Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Walnut Lentil Sauce

Okay so normally the recipes I make include oats, nutbutter, flaxseed, or greek yogurt. So I am super proud of this spaghetti squash recipe because it turned out wonderfully!! The sauce is so thick and flavorful and the spaghetti squash was a great low-carb alternative to regular noodles. 

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

1 can of tomato sauce 

1 tbsp of tomato paste

10 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/2 cup green lentils 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 Tbsp parsley

1 Tbsp oregano 

2 Tbsp basil 

1 garlic glove, chopped finely 

1 handful of spinach 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375. While that heats up cut your spaghetti squash in half, scrape out the seeds, spray with cooking spray (I used coconut oil cooking spray), and lay face down on a baking sheet. 

2. Place spaghetti squash in the oven for 45 minutes.

3. While that roasts in the oven, combine all of the other ingredients into a pot on the stove. Bring sauce to a boil, stir, and then let simmer until the 45 minutes are up! Stir every 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Take the spaghetti squash out of the oven, scrape the insides and get excited because it literally looks just like spaghetti noodles which is too cool! 

5. Serve spaghetti squash with a big spoonful of sauce and enjoy!

The sauce is awesome. Cort loved it as well. The walnuts were my favorite part, they gave it a nice crunch that you wouldn't normally think of adding to a sauce.

 I had it again the next day for lunch and it was just as delicious. 

I also made another batch of Nuttzo banana muffins last night. Mostly because I was procrastinating and didn't feel like studying, and also because they are so delicious. This time I added a packet of chocolate Vega Protein Powder. 

Well I have two more finals to go and then it is finally SUMMER! Can't wait. Have a good week everyone! 

Nuts for Nuttzo!

This post is going to be one big scattered mess because that is what the past two weeks have been like. We are finally moved in to our new place and it is awesome! But we had a heck of a time getting settled in. We still have no couch (it was backordered until this Saturday), and have had construction guys working in the bathroom all week but everything is slowly coming together!

I am absolutely in love with my our new kitchen and have been making a bunch of yummy dinners lately. 

Except our first night here. I was exhausted from moving and really didn't feel like making dinner so we decided to throw together a protein smoothie. Vanilla Vega Sport protein is what I like to use. I then added a frozen banana, frozen mango, plain FAGE yogurt, and two large handfuls of spinach for a nutritional kick! 

After stocking our fridge with all the essentials, I stepped it up a notch and started getting fancy in the kitchen.

 I made a batch of Nut Butter Runner's "Banana Nuttzo Mini Muffins", this recipe is so easy and Cort and I ate the whole batch in a just a few days. 

I had one on a delicious little snack plate, and then paired it with my Chunky Monkey Greek Yogurt Ice Cream. As if that dessert could get any better. =)

So if you haven't seen my posts on twitter or instagram, I've become obsessed with Nuttzo. I got a jar after reading about it on other blogs and I really shouldn't have. Because it is so darn good, like I can't stop eating it.

Besides using it in those muffins, I have made delicious oatmeal with it...

And I made Cort Nuttzo stuffed french toast with it...

SO GOOD. I buy mine at Whole Foods, but if you don't live near a Whole Foods (which is a shame, darn you Mechanicsburg), you can order it here. Now is it more expensive than most nut butters? Yes. But that's because it is high quality and delicious and totally worth it. In fact, just take a look at the ingredients in the original flavor... "Organic Peanuts, Organic Cashews, Organic Almonds, Organic Brazilian Nuts, Organic Sunflower Seeds, Organic Flax Seeds, Organic Hazelnuts, Sea Salt." 

 Nothing artificial, all healthy nuts and seeds. It is the perfect way to refuel after a workout. I am officially nuts for NUTTZO! =) 

Mashed Butternut Squash and Sprinkles!

I am getting stressed. We have to move out in a week and I have so much to study it's insane. I cannot wait until my last final is over and we can enjoy our new place!!!

This past week flew by and I have a lot of yummy food pictures to share.

First up, mashed butternut squash. I grabbed a container of pre-cut butternut squash at Whole Foods to make the process 10x easier.

I put all of the cubes in a boiling pot of water for about 35 minutes to make sure they were totally soft.

I then mashed up all of the cubes, added 1 Tbsp of olive oil and about 1/2 cup of coconut/almond milk and mixed it all up. And that's it! Super easy and they were awesome. I had them for dinner with salmon and asparagus and then again the next day on a tuna salad.

I added some garam masala on top of the squash for lunch which gave it a kick! Garam masala is this new spice I got, it's a mixture of coriander, green&black cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, and cumin. I just saw the word cinnamon and knew I'd like it. 

Saturday night was date night as usual! Cort and I headed to Beverly Hills to have dinner at a french bistro called Bouchon. The restaurant was really pretty and I loved that they gave us pistachios to snack on while we waited for our meal.

 However, I was pretty bummed with my dish, it tasted good but it was super plain and I'm all about creativity.

See what I mean? And the whole head on the fish thing was definitely freaking me out. But the fish itself was cooked perfectly so I can't complain! 

Cort ordered the escargot which is his absolute favorite so he was a happy camper. 

I couldn't get over the little puff pastries on top, too cute!

=)

So naturally we couldn't leave Beverly Hills without making a stop at Sprinkles. It was about a half mile away and it felt really nice to take a walk after dinner. 

Sprinkles Ice Cream is so cute inside and their flavors are delicious. We both went with a double scoop of the red velvet. 

Oh yeah and right outside there was a "Cupcake ATM". This just cracks me up. 

Okay well I am off to study Anthropology and Drugs and Ergogenic Aids in Sport and Weight Control, sounds super interesting right? Summer where are you?!?

Grain Free, Sugar Free, Vegan Brownie Bake!

Hello!

I'm going to start off this post with this picture, simply because this cupcake was amazing...

That beauty is the s'mores cupcake from Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills. Cort and I stopped by Saturday afternoon and it did not disappoint. As soon as I read the description for this I was sold... "graham cracker-lined Belgian dark chocolate cake filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and topped with toasted marshmallow frosting." Yeah I'm not sure how you could say no to that. 

So there is less than 2 weeks of classes left and I am totally overwhelmed with the amount of information I am expected to memorize for finals. And on top of that Cort and I are moving out in 12 days so we are trying to get everything together. We did end up finally ordering a really awesome couch and dining room table for our new place so I am SO excited to move in and set everything up!!

Anyways, when I don't feel like memorizing facts that I will most likely forget in a month, I procrastinate with baking. I decided to try and make a healthy brownie recipe that includes absolutely NO artificial sweeteners or added sugar... no maple syrup, agave, stevia, protein powder etc.

For the wet ingredients I ended up using a nice ripe banana for some sweetness, half of an avocado to make it nice and creamy, unsweetened applesauce to replace the egg, and some almond milk. All natural ingredients all the way baby!

For the dry ingredients I used coconut flour, almond flour, flax meal, cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa powder, and baking powder.

 Mix it all together and you have yourself a grain free, sugar free, vegan brownie bake! (At this point I was tempted to just eat all of the batter because there is no egg and it tasted like chocolate pudding).

Grain Free, Sugar Free, Vegan Brownie Bake Recipe 

Serves 4

Ingredients: 

1/2 of an avocado

1 ripe banana

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup almond milk 

3 Tbsp coconut flour

2 Tbsp almond flour

1 Tbsp ground flax meal 

2 Tbsp cinnamon 

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder 

Directions:

1. Mash avocado and banana together with a fork until relatively smooth

2. Mix in applesauce and almond milk

3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients 

4. Put in cupcake tins, a cake tin, or a bread tin and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 min 

It came out of the oven looking pretty fabulous, but I will admit the texture is a bit gooey so you may want to add more flour. 

I had a huge piece with some frozen greek yogurt, and chocolate PB2 mixed with almond milk to get a thick peanut-buttery sauce to put on top! Perfect!

Dinner was also quite delicious. I made myself a mixture of cauliflower rice, lentils, steamed broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and kale.

And for all of the meat lovers out there, Cort's dinner will probably be more appealing...

He made a stir-fry with sausage, orange peppers, sweet potato, avocado, tomatoes, and cauliflower rice. Quite the Chef, I was impressed! 

Okay well that is all for now, I hope everyone has an awesome week! 

Paprika Cauliflower Rice

Ever since I saw this post on Delighted Momma's blog, I have been obsessed with "cauliflower rice". It is hands down the easiest recipe I've ever posted, so even if the only thing you know how to make is a bowl of cereal, you can handle this with no problem at all!

You can either buy a head of cauliflower, or if you want to make it even easier just buy the pre-cut cauliflower florets like I did.

Put a few pieces of the cauliflower into your food processor or blender and blend until it is the consistency of rice. I did a few pieces at a time because it seemed to get clogged if I added too much at once.

                         

  Scrape it out into a microwaveable safe bowl.

Microwave for 5 and a half minutes. No water added. You'll see how much moisture the cauliflower creates on it's own.

That's it!! You will have perfectly cooked cauliflower rice. I added in some smoked paprika, along with some roasted zucchini, tomatoes, and carrots.

I roasted the vegetables in the oven at 375 for 30 minutes.

It's like a healthy version of veggie fried rice. Same awesome flavor without the frying part, and it's grain free!

Last night I enjoyed mine with baked cod...

...but I've also made it with shrimp and it was the bomb!

If you don't have paprika, my mom really enjoys hers with just a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Try it out and let me know what you think!