and stuff with tomatoes in it like pizza, spaghetti, etc. I had a delicious meal and it was paleo. try it!

Ingredients: preheat oven 350 degrees
spaghetti squash
1lb ground beef
1fresh tomato
1 regular can diced tomatoes (no salt added) *drain the juice if don't want runny spaghetti, as mine was
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
dash of oregano
Marinara sauce -mine is Pomi marinara and it comes in a small box - super yummi! I also used this to make my pizza with a few posts back.

Cut the spaghetti squash in half. If you cut it long ways then you will get smaller spaghetti strands when it's done. If you cut it short ways they will be longer. Either way doesn't matter. Put some foil down on a baking sheet; dribble olive oil on the foil. Place the squash face down, and put it in the oven for about 35 minutes. You can check it's readiness by taking it out of the oven, and with a fork see if the squash strands easily poke away. You do not want it to be mushy, and you do not want it to be hard - just like normal spaghetti.

OR. you can cut it in half (short ways), take out the seeds, put the squash face down in a bowl, add 1 TBS. water, and cover with saran wrap to steam for 6 minutes or so until soft.


Next, brown your beef on medium heat. Once brown, I added the garlic first, then sauce, then diced canned tomatoes, then fresh tomato. I added the onion last because I liked that raw taste. You can add it first to cook it more thoroughly. This doesn't take much time, so you might want to start it about 15 minutes after you put the squash in the oven.

Swiss Chard Frittata

Ingredients:
olive oil
a bunch of Swiss Chard (I used 2 leafs, but you can use the whole bunch)
1/2 onion, chopped
6 eggs
fresh herbs (basil or parsley or oregano)


Breakfast can get old FAST. So, I browsed through the Primal Blueprint Cookbook (I love it because of the pictures from start to finish) and found something to make for breakfast . My new purchase this week was Swiss Chard; it's a large, green leafed, red veined vegetable.

1. put a pan on the stove, drizzle olive oil in it.
2. chop the Swiss Chard into pieces.
3. chop onion into pieces; put it in the pan until they are golden and mushy.
4. Add the Swiss Chard. Saute for about 5 minutes or until the leaves are wilted.
5. In a seperate bowl I whisked the eggs together, then added it to the pan.
6. Cover the pan so the egg will cook through - about 5 minutes or so.


You can feel free to add to this, such as peppers or sausage. This time I cooked sausage on the side, and we had a pomegranate that we needed to eat up.


Too busy to eat healthy in the morning?
I get this all the time: I can't eat healthy because "I'm TOO BUSY." BuHLONY! To make this meal during a busy morning just prepare in advance. When I get new vegetables, I will chop everything up at one time and store it in containers (Sunday and Wednesday night ritual). The night before your breakfast, crack your eggs and whisk in a bowl and put saran wrap over it. Chop your veggies; or, if they are already chopped, combine them in a bowl, and put them next to your eggs in the fridge. When you wake up, turn on your coffee, turn on the stove, get your pan, drizzle oil, throw in the veggies, go wash your face, stir the veggies, go put on some clothes (that you already laid out the night before), go back to the kitchen and pour the eggs in the pan, put the lid on, cut half an apple or grill up some sausage on the george foreman or a seperate pan or pack your lunch or do the dishes or fix your hair or put on your makeup. MAKE WAITING TIME INTO DOING TIME. let me know how this works out for you :)

"granola" bars

Ingredients: preheat oven to 350 degrees
2 handfuls almonds - chopped
3 handfuls walnuts - chopped
3 handfuls pecans - chopped
raisins
honey
cinnamon poweder
clove powder
allspice
1 cup coconut (unsweetened)

GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR SNACKS! This is a great snack! It should be a snack you eat in moderation, though. Raisins and honey are still full of sugar. It has taken some perfecting because after a dozen times, it always turns out different, usually crumbly or over spiced. I'm not going to lie, I don't measure any of it out and obviously that's where my problems begin.

First, I've been slap chopping about 5 cups (i'm guessing since i have little hands) of nuts. My mom gave me one of her food processors, so I'll see how this saves time. I usually like large cut pieces mixed in with finely ground pieces. I add all the dry ingredients - 1 cup coconut (i've found it helps keep the final product from crumbling), a tiny dash of cloves (really potent), a sprinkle of allspice, and I go to town with the cinnamon. Stir so it's even. Next, I let the honey drizzle with my left hand and I stir with my right hand until I get the right consistency. I want it to all be evenly sticky. Not too sticky, but not dry.

Next, I use a square/rectangular glass dish (When I pour everything in, I like it to be at least an inch thick) and dribble olive oil all over the inside. You can use coconut oil, but I usually always have olive oil handy so why pay an extra 10 bucks. Pour your mixture into the dish, and take some wax paper as wide and long as your dish and smash your mixture all around to make it compact.

put it in the over for 20-25-30 minutes. It'll smell so good! It'll taste so good!

Taco Salad

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
cumin
chille powder
romain lettuce
1 tomato
1 avocado
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 onion diced
cilantro
lemon

This just really hit the spot tonight! When I was turning paleo, I looked on the back of the Ortega packet, and figured out I could do what they do. So I lost the other useless ingredients and invested in Cumin. First, brown your meat on medium.

While the meat was browning I made guacamole - theres no way I can have taco salad w/out this. Mash 1 avocado, lemon juice (i sqeeze and taste; do a few drops at a time. You dont want tang, just a little umph!), 1/2 - 1 clove of garlic minced (continuing to taste so it's not overwhelming), and some salt. I also cut up some tomato for the top of my salad.

When you're finished with the guac, and the meat is brown, add 1/2 of the 1/2 onion to the meat (and i like raw onion, too, so i saved the other half raw for topping). Add 1-2 cloves of garlic to the meat (1 first, then more if you want). Add cumin, chile powder, and salt (i just sprinkled lightly all around and tasted to my liking).

In the end you just pile it all on together with some cilantro and it's a delicious taco salad! Make it! Tonight! Ole!

Breakfast Stuffed Tomato

Ingredients: preheat oven 400 degrees
breakfast meat
zucchini
onion
leek
egg
tomato

I wanted something a little different, so once again I turned to The Primal Blueprint Cookbook. I saw this (but w/ bison and no veggies) and I wanted to make my own little creation. Turn on your oven to 400 degrees. Put a pan on the stove and heat it to medium. Add your breakfast meat (I used sausage) and cook it well. Then I diced the onion, leek, and zucchini, added it to the meat, and tossed it around to brown. While that's cooking, cut the top of your tomato and spoon all the insides out (kind of like you do a pumpkin on halloween, but less messy). Put the tomato in the oven (I included the tomato top) only for 5-7 minutes (you don't want it to come out mushy, and mine did just a little). Then, you can either make room on the pan w/ your veggies, or already have a new pan on another burner warmed up to fry your egg. Sprinkle olive oil on the pan - I like my egg over easy w/ a little bit of runny yolk! :)

When everything's cooked, put the tomato on your plate. Pour the golden browned veggies in your tomato, egg on top, tomato topper the egg, and that's all.

Meatloaf and Beet Chips

Ingredients: preheat oven 350 degrees
1lb beef (makes 6 patties)
1 egg
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1/3 garlic clove minced (could've used 1/2)
1/4 cup of marinara sauce
1/2 cup almond meal
1 Fresh Beet thinly sliced
as many brussel sprouts you want chopped up
some salt, some pepper

Add everything (except the beets and brussel sprouts) and finger mush it until it's all blended. Tell your kid to wash his/her hands and start mashing. I made patties (takes less time than a loaf), put them on aluminum foil, and had them in the oven for 20 minutes or so. They were probably sitting for another 10-15 minutes after I turned the heat off, waiting for Shaun to return from the gym. This was plenty of time to make our side dish!

I like to try new things week to week. This week, BEETS! I was never one to try them at the dinner table when I was growing up, but there's no doubt your kid would love them when you give it to em chip style! I made them tonight because I bought the Primal Cookbook and saw veggie chips. Basically, get some olive oil really hot. Cut the beets thin like a potato chip. Put in a few at a time (you don't want to crowd them), but keep your eye on it because it'll burn quickly. After 30 seconds-1 minute turn them over; after 30seconds-1 minute put them on a plat to the side. Just keep repeating the process until you are out of beet...fyi to new cooks like me, don't put the beet chips in the oven to keep warm because they will get soggy :( When you do them right, They are so SWEET and CRUNCHY and YUMMY and PALEO! I had leftover olive oil in the pan, so I chopped some brussel sprouts and let them get a golden brown.

Chicken Pesto Spinach Salad

Main Ingredients for 2 people:
8 chicken strips
lots of spinach
3 strips of bacon
a medium bowl of cauliflower
pesto

Pesto Sauce recipe provided by Everyday Paleo
4 oz fresh basil (3 ½ cups)
1 cup walnut halves and pieces
6 garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
Juice from ½ a lemon

Firstly, I bought pesto from Bloomingfoods. It included parmasen :/ I've made paleo pesto in the past when I grew the basil. This time I bought it. I didn't use lemon in my recipe, but it's good to try new things. I put the bacon on the george foreman; while that was cooking I washed and cut up the spinach (don't forget to pat dry the spinach). When the bacon was done I cut it up into pieces. Then I put the chicken on the george foreman. In the meantime I steamed the cauliflower with a drop of water in a bowl, covered with saran wrap for 2-4 minutes (it depends on how much cauliflower you makeit shouldn't be hard when you take it out of the microwave).

I wanted to try out the new mini food processer my grandma gave me, so i put my cauliflower in it with some garlic. If you try this, put in tiny amounts of garlic and taste it as you go along. I made mine with WAY too much- i used half a clove on that small plate.