Returning to Italian heritage: Butternut Squash Lasagna

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

Greetings fellow taste travelers, its been a while since I’ve uploaded a post and that has been for good reason I assure you. Shortly after the last post, the wife and I took a mini-vacation to Northern Virginia to use up a Living Social voucher before it expired next month. We got to hang out with good friends, drive some of the Skyline Drive (highly recommended by the way), and eat some outrageously awesome food- Boar Sausage Bolognese. It was a literal awesome-sauce. Since coming back there has been a flurry of activity in the GG house as I found out I’ve been picked up for an Individual Augmentation assignment as well. Instead of reporting to far off lands and living in the desert as our good friend the EC, I will be reporting to a ship that is being converted to an Afloat Forward Staging Base and will eventually make its way back over to the Arabian Sea/Persian Gulf. Though I won’t be deploying for some time, I will report to the ship in less than two weeks and this has taken up quite a bit of focus from my life recently as I’ve been trying to get everything in order. That being said, the wife and I have made a lot of ready to go rotisserie chicken, pale friendly restaurants, and the abundance of left overs we seem to have around following any cooking endeavor. The wife made some more of the chili I posted about a few weeks ago and that has held us over for the past few days.

As today begins a new week, we decided it was time to get back into the kitchen with some new fanciful creations that would not only please the palate but also satiate the senses. We stumbled across a post on the webs about a paleo butternut squash lasagna and were immediately intrigued. Running to the store to get the necessities, we share it with you in hope you will get in touch with your inner cave-Italian:

Hardware
9×13 baking dish
good sized pot
good quality knife
cutting board

Software
1 lb hot Italian sausage, no casing
1 lb mild Italian sausage, no casing
1 large butternut squash
1 package of mushrooms
1 large red onion
1 zucchini
2 cans pizza sauce (look for ones with no sugar)
1 can roasted peppers
shredded mozzarella cheese
Ricotta cheese
basil
garlic
red pepper flakes
oregano
rosemary
salt/pepper
olive oil

Lowdown
Turn your oven on to 400 and let it get nice and toasty. Throw your pot on the stove, turn the heat to medium-high, add some olive oil. Dice up the red onion and add it to the pot to brown. Mince the garlic and add them to the pot with some red pepper flakes. Once the onions are starting to look soft, add some salt and pepper followed up by the sausage meat. Mix it up well and let it cook a bit. Cut the zucchini into disks and add to the pot, cooking for a few minutes. Cut up the mushrooms and add them as well. After a few minutes, pull from the heat and set aside.

Remove the skin from the butternut squash and cut it into quarters- first cut right above the bulge, then cut each half in half lengthwise. Remove any stringy bits and cut the squash into planks as best you can.

In a mixing bowl, dump both cans of pizza sauce. Cut up a good handful of basil and add to the bowl. Dice up the roasted peppers and mix them in well. Grab your baking dish and layer out a nice amount of the sauce on the  bottom of the pan then add a layer of the planked squash trying not to overlap.

Add about half the meat mixture to the top of the squash, spreading evenly. Dish out some more of the pizza sauce/roasted pepper mixture to coat. Spread some mozzarella around and then layer some more squash. Add the rest of the meat mixture and all of the remaining pizza sauce/roasted pepper mixture.

Toss in the over for 45 mins- its done when the edges/top are nice and crispy. Add some more mozzarella and put back in the oven to melt a bit. Take it out, dollop some ricotta on the top to taste, cut it up, dish it out, and devour ravenously.

Posted in Blood Meats, Vegetables | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A little sweetness in your life: Raw Bars, coconut lime edition

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

Hello again awesome peoples,

It’s been a slow week here at the GG house, a few late nights at work and a plethora of delicious left overs have left me without the need to really prepare things for consumption. The closest I got was to re-make the mustard pork chops mid-week and I would definitely recommend you marinate your meat in a plastic bag. The flavor of the mustard was much more pronounced.

Today I was hankering for something sweet that didn’t rely on purchasing and using mass amounts of almond flour or the like. Lara Bars are a wonderful snack, but almost prohibitively expensive. Having just purchased mass amounts of dried dates, I set my eyes on recreating the delicious yum yums at home.

Hardware
Big glass mixing bowl
9×13 baking dish
baking sheet
food processor
cutting board
sharp knife

Software
4 cups dried dates
2 cups unsweetened coconut
1 cup almonds
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup lime juice
vanilla

Lowdown
Dice up your dates and put them into the mixing bowl. Add a bit of water then microwave for a minute or so to get them all soft. Drain the remaining water and add some vanilla and the lime juice. Mash as best you can with a fork and set aside.

Throw your coconut on the baking tray and toss in a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 350 (though it’ll probably never reach this temp) and cook until the coconut is lightly toasted. Watch it carefully though, it’ll happen quickly. Once its done, dump the coconut into the mixing bowl.

Pulse the cashews and almonds in the food processor until you reach a consistency of course sand, add this to the mixing bowl. Mix everything together until it is a even consistency.

Line your 9×13 baking dish with some wax paper and dump the contents of the mixing bowl onto it. Spread evenly and into all corners. Top with another sheet of wax paper and smooth everything out. Toss in the fridge for a few hours to solidify.

After a few hours, pull it out of the fridge and remove the solid bar from the baking dish, use a good sharp knife, or pizza cutter, to cut it into smaller bars. I got 12 from mine, but you may want smaller bars. Keep the bars refrigerated for longer shelf life.

Posted in Dessert, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Boom! Stuffed London Broil with Squash. And Brownies.

Posted on February 13, 2012 by

I love using a slow-cooker to create delicious things. I think this comes as a result of my pseudo-ADD. For some tasks I can remain focused for hours, but for just about everything else I tend to get bored and wander off. This has definitely found its way into my kitchen because I’ll tend to avoid recipes that are long, drawn out, and overly complicated. That being said, we bought a good sized London Broil the other day and it’s been sitting in the fridge desperately waiting to be used in something delicious. Browsing the interwebs for inspiration, the usual for my work day, I came across a post for a London Broil done in a slow-cooker. “Genius!” I though, and decided to try it today and thus, share it with you:

Software
2-3 lb London Broil
frozen spinach
garlic
sun-dried tomatoes
mushrooms
olive oil
salt/pepper
medium sized onion
rosemary
large butternut squash

Hardware
sharp knife
big cutting board
mixing bowl
toothpicks
slow-cooker

Lowdown
Lay your London Broil out and butterfly it. Pound it out a few times to make it about half an inch thick and season the inside with salt and pepper to taste.

In the mixing bowl, throw together a big handful of the frozen spinach, a bunch of mushrooms, fair amount of the sun-dried tomatoes, thick cut diced onion, few cloves of minced garlic, some rosemary, and a healthy amount of olive oil. Mix this well and get ready to get messy.

Take about half of the mix and place it inside of the butterflied London Broil. Spread it out as best you can, roll it up, and secure it with toothpicks. Once its ready to go, place it in your slow-cooker and turn the heat to low.

Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the inner bits. Cut it up into large chunks and remove the outer skin. Add all of this to the slow-cooker and top with the remaining spinach/onion/mushroom/tomato mixture.

Cook for at least 7 hours then serve it up all fancy like.

To finish everything off, my amazingly awesome wife (or was it awesomely amazing?) whipped up a batch of figgy-date fudge brownie explosions following a recipe that one of my favorite Paleo bloggers, Juli over at www.PaleOMG.com, came up with. If you don’t follow her already, you suck. The recipe for her original brownies can be found here- http://paleomg.com/fudgy-brownies/ we modified it to include some dates and walnut oil, but feel free to leave it unadulterated it as they’re probably the best brownies you’ll ever have.

Posted in Blood Meats, Dessert, Vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Chili with Spaghetti Squash

Posted on February 6, 2012 by

I’ve always been a huge fan of chili. Though I say that not in the sense that I like really spicy chilis or chilis that are heavy on the liquid. Traditionally, I’ve always been about having chili over pasta, Cincinnati style for those of you awesome people who know of such things, in within this realm I’ve stuck to a thick, hearty, meaty chili over a solid bed of rigatoni or other large-scale pasta. Being half Italian, this was my version of heaven. Before you go judging me and saying chili isn’t Italian, think of this as a meat sauce- made of awesomeness.

That being said, the two main tenants of that meal are out of bounds for going paleo- pasta and beans. With that in mind, I scoured the interwebs for a suitable avenue for my mad chili cravings.

Hardware
Chili pot/large non-stick sauté pan
Baking dish
Good knife and a cutting board

Software
2 spaghetti squash
2lbs ground beef
large onion
2 zucchinis
chili powder
salt/pepper
cumin
garlic salt
garlic
2 large cans of diced tomatoes
2 cans diced green chills
can of diced jalepenos
oregano
thyme
bay leaf
pack of sliced mushrooms
red bell pepper
red pepper flakes
can of coconut milk (placed in fridge the day before)
coconut oil

The Lowdown
Place your pot on the stove over medium high heat and get it nice and warm. Once its hot, add a dollop of the coconut oil and add a whole diced onion, some red pepper flakes, and two diced garlic cloves. Once the onion is browned up, add the ground beef and throw a healthy amount of chili powder, salt, cumin, and garlic salt. No need to measure, just go with what feels right. Once the beef is nice and brown, add the cans of diced tomatoes, green chilis, jalepenos, and mushrooms. Fill up one of the cans of tomatoes with some water and add to the pot as well. Add some oregano, thyme, and the bay leaf. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 40 minutes.

 

Spaghetti squash is an odd vegetable- more on this later. Heat your oven to 375. Cut each one in half lengthwise and scoop out all the seeds and slimy bits. Drizzle some olive oil on it and place cut side down on a baking sheet and throw in the hot oven for an hour.

After the 40 mins on the stove have passed, add the cut up zucchinis and red pepper to the pot and cook for another 30 minutes.

When the hour in the oven it up, pull the squash out and set it aside, give it 15 minutes or so to cool down. Once its cool enough to handle, grab a fork and go to town on the inside. I’ve never dealt with this squash before so up until this point I was at a total loss for the reasoning behind on why its called spaghetti squash. Cutting it open, it smelled less like a squash and more like a pumpkin, which in my mind is a good thing. Even after cooking it, it still didn’t resemble and sort of pasta. Once I took the fork to it though I was amazed. It blew my mind. “Gather” all of the spaghettish bits from the squash and set aside.

Place some of the squash on a plate, cover with the chili and place with a dollop of the coconut creme from the cold can and savor every bit. This recipe makes an incredible amount of food, so be prepare for a weeks worth of leftovers. Today we’re actually having some for our Super Bowl game watch.

Now get out there and make something of your own.

Heres a sneak peek for the upcoming posts- cookie and raw-bars. Huzzah!

Posted in Blood Meats, Vegetables | 2 Comments

Cheating? Fine by me.

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

Hello again readers. I come to you with a confession. I can’t be a culinary whiz kid every night of the week. Despite my best efforts, there are times when shortcuts are absolutely vital to both following the plan and a pesky thing called sanity. This week, big Navy is having me stand a modified watch in support of a big exercise called Intrepid Turtle. At least that’s what I’m referring to it as, it’s actually called Bold Alligator. To support this thing, I have to wake up at 4am to be at work by 5. Luckily, I get to leave early, but starting the day off so early leaves me exhausted and without the willpower to create marvelous things over heated surfaces. Not to mention that I ran for 7 miles after work in order to keep the preparations up for my upcoming half marathon.

With this in mind, I sent a text to my Betrothed, asking her to stop at the store and pick up the ultimate lazy man’s paleo dinner:

Rotisserie chicken
Romaine lettuce
Grape tomatoes
Avocado
Sugar free/calorie free ranch dressing

Sometimes eating paleo can be that simple- meat, some green bits, and some colorful items mixed it. Eating the magical concoction of sugar free/calories free ranch dressing led me
to believe I could be eating moon dust, so next time I think I’ll make some vinaigrette just to have on hand.

And yes, I’m aware of the actual definition of betrothed. But one of the authors I’m reading uses it when he talks about his wife and I like it.

That’s all for now, better things are coming in the future.

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Posted in Blood Meats, Salads | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Starting simple- Mustard Pork Chops and Sautéed Spinach

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

Greetings once again followers of food heaven, Griz here with my first foray into the world of recipes . I’ve decided to start of simply with mustard pork chops and sautéed spinach. This was mainly because this happened to be what I had on hand and another trip out to the store seemed excessive.

Software-
bone-in pork chops
spinach
dijon mustard
stone ground mustard
mustard powder
sage
rosemary
oregano
garlic
coconut oil
salt/pepper

not shown- spinach

Hardware-
mixing bowl
heavy sauté pan

The lowdown-
In the mixing bowl, throw together about a 1/4 cup dijon mustard, 1/4 cup stone ground mustard, about a teaspoon mustard powder, pinch of sage, pinch of rosemary, pinch of oregano, a tiny bit of coconut oil, and two minced garlic cloves. Mix it well. Mix it some more. Drop a pork chop in there, coat both sides, then move to the side. Add the other chops one by one until all are covered by the gloriousness of mustard.  Set the chops and the mixing bowl in the fridge for a few hours so the flavor explosion has some time to develop.

About an hour before food time, pull the chops and mixing bowl out of the fridge to come back to room temp. About 20 mins before, heat the oven to 425- we’re gonna need it nice and toasty to finish off these bad boys. Go ahead and set your heavy sauté pan on the stove and get it hot too, somewhere in the neighborhood of medium-high will be perfect.

Go time- throw a tablespoon or so of the coconut oil into the sauté pan and add the chops. Brown for two minutes on each side. Follow this up by throwing the whole pan in the hot oven for 6-8 minutes until everything is cooked through. Don’t actually throw the pan into the oven, though. That wouldn’t be smart.

Pull the pan out of the oven once the time is up and put it back on the stove. Pull the chops off and let them rest for a few minutes while we shift our focus to the spinach. If you have some oil left in the pan, you’re good to go, otherwise throw in a bit more of the coconut oil. Throw in a couple handfuls of spinach, either frozen or fresh (I don’t judge), and sauté it nice and good with some more garlic. As it cooks, add a few turns of salt and pepper, you know, for taste. After a few minutes, you’re good to go. Pull it off, plate it up, and top with the pork chops.

I hope you enjoyed this, and it whets your palete so more to come. As our good buddy EC says- create, make, and enjoy.

Posted in Blood Meats, Vegetables | 2 Comments

Where one goes across the world and another picks up paleo back home

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

Hello all, this is your friendly neighborhood GrizzledGourmand here picking up the paleo home front while our good buddy the Epicurean Caveman spreads joy and love to the Middle East. For those of you who didn’t know, EC has been spending some quality time in the lush oasis that is Kuwait serving a Joint tour with the Armee, Air Force, and Marines and won’t be back to spread his paleo deliciousities until this summer.

This is where I come in. Having been around and sampled some of EC’s outrageous food creations as well as contributed to the general kitchen debauchery that is our life, I figured that since my wife and I are starting up on our own paleo adventure, I might be able to contribute to the blog to keep the heartbeat of next level awesomeness.

So stay tuned, because its about to get heavy.

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