Sweet Potato Lasagna - Fast Paleo

• 2 sweet potatoes, sliced ¼” thick lengthwise
• 4 zucchini, sliced ¼” lengthwise
• 1 ½ lbs grass fed ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup tomato purée
• 2 tbsp coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil + extra for brushing
• 1 tbsp dried oregano OR fresh, chopped
• Pinch of sea salt; Pinch of fresh cracked pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Cooking Steps

For the parsnip layer:
1 lb parsnips, peeled & sliced
1 tbsp coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup pecorino romano (optional)
1 cup coconut milk
Pinch of sea salt
Dash of paprika
1. Boil parsnips until soft & ready to mash – approx. 30 minutes
2. Heat the coconut/olive oil & sauté the garlic over medium-low heat
3. Add the onions and sauté slowly for approx. 10 minutes
4. Brown the ground beef 15 minutes & drain excess fat (if any)
5. Add the tomato purée & cook another 15 minutes
6. Season with salt, pepper, oregano
7. Preheat oven to 375F
8. Brush the bottom of a large (9 x 13) baking dish with some coconut or olive oil
9. Arrange a dense/overlapping layer of potato slices
10. Brush with more oil & lightly season with salt, pepper & garlic (optional)
12. Add the ground beef mixture and spread over the potatoes
13. Brush the zucchini slices with coconut/olive oil & arrange over ground beef
14. Season the zucchini lightly with salt, pepper & garlic (optional)
15. Drain the parsnips & heat the coconut/olive oil
16. Sauté the garlic for a few minutes on medium low heat & add the parsnips
17. Add the coconut milk, salt & pepper & mash (or use an immersion blender to purée
18. If you are using the pecorino – add it now & combine well
19. Layer the parsnip purée over the lasagna & season with paprika
20. Bake for 45 minutes until bubbly – you can finish with a 5 minute broil

Creamy Avocado and Spinach Chicken Pasta - PaleOMG

Creamy Avocado and Spinach Chicken Pasta

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  45 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise, seeds removed
• 2 avocados, pits removed
• 6 cups of fresh spinach (or more, if you’d like)
• 1lb chicken, diced
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• ½ cup fresh basil, stems removed
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise, and remove the excess seeds and strings.
3. Place open side down on a baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes or until spaghetti squash is soft when you push the skin or the threads easily come out when you take a fork to it.
4. While your spaghetti squash cooks, place a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
5. Add two minced garlic cloves to your hot pan and then toss in your spinach. Let your spinach wilt down, then add it to your food processor.
6. In the same pan, add your diced chicken and onion to cook down.
7. Then add ½ tablespoon of parsley, thyme, garlic powder, and a bit of salt and pepper to the pan and mix well.
8. While your chicken cooks down, add 2 avocados to your food processor along with your lemon, fresh basil, ½ tablespoon of parsley, thyme, and garlic powder and a bit of salt and pepper, to taste. Puree until smooth, then add your 2 tablespoons of your leftover olive oil.
9. Once your spaghetti squash is done cooking and cooled, dethread your spaghetti squash and place threads in a large bowl.
10. Then add your chicken that has cooked completely through and top off with your spinach and avocado sauce.
11. Mix thoroughly and top with a bit of basil.
12. Eat it like you mean it!

MOW - 6.11.12

Meal of the Week - 6.11.12

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore - Skinny Tastes

Ingredients:

• 8 chicken thighs, with the bone, skin removed
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (Tuttorosso my favorite!)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1/2 large onion, sliced
• 1 tsp dried oregano 
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh herbs such as basil or parsley for topping

Directions:

Quick method: Season chicken with salt and black pepper and place in the slow cooker. Pour tomatoes over the chicken, top with onions and peppers, add oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper, give it a quick stir and cover. Set crock pot to LOW 8 hours or HIGH 4 hours. When the timer beeps, remove lid and keep the crock pot on HIGH one hour to help it thicken.

Better method but requires more prep:  Heat a large skillet over medium-high, melt coconut oil and brown chicken on both sides a few minutes, season with salt and pepper. Add to the slow cooker. To the skillet, Little more coconut oil and add onions and peppers. Sauté until juices release and the vegetables become golden, a few minutes.

Add to the slow cooker. Pour tomatoes over the chicken and vegetables, add oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper, give it a quick stir and cover. Set crock pot to LOW 8 hours or HIGH 4 hours.

Serve with Spaghetti Squash 

Zoodles and Squoodles Pizza Casserole -PaleOMG

Ingredients

• 2lbs ground turkey (I bought 85/15 but you can get leaner if that freaks you out)
• 1 15oz can pizza sauce
• 1 15oz can tomato sauce
• 2 zucchini, sliced lengthwise and into strips
• 2 yellow squash, sliced lengthwise and into strips
• 6-8 sundried tomatoes (the more the better honestly), chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon italian seasoning
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons fat (olive oil, coconut oil, bacon fat, etc)

Instructions

1. Ok this is where sh*t gets fun. Grab a [url href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LKZ9JG?ie=UTF8&tag=healtbent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000LKZ9JG"]mandoline[/url]. If you don’t have one, buy it, buy it now. Greatest little gaget to have around, I swear. You can find them anywhere. Even super cheap ones do the trick. Just buy it. If you don’t, you’ll just use a knife for 3rd step. Oh, and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Heat fat over medium-high heat in a large skillet and add your 2 lbs of ground turkey. Add spices and mix to combine.
3. Cut the ends off the the zucchini and squash and cut them thinly, lengthwise using your knife or mandoline. Once they are cut lengthwise, cut those strips into smaller strips, like fettucine noodle size.
4. Once your turkey has cooked about 3/4 of the way through, add your can of tomato sauce and mix to combine. Let cook down for about 3-5 more minutes.
5. Once the turkey is done, add your ground turkey, sundried tomatoes, and zoodles and squoodles to a 9 x 11 baking dish. Add your can of pizza sauce on top, along with some salt and pepper. Mix with a large spoon so all the “oodles” and ground turkey are covered in pizza sauce!
6. Throw that sucker in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is slightly browned and the veggies are soft.
7. Let sit for an hour. I know, I know. What the hell. But it thickens up a bit once you let it sit. Runny casserole just isn’t a great casserole.

MOW - 4.2.12

Meal of the Week - 4.2.12

Bacon Alfredo

Steam and green veggie or make a salad

Bacon Delicata Cream Sauce Chicken Pasta aka Paleo Bacon Alfredo

PaleOMG

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 larger delicata squash
• 4 slices bacon, diced
• 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat your 425 degrees.
2. Cut spaghetti squash delicata squash in half and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and excess threads. Don’t be dainty.
3. Place open side down on a baking sheet (use aluminum foil for easy clean up) and cook for 20-25 minutes. You will know when they are done cooking when you can poke the outside skin and it ‘gives’ a bit.
4. Now you can either cook your chicken at the same time or after the squash is done cooking. Whatever you’d like. Just place chicken on a foil lined baking sheet, sprinkle some olive oil over the chicken (or other kind of fat), salt and pepper it, and sprinkle just a bit of basil on top. Easy peasy. I cooked my tenders for around 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through. Keep that sh*t moist bro.
5. Once your squash is done cooking, pull it out of the oven, dethread the spaghetti squash into a large bowl with a fork. Go against the grain, if spaghetti squash had grain. Now throw your diced bacon into a skillet and cook until done. Use a slotted spoon to pull out your cooked bacon, but leave behind the grease. I used all of my grease, you Take your delicata squash and hollow it out. Unless you want to eat the skin, be my guest. If you’re smart tho, you’ll just use the insides and dump them into your warm skillet filled with bacon grease. Then add your coconut milk. You may need to add a little bit more coconut milk depending on how runny you like your sauce. Mix thoroughly with a ladle to break up the squash a bit. I used a pink ladle. It works the best.
6. Add seasonings to the mix and salt and pepper as needed. Mix thoroughly and cook on low for about 5 minutes to simmer.
7. Now dice up your cooked chicken.
8. Pour sauce over spaghetti squash and add your chicken to the mix.
9. Mix well.
10. Top with bacon. Duh.
11. Eat it like you mean it.

Tomato Cream Chicken Sausage “Pasta”

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized spaghetti squash
• 2 chicken sausages, diced
• 1/2 cup canned full fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 bundle of spinach, stems removed
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut your spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scrap out the excess seeds and threads.
3. Place cut side down on a baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes or until spaghetti squash “gives” when you poke at it.
4. Once your spaghetti squash is done cooking, take out of the oven to cool.
5. Heat up a large skillet under medium heat, add the coconut milk and tomato sauce and mix together. Let simmer for about 3-4 minutes.
6. Now add your diced chicken sausages and spices.
7. Let the chicken sausages simmer for a couple minutes, then add your spinach to the sauce and simmer for another 3-4 minutes or until chicken sausage is cooked through.
8. Then use a fork to thread your spaghetti squash and add directly to your chicken sausage sauce mixture.
9. Mix together then plate!
10. Consume!

Roasted Marinara

Everyone buys tomatoes with the hopes that their texture is luscious and their flesh is fruity. Well, I recently bought some really, really crappy tomatoes (what was I expecting in January?). I sliced them open and they were pink and grainy looking. They were worthless. Or maybe not…

Ingredients

• 8 Roma tomatoes, 1/4′d
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 4 whole cloves garlic
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• handful of thyme, rosemary & sage
• 3 glugs + 3 glugs olive oil
• 1 t black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°F. Take an oven proof dish or pan and add 3 glugs of olive oil and the rest of the ingredients.  Place the dish/pan into the oven and roast for 5 hours, any longer and you should keep your eye on it. Take the pan out when the colors are caramel-y and the veggies are good and wilted, but not burned.

In a blender, or food processor, add the roasted veggies & about 3 more glugs of olive oil. I had about 8 oz. of unsalted tomato sauce open in the fridge, so I added that as well. Blend it all up until it’s reached a nice, smooth consistency. Serve immediately, store in the fridge for a few days or freeze it.

Paleo Pizza Bites - Health Bent

Ingredients

• 5-7 oz. (about 20-30 pieces) Applegate Farms pepperoni (or other large, preservative-free pepperoni)*
• pizza sauce
• grated cheese, optional

For Supreme

• black olives
• bell peppers
• mushrooms
• green onions (preferred over red or yellow simply b/c they don’t need a lot of time to cook)

For Hawaiian

• deli ham
• fresh pineapple

Instruction

Get your oven to 400ºF. Lay the slices of pepperoni on a baking sheet and put them in the oven, on the middle rack, to get them crispy–about 8 minutes, flipping them over once. Start prepping your toppings while the peps are in the oven.
The pre-bake step of the pepperoni is super important if you want a crispy pepperoni “crust”. Once you top the pepperonis they just don’t crisp up much…
Once they come out of the oven, place a spoonful of pizza sauce on each pepperoni slice and top with your ingredients.
Place the baking sheet back in the oven and let the toppings get warm and melty, anywhere from 5-10 minutes.
HB NOTE: All the toppings should be sliced, chopped, and/or diced super, super small/thin. Since you’re making little petite pizzas and they’re only getting a few minutes of oven time, you want make sure they get enough heat to get them cooked through. You can get an idea of size from the pics.
*I’ve been seeing the pepperoni in new packaging. The old pack was 7 oz. and it now comes in 5 oz. packs. Just an FYI.

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Steam:

• Broccoli
• Carrots

Roast:

• Zucchini
• Squash
• mushrooms
• onions
• sweet potatoes
• eggplant

Instructions

1.     Sprinkle  with olive oil, and seasoning....Garlic salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning

2. While those are all being cooked.  Put Coconut Oil in pot, saute' garlic, and onions.
3. Add can of diced tomatoes and tomato puree and simmer.
4. Season to taste. 
5. I put crushed red pepper in ours.
6. Let simmer....
7. Once the veggies are all done you are going to put them in food processor and puree. Add tomatoes. 
8. When you put in processor is when you will add two hands fulls of raw spinach and 1\2
9. package of basil.  Add all to the sauce, taste to season again let

simmer for short time for flavors to meld and that's it.

Sausage “Spaghetti” in Creamy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

·         1.25 lbs mild Italian pork sausage, diced. YOU can use whatever meat you like – ground beef, sausage, chicken, beef – whatever you have on hand.

·         3 small leeks, diced

·         ½ red onion, diced 

-    1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

·         1 – 14oz can of artichoke hearts packed in water, cut into quarters

·         1 tablespoon coconut oil

·        5 zucchini squash, sliced thin like noodles

Sauce Ingredients

·         1 – 14.5 oz can of organic diced tomatoes

·         2 tablespoons coconut milk

·         1 teaspoon crushed garlic 

-    2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced

·         Black pepper and sea salt to taste

Instructions 

1.  In a large skillet or wok heat the coconut oil. If you are using raw meat, brown the meat in the coconut oil and add the onion, leeks, and bell peppers. If you are using pre-cooked sausages like we did, cook the onions, leeks and bell peppers first in the coconut oil until tender and then add the meat and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until the sausage is warmed through.

2.  In a small sauce pan mix together the can of diced tomatoes with the juice with the coconut cream concentrate.

3.  Bring to a simmer and add the remaining sauce ingredients and mix well. To the meat and veggies add the zucchini and artichokes and pour the sauce over.

4.  Mix well and cook for another 5-6 minutes, just until the zucchini al dente – do not over cook or they will turn to mush!               Serves 5.

Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves whole, plus 1/4 cup chiffonade
• 1/4 c walnuts
• 1/3 good olive oil
• 2 whole garlic cloves + 1 clove minced
• 1 T clarified butter
• 2 C fresh tomatoes chopped
• 1/4 c toasted pine nuts optional

Instructions:

1.     Preheat oven to 375.

2. Cut squash, scoop out seeds, place face down in large dish and pour water in to halfway up pan.
3. Bake for 30-40 min (slighly undercook)  (you can also microwave it for 5-7 min)
4. Food processor:  whole basil, walnuts, oil, garlic cloves, salt and pepper to taste...process smooth
5. Heat skillet and melt butter, add minced garlic
6. Stir in cooked squash along with pesto.  fold in tomatoes, basil, and pine nuts
7. Cook until squash is "done"