I'll be honest here. Two friends of mine had been on my booty to join for well over a year. And I basically came up with every reason possible not to. In my defense, I do have a very bad back and was really scared I'd injury it to the point of surgery, which I'm teetering on anyway. I love my CFW {CrossFit Waco} friends and I adore my 2 friends who nagged me. Yes, here it comes....BUT...
1. I've never been one to truly want to workout.
2. I love {in no particular order} Dr. Pepper, chocolate, cheese, wine, bread and pasta. Oh and cigarettes. And spare me the lecture...I'm 34 years old. I know all the bad things there are to know about smoking. I'm working on it.
3. I hate to sweat.
So after 7 weeks, I've had some revelations and I'm going to share them. They're pretty amazing "ah ha" moments for me.
1. I like the workouts. A lot.
2. I like eating Paleo. And I don't smoke nearly as much.
3. The sweating kinda makes me proud.
There's really a whole lot more to it than just that and maybe one day I'll get into it, but today is about the eating.
I'm a devout spaghetti girl. I literally scope out which place or friend makes the best spaghetti. There was no way in my mind that eating Paleo was going to be viable for me. Now don't get me wrong, I never ate horribly and I've never been a "cook from a box" girl. My momma taught me to cook from scratch. I make my own sauces, soups, salsa and not the jarred stuff. So some of this was easy peasy. But not the pasta. How was I going to have spaghetti ever again?
After the 3rd week I was almost in tears to have my pasta. So I did. And, I felt like poo afterwards. It killed my stomach. Revelation #1. I really did feel better eating fresh foods, no dairy and no processed carbs. And don't quote me, I may be saying things wrong, I'm still learning.
I've always known there was spaghetti squash, and as much as my mom loved different types of squash, she never made it. So I wasn't having warm fuzzy feelings about trying it in place of my normal whole wheat spaghetti. Leslie, my crazy strong, badass friend who helped talk me into this mess, told me to try it. I thought she was crazy, but she's never lied to me and she was right about all the rest of the eating. So off the the store I went. I trotted my self down the aisle to the squash and stood there. As I looked at the huge, pretty colored spaghetti squash I had a mini heart attack when I calculated the price in my head. These things are big. It was $1.48/lb. The small one I found weighed a whopping 6 lbs. Yep that's 8.88 for a darn squash. My $1.78 box of pasta was tempting.
I bought it, went home and got to work. I kept thinking, "this better be some damn good spaghetti". I almost lost my hand trying to cut the huge lunk in half to bake it, but I got it done. Only to realize I then had to gut it like a pumpkin. Okay. Done. I bake it, then scrape it out to get my "noodles" and I just wasn't convinced. I made a sample in a small bowl and fed it to my kid. In hindsight, that wasn't very smart, she could be the poster child for Paleo and will eat all things good for you. I won't. I should have known she would love it. I took a bite and my whole world was unicorns and rainbows. It was good, better than good. My life would go on. I could have spaghetti!
All this to say I wanted to share with y'all my paleo {at least I'm pretty sure it is} recipe for spaghetti, down to the homemade sauce.
Paleo Spaghetti
Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
1 lb. natural or organic lean ground beef
1 yellow bell pepper
1 zuchinni
1 onion
1 can organic diced tomatoes
1 can organic tomato paste
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
fresh garlic
cummin {a sprinkle or it'll end up tasting like tacos}
thyme
pepper
oregano
basil
* I prefer fresh spices, but I was out, so I was stuck with the dried ones.
Tackling the squash:
Cut or dice your bell pepper, zucchini and onion. My food processor is one of my best friends, along with a thousand chopping gadgets from Pampered Chef, but since this isn't a promo I'm not going to bother finding the names of my gadgets for you. If it chops, use it.
Brown your meat with half the onion, some garlic, and pepper
The Sauce:
If you like chunky tomatoes, then dump in the diced tomatoes. We don't so I use the food processor first. Add your tomatoe paste, about 1 tbsp. EVOO, and your veggies. Then start adding your spices. I'm from the south, I don't measure. Things are a pinch, sprinkle, snippet, or sprig, so I'll try to give you my best guess, but really just add small amounts and taste. Do that until you like it. Pretty simple. I like garlic, so I use a lot, probably 4-5 cloves. All other spices, I would start out with a 1/2 tsp. each. Pepper to taste. I also add a pinch of sea salt because I have low blood pressure and it helps keep it normal.
Once the squash is done:
The end result! Yummy, paleo friendly spaghetti!
I truly hope you enjoy this as much as I did. It was a life saver! And it was worth every bit of $8.88 for a darn squash.
