What’s Cooking #1

I like to cook, I know that’s seems rare these day where it’s so easy to just have food from anywhere show up on your doorstep. I usually tend to stick to the same probably 5 recipes and just rotate through them. I actually wouldn’t call them recipes it’s usually pretty basic stuff chicken and brussel sprouts, Italian sausage and asparagus, spaghetti. It’s pretty boring actually. I decided I needed to find so new recipes to make and also tried to find healthy one.

One of my favorite follows on instagram is an account called PeaceLoveandLowCarb, her name is Kyndra. She shares lots on recipes and even had a bunch of cookbooks. I have her last one called The Primal Low-Carb Kitchen. I had made a recipe in it for sweet potato tots and it was delicious. Then we moved and were living temporarily with my parents while we worked on buying out new house. The book got lost in storage and it made me sad to not be able to use it for a while. Well now it’s out of storage and I got the motivation to shop for ingredients and make some healthy dinners.

Kyndra also has a website that has lots of information and recipes on it also. You can find it here.  If you can’t buy the book right now, which you should because it’s great!, you can find lots of recipes on her site to make. All the ones I’ve made so far have been delicious and not complicated to make. Nothing  turns me off from a recipe faster then when you need 75 ingredients and 2 hours to prep it.

I wanted to tell you about two of the recipes we made this week the we will definitely be making again. They were not complicated and didn’t have a ton of igredients, delicious and best of all they were healthy!

The first one was Carmelized Onion and Prosciutto “Mac” and Cheese. I won’t put actual recipe here on my blog, since it’s not my recipe, but I linked it above if you want to make it. It was made with cauliflower in place of pasta, the sauce was made with 3 kinds of cheese and you mix in crispy prosciutto! I know what you’re thinking, cauliflower really?? That can’t possibly be as good as the real deal pasta? Wrong!! It’s just as good and you won’t feel guilty after eating a bowl of it. I actually added a little bacon that my husband made this past weekend. Yes he makes his own bacon, flavors and smokes it all himself and it’s delicious and it’s hard to eat store bought bacon anymore!

The recipe was easy you basically just steam the cauliflower, caramelize the onions, crisp the prosciutto, make the sauce, then layer it in a baking pan and bake it. In the end you get cheesy not guilty goodness! I actually was eating some of the left overs while writing this post. It was actually even better the second time!

That’s the condensed version, it’s a little more involved so definitely check out the linked recipe above and make it for yourself! Here’s the delicious finished product!

The second recipe was not as amazing as the first one but it was still quite good and I would also recommend it. It was Mexican Spaghetti Squash Taco Bake. In this one you cook the spaghetti squash. I used my Instant Pot because it took about 15 min as opposed to 45 min in the oven! I have hungry husband when he gets home from work and don’t have 45 min to wait for one ingredient to cook.

Once the squash is cooked, remove the seeds and discard, then scoop out the insides into a 9×9 casserole pan. Cook 1 lb of ground beef with taco seasoning. I took a short cut and used taco seasoning in a packet, but Kyndra has a recipe for making a homemade taco seasoning and it’s better for you but I didn’t have time for that.

From there you layer the taco meat on top of the spaghetti squash. Next you add a layer of tomato and green chili and finish it off with a layer of 1 cup of cheddar cheese. In the original recipe it has you layer jalapeno and black olives on top of the cheese. I don’t like either of those so I left the jalapeno off and only put black olives on one half for my husband. I also made the mistake of getting chopped olives instead of sliced. I didn’t realize there was a difference at the store. Oops.

Once it’s all ready to go you bake in the over at 350 for 20 min. It comes out as a hot bubbly delicious healthy taco Tuesday alternative.

The only notes I’d make for next time would be to find a way to drain the spaghetti squash a little better. I left it in the hot pan like the directions stated, but it still had a lot of water in the bottom of the pan after baking. I’m not sure what the best route would be if I should strain them or press them on paper towel. I’ll work on it for next time, but even with the extra water it was still delicious!!

I couldn’t find this recipe on Kyndra’s site so you’ll have to get the book to get the full recipe and you definitely should because it supports her so she can continue to crate more delicious recipes for us to enjoy, but mainly because the book it full of great recipes from breakfast to appetizers to dessert. It even includes snacks, spice mixes and sauces.

Do you have any cookbooks you love to use? I’m always looking for good ones so leave me a comment and let me know which one’s I should check out next!

As always be sure to enter you email over there on the left and follow me! I love gaining new followers and it lets me know someone out there is reading. Knowing someone’s reading makes me happy and I love to be happy!

Til next time!