Pumpkin Ravioli

It's the week of Halloween and it was time to break into some canned pumpkin.  I saw a recipe a few weeks ago in Self Magazine for some pretty easy and delicious looking ravioli.  I said, "Great! This looks like a yummy and easy recipe to try!"  This is easy, so just go ahead and make this already!

I followed the Self Magazine recipe pretty well, but I ended up with more ravioli than they made.  I also did not make the butter sage sauce they had, but instead went with olive oil and parmesan cheese.  There are two ways you can cook the prepared ravioli.  The first way I've tried was to simmer them in hot water and then drizzle with olive oil and cheese.  The second way is to directly cook them in the oil in a pan.  Cooking them directly in olive oil, makes them crispy!  Both ways are equally delicious!

Pumpkin Ravioli
Self Magazine

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 lightly beaten egg yolk
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 tbsp bread crumbs
Salt and Pepper
16 wonton wrappers
1 egg white lightly beaten

Combine all of the ingredients (minus the wonton wrappers) in a bowl.

Arrange the wonton wrappers on a sheet of parchment paper.  Place a rounded tsp of filling near the corner of the wonton wrappers. Brush edges with the egg white and fold over.

Cook!
Version 1: Cook the ravioli in simmering water for 4 minutes or until they start to float.  Place on a plate and drizzle with olive oil and cheese
Version 2: Heat olive oil in a non stick pan over medium heat and directly place the ravioli in the pan until they start to bubble.  Flip and cook on the other side.  Add cheese.  Eat

All lined up!

Close Up!

Folded and Made

Close Up

Cooked by simmering

Crispy!

Turkey Meatballs

When you eat a lot of ground turkey, meatballs are likely going to be something you make with it.  This recipe for turkey meatballs features a power punch of veggies.  I wanted to include some more veggies, just to see what happened and you can't taste them! These are a healthy and tasty meatball. I served mine with quinoa most days, but tried with spaghetti squash one day.  Another tasty treat is to stuff a bell pepper with the quinoa and turkey! Yummy!

Turkey Meatballs

1.5 pounds of ground turkey

3 egg whites

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup baby spinach, chopped fine

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

10 basil leaves, chopped fine

Red Pepper Flakes, Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 375F

Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix to combine.  Portion the meatballs using a cookie dough scoop or make them into a large tablespoon size.  Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake the meatballs for about 30 minutes or until they reach 165F.  Serve anyway you want with a little cheese!

Turkey Meatballs in a roasted green pepper

Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti Squash

Turkey Meatballs with Quinoa

How to Open a Spaghetti Squash and Why "Spaghetti" is a Misnomer

A few weeks ago, I purchased a spaghetti squash from Trader Joe's.  I was excited to try this seemingly magical and innocent winter squash.  People of the internet have shared the wonders of this happy little squash and I wanted to be part of the action.  What people don't explain, is just how difficult of a shell this little guy has.  The happy pale yellow flesh of the squash has a mean secret and this guy is one tough cookie to break.  I tried to slice it and that was impossible so it sat on my counter for a few weeks.

I finally worked up the nerve to attempt to open the squash and get through to this magical spaghetti.  I threw it into a preheated 350 oven and let it soften for about 20 minutes.  After time spent in the oven, the squash was very easy to open.  I sliced in half very easily, scooped out the seeds and threw it back in the oven after increasing the temperature to 375.  I let it roast for another 20 minutes and decided that was long enough.

The internet promised that the squash could easily be scraped into thin "noodles".  The internet was true!  You can easily scrape out the flesh with a fork and it looks quite interesting.  It's not exactly like spaghetti, but it was pretty neat to see such delicate strands come from such a difficult gourd to open.

I decided to use the remaining turkey meatballs I had to have "spaghetti" and meatballs.  This was hugely disappointing.  My squash was crunchy and flavorless.  It was not the best introduction to this "fantastic" carb replacement.

I went back to the internet and discovered a hash brown casserole made with the squash.  I decided that this would be what would make the most sense for this squash and you know what, it was.  Going forward I'm calling spaghetti squash, "hash browns" squash.  As hash browns, the inherent crunchy texture of the squash works perfectly.  When you top the hash browns with sunny side up eggs, the yolk will become absorbed into the squash just has it would with potatoes.  This is the best comfort food breakfast without feeling like a complete fatty afterwards!

Spaghetti Squash "Hash Browns"

1 tbsp butter
One medium sized Spaghetti Squash, already roasted and prepared
1 tbsp your favorite All Purpose Seasoning.  I used Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium high heat and add the butter.  Once the butter is melted add the squash in an even layer and add the seasoning.  Allow this to cook until the bottom side is brown, about 5 or so minutes.  Flip over and allow the top side to cook for about 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Serve with eggs or your favorite breakfast dishes.

Close Up of the Squash

Check out that Steam Action!

Clean Breakfast Burritos

A breakfast staple of mine has been breakfast burritos.  I've been using a recipe from bodybuilding.com and it's quite delicious.  This is very simple to put together and they're very tasty.  I've decided to use sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, because I think they taste better than regular potatoes.  I like to serve mine with a little fruit on the side, and a little yogurt mixed with salsa.  It's delicious!

Breakfast Burritos
Bodybuilding.com

1 1/2 sweet potato

1 onion

8 egg whites

salt and pepper

cayenne pepper

1 tbsp coconut oil

6 low carb tortillas

Microwave the sweet potato until soft.  I do mine for 3 minutes, stir and then another 3 minutes
cook the onion in the coconut oil until soft. then add the sweet potatoes.  Add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and the egg whites.  Scramble together until the eggs are cooked.  Divide into tortillas and serve with yogurt and salsa if desired.

Breakfast!

Yogurt Marinated Chicken with Potatoes

Lunch this week is this tasty combination of chicken, sweet potatoes and red potatoes.  I marinated the chicken overnight in yogurt with spices and boiled the potatoes until tender.  I cooked everything together in one pain and divided into tupperware.  This is super easy and super tasty!  If you try it, let me know how it goes!

Yogurt Marinated Chicken and Potatoes
1 pound chicken breast, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp Emeril's Spice Blend
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
6 small red potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces
Salt and Pepper

Put the chicken in a bowl and sprinkle the spice blend over, making sure every bite will have some spice.  Spoon the yogurt over the chicken and mix well.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to marinate.

The next day....
Put the potatoes into a pot and cover with water and sprinkle with salt.  Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender and drain.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick pan.  Add the chicken, discarding any excess marinade and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the potatoes and stir everything together to combine.  Double check the temperature of the chicken (165F) and then divide into 5 servings for lunch for the week!  

Enjoy!

Kinda blurry picture

All divided up and ready for lunch!

Gluten Free Bread: Experiment 2 and 3

This post is a picture story of experiments 2 and 3 in gluten free testing.  I used one recipe and made it two different ways.  I think the pictures will speak for themselves on how the experiments turned out.  

Gluten Free Experiments 2 and 3 were quite interesting.  I used a different recipe and a different flour blend.  This time I used the Gluten Free Flour from Trader Joe's a touch of coconut flour.  I used flaxseed instead of xanthan gum because, who really wants to pay $12 for xanthan gum, and I already have the flaxseed.  

For Experiment 2 I used whole milk and For Experiment 3 i used almond milk.  I don't think this made too much of a difference and that's a good thing!   In experiment 2 i used flaxseed dry and experiment 3 I used flaxseed mixed with twice the amount of water and then microwaved for 30 seconds to create a gel.  I don't know if this made a huge difference in the overall structure of the bread, but maybe it did.

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Courtesy: King Arthur

3 cups Gluten Free Flour (I used Trader Joes)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (or 1 1/4 tsp flaxseed with 3 1/2 tsp water mixed and heated to form a gel)

1 cup warm milk (110F)

4 tablespoons softened butter

3 large eggs

Place the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and flax seed (or xanthan gum) in a bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer.  Mix until combined.

Using an electric mixer, drizzle in the milk, beating all the time.  The texture will be crumbly, but it does come together.  Add the butter and beat until blended.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then beat at high speed for 3 minutes.  The dough will be very smooth and thick. It reminds me of a thick brownie batter.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rise for 1 hour.  Grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan (or a 9"x5" if you're scared it'll overproof)

Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, gently deflating the dough in the process.

Scoop the dough into the pan. Press it level, using a spatula or your wet fingers.

Cover with greased plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until the loaf barely comes to the rip of the pan.  This should take about 45-60 minutes.  Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the bread for 38 to 42 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out of the pan, and cool on a rack.  Enjoy! (hopefully)

Ingredient List for Experiment 2.  Just change out the Whole Milk for Almond Milk for #3.

Here's what the dough looks like after mixing

Here it is after rising!

I put the bread in the oven and after 8 minutes I smelled something burning.  I rushed to see what had happened and the bread exploded; or it vomited in the oven.  I did not have it on the cookie sheet, so the bottom of my oven was a mess!  Luckily the dough isn't sticky and cleaned up very well.

Here it is after baking and after an emergency transfer to a bigger pan.  It did not rise again and resulted in a very short loaf.  This will eventually turn into bread pudding.  

Experiment 3

Dough made with flaxseed gel and almond milk

I think this is after the rise... either way, it's not a good picture.

Here it is in the pan ready to rise!

Here it is ready after the rise, ready to go in the oven!

Baked! This one came out a lot taller than the other and has usable slices for sandwiches! Yay

Scotch Eggs

I've been reading my new Paleo cookbook and was going through the beautiful pictures to decide what to do for breakfast for the week.  I came across a picture of Scotch Eggs.  I had no idea what Scotch Eggs were, what they tasted like, or how to make hard boiled eggs.  Nevertheless, I knew I wanted to try it for an easy breakfast for the week.

These eggs are pretty easy to make too! They require just a bit of work with hard boiling the eggs and peeling, but it's well worth it! I read that some people have problems with getting the meat around the egg, but this wasn't a problem for me.  Make sure your hands are wet so that the meat doesn't stick.

These eggs are a great way to get your protein in the morning! I served mine with a side of fruit and it was quite tasty!  Let me know what you think!

Scotch Eggs
Insprired by Well Fed- Paleo Recipes
1 1/2 pounds of ground meat ( I used a combination of chicken breakfast sausage and ground turkey)
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled.
2 tbsp tomato paste
Handful of fresh basil, chopped
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp parsely
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375F  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper

Place the meat, spices, tomato paste in a bowl and mix together.  Take a handful of the mixture and wrap around the egg.  Place on the pan.  Do this with all the eggs.

Bake for 25 minutes and then increase the temperature to 400F and bake an additional 5-10 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.  Enjoy!

 Raw Balls!

Cooked!

Served! I actually made perfect hard boiled eggs!