I was just winging it, throwing together some things I had on hand, which happens a lot. We love spaghetti squash. Before we made the change to paleo, and therefore no grains, we ate pasta at least once per week. It was easy to prepare and everyone liked it. Now we use substitutions for grain-based pasta noodles. Usually that ends up being spaghetti squash because Mother Nature made this awesome tasting, noodle-like plant that pretty much tastes good paired with everything! We have also used julienne sliced zucchini and yellow squash as a noodle replacement. I've also seen carrots done this way, but I have yet to try it since we love spaghetti squash.
My husband's parents had a very successful garden this year and gave us a bunch of spaghetti squash from their garden, which we are putting to good use. I now have to make two squash for one meal, one isn't enough for my hungry, growing crew anymore, but that's OK because then we have leftovers for lunch for a couple days!
I cut the squash length-wise, scooped out the seeds and put it in a baking dish with about 1.5 inches of water in a 350 degree oven. I usually cover with foil and sometimes salt and pepper, but since the cave husband actually put this in the oven for me, those steps got skipped, (before you think I'm badmouthing my husband, I'm not, that was on me since I didn't even mention that he should do that) but the squash turned out completely fine! It takes between 30-45 mins to get the desired tenderness, you want it tender, but not falling apart, and not crunchy. Then you just take it out and use a fork to separate the strands of squash and put into a bowl, scooping all the flesh out until you reach the skins. If you have a compost or better yet, pigs, the skins can be put to good use!
While the squash was cooking, I used 2 jars of bottled marinara sauce (I said this was simple! I like Costco's marinara, I just went to get more today and they didn't have it, I was very sad, I hope they bring it back. Whatever marinara sauce you use, if you don't make your own, try to get the cleanest possible sauce, without sugar and with just a few ingredients that you can pronounce!) I combined the sauce with 2 lbs of ground beef which had been browned. We don't drain it, that fat is good for you, don't you know! The fat in healthy cows, as well as other healthy animals who have been allowed to roam outside in the sunshine and munch on grass growing from the ground is full of easily absorbed vitamin D! We get vitamin D from the sun and so do they, and they so kindly give it to us in their fat! I get 100% grass-fed and pastured meats whenever possible, after all, we don't eat grain and don't want the animals we eat to be consuming grain either. It makes them sick, since it's not their natural diet and causes all sorts of problems, thus making things like antibiotics necessary, then we eat that animal and we've now consumed man made hormones and other icky things, so there's my plug for grass-fed beef, it won't be the last.
Then I made some asparagus, which isn't something we eat a lot. But I think that's about to change! I didn't like asparagus growing up, so I have sort of avoided it, silly me, it's so good! Only 1 out of the 4 kids actually truly liked the asparagus, but they all had some. I just threw it in my grill pan and drizzled some olive oil on it and fresh ground salt and pepper, I used grinders for both salt and pepper. I really like the pink Himalayan sea salt, it has a whole bunch of naturally occurring minerals in there along with the salty goodness, and there is nothing that can replace the flavor of freshly ground pepper! I did add some cheese to the asparagus. We will occasionally have good quality dairy when we can get it (not ultra-pasteurized and from grass fed cows, and totally UN-pasturized, if we can find and afford it). I grated some Kerrygold Dubliner cheese on the asparagus, and it added a nice flavor, but this can be left off if dairy is not something you tolerate. Dairy is not strictly paleo, but we feel that dairy from grass fed cows (Kerrygold is a company that uses grass-fed dairy for their products) is a good source of nutrients and can add nice flavor to things, but we do use it very occasionally and I had some on hand, so I thought I'd add it in for a nice flavor. I cooked the asparagus until the color brightened up, and it was still crisp, but not raw and crunchy.
This meal made enough for us to put the leftovers in containers in the fridge, about 4 lunches worth for my husband to take with him to work during the week. I like to do this a couple nights per week, so he has something ready to go when he leaves very early for work in the morning.
And now, just for the heck of it, a picture of our puppy, Axl and our 5 year old, Owen, at the gym hanging out while I got in a workout, they love it there!
No comments:
Post a Comment