Ground Beef and Spinach Butternut Squash Lasagna and chocolate chip cookies. (grain free)

Let me first say I use the word lasagna quite loosely.  This is lasagna in that it is a layered dish, but that's about where it ends...but it was delicious no matter what you call it.

We have been following a grain-free, whole foods lifestyle for the past year, and more recently I have been experimenting with my own recipes instead of just following online resources and cookbooks. I have been thinking about trying to make a butternut squash lasagna for quite some time now. We recently ordered Heath Bent's Primal Cravings cookbook and I can't get enough of the recipes so far.  They included a butternut squash lasagna, but it seemed more of a "sub the noodles for butternut squash" type of recipe, so I went searching online.  Again, most seem to be a trade-out-the-noodles kind of deal, so I decided to create my own.

I had hoped to use ground turkey, but since I didn't have any, ground beef it is and it worked quite well.  Here goes nothing..p.s. I'm not the best at measuring, so you may have to play around and add a bit more here and there to taste, but the amounts are pretty close.

Ingredients:

For the lasagna layers:

1 medium-large butternut squash

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

1/4 white onion

~3 cups fresh spinach

salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:

~1/2 can coconut milk

3-4 cloves garlic roughly chopped

~3 Tbs butter

1/2 cup shredded smoked cheddar (although gouda would probably be good too)

~1/2 Tbs tapioca flour (for thickening)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Brown the beef in a pan, add the onions, and saute until tender. 

While the beef is cooking, peel your butternut squash, slice in half lengthwise, and clean out the seeds.

Use a mandolin to slice the butternut squash in thin slices (like lemon wedges)

Cover the bottom of a baking dish with squash slices, add a layer of ground meat, cover with fresh spinach.  Repeat until you are out of meat.  The top layer should be butternut squash (I ended up with three squash layers). Set aside.

Roughly chop your garlic and saute in a pan.

Add sauteed garlic and coconut milk to blender and mix (this would work better if you had a smaller food processor)

Melt butter in a pan and add in the garlic coconut milk mix

While stirring slowly, add in the tapioca flour to thicken, then add cheese and melt (you could do dairy-free and add in more thickener, but I would maybe also add in some sauteed onions to add some flavor; the smokiness of the cheese was a key part here)

Pour the sauce evenly over the dish.  Bake for 45-50 minutes until the top browns.  Slice and enjoy!!

Delicious!

For the cookies:

2/3 cup coconut flour

2 Tbs tapioca flour

2 Tbs honey (I'm sure maple syrup would work)

2 Tbs sunflower seed butter

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate mega chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

I played lazy and mixed everything but the chocolate in the food processor. 

Pulse until it forms a dough ball.

Mix in chocolate chips and form cookie balls.

Put on parchment paper and smoosh flat.  

Bake for about 15 minutes.

These turned out pretty good for my first ever non-recipe attempt, and it certainly is a bit cheaper than using almond flour every so often.  It made about 12-14 cookies, perfect for dunking in almond milk!

We had a great Sunday at Wyebrook Farm in Honeybrook, Pa.  Amazing food, great views, and a fun day to wander around the farm and visit with the pigs and cows before bringing home a cooler full of fresh grass-fed pasture-raised meats!  Go check it out!

Beautiful view while enjoying a fantastic lunch.

Future Bacon!!!