Killer Butternut Squash Lasagna

Original Recipe taken from Health-Bent

Ingredients

1 lb Hot Italian Sausage, casing removed - I bought ground Italian Sausage, no casing to worry about

1 Red onion, chopped

3 Cloves Garlic - I like garlic so I used maybe 5-7 cloves

1 15oz Can Pizza Sauce - I don't know what "Pizza Sauce" is, so I used spaghetti sauce. Mine bottle came in 27oz. I used the whole thing. Why waste.

1/2 c Roasted Red peppers - the jar i bought came in 7oz, so I used the whole thing

1/4 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Couple leaves of fresh Basil - I left these out

1 small butternut Squash

Directions:

Get your oven to 400ºF.

In a saute pan crumble the sausage and brown it, along with the onions & garlic. While that’s going, cut the top and ends of the squash off and peel it (may have to go over the squash a few times with the peeler before getting the hard outer layer off). Split it into 1/4′s. What I mean by that is, right where the squash starts to turn bulbous, cut it in 1/2, width-wise. Split those two halves in half, lengthwise. This will make it much easier to cut into planks. Pull out the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out all the strings, as you won’t even notice those when they’re cooked. Slice the squash into the aforementioned planks (I have no idea what this meant to cut into planks, so I just cut into bite size pieces. best if not to think so they well cook better).

Make the sauce by pureeing the pizza sauce, red peppers, olive oil and basil. If you don’t a contraption that will puree (blender, food processor, immersion blender), chop up the red peppers and just whisk everything together.

Using a 9×9 oven safe baking dish, put down enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the dish. (This keeps the squash from sticking to the pan.) Next add the squash, trying not to overlap the pieces, then spoon on the sausage mixture, followed by the sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up…trying to reserve enough sauce to cover the top of the lasagna. Mine made 2 layers.

Bake for 45 minutes. You’re looking for a bubbly pan with a crispy, browned top. Right out of the oven, the lasagna may by liquidy, let it set for a good half hour before cutting into it, as it will solidify ( well i was going to say mine wasnt exactely "lasagna" but I guess I didnt excately wait 30 min to eat. I was hungry. so maybe the leftovers will be a little thicker.)

I'm sure it depends on the sausage and the sauce that you use, But mine had a little kick and had great flavor.

Baked Pears

Baked Pears
Recipe taken from CFSCC presents: EAT THIS!



This was a pretty tasty dessert. It did call for needed a little attention with checking it every 15 min and pouring the syrup over it. But it wasn’t too bad and was a great treat.

4 Pears
1 C Sweet, Fruity white Wine ( I used Sutter Homes Moscato)
¼ C Honey
1 t Vanilla Extract
2 Cinnamon sticks, halved ( I just sprinkled cinnamon over the pears)
2 Bay Leaves (I didn’t find this at the store, so I left them out (I didn’t look too hard, though))

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut thin slices off the bottom of each pear, so they will stand up
3. Place pears in shallow baking dish or pie pan
4. Whisk wine, vanilla and honey in a bowl. Pour over pears
5. Add cinnamon sticks and bay leaves around the pears
6. Roast pears for about 45 min, basting every 15 min
7. Carefully transfer pears to a serving dish.
8. Pour remaining wine mixture into a saucepan. Bring to a boil for about 5 min, until thickened.
9. Drizzle over the pears and garnish with the cinnamon sticks and bay leaves.

The only thing I would have probably done differently is cut the pears into cubes and then cooked that way. I think it would absorb the flavor more. This had great flavor but really on the skin on the pear had the flavor. I will have to try this recipe again and I will let you know. However, leaving the pears whole made for great presentation.

Cocoa-Toasted Cauliflower

Cocoa-Toasted Cauliflower
Recipe taken from The Clothes make the girl



I made this last night for neighbor night. Julie brought over some bacon wrapped steaks that she had ordered online with a Groupon. These steaks were delicious, so moist. We did have to call our mothers to figure out how to use the broiler, but we figured it out and made some great steaks. This cauliflower recipe was a great addition to these steaks.

Mixing up the ingredients, I thought it was a rather weird combination. But it works. No flavor is to strong and it has just enough of a flavor not to just taste like plain cauliflower and it also looks pretty.

1 head of cauliflower
1 T coconut oil, melted
Garlic powder to taste
1 t Paprika
1 t Unsweetened Cocoa

1. Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking pan or sheet with aluminum foil
2. Break cauliflower into florets and place in bowl. Toss with melted coconut oil until well-coated
3. Mix Paprika and cocoa in a small bowl, then sprinkle over cauliflower and toss again. Mix it well
4. Sprinkle the cauliflower with salt and garlic powder
5. Bake until tender and started to get nice brown spots, about 25-30 min.

Very quick and easy to make. Just another way to make cauliflower a little more interesting.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes
Recipe taken from Just.like.mom.never.made.

These were the better of the Paleo pancakes I have tried. They were still a little heavy, but much better than ones I have tried in the past.

1 whole egg
2 egg whites
½ c Smooth almond butter
½ c pureed pumpkin
½ t Nutmeg
½ t Cinnamon
¼ t Vanilla
2 T unsweetened Applesauce

Put all the ingredients in one bowl
Mix thoroughly. A whisk works well.
Drop batter into a medium hot pan with a touch of coconut oil and cook about 3 minutes on each side.

This made about 4 regular size pancakes
I sprinkled cinnamon and honey over the finished product.

They were pretty tasty but still a little heavy, good thing I had them for dinner and not for breakfast.

This is why you train...

This is a great blog post to bring everything into perspective. Some of us train to stay in shape, some of us train to finish a marathon, some of us train to do an Ironman but most importantly we all train for LIFE..

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6028319520018578041

Spanish Chicken Skillet

This was a very quick and tasty dish.

Ingredients:
2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp dried Thyme
¼ tsp Black Pepper
¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
½ tsp Crushed Red Pepper
2 Cloves Garlic (minced) I forgot to add this, oops. It’s nowhere below in the directions
Sea Salt to taste – I left this out
1/8 cup Coconut Flour
4 medium size chicken breasts – I cut the chicken in to small cubes
2 Tb Olive Oil
1 Green Pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 Red Pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 Sweet Onion – I used a red onion
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, Undrained
½ cup chicken broth

Instructions:
1. Combine coconut flour, sea salt and all of the spices except red pepper
2. Use 2-3 Tb of this seasoned flour to coat chicken
3. Heat 1 Tb olive oil in a large skillet. Brown both sides of chicken
4. Remove chicken from pan
5. Add remaining oil, onions and peppers to the skillet and cook until tender
6. Stir in tomatoes, broth, remaining seasoned flour and red pepper flakes
7. Return chicken to skillet, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Served in a bowl over Fresh spinach

Recipe from: Weightlifting, CrossFit, Paleo and Randomness

Muffin Meatloaf

Recipe from Leah Goldstein’s Blog.

This is a way to keep the meals different and interesting. Just simple changes.

This picture doesn’t make it too appetizing but it tasted pretty well and was super easy to make.

Ingredients:
2 lbs of ground meat (I used one package of Jeanie-O’s taco seasoned turkey and one package of the Italian seasoning turkey)
½ cup of Diced Onions, Bell peppers and celery (the meat packaging was a little more than a lb each so I added a little more on these)
Olive Oil
Seasoning of choice (I used pepper, tony chachere’s and Italian seasoning or something {I have no idea what seasonings are good for what, so I normally just pick one})

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Sauté the veggies in the olive oil for about 10 min to soften then up.
Mix Veggies, meat and seasoning of choice together and then scoop into muffin pan.
Bake for 25-35 minutes.

As you can sort of see in my picture, I made a little foil tray to catch any run off grease. I also recommend not letting the muffins cool in the muffin pan, get them out of the grease they are sitting in. (lesson learned)

I served with mashed cauliflower