Practically Paleo Lasagna

Let's get one thing straight right away, shall we? No, I am not "Paleo" and I see no way I ever could be. It just sounds so hard. Don't get me wrong, they eat lots of good stuff and avoid lots of bad stuff, but no.

Now, that being said, I'll never be opposed to trying a recipe just because it's labeled as paleo. Actually, this isn't the first time I've done that. When I went camping about a month ago I made these Blackberry Glazed Porkchops for everyone. It is a very simple but incredibly delicious paleo recipe.

Let us move on to the recipe at hand shall we? You may be asking yourself "Self, how is it possible for a recipe to be 'practically' paleo?". To which I must admit, it's not. A recipe is either paleo or it isn't. I chose to call this recipe "Practically Paleo" because my inspiration was an actual paleo recipe. I, however, do not believe one can have lasagna and not have cheese. Just my personal opinion.

It should be noted that I made this recipe to feed one. This would make a wonderful dish for a larger crowd though and I will include instructions for both.

What you'll need:

1 Eggplant (2-3 if doubling), thinly sliced

8 ounces (16 if doubling) ground turkey breast - cooked

A jar of your preferred tomato sauce - for paleo, go with organic tomato sauce

A package of shredded mozzarella cheese - omit if paleo 

What you do:

1. Set the oven to 450F. Place eggplant slices on baking sheets and roast for 4 minutes on each side. 
2. Using a 9x9 baking dish (or 9x13 if doubling) add a layer of sauce. I did 1/2 cup because that is one serving of sauce.
3. Place a layer of eggplant slices over the sauce.
4. Cover the eggplant layer with a layer of turkey and cheese. I used half the turkey and 1/2 cup of cheese.
5. Repeat the layering process until your are out of turkey. Make a final layer of just sauce and cheese.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Allow to rest 5 minutes before serving. 

Start with the sauce.

Layer in your eggplant.

Now add the meat and cheese.

Repeat until you're happy.

Enjoy!

So, are you going to try it?

Lauren

Southwest Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Lets talk about something I love: Bell Peppers. They are delicious and I could eat them like you would an apple. I don't because it's not socially acceptable and I figure I'm already weird enough, no need to add to that. Not to mention the fact that they're good for you! At only 28 calories for medium (slightly less than 3 inches long) pepper you get 196% of your daily vitamin C and 58 % of your daily vitamin A. Not to shabby if you ask me.

Sadly, the supermarkets play on people's desire for their food to look as good as it tastes and if you want pretty peppers (AKA not green), you have to pay an arm and a leg for them. Every so often Kroger will have them on sale for less than $1 each so when they do I take advantage and make one of my all time favorite recipes: stuffed peppers.

Stuffed peppers are so easy and so versatile. You can make them in whatever flavor combination your heart desires. I've made Italian style where they were cooked in tomato juice, Santa Fe style with turkey, I've even made them in a slow cooker! The possibilities really are endless.

Start by cutting the tops off of your peppers.

For tonight's culinary adventure I actually chose a vegetarian friendly recipe. Not because I'm vegetarian by any means of the word. I chose this recipe because I wanted to get my protein from something other than my standard grilled chicken. With quinoa AND black beans this recipe does just that!

What you'll need:

6 Bell Peppers 

1 cup dry quinoa & 2 cups water

15 oz can corn kernels - low or no sodium if you can find it

15 oz can black beans - low or no sodium if you can find it

4 oz can diced green chiles

2 roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 yellow onion - I omitted this

1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese - I omitted this

1 package fajita seasoning - I opted just to add cumin and crushed red pepper to taste

Seeded and cored peppers with the remains from the tops.

 What you'll do:

1. Set your oven to 350F. Combine the quinoa and water in a sauce pot and bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. The quinoa should completely absorb the water and look fluffy. Yes. I said fluffy.
2. Prepare your peppers by cutting off the tops and then seeding the insides. I saved the leftovers from the tops to use on my salads this week but you could easily add them into your filling!                    



Fluffy quinoa!

3.  Dice your tomatoes and rinse and strain the beans and corn.
4. When your quinoa is nice and fluffy transfer it to a big mixing bowl and add in all of the remaining ingredients. 
5. Line your baking dish of choice with tin foil and nestle your peppers in. 
6. Fill each pepper with about a cup of filling. I placed in 1/2 of a cup and then pressed it down with a spoon before adding the second 1/2 cup. Trying to add the whole cup at once would have guaranteed a huge mess. At least, for me it would have.
7. Bake your delicious stuffed peppers for 25-30 minutes. 
8. Once they have cooled for maybe 5 minutes, DIG IN! I bet they would be delicious topped with some sour cream or guacamole, or heck go for both. I plan to top mine with shredded cheese and then re-heat them to melt the cheese a little, which is why I omitted the cheese from the filling recipe. 

Ready for the oven! 

I plan to enjoy these babies for lunch this week so once they came out of the oven I transferred them to  separate containers. If you do this, be sure to let them cool before moving them to the refrigerator. Moving them there directly after baking will cause the container to condensate, resulting in soggy peppers and no one wants to eat a soggy pepper!

For today's post I got my inspiration here and my nutritional information here.



Bon appetit!
Lauren

Busy busy busy!

My day went from great to freaking awesome at about 7 pm. Let me tell you why:

I started working tonight and quickly discovered that I would have very little to do all night. I proceeded to call my boss and have the following conversation.

Lauren: Hey, there is nothing for me to do tonight. Got any odd jobs you'd like me to get done? Or you know, you could just let me go home early.

Dan: Yeah, why don't you move some heat lamps around, continue checking your sows, write up the deads and then when you're done, just get out of there.

Lauren: Wait, seriously? Even if it's only 9 o'clock?

Dan: Yep, that's fine.

You better believe I did just that! My life has been crazy busy lately so I'll happily take an evening to get a few extra things done. Sadly, being so busy has kept me from blogging. I've had a few things I really would've like to blog about, but I guess I'll just make this a long post and recap the past few weeks a little.



It's hard to believe it's already been over a week since a group of 10 of us went camping! We spent Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning at Shades State Park in Waveland, IN. Friday night we feasted on Blackberry Glazed Porkchops, yours truly as the chef of course, and hung out around the fire. Saturday we split between hiking in the park and swimming down the road at Turkey Run before another night of s'mores devouring.

Jackie & I while hiking.

Mark & I at the pool.

Blackberry Glazed Porkchops

This past week was pretty busy between my car giving up on life and me picking up a second job. Yep, you read that right, I now have two jobs. As if one wasn't enough I'm now a server at a local restaurant called Maza. The food is Mediterranean and Italian and is to die for! So far I've only worked two shifts there. Tomorrow is my first day working a shift at both jobs. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it but now that I'll actually get some good sleep, it shouldn't be too bad.



This past Saturday a group of us went to the Taste of Tippecanoe. Let me tell you, that was a blast. For $10 I got to try a whole variety of foods from restaurants I've never been to! I easily could have spent more money but I was pretty pleased with everything I tried and actually came away from the night full. Later that night there was a fireworks show. Instead of staying, we watched from the top of a parking garage on campus.

Whoopie Pie

Ribs & Brisket

Crawfish Etouffe

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen though was that the 15th was the one year anniversary of my decision to get my butt in better shape. A year ago I weighed 158 pounds and could hardly run out to my car without getting out of breath. I'm now down to 129 pounds and love my body. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me!

If you stuck it out, you're now caught up on my life! As always, thanks for reading!

Lauren 

 

 

 

 

 

Asian Dumpling Soup

Something you may or may not know about me: I love to read. For as long as I can remember I have just gobbled down books as fast as I could. But my love of reading doesn't just stop at books. to be honest, I currently subscribe to six magazines. Yep, I still receive hard copies in the mail, none of that "download it on your e-reader" mumbo jumbo. In fact, it was in a magazine that I found today's recipe. I tore the page for Asian Dumpling Soup with Edamame and Watercress straight out of Fitness Magazine and now it's in my recipe binder.

I was drawn to this recipe instantly for two reasons.

1. I like to try new foods, especially using ingredients I don't ever use.
2. I have been looking for a way to use edamame.

 I pretty much knew I was going to make this as soon as I saw it! Finding the ingredients was a bit of a challenge but the fact that it took less than 15 minutes to prepare made up for that.

What you'll need:

• 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 16 frozen pork pot stickers - The only package I could find was 12 beef and veggie flavor
• 1 cup frozen, shelled edamame
• 1 bunch watercress - I couldn't find watercress but the interwebs said arugula was a good substitute
• 4 tsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil

What you do:

1. In a large pot combine broth, salt and pepper and brig to a simmer on medium heat.
2. Add pot stickers and edamame and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
3. Put your sesame oil in a small frying pan and toast it on low, you'll smell it when it's done!
4. Add watercress/arugala to soup and stir until just wilted. 
5. Remove soup from heat and add vinegar and oil.
6. Enjoy!

I have to admit, I haven't actually tried my soup yet! But I'm taking some for dinner tonight! I'm pretty excited. 

Thanks for reading,

Lauren

Two Ingredient Berry Cake!

Yep! You read that right! My friends, yesterday I made a DELICIOUS cake using only two ingredients. 

Seriously, it was so easy. 

1. Buy Angel Food Cake Mix (make sure it's a brand that only has one mix in the box, not two) and a can of pie filling. I chose blueberry but go with your heart's desire.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
3. Put your cake mix in your bowl, add the pie filling and blend, beat, stir, whatever until well mixed. 
4. Pour into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan and bake 28-30 minutes. 
5. Allow to cool. The cake will fall, don't worry it's normal. 
6. Serve still slightly warm with whipped cream!

What it looked like after it fell.

So, the next time you need to bring a dish to a party or what have you and you don't have a lot of time to spend preparing it or maybe you're just not that great in the kitchen, try this out! It's fantastic!

Bon Appetit!

Lauren

PS: You can find my inspiration here.