Paleo Lasagna

I've made Lasagna with Zucchini noodles a couple times over the past couple years using a few different recipes.  I'm not sure where my very first recipe came from but it had bacon in the sauce which is an EXCELLENT idea... bacon makes everything better.  I was short on time for this dish though so my Lasagna was void of bacon.  If you would like to add bacon to yours, just add in the cooked and crumbled bacon right after you brown and drain the meat, before adding your sauce and spices.  The cooking time I've also played around with quite a bit over the years.  To be honest I usually just bake it until I can start to smell it through the house.  To be a bit more precise on the cooking time for you though, I actually borrowed it from the Lasagna recipe in "Make it Paleo" by Bill Staley & Hayley Mason.  It worked well but adjust your cooking time as you need to.  Bill and Hayley recommended a total of 35-45min, mine took 40min but my oven usually takes a smidge longer.  When in doubt, go with your nose- pull it out when your sense of smell says it's done!

Ingredients:
1 package fresh sliced mushrooms
2 lbs ground round
2 lbs Italian Sausage
6 really fat/big zucchini
1 medium sweet onion diced
1 tbsp coconut oil
2- 14.5 oz cans (no salt added) diced tomatoes
2- 12 oz cans tomato paste
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp garlic
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp marjoram
optional: 12 strips bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Heat up your coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add your diced onion and cook until soft and the onions begin to become translucent. While your onion is cooking, mix your pork and beef together and then crumble with your hands and add it to the pot. Cover and break up the meat regularly with a spoon until cooked through.
While your meat cooks get your zucchini ready. Wash and cut the zucchini using a sharp knife, food processor, or progresso slicer.  If you don't have a progresso slicer to slice the zucchini into long, even, "lasagna-ish" strips no worries- just cut them hamburger slice style and as evenly as possible.  You want them about 1/4" thick.
Now, back to the meat- once it's cooked through drain it and return the pan to the stove (if you're adding bacon, add your cooked and crumbled bacon now and let it cook in with the meat for just a few minutes before adding your sauce and spices). Add your tomatoes, tomato paste, and mushrooms to the pan, followed by all your spices. Stir well, bring to a simer and allow to cook for about 5 min so that all the flavors can meld together- remove from heat.
Lets assemble our lasagna: using a 11x16 glass baking dish, ladle out enough sauce just to cover the bottom and then start your first row of lasagna noodles. Lay them out evenly, covering the entire bottom and then repeat- sauce then noodles for about 4 layers (I had to press down on my zucchini noodles to make it all fit)! Top with the remaining sauce and cover the whole pan with aluminum foil. Bake at 325 for about 15 min (20 if your oven takes a little longer like mine) then remove the foil, bump the oven up to 350F, and bake an additional 20 min. Let cool for 10 minutes, cut and eat!

Dinner in 15min: Oven Broiled Garlic Dill Salmon Over Salad

Listen friends, quit making life hard on yourself! Just because it's pretty doesn't mean it took longer than 15 min to prepare.  This Salmon is delicious and was the perfect fast meal for a late night.  Keep in mind when cooking this though, Salmon is VERY easily overcooked.  Salmon can be cooked to preference but technically Salmon should still be a little pink at the center and plenty juicy! No worries though, if you read that and thought "ewww" bare with me and I'll tell you how to keep it juicy and get it cooked all the way through.  If you are only making salad for one that's ok, save the rest of your Salmon for breakfast/lunch/dinner, whatever you're feeling... or freeze it!  Now feel free to continue on...

Ingredients:

Garlic Dill Salmon
1.7lb Alaskan Salmon Fillet
2 tsp Dill Paste
2 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp sage
1-2 tsp smoked paprika
Black pepper to taste

For my Salad I used a couple cups of Spinach, couple grape tomatoes (halved), couple tbsp fresh pico de gallo, 1/3 red pepper sliced, tbsp of sliced almonds, and for dressing I just threw on a little balsamic vinegar.  Had I had my favorite ingredients on hand, and been that motivated, this is awesome with diced hard boiled egg, bacon, raw mushroom, and diced tomato.  Yet regardless, easy and fast was what I was looking for....tab-dah!

For the Salmon:  Turn the oven to broil and set your rack for the highest position (I would say mine is roughly 8" from the light.  Cover your baking sheet with Aluminum foil, add your Salmon, and throw on all your other ingredients (don't remove the skin it will keep the fish from sticking and it peals right off after cooking).  Now, really rub the spices into the Salmon fillet.  Throw it in the oven on broil for about 6-8 minutes until the top is crispy and a little blackened.  Once it's crisped to your liking pull it out and cut into the salmon, at the thickest point, to see how you feel about the pinkness of the fish.  If it is a REALLY thick fillet it may even be bordering on raw.  It's ok, deep breath.  Set the baking rack to the spot just below middle and turn your oven to 375F.  You should only have to let your salmon cook another up to another 5 min before it firms up.  Mine was a hefty fillet so I let it cook an additional 3 min.  Delicious and the whole meal is done in 15 min, including chopping!

Honey Apple Shredded Chicken

This post has been long overdue and deeply in need of being written.  You see the problem I had before writing this blog, and one of the reasons I started it, was because I would throw together this amazing recipe.... and then I would forget what the hell I put in said recipe.  This recipe is legitimately amazing and came into being like many a child: completely on accident.  I had grand intentions of making Juli Bauer's Ginger Apple Shredded Pork (but with chicken because chicken sounded good) but unfortunately Juli's site was down when I went to go make it... thus I was forced to make my own creation and Honey Apple Shredded Chicken was born.  I vamped it up off of what I could remember from Juli's recipe and then threw in what sounded good... tab-dah! Amazing!

Honey Apple Shredded Chicken
Ingredients:
6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (roughly 5 lbs)
1 large sweet onion sliced into rounds
1/4 low sodium chicken broth (don't have it on hand, sub a couple tbsp water)
2 apples cored and sliced (I use Golden Delicious but to each their own)
2 tbsp raw honey
1 tbsp cinnamon (make it a hefty tbsp if you love cinnamon like I do)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp chinese 5 spice (don't have it on hand, sub all spice)
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 bay leaves

Ready for easy.... Add your broth or your water, whichever you are using, to the bottom of the crockpot and top with your sliced onions.  Next add your chicken breast and then throw in your bay leaves and minced garlic.  Next throw in your diced apples and sprinkle all your spices over the apples. Last, but most importantly, drizzle your honey over the apples and spices.  Cook on low for roughly 8 hours (all crockpots are different) until your apples are soft and easily mash with a fork.  Take 2 forks and shred the chicken- it should literally fall right apart for you or it needs to cook longer.  Eat it up!!! It's excellent over mashed cauliflower or with a side of baked broccoli!

Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Stuffed Chicken Breast

Hello friends!  Before I get to this yummy delicious recipe I just wanted to add that hopefully I'll be able to contribute a lot more recipes now that I have a little more free time on my hands.

I just finished the 21 Day Sugar Detox as well, and while I ate a lot of sweet potatoes which I don't think I was technically supposed too, I had nice results.  My favorite result being that it helped me (big time) to kick the sugar cravings.  Actually, the one thing I constantly want is in fact sweet potatoes not fruit.  I try to eat the sweet potatoes in moderation and then use fruit as my desert now.

There's another challenge going on at my gym now.  It's so much fun to see all the new faces around the gym and see others getting such awesome results! I love the camaraderie of our crew! I love people breaking outside the bounds of what they're used to as well.  Many struggle at first, especially if they're not used to cooking, but they all amaze me with their progress once they get over the initial hump.  I know, I know I sound like a mother hen... I'll cut the hallmark card short and give you what you really want!  SO, SO pleased with how this recipe turned out:

Spinach and Red Pepper Stuffed Chicken Breast

6 large chicken breasts or 12 small chicken breasts

12 pieces of nitrate free bacon

4 cups of spinach (roughly)

1 jar of roasted red peppers in water (no sugar added)

smoked paprika

dried oregano

6 garlic cloves minced (about 6 teaspoons)

pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F.  If you have large chicken breasts cut them in half length wise to thin them out.  Put your chicken breast in a ziplock bag and use a meat mallet to pound the breast out until it's nice and uniformly flat and about 1/4"ish thick.  If you're really cool, like me, and you don't have a meat mallet, then use the broad side of a hammer.  On one side of your chicken breast shake a light coating of oregano and smoked paprika, then flip it over and spoon on about 1/2 tsp of garlic- rub your spices in.  On top of the garlic add a tiny handful of spinach and 1 roasted red pepper.  Starting at the end you layed your red pepper, roll the chicken breast up into itself so that the pepper is at the center; nice and tight like a pumpkin roll.  Next secure your breast with a piece of bacon.  Repeat with all your breasts and throw them on a parchment paper or aluminum foil lined baking sheet.  Bake at 400F for roughly 35-45 min (everyones oven is different), until your bacon is a little brown and your chicken is no longer pink when you cut into it.  

After you are done make sure you wipe everything down with a clorox wipe including your spice jars. If you prefer you could also add a tablespoon of each spice to bowl, mix them together, and then use a spoon to shake a little on your chicken. 

"Better Than BWW" Hot Wings

Better than BWW 

Ingredients:
3/4c Franks Red hot
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/4c canned coconut milk
1/2c Olive oil (or melted coconut oil)
Family size pack (about 6lb) of boneless/skinless chicken thighs)
Mix up your sauce and poor half (save the other half for basting) of it in a large ziplock bag with your raw chicken- shake it up and let marinate a few hours or overnight. Turn your oven to broil and get out your broiling pan. Cover the top of the pan with aluminum foil then cut slits in it for the holes so the liquid can drip through. Throw your chicken on and spread it out, broil for roughly 8-10 min until its just a little crisp. Take it out flip it and broil the other side the same. Now take out your chicken and rebaste and put back in for 1-2 min until crispy and repeat with each side until its nicely layered, crispy and your sauce is gone.
De-lic-ous.

Yay for Mexican Style Stuffed Peppers

 I guess I should fess-up that I never told you how the sugar detox went.... oh wait it's not fessing-up if you already know that.  Right.  In addition to the things you already know, sorry I suck and don't blog as often as I should (I'm really busy). I'll try to be better... don't give up on me!  Anyways, the sugar detox went quite excellent, I was very pleased with how my body felt and my results.  I'm afraid I can't tell you how many inches or pounds I lost because I didn't track it (ya I suck I know) but my jeans felt looser and my stomach felt flatter.  The next part saddens me- I got back from Chicago and I kind of went on a downward spiral.  It wasn't as epic as my past downward spirals; for instance I did not eat over a dozen cookies in a sitting (Did I just make you feel better about your life? Hey, that's what I'm here for no problem!).  I did do stupid things like overeat on things I shouldn't have and then justify it with conversations in my head like, "it was a really rough day at work" or "I'll work extra hard to burn it off in the wod".  Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad!  It's easy too, because my body felt really good and it was easy not to notice the weight gain, oh ya, until I NOTICED the weight gain.... damn mirrors, I only like you when I'm in shape.

So, yes that's where I'm at.  Yet the good news is, I'm starting fresh.  There's a challenge coming up at the gym that I can't wait to start.  No, seriously.  I'm starting the sugar detox again today, and I'm just going to let my lovely three weeks on it run right in with the challenge for the gym.  I feel so much better already.  Knowing I have a plan makes me more content because even though I'm not fixed yet, I'm working on the solution.  Oh, and the whole not feeling like my stomach would like to crawl back up my throat (or worse the other end) definitely helps as well.  

Thus, please enjoy my absolutely delicious recipe.  Yum.  Yes, yum- you are going to like this recipe.  When you try the stuffing try really hard not to keep trying it until you eat an entire portion of it... I did not do this... I am errr just telling you from my experience there is a high probability this may happen.  What?... it's better than eating the cookies right?

Mexican-Style Stuffed Peppers

1 lb ground turkey

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp olive oil

1 14.5oz can fire roasted tomatoes

1 6oz can tomato paste (no salt or sugar added)
1 3.8oz can diced black olives (drained)
1 4oz can of diced green chiles

1 large sweet onion diced

1 poblano pepper diced

1 green pepper diced

1 small package baby bella sliced mushrooms diced
6-7 bell peppers (I prefer red but to each their own)

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Take out your glass baking dish, cover with aluminum foil (unless you like dishes) and spray with a little olive oil.  Cut out the tops of your bell pepper and remove the seeds/insides.  Place open side down on your baking dish and throw in the oven for 15-20minutes (you want the skin of the pepper slightly softened and just a bit wrinkly).  While the peppers cook, chop up your veggies and get out your soup pot.  Throw in your olive oil and get it hot over medium-high heat.  Add your onion and cook until softened (about 5 min).  Add your ground turkey and cook until completely browned.  Drain your meat and then return to heat.  Add all your spices to the pan along with 3/4 cup of water...stir.  Allow the water to cook down for a couple minutes and then add all the rest of your ingredients with the exception of the black olives (don't drain any of your canned ingredients either with the exception of the black olives).  Mix it all together and let it simmer for roughly 10 minutes until all of your veggies are cooked and the consistency is that of chunky, very thick, spaghetti sauce or salsa.  Remove from heat, add in your black olives and pack your stuffing into your cooled peppers.  Place back in the oven, at 375F, and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Let cool and devour!

Chicago bound and Classic Chuck Roast with Veggies

Guess where I am!? Damn, my title gave me away- yes, Chicago!!! It has been an excellent weekend thus far and so much left to do! Plus I'm with the most amazing girls ever, my friends Libby and Kara! I'm telling you, Ken is lucky Gods plan included us all being female and not lesbians because if it had I would have found my soul mates long before meeting Ken and yes... We would be a weird little lesbian Mormon group I suppose. They are both dirty joke/story telling, sarcasm driven, wickedly funny and utterly sweet- so yes the epitome of a good time! So of course this weekend will be epic, how could it not!

I've got to let you down though, I cheated on my detox yesterday.... And I plan to drink beer (just 1 or 2) for the next two days. I'm not sorry, because I had planned ahead of time to cheat this weekend. This is my first time in Chicago and the first time since February I've seen Kara, so it called for a cheat. I almost didn't start the detox because I knew I was visiting Kara, but then I decided that no one is going to come beat me for not doing it exactly as intended; basically, I'm saying this is my choice and I can make of it what I want. I will say this though, the non-paleo foods I consumed yesterday included 2 cookies, some rice at an indian food restaurant, and 2 beers- my stomach did not like me and it RUINED my "I feel skinny" day (and let's be honest, how rare are those for any woman)! Bummer. Now, I'm going to go running with the girls today and feel like crap! And hey, I deserve that. So, the rest of the weekend is dedicated to eating good but cheating here and there with a few beers.

Let's get down to what you really want though. Here's an easy crockpot recipe for you. I made it last week:

Crockpot Roast and Veggies

For the roast:
3 lb Chuck Roast
2 tablespoons coconut oil (rough estimate)
1 package of baby bella sliced mushrooms
1 large sweet onion
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon basil
1/2 tablespoon sage
1/2 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4-1/2 cup low sodium beef broth (or water if u don't have that)

Veggies:
1 bag of baby carrots
3 large beets (washed, skin peeled, and sliced about 1/4" thick)
*You can really use any veggie you want as long as its one that takes longer to cook so they don't get soggy. For instance, sweet potato or parsnips work too. Or, add your veggies later and then you can add whatever you'd like.

Instructions:
Throw your onion, mushrooms, and broth or water (whichever you're using) in the bottom of your crockpot. Add all your spices to a small and mix until evenly combined. Coat your raw roast with your spice mixture and really rub it in well on all side- get in all the little crevices. Heat your coconut oil over medium-high heat until its nice and hot and sizzle went you flick a little water into it. Note: the heat of the oil is key, too high and your roast will burn, too low and you'll loose all your spices. Sear the roast for roughly 3 min each side or until nicely browned (don't forget your sides). Once done throw it in the crockpot over your onion/mushroom combo and dump whatever veggie you chose over the top of the roast. Use any leftover seasoning to sprinkle over the top of your veggies. Cook on high for roughly 4 hours depending on your crockpot. If you chose a larger roast it will obviously take longer. Your veggies should fork tender and your roast should fall apart in chunks when you pull at it or it needs to cook longer. Enjoy!
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