Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque

It is freezing today, and nothing's better on a cold day than a warm bowl of soup! Enter roasted butternut squash bisque:

Ingredients:
*1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
*Half an onion, peeled and sliced
*Handful of carrots, washed
*3 T oil (I used avocado oil)
*1 t garam masala
*1 t cayenne pepper
*1/2 t salt
*1/2 t cinnamon
*2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
*2 C chicken stock
*3/4 C heavy cream
*Red pepper flakes and chopped bacon for garnish (optional)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place squash, onion, carrots and garlic in a pyrex dish
3. Sprinkle with spices and salt, drizzle with oil
4. Toss together to coat
5. Bake 45-60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes until beginning to brown
6. Remove from oven, place in pot with remaining ingredients
7. Blend with a stick blender until smooth (hand beaters may work for this, too, but it will probably take longer)
8. Heat on stove top until warm enough to serve
9. (Optional) Pour into bowls and garnish with bacon and pepper flakes
10. Enjoy!

I served the soup with warm, cheesy biscuits adapted from here. I used butter instead of coconut oil, and added 1/2 t garlic powder plus an extra 1/2 C cheddar cheese to Laura's recipe. Yum :)

Pizza Two Ways

 One: Lazy Man's Pizza
1. Scoop the stems out of button mushrooms
2. Fill with sauce and toppings of choice
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes
4. Broil until cheese is warm and bubbly

Two: Coconut Flour Crust

1. Blend 2 T coconut flour, 2 T ground flaxseed, 1/4 t baking powder, 2 eggs and spices of choice

2. Stir in 1 C shredded mozzarella and 1 C shredded parmesan

3. Spread thinly on a very well greased baking sheet

4. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees flipping halfway through

5. Top with sauce and toppings of choice

6. Broil until cheese is warm and bubbly

A Not-So-Primal (But Totally Delicious) Dinner

I do in fact realize that rice is a grain, and we don't usually keep it in the house, but it's a pretty benign grain, in my opinion. Also, we love sushi, so we'll make the exception for this meal since it doesn't include any rancid oils or gluten. Besides, fish and seaweed are healthy and delicious :)

Sushi making is so much easier than I would have expected. I've had more difficulty making broccoli cheddar soup!
First, prepare the sushi rice. This involves mixing 2 cups water and 2 cups sushi rice (don't substitute any other variety of rice- sushi rice can be found at an Asian market or in the ethnic aisle at Giant Eagle), bringing to a boil, removing from heat, and letting sit, covered, until the water is completely absorbed by the rice (about 15-20 minutes). While rice is sitting, blend 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup rice vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt. Once rice has cooked, stir in mixture and let come to room temperature.

Fillings for the sushi can be pretty much anything. We like julienned carrots, peppers and cucumber, scallions, cream cheese, avocado, fish and spicy mayo (1 cup homemade mayo+1 drop extra stevia+1 splash extra lemon juice+1 T spicy garlic chili sauce). We do all different combinations, all are very good. Last night, we tried cooked fish for the first time (mahi) and it was just as delicious as our raw ahi tuna.

I won't list instructions for rolling sushi, because they're ubiquitous on the web. Here's a straightforward tutorial I like: http://sushiday.com/archives/2006/10/26/how-to-roll-maki-sushi/

 Dip in gluten free tamari and wasabi. Yummy!

Roasted sweet potato "fries" and homemade spicy ranch

This recipe is a family favorite and very simple, too! Without further ado, I give you sweet potato "fries":

Ingredients for "fries":

*3 lb sweet potatoes

*6 T oil (I use olive oil but melted coconut oil would work well, too)

*1/2 t salt

*1/2 t garlic powder

*1/2 t paprika 

*1/2 t pepper

Directions for fries:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Slice sweet potatoes into rounds about 1/2 inch thick, then slice rounds in half. If they are large sweet potatoes, you may have to slice the rounds in thirds. 

3. Toss potatoes in oil, salt, garlic powder, paprika and pepper. 

4. Spread onto baking pan, trying to overlap the sweet potatoes as little as possible. I used 2 pans for this recipe

5. Bake 30-40 minutes, until soft and starting to caramelize, stirring every 10-15 minutes

6. Serve with spicy ranch for dipping (recipe below)

Ingredients for spicy ranch:

*2 egg yolks

*1/2 t mustard

*1/2 t salt

*1/4 C light olive oil (must be light, or use almond/avocado oil)

*2 drops liquid stevia

*Splash lemon juice

*1/2 C sour cream

*1/2 t garlic powder

*1 t dill

*1 t parsley

*1 1/2 t fresh chives, diced

*1 1/2 t cayenne pepper

*additional salt to taste

Directions for spicy ranch:

(For this recipe, I use hand beaters and a glass jar with just enough height and width to fit one beater inside touching the bottom, I've found this is easiest)

1. Beat egg yolks, mustard and salt until egg is frothy

2. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while beating the mixture. You are trying to get the mixture to emulsify, so you must drizzle the oil very slowly and make sure each drop is getting fully incorporated. I've found using an olive oil cruet (for salad dressing) makes drizzling the oil at a steady pace easiest.

3. At this point, you should have essentially mayonnaise. If it is not the thickness of mayonnaise, add more oil (I know it's counter-intuitive, but it works, trust me!)

4. Add 2 drops liquid stevia (try subbing 1 t honey if you don't have liquid stevia) and a splash of lemon juice. You can taste at this point if you like, it should taste like mayonnaise.

5. Add remaining ingredients, blend well. Taste and add additional cayenne or salt to taste if desired. 

6. Enjoy :)

Coconut Flour Pumpkin Pancakes

Nothing's better than pumpkin baked goods on a cool fall morning. 

Ingredients:

*2 eggs

*2 T heavy cream

*1 t vanilla extract

*Dash cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg

*1/2 t baking soda

*2 T pumpkin puree

*1 t honey

*4 T coconut flour

*2 T soda water

*Butter to grease pan

Steps:

1. Blend eggs, cream, vanilla, spices, baking soda, pumpkin puree and honey with hand beaters

2. Slowly add coconut flour while blending. Blend until smooth.

3. Gently stir in soda water by hand.

4. Scoop mixture by the tablespoon onto buttered, preheated pan

 5. Cook on low (very important to keep it on low as coconut flour tends to burn easily) until the bottoms are browned, then flip. Continue cooking until cooked through.

6. Serve topped with a dollop of butter, whipped cream and/or maple syrup.

7. Enjoy!!

Butternut squash lasagna

Since we finally got our much coveted mandolin, we decided to tackle butternut squash lasagna! It's a multi-step recipe, but it was well worth the effort.

Ingredients:
*1 small butternut squash
*1 jar pasta sauce (preferably without HCFS or nasty oils, I look for one with olive oil) or make your own (we used a 28 oz jar of crushed tomatoes, plus an 8 oz jar of diced tomatoes and added olive oil, fresh garlic, oregano, basil, dry italian seasoning, onions, salt, pepper and chili flakes)
*8 oz of mozzarella cheese, shredded
*1 cup ricotta cheese
*1 pound ground meat or sausage

Steps:
1. Peel squash (easiest with a vegetable peeler) and slice into strips approximately 1/4 inch wide (easiest with a mandolin :) )
2. Brown ground meat or sausage in pan in a small amount of olive oil
3. Spread 1/4 of the sauce on the bottom of a 9'x13' baking pan
4. Cover the sauce with a single layer of butternut squash slices
5. Spread the next 1/4 of the sauce over the squash
6. Dollop ricotta over sauce and spread with a spatula
7. Repeat steps 4 & 5
8. Spread ground meat over the sauce

9. Repeat steps 4&5
10. Top with shredded mozzarella, and optionally parmesan cheese and pepper flakes

11. Bake at 400 degrees, 45 minutes covered with foil
12. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes
13. If top is not properly browned, broil until the cheese is bubbly

WANT.

This is so fantastic. Want want want want.

Indulge Your Desire for Precision With the OCD Cutting Board

 Adrian Covert — Like perfectly-sized portions? Want to cut your sandwich at a perfect 45 degree angle? Need to know how to julienne? Allumette? Dice? Slice? The OCD cutting board provides a highly-scientific way to break your food apart. [The Awesomer viaCrunchGear]