Making Healthy Food Easily, Cheaply and Quickly

I have been busy posting recipe after recipe without putting any implementation steps in how to do it quickly or effectively. I like easy and fast! Get a mandolin first off it will save you a ton of time, just watch the fingers! Secondly, cook and shop in bulk. This saves money and more importantly time.

We like to buy all of the chicken for the week and all of the vegetables for lunches at once. Grill all of the chicken at once and portion it out in lunch containers for the week on Sunday or Monday. We often eat leftovers from the previous dinner for lunch so just filling in the gaps during the week with 2 more chicken breasts usually works. We grill ours with a little salt, pepper and EVOO. Sometimes I throw on some italian seasoning.

We love zucchini and squash and it is real easy to slice it up on the mandolin with half an onion in a little EVOO and saute it. I just throw it on top of the chicken in the lunch containers and I'm all set for the week.

Add a small baggy of pistachios or almonds for a snack and lunch is done for the week. Easy, fast, delicious and super healthy!

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

Can't tell the difference from regular spaghetti!

• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 60 min
• Servings: 4

• Ingredients:
• 1 can of organic garden tomato sauce (Hy-Vee Brand)
• 1 carrot
• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1 lb of grass fed lean ground beef
• 1/4 white onion
• 1 tbsp spicy pizza seasoning
• 1 stalk of celery
• 3 cloves of garlic
• slice black olives

Directions:
Sometimes you just want spaghetti...so have this!

preheat oven to 400 degrees. fill a shallow baking pan 1 inch full of water, cut squash in half length wise and scoop out the seeds (keep 'em if you like and roast 'em with salt and pepper). Put the squash face down in the water and bake for 45 minutes.

While cooking (I wait until about 20 minutes left), brown ground beef in little meat balls over med-high in a 12 inch pan, add chopped onions, minced garlic, chopped carrots, chopped celery and pizza seasoning. Reduce heat, add tomato sauce and simmer.

When the timer goes off remove squash and scoop out inside (it will be hot so you can wait a minute or two). Pay attention and scoop with the grain which is NOT length wise to get spaghetti like consistency.

Plate the squash, add the sauce and meat balls. I topped with the squash seeds (which I covered in garlic salt and pizza seasoning) instead of Parmesan cheese. Top with the olives if you like.

Real tasty, Laura ate 2 helpings and already packed a lunch for tomorrow! She said she could not tell the difference between real noodles and this (she is not Paleo and really picky)

Beef Tongue Tacos and Jicama

Don't let the title fool you...these are awesome and inexpensive. I had these down in Mexico 3 years ago and when I found a place that had grass-fed beef tongue I grabbed it and have been waiting to try it out. In most of the world beef tongue is normal food, my grandparents who went through the depression fixed it like a roast and it was delicious that way too.

Laura was less excited as she saw the pre-cooked tongue and was grossed out. She opted for shredded chicken which I grilled special for her. (more beef for me!). You can use a lean roast if you are grossed out or can't find a tongue.

Beef Tongue Tacos

So good and tender

• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 240 min
• Servings: 4

• Ingredients:
• 1 onion
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 Beef Tongue (you can sub a lean roast)
• 5 roma tomatoes
• corn tortillas
• salt and pepper
• 5 serrano peppers

Directions:
Cut up half the onion into slices and throw with the beef tongue in a crock pot. Dice up 5 cloves of garlic and put that in the crock pot too. cover the tongue with water and set on low for 8 hours.

Take the tongue out and remove the 'skin'. I know it looks funky. Shred the meat with 2 forks.

Take the tomatoes and peppers and saute them on med-high heat until you have seared/cooked all sides and throw them in a blender with the remaining clove of garlic. flash blend until slightly chunky...be sure to put the lid on the blender.

dice the remaining onion and saute until slightly translucent. Add your tomato mixture and heat over low for 5 or 6 minutes to reduce it down just a bit.

remove the rest of the cooked onions from the crock pot and put in with the shredded meat.

Warm up your tortillas for a few minutes to get them nice and soft . Load up a tortilla (i use two at a time to stop breakage) with some meat and onion mix and spoon on some of the tomato mixture.

I also cut up some jicama and splashed some lime and added a dash of cayenne pepper to it to eat on the side...real good if you refrigerate the jicama first to get it nice and crispy.