Maple Nut Roasted Butternut Squash

When cooking a nice dinner for my love, I knew we needed a good side dish and I remembered we had bought a pack of butternut squash cubes at Costco. By the way, aren't those just so awesome and handy? Man, I am glad they are back in stock because they are delicious and so much easier than doing it yourself! Anyway, I was going to make roasted butternut squash with honey, like I usually do. But my love didn't want those at all, so I had to think on my feet. I thought adding a nutty topping might make it fun and different, so I gave it a try.

Verdict? Super awesome! Even with the maple syrup, it's not sweet like a thanksgiving dish. It just had a nice semi-sweet taste with a great crunch at the end. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of butternut squash, peeled and cubed (or one pre-cut pack from Costco)
2) 2 tablespoons ghee or butter, or coconut oil
3) 2 tablespoons maple syrup
4) 1/2 cup of nuts, your choice (I used hazelnuts, but almonds would be great too!)
5) 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) In a 9x13 pan, or a rimmed baking with silicone mat or parchment paper, add your chopped butternut squash.
3) In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of ghee and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. Stir well.

4) Pour the liquid mixture on top of your squash. Mix with your hands to ensure everything is evenly covered.

5) In a food processor or blender, grind the 1/2 cup of nuts down until small pieces, almost like flour.

6) Spread the ground nuts evenly over your squash. Sprinkle with salt.

7) Bake for 30-35 minutes, until tender to your liking.

Garlic Ghee Roasted Bok Choy

I bought another order of ghee from Pure Indian Foods the other day, and decided to try their garlic-infused ghee as well as the normal ghee we get. Not only do we really love their ghee, but the flavored ghee is so fun and has an incredible taste! I used their garlic ghee for this recipe, but you could simulate by using ghee and minced garlic. But if you are in the market for some more great cooking oils, try the garlic ghee! You won't regret it. It tastes like garlic bread in a bite!

So when we were at my parent's for Christmas, my grandmother had us over for dinner and served us the tastiest elk steak (that they hunted themselves!), and a side of grilled baby bok choy. It was amazing! Couldn't believe I had never tried that vegetable before. So once we got back to our home, I knew I wanted to try and make some type of bok choy dish. This recipe is super easy and quick in the oven.

Ingredients
1) 2 heads of baby bok choy, about 1 pound
2) 1/2 tablespoon garlic ghee, or ghee/butter/coconut oil + minced garlic
3) 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt
4) Dash of pepper

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400. Wash your bok choy. Take each of the leaves off and wash them thoroughly. They'll probably have a lot of dirt on them. No worries!
2) Place your leaves in a 9x13 cooking dish, or on a lined baking sheet.

3) Melt your ghee and drizzle it evenly over your entire dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Start with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. If you think it needs more, add after cooking and you've tasted it.

4) Cook for 8-15 minutes, until done to your desire. If you want some crunch still, aim for 8-10 minutes. I like mine cooked more so we did about 13 minutes.

Cauliflower Rice Taco Bowl

This is a super lazy recipe, but also very delicious! Sometimes we have even made it with regular rice instead of cauliflower rice, when we felt we needed some extra carbohydrates after a tough workout.

I made the rice just like Melissa Joulwan recommended on her blog, and that was in the oven. So much easier!

It's essentially a taco, so you can add whatever you normally like on your tacos. We are pretty plain, so we just like meat, tomatoes and guacamole. If you do sour cream or cheese, you could certainly add those.

Ingredients
1) 1 pound ground beef
2) 1 head of cauliflower (or 1 package of florets), made into cauliflower rice (or use regular rice if you eat it!)
3) 1-2 cups of salsa
Toppings: Any you'd like----we added diced tomatoes and guacamole. But I would have also loved some sliced olives on top, too! And shredded lettuce, if we had it on hand.

**Servings: 4**

Instructions
1) Make your cauliflower rice or regular rice. Plenty of recipes out there!
2) While your rice is cooking, heat up a large skillet over medium high heat. Add your ground beef and break into small pieces as it cooks.
3) Once the meat is cooked, you can drain some of the grease remaining if you had some cook off (we used 75%, so we had about 1/4 cup that we drained off).

4) Add in 1 cup of salsa and stir. Does it look moist enough and flavored enough for you? If not, add some more salsa. I like A LOT of salsa in my ground beef so I added about 2 cups.

5) Make your bowl: add some rice, your meat, and whatever toppings you want. We added diced tomatoes and some guacamole and this was an awesome dinner indeed!

Chorizo Potato Hash

I made this for dinner because breakfast for dinner is amazing. We were watching an episode of The Taste on tv, and they were cooking with chorizo and I was definitely inspired to do the same. I had a bunch of peppers that were about to go old, so they were perfect for this recipe.

You will not regret making this dish. You will only regret not making more! It's comforting and delicious.

Ingredients

1) 1 pound of chorizo

2) 1 pound of potatoes

3) 2-3 bell peppers of your choice (I had red, orange and yellow on hand)

4) Salt and pepper, to taste

5) Optional: 4 eggs

Instructions

1) Heat up a large skillet over medium high heat.

2) Dice your peppers and potatoes into small-sized cubes.

3) Remove the casing from your chorizo, and chop into small-sized cubes.

4) Add the chorizo to the pan when it is hot. Cook for 5 minutes until it releases liquid and starts to brown.

5) Add in your potatoes and peppers. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

6) Time to eat! Add on a fried egg on top if desired, it will make everyone happy!

Banana Coconut Popcicles

It has been a very long time since I have posted----school is kicking my butt and keeping me VERY busy. But I am vowing to try and post again and add some extra recipes to the blog. I've already got a few ideas...

So this recipe was entirely created by my fiance, and he absolutely nailed it! Super simple, and really delicious. Using ripe bananas will make it even sweeter! Enjoy!

Ingredients
1) 3 bananas
2) 1 cup of coconut milk

Instructions
1) Add all the ingredients to a blender.

2) Mix until smooth.

3) Pour into a popsicle mold, and let chill for at least 4 hours or until firm.

Salty Citrus Kombucha

We have been trying our hand at creating some new flavors of kombucha, versus our normal one fruit variety that we normally drink. This version was a take on a new flavor we tried at the store, and we really enjoyed the outcome.

You could use any variety of citrus juice that you like or have on hand. The orange juice helps balance the other, more sour, juices so I would definitely keep that one in this no matter how you alter it. The sea salt helps add some depth to the flavor and helps with electrolyte balance too, so it's a win-win.

Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients
1) 24-28 ounces of unflavored kombucha
2) 1/4 cup of orange juice
3) 1/4 cup of grapefruit juice
4) 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, or lime juice, or 1 tablespoon of each (which is what I did)
5) 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

Instructions
1) Add your citrus juices and sea salt to a 32 ounce jar, and stir.
2) Fill up the rest of the jar with kombucha and mix.
3) Put in the fridge to drink right away, or keep on the counter for a day to add carbonation before you refrigerate.

Green Beef Scramble

This recipe was inspired by an episode of something on the Food Network I happened to catch while browsing cable when we were staying at a hotel recently. The recipe was one of those late night specials that the people raved they would love to eat after a few drinks at 2 a.m.

So as soon as we got home from the hotel, I wanted to try and make the same concept and see how it tasted. Beef plus some chopped up greens and a few eggs. Simple enough! This came together really easily and ended up being a delicious lunch, but would be great for breakfast or dinner as well!

Ingredients
1) 1 pound of ground beef
2) 1 onion, diced
3) 4-6 cups of diced greens (kale or spinach)
4) 4 eggs
5) Salt & Pepper

**Servings: 3-4**

Instructions
1) Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add your ground beef and break up into small pieces with a wooden spoon.
2) Chop up your onion, and then add it to your ground beef mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes, until the onions are soft and beef is cooked thoroughly. Lower heat to medium at this time.

3) Chop your chosen green, and add to your mixture. Cook for 5 minutes, until wilted.

4) Mix your eggs together in a separate bowl, and add some more salt and pepper to them.
5) Pour the eggs into the mixture, and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the eggs have cooked up. Serve and enjoy!