Lasagna

Lasagna?! Thats totallly the least Clean ( I guess the dirtiest?) thing you could eat.  Layers of Pasta and various types of cheese. Yummy? Yes. Belly Ache? Yes. So I found this recipe for Paleo Primal Lasagna and changed it up slightly.  The noodles are made out of egg which is a really good idea, i've heard of other lasagna's using eggplant, zucchini, and other veggies as the noodles, but I like how the egg noodles really give it the lasagna-y feel.  In my lasagna I used egg "noodles", spinach, Rao's marinara sauce, mushrooms, ground turkey, and sausage.  This was a really yummy and filling meal that I will probably be eating for the next few days for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It was a little time consuming to make the noodles, so this is probably a good sunday night recipe, then you have some meals prepped for the week. Also, I always like to mention, find your favorite pandora station before you start..My Lasagna Pandora station was James Morrison and then switched it up to Duffy ( who is new to me but I kinda dig her) Anywayyyyy that has nothing to do with lasagna, so here it is..

You will need:

- 1 lb ground turkey or ground beef-- if you don't want sausage in your lasagna use 1.5 lbs of ground meat.
- 1 package sweet italian sausage--casing removed.
- 1 package mushrooms
- 1 bag of spinach ( or more if you want more veggies-- even one bag reduced to less than a cup)
- 1 large jar of your favorite marinara ( I like Rao's, or you could make your own if you're feeling ambitious)
- 6 eggs
- 6 tbs water
- coconut oil for sauteeing veggies and frying egg.
- sea salt and pepper for taste

1. preheat oven to 350
2. first brown ground turkey and sausage in one pan.  Add mushrooms when meat is almost done. Set aside when all meat is browned.

3.  Sautee spinach in coconut oil and set aside
4. Here is the time consuming part: wisk eggs and water in a bowl, and heat coconut oil( only use enough to lightly grease the pan) over medium high heat in a small frying pan.
5. Use a measuring cup to slowly add egg to frying pan, only putting enough egg in to lightly cover the bottom of the pan.

6. Flip it and cut it into sections, these noodles do not have to be perfect, they will probably fall apart a bit, but its okay!

7. Do this with the remainder of the egg, setting the noodles on a plate to the side.

8. The fun part, start by putting a little bit of sauce into the bottom of a baking dish

9. layer the bottom of the dish with your noodles, remember doesn't have to be perfect just cover the bottom.

10. add some spinach

11. I dumped half the jar of sauce into the meat mixture, and then layered the meat on.

12. continue until you've used up all your ingredients.  I only got two layers of each, I think the recipe I followed must have used a smaller dish because the picture showed alot more lasagna layers.

13. Dump the rest of the sauce on ( if you like it saucccyyyy)
14. Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes.  I sprinkled a little parm cheese ontop just for looks.  The website I got this from actually used mozz.cheese in the layers of lasagna. Which would be delish, but i'm trying to be extra good this week after I may have had regular pizza this weekend. Ooops.

Enjoy your Clean Eats Lasagna !

Zucchini Pancakes

Here is the recipe I left you guys hanging for the other day ( i've got to keep the spice alive in our blog relationship somehow!). My friend from the gym came up to me yesterday wondering about the zucchini pancake recipe! She said it reminded her of when her mom used to make these for her growing up. I've come to realize that pancakes in any, shape, or form, are always a comfort food. Maybe it's the memories they bring up, saturday morning breakfast with the fam, or teaching little cousins how to make them, or  maybe it's just the sound of the word pancake ( or maybe just the word cake) that is an instant comfort no matter what word is in front of it.  I mean, even Poopy Pancake almost sounds good.  Poopy?? Yikes i've been spending too much time with people under the age of ten . 

Anyway now that i've ruined everyones appetite, I served these with my stuffed burgers, but then ate the left over for breakfast. They actually have more of a breakfast-y feel because they are very egg-y  ( does adding a  "y" onto any word make it a legit word?)  I was thinking these would be pretty awesome with some ham, bacon, or sausage on top and turn it into a B.E.Z (bacon, egg, zucchini.  I know, who cares what time of the day you prefer to eat Zucchini pancakes, Nicki.  Here are two more pancake recipe's you should try spaghetti squash pancakes and Protein Pancakes

 Here is the recipe:

You will need:
( this will make 8-10 medium sized pancakes)

- 2 large Zucchini
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbs coconut flour
-1/2 tsp garlic powder or clove fresh garlic
- sea salt & pepper for taste
- coconut oil for frying ( or olive oil if you prefer)
** onion would be good too, but I used all my onion in the burgers that night)


1. shred zucchini ( approx 2 cups shredded)  I went out and bought myself a fancy shredder a few months ago, honestly, I prefer the cheese grater!  Only took  about 5 minutes ( the time it takes me to figure out how to assemble the fancy shredder), Plus you get a nice little forearm/bicep workout in.
** important note if using cheese grater : If you have a lovely fresh manicure, stop grating a few inches away from the end of zucchini-- a few inches of zucchini isn't worth an annoying eye sore of a chipped fingernail. ok thats all for now**

2. Whisk eggs and sift in coconut flour, this flour gets pretty clumpy.
3. add eggs and coconut flour to zucchini, add salt, pepper, garlic. mix well.  The mixture will seem watery, not like real pancake batter, but this is how its supposed to be.

4. Heat a few tbs of coconut oil in frying pan
5. I used a 1/4 measuring cup so scoop the mixture into the frying pan.

6. cook until brown on both sides.

There you have it!
Enjoy your favorite kind of "clean eats" pancakes this weekend, even if it's a poopy pancake( i'll grow up one day)

Simply Stuffed Burgers

The only thing better than a bunch of awesome toppings on a burger, is a bunch of awesome toppings stuffed inside a burger!  I spent labor day with my brother, sister in law, and oh so cute niece, and we made some delish stuffed burgers.  The burgers we made weren't exactly paleo, so I re-made them for the blog in a more "clean" fashion.  I stuffed these burgers with bacon, onion, and mushroom.  These make some big ol' burgers, my brother said they looked like Ninja Turtle Shells.



Just showing you how cute Kayla is :)

You will need:

- ground beef -- I used 1 lb, it made three large burgers
- toppings of your choice: I used about 7 slices of bacon, but the more the merrier, one package of mushrooms, and one onion.
- couple tbs of olive oil to sautee veggies
- 1 clove garlic

1. prepare bacon-- the crispier the better ( to me anyway)
2. sautee onions, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil  ( there was a ton left over, so I just served the burgers with more on top)

3. form ground beef into thin patties.  Make them as big as you want, but big enough to fit the goods in the middle.
4. spoon toppings ontop of the patties.

5. use the remaining ground beef to form thin patties to cover your burgers. Seal burgers around the edges using your fingers.

6.  Either grill them for about 6 minutes on either side, or bake them @375 for 12 minutes, flipping burgers at halfway point.

I served these with Zucchini pancakes ( stay tuned for this recipe).  But they would also be delish with another recipe I made last week but still haven't posted, Sweet Potato Fries (stay tuned for this also)

zucchini pancakes

sweet potato fries