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

Update on Crosstopher

He had a rought night. I took him home from the Vet yesterday and he slept pretty good for about 3 hours. I was pretty excited. And then he woke up and then the flipping and flopping started were he couldn’t get comfortable.He would seen to rest a little if he leaned up against me. So there was no getting up to get me something to drink or to go to the bathroom until he moved. I didn’t want to disturb him.

Time for bed came and he rested maybe an hour or so and then it was on. From about 11pm to 3:30am I don’t think he sat still for then 10sec at a time. Trying to lay down, trying to sit down, trying to sleep sitting up leaning to one side and mostly dragging his butt around. This made him start to whine quite a bit.

Finally at 3am it was time to give him some more meds (this one was every 8 hours) So I gave him this shot of liquid in his mouth. That also took some wrestling with him. In no time I saw him sitting still and he just fell over. He was resting. Everytime he sat still I took that opportunity to try to sleep. I didn’t know how long it would last. It lasted for about 2 hours and then he was back up and whining.

He did go to the bathroom (1 and 2) this morning so thats good. I got him to eat a small amount of food last ngiht, but he wasn’t having any of it this morning or water. I have been giving him his meds in Kong stuffing and he was loving that. This morning he is over that.

So back to the Vet he went today. He is going to stay over night and see if they can keep him more comfortable. Him dragging his wound around isnt helping him heal. So they will probably do a better job of keeping him confined then what I do. I tend to try not to be the bad guy. Which might not be helping him in the long run. Its going to be sad at home tonight without him. But I hope this makes things heal a little faster.

Respect for Mothers

I have a new found respect for mothers of babies. I have a one year old maltipoo, named Cross who has been sick for 2 days. And it is tough and mentally exhausting.

He got an infection New Year’s Day. We spent about 6 or 7 hours at the Emergency Vet Clinic Saturday. Saturday night he was a little reatless, couldn’t get comfortable. Sunday he took long naps. Sunday night, he didn’t sleep at all. Which means I didn’t get much sleep either. I can hear him moving around, hitting that cone up against the wall, the bed and himself. It’s just a sad site. He would try to sleep sitting up. I guess that’s how he was the most comfortable. He would sit up against the wall and just stare at the wall. Every now and then he would just look at me with those sad puppy eyes and look like he saying “ are you going to do anything”. I felt helpless and so sad. He is back at his vet first thing this morning. They have given him some pain pills and some fluids, since he isnt eating or drinking he has gotten dehydrated.

I hope my baby gets well soon. I’m ready for him to make me chase him in order to get him to go outside. I want to see this smile on his face again and baking in the sunlight.

Green Chili Turkey Burgers

Recipe from Just.like.mom.never.made

These are so delicious. Mine did not stay together very well, but taste great all the same.

I got a new George Foreman grill for Christmas (removable grill plates for easy cleaning) so I thought I would give a test drive. Being that it was the first time to use it. I should have sprayed the grill to help with the non-stick. That might of helped keep my patties together.

2 (4oz) cans diced green chilis – I used one 7 oz can. I considered that close enough
1 pound ground turkey – I used a 1.25lb package of Italian seasoned turkey meat
1 cup Cilantro, finely chopped
½ cup onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons Cumin
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt – I don’t like added salt so I left this out

Mix everything together and then form into patties. I got 5 patties

I topped mine with spicy guacamole and a handful of spinach and served with a side of mashed cauliflower.

Very easy and very tasty.. Just what I needed to remind myself the Paleo food can be tasty and get myself back on track

Slacker

WOD Announcment. Stop reading if you don’t want to know today’s WOD.

I really need to be better at this. I know most of everyone is bad at keeping these blogs up. I think of things all day, that I should post and then i think to myself. that isnt interesting noone wants to read about that. so I don’t do anything.

Well be prepared to be bored somedays. I plan to post more. I always have random thoughts going through my head, so might as well let others know. Plus I follow a lot of other blogs that I find very interesting. So I will share links to the post as well.

Today’s WOD
7 deadlifts (175#)
14 Box Jumps
21 Double Unders
12min AMRAP

I do believe the month long food/treat binge is catching up. I wasn’t moving too fast this morning. About a month ago, I popped/tweaked my back doing deadlifts, so I have been laying off the heavy deadlifts. It is feeling better now, but I haven’t done any strength work for deadlifts, so I don’t want to start with heavy deadlifts in a WOD. So I did today’s WOD at 135#. And surprisingly (in a bad way) that felt really heavy. Back felt fine. I do find myself thinking about it every single lift. Its like I’m waiting to fell something wrong. Thank goodness I’m not though.

Not doing a WOD as RX’d messes with my mind. I get bummed. So knowing that I was 40# off the RX’d weight, I felt like a loser. Which in turned made me not care so much about the WOD all together. Box Jumps – I did all as jumps (no steups) but there was no speed involved and then the double unders. I was taking longer breaks then needed when I would mess up.

CrossFit – always a mental battle just as much as a physical one.

Not your Starbucks, but its close and cheaper

On this Paleo Challenge the one thing I miss most is my Starbucks Lattes. All around fav is Skinny Vanilla Latte but during the Fall and Winter I love the Pumpkin Spice Latte and the Peppermint Latte. To me that brings in the season. It made me smile the other day when I saw someone carrying a Starbucks cup and it was the Christmas design. The Season is upon us.

This is a Paleo-ish substitute for the Pumpkin Spice Latte. It isn't quite as good as Starbucks, but it will cure the craving. I did use Protein powder, so if you are doing strict Paleo, this might not help you.

Coffee
2T Pumpkin (Libby's 100% Pumpkin, Not the pie filling)
1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (I used a vanilla bean powder that was low in calories 50)
cinnamon to taste
Nutmeg to taste

The only thing that really bugs me about this is it is kind of gritty. I'm a big texture person, so this kind of gets to me when my coffee is gritty. It might be the nutmeg that makes it gritty. But all in all. I would have this again.

I got this recipe from Showout Megan Parsons

Paleo Pumpkin Bread

This was so easy to make and was delicious. I will make this again. It will be great for taking to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Sorry I didn't take a picture. And sorry for whoever I stole this recipe from. I'm trying to get better at writing them down, where I get them. But this one I didn't.

here we go:

3c Almond Flour
1/2t Salt
1t Baking Soda
1/4c Agave Nectar (I used honey instead)
1/4c Grapeseed Oil ( I used Olive Oil instead)
3 Eggs Whisked
1T Vanilla Extract
1Can Libby's Pumpkin (make sure it is not the pumpkin pie filling, just the all natural pumpkin)
1t Cinnamon ( I might of added a little extra cinnamon, you cant go wrong with that)
1t Allspice

In a large bowl, mix together almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and Allspice
In a smaller bowl, combine agave/honey, oil, eggs and vanilla - then stir in pumpkin
Mix wet ingredients into dry
Place batter in either a cake pan ot two small 7.5"X3.5" loaf pans (I just placed all the batter into a meatlof pan)
Bake at 350 for 40 min ( I cooked for about 50min. after 40min I placed a toothpick in the middle and it still can out a little wet, so cooked another 10 min)
Remove from oven and allow to cool

Mine stuck a little to the pan. Next time I will probably coat the pan with some baking soda and see if that helps.

Spicy Shrimp Salad

This recipe was only for spicy shrimp, but i need to get in my veggies also, so decided to make it a salad. Here is the original recipe and below is what I made.

In a pan saute ready to eat peeled shrimp cooked in the following for 4 min.

Olive Oil

Tabasco Sauce

Worcestershire

Cayenne Pepper

Salt

Pepper

Lemon

That was the original recipe as I found. Sorry I didn't write down where I found it. THe original didn't come with measurements so I just used what I thought was best. Seemed to work for the single portion I was going for.

In a skillet I sauted the following for about 5-8 mins. It took a little longer since I used frozen shrimp

1t Walnut Oil

2 1/2 oz Squash

1 1/4 oz Zuchini

2 5/8 oz Bell Peppers (Red, Yellow, Orange and Green)

5 3/4 oz Peeled with tails off Cocktail Shrimp (weighted Frozen)

Once the shrimp were cooked I placed all the above on top of:

2oz baby Spinach

1 small Avacado

2oz Red Onion

4oz Homemade Salsa (as my dressing)

The salsa itself has a kick to it, so I really was drinking the water while eating this. I love my spicy food.

Enjoy

Are you going on Vacation and thinking of relaxing your diet?

This is a great post from Melissa that went to Prague and decided to relax her diet and take a small break from CrossFit while on vacation. See how that turns out for her.


http://theclothesmakethegirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/valuable-lessons-learned.html

Egg Cupcakes

These were fun and something different for breakfast, but mine didn't have much flavor. There wasn't much more room to add more veggies. Just making an egg scramble seems easier and your able to add more veggies or whatever you would like. Either way here is the recipe below.

Ingredients:
(I had a 12 cup cupcake tray)
12 slices black forest ham (I used cajun turkey)
10 eggs
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, diced ( I didn't find these and left it out)
2-3 TBSP Diced Chives
2-3 TBSP Diced Parsley (I probably messed up here also. I realize now this was suppose to be fresh Parsley, I used dried Parsley)
Salt and Pepper

Grease your muffin cups and line each cup with one slice of ham. Beat 10 eggs and add remaining ingredients. Measure about 1/4 cup of mixture into each of the ham lined muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes at 375.

That is it. Let me know if you try them with different ingredients and they come out yummy.

Not so pretty, but de-lic-ious

Well they are suppose to be meatballs.. They didn't hold together very well. Like most thing Paleo I cook. It doesnt look all that great but it taste good. When cooking Paleo seasoning is your best friend.

With the remainder of this meat, i just decided to go with a meatloaf pan instead of meatballs. Will serve with sauted veggies.

The recipe is below. I made a few adjustments. Recipe recommends cooking in crockpot but I just baked in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 min on the meatballs and then for the meatloaf I backed for 45 min. Also I used jalepeno sausage which I think made these for me. They have just a nice kick to them.

1 lb ground beef ( i used lamb)
1 lb turkey sausage ( i used jalapeno sausage, I cut the sausage out of te casing and then cubed it)
1/2c Onion, diced
1/4c Almond MEal
1 egg
1T Itilian Seasoning
1T Basil
1T garlic,minced
1/2 t onion salt ( i didnt find this at the store, so i skipped it)
28oz crushed tomatoes

Mix all ingrediants together. (If I was to do again. I would mix everything together except the tomoatoes and then pour those on top) Shape into golf ball sized meatballs. Place in crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours.

Recipe from: Dialed-In Nutrition Blog

Let's Salsa

I'm from Texas and I don't like dry food, and ranch and ketchup are out of the question for Paleo. So here is a easy salsa recipe. Great with my eggs in the morning.

Hand full of cilantro
2 Jalapenos
2 Serrano Peppers
1 tsp Garlic
1 Large can Tomatoes
1 can Ro-tel
1 small onion

mix all in a blender and ta-da that's it.

Enjoy

Chili

I know it isn't Winter and chili sounds funny when it is so warm outside, but this is the first week of our new 60-day Paleo challange and it was easy to make and easy to eat on for the week.



The receipt called for ground bison, but lamb was on sale so I went with that.

Ingredients:

1T Coconut Oil

1 3/4 lbs Ground Lamb

1/2 Onion, Chopped

2 1/2 C Celery, Chopped

2 Cloves Garlic

12oz salsa

8oz Can of Tomatoes

2t Cumin

2t Chili Powder

2t Thyme Leaves

2t Sea Salt

Dircetions:

1. Saute over medium heat the Onions, Celery and Garlic until onions are translucent

2. The add the meat, cumin, thyme and chili powder. Stir while this cooks for about 5-6 mins.

3. Pour in salsa, tomatoes and salt
4. Let simmer for about an hout and then enjoy.

Very easy to make and great for left overs.

From: Paleoplan

Top 10 excuses I use NOT to exercise

I loved this post so much I thought it needed to be reposted. Original post from girlgetstrong.com

I did tweek the lines some to fit me better. Ihave a dog not a cat, and it seems she has kids and I don't


Top 10 Workout Excuses:
1.My DVR is getting too full and I need to free up some space for tonight’s shows.
2.I would rather get my PJ’s on and snuggle with the dog
3.Way too busy with the laundry
4.Don’t want girls to be jealous of me and men to eye me up and down
5.Makes me all wet with sweat – yuck!
6.I will never look like Angelina Jolie
7.They have made some breakthroughs in plus-size clothing
8.Don’t want to die too healthy and besides doctors need the money
9.My book is just starting to get good
10.No pain is no pain- perfect!
Let’s get serious now as I overcome the above list with…


The Top 10 reasons why we should all exercise:
1.To sleep better-don’t want to be a cranky”Girl”!
2.To reduce stress-we are all superwomen doing too much
3.To own a pair of skinny jeans before they go out of style
4.To get the endorphins going; our ‘natural feel good drug’.
5.The cardiovascular benefits-no huffing and puffing up the stairs
6.Toning muscles-more muscles=more calories burned
7.To increase energy
8.Good for the bones, posture and back-especially for those of us almost halfway to 70 years old
9.To live a long, healthy life- and those doctors have enough money anyway!