Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

Spaghetti Squash, yummy!

Spaghetti squash is a nice alternative to traditional spaghetti, when making spaghetti and meatballs. It's fun to make and really simple. One medium sized squash produces enough noodles for two to three people, although if you have big eaters you may want to get two. The texture of spaghetti squash noodles is a bit different than that of regular spaghetti, but not too different as to be unpleasant or weird.

I have never made meatballs before, I got the recipe from Mark's Daily Apple and they turned out great. I didn't have rendered bacon fat so at first I used olive oil. Using olive oil, the meatballs stuck to pan really bad. They still turned out okay, but it was a bit frustrating. Halfway through I switched to shortening, which ended up working a lot better than the oil. If you have rendered bacon fat, I have a good feeling that it would work the best and it probably add some nice bacon flavor to your meatballs.

Feeds about four

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized spaghetti squash
• marinara sauce of your choice
  
• 1 lb ground beef
  
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme, minced
• 1 long sprig fresh oregano, minced
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• A few grinds black pepper
• 1/4 cup cream - optional
  
• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan - optional
  
• 1/4 cup rendered bacon fat

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pierce the squash several times with a knife or other sharp instrument. Place squash on a baking pan and bake for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes -- it's ready when you can pierce it without any resistance.

While the spaghetti squash is baking, prepare the meatballs. First remove the sausages from their linings. Then combine all the ingredients--except the bacon fat-- into a bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Roll the meat mixture into balls, about the size you would for cookies. To ease this process you may want to put some olive oil on your hands to prevent the meat mixture from sticking to them. In a saute pan heat the bacon fat over medium, once the fat is hot add several meatballs, fry until the bottoms are brown, about 5-7 minutes. Then flip the meatballs over and fry until that side is browned, another 5-7 minutes.

Once the squash is done let cool for about 5-10 minutes. This is a good time to start warming the marinara sauce. Once the squash has cooled enough for you to handle, cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Then using a fork scrape out the inside. The insides should be easy to remove and should come out stringy, looking like noodles.

Top the squash noodles with meatballs and add marinara sauce.

This is a hardy recipe that will fill you up. I can't wait to try making the meatballs again, but with bacon fat instead of shortening. The meatballs did turn out really tasty even though I did burn the outsides of a few. I bake my spaghetti squash for an hour and fifteen minutes or longer I like my noodles to be soft, so I opt for a longer baking time.

Bolognese Stuffed Peppers

I decided to make this recipe, because a month or so back I made some stuffed peppers and the recipe I used made the meat on the inside really dry and the meat alone wasn't very flavorful. If you ate the meat with the pepper it wasn't too bad, but I wanted something that was tasty throughout.

This recipe was very good. the meat on the inside was flavorful and juicy. If there was one thing the stuffing may have been a little runny, but it was still really tasty.

Feeds about 3

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated cauliflower (rice substitute)
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/8 cup minced carrots
• 1/8 cup celery - I had celeriac left over from my soup so I used that instead of regular celery
  
• 6 bell peppers (any color) stems and seeds removed
  
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/4 pound smoked bacon, diced
• 1 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup heavy cream - optional
  
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided - optional

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Microwave the grated rice for about one minute, set aside

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook and stir carrots and celery until tender. Add ground beef and bacon, and cook until browned. Add marinara sauce, wine, and red pepper flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cream, half of the Parmesan cheese, and cauliflower. Simmer until the liquid has been mostly absorbed.

Place peppers in a shallow baking dish, and fill with beef mixture. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve while hot.


Enjoy!

Stuffed Eggplant: From Mark's Daily Apple

Sliced Eggplant

Mark's Daily Apple is the site that first turned me on to primal eating. There are a bunch of recipes on his site and I can't wait to them try out. The spicy stuffed eggplant entree was the first primal recipe I ever, intentionally, tried. I originally made it last winter for my boyfriend and his brothers family and it was a huge hit--everyone loved it, even those who thought that they would never want to try eggplant in their life. Personally, I love eggplant, but you don't need to love it to love this recipe.

Feeds about four

Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
5 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
8 oz ground beef, bison or pork, cooked
Salt and Pepper to taste

First be sure to pre-cook the meat in a skillet. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Scoop out and keep the innards of the eggplant leaving about a 1/4 of an inch to create a bowl. Chop up the eggplants innards then set aside. Heat half of the olive oil in a large skillet and place the eggplant flat side down in the skillet and cook for about five minutes. Once that is finished place the eggplant flat side up onto a cookie sheet or oven safe dish. Add the rest of the olive oil to the skillet then saute the onions and garlic. Then add eggplant, tomatoes, thyme, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to the skillet. Once it gets to a stew-like consistency remove from heat and mix in the cooked meat. Fill the eggplant bowls with the meat mixture and place in the oven for 15 minutes.

Mark's blog calls this recipe spicy stuffed eggplant. I for one am a spicy whimp, this recipe was not terribly spicy. I was able to eat it with ease.

Celeriac Soup: From Freshtopia

Celeriac, with its gnarly outside and its white inside

I have never been much of a fan for celery, but a few days ago I was flipping through TV channels and noticed a woman holding a large, ugly, root in her hand. I was compelled to stop and learn more about this interesting looking vegetable. Come to find out it was celeriac--otherwise known as celery root. On the show they were making celeriac-potato soup. I watched for a bit and found that although the root is funky looking when you purchase it, once it has been pared and chopped it has a gorgeous white interior. I also learned that celeriac's taste is more mild than that of celery, which further increased my interest.

A few days later I was in the market and saw a bin full of celeriac. I knew we had some potatoes at home so I thought I would make the celeriac-potato soup I saw on the show. However, once I got home and looked up the recipe I realized it called for red potatoes and all we had were backing potatoes. So I decided to put the soup off for awhile. A few days later I started browsing the internet looking for celeriac recipes and stumble upon this little gem from freshtopia. It has a wonderful flavor and can be eaten cold or warmed up. It is a raw recipe which is great since I enjoy trying foods from differing genres, although I'm not convinced that genre is the appropriate word to use in this context.

Feeds about four

Recipe:

Ingredients:
4 cups of celeriac - pared, chopped
2 cups of water
1 cup of fennel chopped
1/2 cup of apple chopped - your favorite kind
1/2 cup of macadamia nuts - soaked for an hour +
1/4 cup onion - chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons of fresh tarragon - minced, save a couple of leaves for garnish if you wish
1 lemon
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Once you have chopped your celeriac soak it in 2 cups of water with the juice of 1 lemon, this keeps the celeriac from turning brown and preserves its nice white color. I put the apples in the lemon water as well to keep them from browning while I chopped and prepped the other ingredients.

Place all of the ingredients, other than the olive oil, salt and pepper , into the blender. Be sure to include the lemon water that your celeriac was soaking in. Blend until fairly smooth. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Blend until really smooth. Now, if you want a smoother soup you can strain it--I like it a bit chunky so I just left it. It is a nice, hearty soup that can be eaten cold or heated up depending on your preference. I tried it both ways and both were very tasty. On a cold day though, I'm sure warming it up would be a wonderful treat.

This soup was very good. I was really surprised by how flavorful it was. I tend not to be a huge fan of fennel either, but the combination in this soup was very nice. I highly recommend it. Another delightful part of this recipe is when you chop up the celeriac you get a beautiful, soft celery smell. The smell of celery is typically to strong for me, but the scent of the celeriac is a mild, delicate version of celery. I find it much more pleasing.