Healthy comfort food???

I love food. Like I said before I am a comfort food addict! So in trying to eat non processed whole foods, I've found the most success in adjusting things I love to make them work for me. It's amazing how easy cooking is when you are just using real food!

This week has been particularly stressful...lots of work stuff going on. This makes me want to stuff my face ALL THE TIME.

My solution..."Paleofied" Comfort Food!

Monday night I roasted spaghetti squash & garlic. It's really easy. 

• Cut the spaghetti squash in half...that's the hardest part of the entire thing...literally.
• Scoop out the "guts"
• Drizzle with Olive Oil & garlic salt (or whatever you want to use to season it)
• Then I placed 2 heads of garlic with the outer layer removed and the root part (I'm sure there's a more technical name...) chopped off on a cookie sheet. 
• Place one half of squash over each head of garlic
• Roast at 375 for 35-45 minutes...

Then I made some meat sauce to go with it....

• Brown 1 pound of ground beef, while the meat is browning chop up the following and add as you go....
• 6 chopped tomatoes...I used a tomatoes on the vine Family Pack from Wegmans
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 chopped up head of garlic or a spoonful of minced garlic...whatever you have
• 2 basil leaves 
• 1 chopped pepper...I used a yellow pepper

*Cover & Simmer this mixture for about 20 minutes....I didn't time it exactly, I just simmered it while I cleaned up my kitchen and prepped my squash and garlic

• Next I added 1 small can of tomato paste...check your ingredients! Make sure the only ingredient listed is "Tomatoes" and that they haven't snuck in anything extra.
• Stir it all together, cover, reduce head to low

*I simmered it like this for about 40 minutes....again I didn't time it exactly, I did it while I squeezed in my p90x3 workout...which is 30 minutes long! I paused it a few times to run up and stir. I added a little water here and there when the bottom of the pan started to brown. 

At one point when I paused my workout to check the sauce, I took out the squash. When I was done with my workout, it had cooled enough to scoop out the "Spaghetti" strings. I set the garlic aside for the Paleo Pesto I made (more on that in a sec!) and voila... "Spaghetti & meat sauce" made almost entirely of vegetables! Delicious and everyone loved it...even my picky kids!

(please excuse the picture...it might not LOOK amazing...but it was!)

After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen and threw stuff in the blender for "Paleo Pesto" this is a recipe I made up, and I use it for lots of things. It taste WAY to good to be healthy...it's rich, creamy, savory...basically everything I want in a comfort food! 

It is also super easy to make....

• Squeeze the roasted garlic into a blender then added the following...
• fresh basil (I used a Wegman's Basil Clam Shell) 
• nuts...most recipes call for pine nuts, I used shelled pistachios...approximately 3/4 cup.
• kale...only because I like to add kale to just about everything I can sneak it into. I threw in a handful.
• Olive Oil...probably about a 1/4 cup...I adjust as needed until it gets to be the consistency I want. 
• Blend it on various settings until it gets creamy...about 5 minutes.

I store it in a cute little mason jar and use it for all kinds of things I love it as a veggie dip, salad topper or on leftover spaghetti squash like I had for lunch today! 1 jar has plenty to last a few days or longer depending on what you use it for.

You may have noticed, my recipes are REAL loosey goosey. I almost always just make it up as I go along, taste it as I go and add things as I need to. Like I said before, when you are using real food and herbs it makes cooking easier in my opinion...and fun! 

I like knowing exactly what is in my food, it tastes delicious and it hits the spot when I feel like I need to indulge...even though neither of these recipes would technically be indulging!