Paleo Sunday Funday Spaghetti and PiYo

Sunday nights, I always find myself asking where did the weekend go? This was the first weekend of going Paleo - which meant the fridge full of meat and veggies was going to be put to use. I'm also going on five days without wine. This has been a big step in working on my health. I look forward to a glass of Shiraz on Halloween, but until then, water, tea, and coffee will suffice. Plus, I have this little guy to spice up my tea:

OcTEApus - see below on how to find!

My OcTEApus comes from Fred & Friends, I ordered him on Amazon. I've been drinking it with loose leaf chocolate mint black tea. It is amazing.

I am hosting my a challenge group starting October 12 based solely on PiYo - so I spent some time working on PiYo and trying to be the best coach that I can be when my team has questions.

In between running errands, working out, and copious amounts of college football, I made the following:

Paleo Chicken Salad

Handful of seedless grapes (I used red)
2 sliced apple
1/2 cup Paleo Mayo (Thanks to Whole30!!)
1lb of chicken (I used chicken strips from Trader Joe's)
Lemon juice
1/2 tsp of thyme

1) I boiled the chicken - so bring the water to a boil - it took about 20-30 minutes depending on the type of chicken you are using. Keep an eye on it.

2) I only cut the apple off the core, then sliced it into 8 pieces.

3) Add the grapes, apples, and mayo into food processor (this would probably work in a VitaMix too)*

4) Add chicken once cooked and then the thyme.

5) Pulse until a "chicken salad" consistency (You guys know what I am talking about)

6) I added a splash of lemon juice and pulsed for about 4-5 seconds.

If you are starving like I was, you can immediately add over a bed of lettuce (I used spinach, as it is one of my staples) - but if you aren't avoiding bread, this would be amazing on bread too. Or scooped out with a spoon. It's my lunch for tomorrow so chilling for a day should make it taste pretty amazing. I added a home made vinaigrette over the salad.

*If you don't have a food processor or VitaMix, I would chop up you grapes and apples into smaller pieces. You'll also need to shred the chicken yourself (boiling makes it much easier, at least in my experience)

As if that wasn't enough, I made an Almond Crusted Pork Tenderloin for dinner, which I will share another time. I have a few pork tenderloin ideas up my sleeve.

Tonight's dinner was probably my favorite. I'm a huge fan of spaghetti squash. I used to turn my nose up at it, it's really amazing. Although it took some time to make, it was a pretty simple meal to put together. I introduce you to:

Sunday Funday Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash
2 sticks of celery*
2 carrots*
1 can of tomatoes
1/2 tsp thyme
1 cup of chopped onion*
Pepper
Salt
1 TBSP of oil (EVOO, macadamia, avocado...)
Ground turkey**

As a preface, there isn't a lot of time that goes into making this meal. With that said, it does take time to cook the squash (1 hour) and the sauce (simmers for an hour) Just an FYI!

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.

First, I don't know how you like to cook your spaghetti squash. It's always a challenge to cut that bad boy, so I usually take the "lazy" way out and pierce it a bunch with a fork / knife and let it do it's thing in the oven. If you want to cut it, more power to you!

Your squash will need to cook for an 45 minutes to an hour. Keep an eye on it, depending on your oven. I am still learning how my oven cooks and 60 minutes was too long for it. But I needed 60 minutes in my old oven.

*Chop up your celery, carrots, and onion. Tonight, I used veggies I chopped up, but I have been a big fan of Mire poix. If you are rushed and don't have time to chop (we have those nights, days, weeks....) it's ready for you. Plus it's great to have in the fridge just to toss into salads. (I digress)

Next, get your sauce pot. Add your oil to heat it up.

Add in your chopped flavoring and then the can of tomatoes.

Add your seasoning. Stir. Cover. Repeat essentially until your squash is complete.

**If you feel like adding meat, I went with ground turkey, but you can make it your own. I added my ground turkey to a skillet with about 25 minutes left, browned it, THEN added to the sauce for extra seasoning before the squash was done.

Once everything is complete, you have a delicious and healthy dish! My husband won't touch spaghetti squash and dove into the pork for dinner. The good news for me? I have plenty left over to get a few meals out of it this week!

I hope everyone has a great week!!