Roasted Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash wasn't introduced to me until the beginning of my 30's. It just wasn't a vegetable we had growing up. Actually, the variety of veggies I was introduced to as a child spanned from canned green beans to broccoli, with only corn in between. We were more of a fish sticks and macaroni household.

As I became older I was introduced to more veggies. As a teen, my aunt Kim showed me the wonders of artichokes and dipping the leaves in garlic butter to eventually get to the heart...I was wowed. I still remember sitting at her counter dipping one by one. It felt like we were participating in some ceremonial act together. When visiting my aunt Karen in Oregon when I was about 26 years old, she had served baked sweet potatoes with dinner. I was in love. The skin was perfectly crunchy and the inside melted in your mouth with just the right touch of butter and brown sugar. In my early thirties my dear friend, Melissa Zanni served roasted beets at a Labor Day BBQ...where had these been all of my life? She introduced me to juicing beets and to this day they are my absolute favorite to juice. At a mom's potluck event that was put on for Thanksgiving, Julie Gordon brought spaghetti squash. This really amazed me. I thought for sure I was eating noodles. It appeared to me that it was the same type of noodles used in the Philipino dish, pancit. When I found out it was squash I couldn't wait to try and make it myself to see if I could pass it off to my family as noodles.

I have baked the squash, cut in half, flat side down cut length-wise. I have slow cooked it cut in middle, face down with meatballs and pasta sauce after hearing about my dear friend, Theresa Rothstein's kid-approved dinner. Both were enjoyable. I was particularly impressed with the crock pot dinner. No one knew they weren't noodles! When it was brought up that the noodles seemed "weird", I simply offered a white lie, saying that they were rice noodles. :-) I have to do what I have to do to get my people to eat veggies. The reason they stood out so much was that there was so much moisture that they became mushy.

Today I tried preparing the spaghetti squash by roasting it. I have to say, this was so easy and made a big difference in the soggy factor. There wasn't one! There was enough moisture but not so much that it became mushy and clumped together. It's a little sad to fore go the crock pot, but it didn't take long at all, and you could have your sauce and meatballs simmering in the crock all day if you wanted to.

Here's the plan!

Preheat oven to 450 F

What you will need:

One spaghetti squash

4 Tbspn olive oil

2 Tbspn minced garlic

Salt and Pepper

Cut squash through the middle (not length-wise) and spoon out the seeds. 

Place both halves, flat side up in a baking dish. I used a glass casserole dish

Drizzle the insides and top with olive oil

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and minced garlic (or garlic powder)

Place your dish in the oven and bake for forty minutes. Mine was a small squash, so I  checked it at 20 minutes and let it roast another 15 minutes.

Scrape them clean directly into the baking dish.

I then added some more pepper and salt and sprinkles on some shredded Parmesan cheese.

In my bowl, I added some chopped jalapeno.

A small serving was perfect for lunch. Now I have the whole casserole dish full to incorporate into dinner tonight. It's so versatile. You can use it like pasta or eat it plain. You can dress it up for the main dish or use it as a side dish. I have Dairy Free Indian Butter Chicken going in the slow cooker now, I'm thinking about using it where I normally would use rice and pour our chicken and sauce over it for dinner. 

I should have taken more photos, when you pull them out of the oven, there will be some of the oil and moisture sitting in the bottom, just let it mix in when you shred it into the dish.

Let me know if you have any delicious and creative ways of preparing spaghetti squash!

Enjoy!

All the love, 

Caffeine and Freckles

Fall Apart Beef n' Gravy Slow Cooker Meal

Tonight is pumpkin carving night at the Augerlavoie-Stinnett home. This is new in our house. As crazy as it sounds, we have only carved pumpkins once. So really it was just my oldest, one year, one time. Unless I'm forgetting maybe once more we did it. It's not that I dislike it, I was just never one to feel obligated to do all these festive things every single year. Sometimes we put up Christmas lights, sometimes we don't. One year I didn't even buy a tree! Some years we dye eggs for Easter, other years we don't. We have visited a pumpkin patch a handful of times. It's all fun and now that we have so much change around us with the moving and new schools I plan on doing more of this fun stuff, especially realizing that our youngest baby is almost six years old. Hey, my kids survived and still enjoy the holidays so we are all good.

Anyway, enough about my sporadic lack of holiday cheer, back to crock pot business. I'm trying a recipe that I originally found here that I altered just a bit. I needed something that could slow cook all day saving me time for blogging and homework. I have to squeeze in the reading and a quiz for a history class tonight. Oh, and I have become somewhat of a procrastinator. We went out looking for pumpkins today. One store was all out but luckily we found some at another store in town.

The recipe I read called for sirloin tips. I ended up going with stew meat. They were discounted to about $4.22 for over a pound. I bought 3 packs. Also, Walmart has organic bone broth! For more information about the benefits of bone broth, here is an article by Louise Hay. If you are not familiar with Louise Hay, I highly suggest you get to know her work. She is lovely, powerful, and inspirational.

I have a passionate love-hate relationship with Walmart but I am definitely impressed with all the organic products they keep adding to their inventory.

Here is what you will need!

3 lbs stew meat
splash of olive oil (or oil of your choice)
black pepper
2 cups of beef broth (bone broth is best!)
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, diced
3-4 tbsp garlic, minced or chopped
1.5 tsp italian seasoning
salt to taste
2tbsp gluten free flour (or other flour or cornstarch)
3 tbsp water

I'm going to cook rice to serve under the beef and gravy, but noodles would work too.

Heat oil in a skillet. Add half of your meat to the skillet with some black pepper just for a few minutes to sear the meat, do not cook all the way through. Put seared meat into slow cooker and heat the remaining meat the same.

Once all meat is added to the slow cooker, add your chopped onion, minced garlic, italian seasoning, and beef broth. Stir ingredients together and cover. Cook on low for 6 hours.

I know the 2 cups of broth doesn't look like much. Trust me, it will be enough. Here is a peak at what it looks like after 3 hours on low. Plenty of broth for gravy making!

Once your meat is done it's time to turn the broth into a gravy. Heat the water and mix in your gluten free flour or whatever thickener makes you happy, until it becomes thick. Stir into the crockpot and let heat another 10-15 minutes.

Now you can serve your beef and gravy over rice, noodles, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, toast, polenta, whatever your beef and gravy making heart desires .

I served mine over organic rice and had broccoli with turmeric on the side. I did need to add some more salt to the meat. The meat fell apart in your mouth and the gravy was on the thin side, which I like with the rice. The whole family enjoyed it, even the two kids that don't care much for meat.

Let me know if you try it and how you liked it, or if you made some changes!

Tons of love,

Caffeine and Freckles

Polenta Snacks

Polenta! I love me some polenta. It's gluten free, it's vegetarian and vegan, it's easy and it's delicious.

I've been playing around with it a bit lately. It's not homemade (stay tuned for that), I've been buying pre-made, organic polenta and slicing it into rounds. Today I'm going to share with you some of my favorite toppings. These are great for a snack and perfect as an h'orderve when you have guests. You can dress up the rounds as sweet or savory to touch on all those lovely parts of your pallet.

Another idea is to get the kids involved. Let them each pick out a topping or two and have them top a few rounds. If you make enough, it can easily be a creative dinner that they took part in making, which typically means they are more likely to eat it. Not always the case at my house but it's worth a try.

I've used polenta I bought at Trader Joe's and today I'm using Freida's, which I found at Albertsons. Both are organic. This is so simple and cheater-like, you will want to make them regularly.

You can plan out what toppings you like. Last time around I topped a few with pesto and a few with some cheese (for the husband). Next time around I'd like to add some mushroom and olive, yum!

Here was today's polenta adventure.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Start by slicing up your polenta roll. My slices are probably a little over 1/4 inch thick, but it really doesn't matter.

You will want to start by coating them with an oil of your choice. I chose olive oil today. I literally poured some olive oil on my hands and gave each round a little rub down. My dry hands could use the olive oil love anyway.

Lay your rounds out on your baking sheet and get ready to top those babies with your yummy additions.

My first tried and true topping was artichoke antipasto with a little black pepper. Some of you may not like artichoke, I feel bad for you.

Next topping, also tried and true was salsa. Salsa and corn seem to take on a natural love affair. What I tried this time that I hadn't before, was green chili salsa. I can't wait to taste it!

Now that we have some savory and some spice, let's move on to the sweet! I really enjoyed these last time around so I'm including them again. I used organic apricot jam with a sprinkle of cinnamon. They come out like an easy going, mellow dessert.

Do you see that little guy there? I just poured some honey on him and called it a day.

Time to bake these little pretties. They take about 15 minutes, but I tend to bake mine longer for two reasons. One is because I refrigerate my polenta to leave more room in my fridge so they start off cold. Second is because I like my polenta rounds a tiny bit crispy on the edges. I'd rather save the soft polenta for a creamy dish.

You can do just about anything with these. I'm dairy free, but if I wasn't, I would be dabbing on the goat cheese with rosemary or ricotta with basil. The combinations are limitless!

If you're a meat eater you can easily add meat the the show. How about some seasoned beef or ground turkey with cheese and lettuce? Little polenta tacos!

Let me know if you try your own polenta round snacks and which one's were your favorite.

Tons of love,

Caffeine and Freckles

Weekly salad and juicing prep in less than an hour, plus some other tips!

This post is a mix of things, but it is all things food prep related. We have some lunches, some dinners, some sauces, and some stashes of veggie scraps for later use.

This morning I was able to prepare 4 days of salads for lunch, along with 4 days of juicing while the kids were getting dressed and ready for school. I'm gonna say it took about 35 minutes. I only did 4 days due to it being Wednesday already. I can start over on Sunday with something new.

Meal prep really saves me in more than one way. When I don't do it, I always wish that I had. I typically prep lunches like salads, quinoa and sauteed veggies, or a spicy veggie soup. The obvious reason is that it saves time. You don't have to make those particular meals that day, it is already done for you. You either pull it out of the fridge and enjoy, or heat and eat! The other benefit for me is that it makes it easier to eat better. If I already have a healthy meal or juice ready to enjoy, I'm not going to pull out a frozen burrito and eat it while I wade around in the waters of food guilt. Plus, you feel organized, which for me brings a little spark into my day.

Let's start with this week's lunch. It all started when I was preparing make ahead freezer meals yesterday.

I spent a few hours cooking a few meals to freeze. Keep in mind, I am a veggie loving fool, but the rest of my family won't eat them! My oldest son will eat most veggies, but when I make wonderfully healthy and delicious meals, they are usually just for me. So dinners are usually pretty plain. Any recipe I share you can easily add veggies too, if you're lucky enough to live with veggie lovers. I made 2 nights of Ground Turkey Chili, 2 nights of Indian Butter Chicken, and a night of Enchilada Casserole with homemade Enchilada Sauce. When the time comes, all I will have to do it pull it out in the morning to defrost and heat later. I can make cornbread waffles for the chili and make rice to accompany the butter chicken. The Enchilada Casserole is great with beans which are easy in the crock pot. Here's a little peek at how the freezer stash is coming along.

This is 3 nights worth of butter chicken (which I will share in another post). You simply thaw on the counter and dump the bag into your crockpot. Serve over rice and add some naan bread and you have a delicious Indian cuisine. This time I added large pieces of sweet potato to the bag, it should be a healthy, taste of sweet added to the recipe.

I have 2 bags of chili where I used half ground turkey and half organice grass fed beef. I have a bag of white chicken chili and a bag of enchilada casserole.

Here I have some things I regularly freeze so that I can either salvage them before they go bad or I've made extra of something.

I like to grate zucchini and freeze it. Remember I told you that my family won't eat veggies? Grated zucchini is perfect for hiding in meals. I use a peeler first to get rid of the dark green color, I swear to you that they will see it and it will blow my cover. I grate it like cheese and freeze it flat in a baggie. These baby bella mushrooms I got at Costco are delicious but I could not use them all in time when it's mostly just me eating them. So I cut up what I had left and tossed them in the freezer. These can be hidden well too if you dice them up small enough, they can blend in with meat and sauce. Then we have the hummus, also bought at Costco, too much for just me, so I took half of the container and froze it for later. The enchilada sauce I had made with a dinner one night and had doubled the batch. Now I have sauce ready to rock if I want to make enchiladas. Little by little the freezer will fill up.

In the midst of the cooking the freezer meals, I decided to put on a pot of lentils. I figured I could add some of them to the chili I was making and save the rest for other meals during the week (like lunch).
Lentils are easy, they just simmer. I added some chili powder and cumin, salt and pepper and the tiniest bit of ground ginger. They are a healthy and versatile addition to any meal. If you don't use all of them in the week, you can always freeze those too!

On to lunch!
I cut up some romaine, topped it with left over ground turkey (yes, we use a lot of that) that I had seasoned with lemon, garlic, and pepper, and topped it with green onions and the lentils. I stuck a wedge of lemon in the container so that I can squeeze it on the salad when it's time to eat. I kept the lentils on top of the ground turkey to avoid the greens from getting soggy. There you have it, 4 days of healthy lunches and it took about 10 minutes or less to throw together due to cooking the lentils a day before and utilitzing the left over turkey from last night's taco dinner.

Juicing! 

I love juicing and I can feel the difference when I fall off the wagon. It can get expensive when you start buying all the extra produce for juicing on top of the produce you already buy for eating. Just keep it simple. People often ask me to share juicing recipes. I'm not sure I have ever followed a juice recipe. I've always enjoyed just throwing together a few veggies and a fruit or two. I always add lemon, and I love to throw in some ginger root and turmeric root when I have it. I don't typically mix root veggies besides those too. For example, If I juice beets, I don't use carrots. It's one or the other, but this is not a rule, this is my taste buds. If you haven't tried juicing I would highly reccomend it. Contrary to what some poeple think, it is nothing like making a smoothie. For me it feels like drinking liquid vitamins. It's almost an instant high, but a healthy one.

So this morning I cut up these bad boys.

Beets, celery, green apple, and lemon. Don't toss your beet stems and leaves! You can juice those too! I kept the leaves separate, because my baggies were getting full, but I cut up the stems and they are included in the prep bag. When it's time to juice, I can throw in a leave or two along with some spinach or kale to green it up. Be careful with the beets, they will stain anything they come in contact with, including your hands, so rinse everything right away. Celery will add a little spice to your juice, so the apple is nice to put some sweetness back in. Don't be scared, cut some shit up and juice it! You will probably like it. I suggest using an apple or orange along with whatever veggies you juice to add a little sweet sauce.

I have one more tip to share. Whenever I am cutting veggies, I always save the scrap pieces. The ends of zucchini, tops of bell peppers, ends of green onion, lemon peel, the butt of a romaine heart, etc. I keep them all in a gallon freezer baggie. I just add scraps to the freezer as I cut them. Once the bag is full, it is this wonderful bag of veggie pieces wating for you to make broth out of it. Perfect and custom veggie broth, or add it to a pot of chicken broth you might be making.

It may take you months to fill up the bag, but they are frozen so they will patiently wait for you.

Meal prep doesn't have to entail a month's worth of meals and hundreds of dollars in supplies. I would love to take a stab at prepping a whole month's worth of meals and when I do I will definately share it here. A week's worth makes a huge difference though. With dinners I like to cook a double batch of whatever I'm making when I can so that I can freeze one. Or when you find something on sale you grab it and throw together a recipe to freeze. There are lots of ways to squeeze freezer meals into your week little by litte and end up with a nice stock pile of ready to go meals.

Thanks for reading about this week's meal prep!

I'll be over here staying caffeinated and freckled!

Vegetarian Skillet Breakfast (or lunch)

Quick breakfast share!

This literally took about five minutes to prepare.

1T avocado oil

1 package of mushrooms

1 can organic fire roasted tomatoes with green chili 

1 handful of organic rainbow kale 

Garlic powder

Sea salt

In my cast iron skillet, I used avocado oil while heating the pan. I sautéed the mushrooms and added the tomatoes.

After giving them a minute to cook together, I added the kale, garlic powder, and salt.

Slice up an avocado on the side and there you go.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Lemon-Ginger Turkey Quesadillas

Hello!

I'm trying to change up the seasoning on dinner meats. We LOVE Mexican food so I often season everything with cumin and chili powder. Over the weekend I made a fabulous pork roast that I will have to share with you next week, it was perfect for nachos, quesadillas, tacos, whatever.

Anyway, since it turned out so great with the crushed ginger I used, which I will be raving about in a future paragraph, I tried changing up my seasoning for tonight's ground turkey that I made quesadillas with.

I had found this frozen ground ginger on sale at Walmart for $1.00 a while back. 

On Sunday I thought, what the heck, let's throw it in the crock pot with the pork shoulder I planned on shredding. OMG! It was the perfect addition to the flavor!

Again, I'll share that with you next week as I plan on making another one.

This time I ditched the beloved cumin and chili powder and I browned the ground turkey with a zesty lemon seasoning (not the best health-wise, it has the can't be trusted "natural flavor" as an ingredient, but I have it and I used it), 2 ginger cubes, and half a lemon squeezed onto the browning meat.

These raw tortillas are a big hit in our home. They brown in just minutes and taste much more homemade than any store bought tortilla. They are also delicious with coconut oil and cinnamon-sugar! 😍)

Just a few ingredients and dinner is served. You can serve with a side dish but we were keeping it simple tonight and just had the quesadillas. Except for the girl, she isn't down with cheese so I made her a bean burrito. 

I heat one side just enough, turn it, and add the meat and cheese, fold, and flip.

Done!

The lemon flavor had just the right tang and change to be delicious. The ginger acted like a best friend and complimented the lemon just right.

Let me know if you try it!

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Vegetarian Lunch - Red Quinoa and Rice with Fire Roasted Peppers and Onions

This one is a bit of a cheat. Not a cheat as in a greasy or sweet sugar loaded meal, but a cheat as in not homemade. Still, in it's cheater fashion, it is healthy, so who cares?

I used two items. Costco sells packets of Rice and Red Quinoa and I had Trader Joe's frozen Fire Roasted Peppers and Onions.

Microwave the rice and quinoa and saute the peppers and onions in a pan. I added some garlic powder, Himalayan salt, black pepper, and red pepper.

Quinoa is very high in protein and is considered a complete protein packed full of amino acids (more information here), so there is really no nutritional need to add meat, but throw some in if it floats your boat! Water chestnuts would be a nice added crunch to this lunch.

Filling, healthy, and satisfying in a bout two minutes.

Recipe Share - Black Bean Hummus

This tasty hummus was easy to whip up, healthy, and can be used in many ways.

I used my Magic Bullet, which works great but is starting to sound like it's scraming at me. I may need to look into something new. I've made hummus a million times in it with chickpeas, it's the perfect size. I'll have to share one of those recipes soon, they are smooth and fresh without tihini or oil.

Anyway, the black bean hummus. I could spruce it up a bit but I used what I had on hand. I used it as a dip and used broken tostadas :-) I'm thinking it would be great on the side of a salad, a spread on a veggie burger (or beef), or used on a sandwhich instead of mayo. Lots of options!

So here it is!

1 15oz can black beans (I use organic)

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons minced garlic

Cumin

ceyanne pepper

black pepper

sea salt

water as needed
squeeze of lemon

I put everything in together (easy on the water at first) and blend! Add a little more water if it is too thick to blend fully. You're done! That's it! There is a lot more you can add to fancy it up but this is a nice basic recipe to throw together.

It was Shandee-tasted and approved! Thanks friend!

Enjoy!

Rotten Red

Recipe Share - Portobello Spinach Enchiladas (Freezer Meal Friendly)

These enchiladas happened spontaneously a few weeks ago when I needed to use some left over crockpot chicken. 

I decided to make chicken enchiladas and freeze them for another night. 

I also had a ton of baby portobellos that needed to be used ASAP. There are only two veggie lovers in our house so I made one tray of chicken enchiladas and one tray of veggie enchiladas to freeze.

I used whatever I had on hand. I was skeptical about how they would turn out, but was pleasantly surprised this evening when I thawed and baked them for dinner tonight.

Here's what I used:

1 package of Baby Portobellos

Corn Tortillas 

1 can organic Black Beans

1 small can Green Chilis 

1/2 Red Onion

3 handfuls of Spinach

Cumin

Chili Powder

Smoked Paprika

Garlic powder

I probably used some turmeric 

2 small cans of Hot Enchilada Sauce

Garlic Olive Oil

I think those are all the spices I used 😳 It has been a few weeks now, I hope I'm remembering them all.

1. Start off by tossing the mushrooms with oil and garlic powder and placing them on a baking sheet.  I used garlic olive oil. I baked them at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. While they are roasting, cut your red onion into whatever size you prefer and drain and rinse your beans.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the mushrooms, onion, black beans, spinach, Chilis, and seasoning. I don't measure with seasonings, so don't be shy, sprinkle it on, taste it, and add some more if you like. 

3. I try to avoid the microwave when possible, but I typically wrap the tortillas in a damp towel and nuke them for a minute or more so that they are soft and bendy for rolling. While the tortillas are getting bendy 😊, pour enough sauce in your baking dish (or disposable freezer tray) to cover the bottom of the dish/tray. 

4. Spoon about 2 large spoonfuls of the mixture into each tortilla and roll. Place each roll in the sauce covered pan. Once you pan is full, pour remaining sauce over the top to wet each enchilada.

If you are not going to freeze, add cheese and bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

If you are going to freeze, I suggest adding the cheese when you are ready to cook, only because you may want to put them in before they are fully thawed, and you don't want your cheese getting too crispy.

I thawed mine by setting them on the counter for a majority of the day. Easy dinner night!

I served it with rice and I'll be sharing the left overs with a few friends for lunch tomorrow.

What's your go-to freezer meal?

-Caffeinated and Freckled 

 

Recipe Share - Indian Style Chickpeas

I LOVE Indian food. 

I throw curry into just about anything and use turmeric whenever I can to take advantage of its many health benefits.

I threw together this quick dish of chickpeas and they turned out wonderful so I thought I would share. It was the perfect hot dish on a quiet, rainy day. I have read a few similar recipes on Pinterest and decided to add my own touch.

I cheated and used some canned items. I'm sure it would taste that much more delicious with dried chickpeas and fresh tomatoes.

This way is quick and takes just one skillet. I like using my cast iron skillet to add more iron to the food. 

1 can of chickpeas

1 can of diced tomatoes

2 Tablespoons of minced garlic

2-3 handfuls of mixed power greens

Turmeric

Garam Masala

Curry Powder

Ground Cumin

Onion Powder (because I was out of onions)

Sea Salt

Pepper

1. Heat your choice of oil in a pan. I used avocado oil. Add your chickpeas, tomatoes, and garlic. Simmer and stir occasionally until blended well. (Just a few minutes)

2. Add your seasonings. I basically did a dash of each, but went heavier on the curry and turmeric. Continue to stir and heat until most of the liquid (from canned tomatoes) is gone.

3. Add your handfuls of greens and gently push them around so that they heat. As soon as they start to wilt is when I turn my heat off, so that they do not become super wilted.

That was literally it. It was ready to enjoy. 

I was thinking cilantro and ginger would be a great addition to this dish.

You can always make a larger batch, and freeze some for another day. 

Let me know if you try it!

Enjoy!

-Caffeine and Freckled