No Noodles Ground Turkey Lasagna

Ok, this dish was the one I was most excited, yet most nervous to make. I've never even made regular lasagna, let alone paleo style! For vegans and vegetarians, simply omit the meat.

Keep in mind, my mom makes the best lasagna ever. Although our versions differ, there's still a lot riding into this dish. Gotta make my momma proud!

For "noodles," we used sliced eggplant.  If you can, find free range ground turkey. For cheese, we used our raw cheeze
recipe, and the veggies used were organic. And our not so secret ingredient is honey! Yes, honey. And only because the marinara sauce we used was too tangy for our taste. If you like tangy, omit the honey.  The marinara sauce we tried and loved is Walnut Creek. No salt added, gluten-free, and organic.

Non-stick pans are great because we didn't use oil to sauté the veggies or cook the ground turkey sauce. We only used olive oil to grease the casserole, which was only about 1/4 teaspoon.

After all the chopping, sautéing, layering, and baking, we finally did it. Whoa!

No Noodles Ground Turkey Lasagna

1 lb ground turkey
2 1/2 cups marinara sauce2 eggplants
2 small zucchini
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 cup baby spinach
2 cups raw cheeze, divided
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Honey (optional)
"Parmesan cheese" - mix equal parts almond meal/flour and nutritional yeast

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut stems off of eggplants and leave skin on. Cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Don't worry, I'm still mastering the art of slicing and some of the pieces were thick and uneven. In a non-stick griddle, heat each side to about a minute to remove moisture. Set aside.

In large non-stick saucepan, cook the ground turkey and season with sea salt and pepper.  When cooked, drain the meat. Stir in the marinara sauce and season according to taste. This is where we put honey to lessen the tangy. Set aside.

In the same saucepan, sauté the garlic and onions for a few minutes and then add the zucchini, bell pepper, and mushrooms. Set aside.

Grease a 9x13 casserole

Layer 1: half of eggplant slices
Layer 2: 1 cup raw cheeze
Layer 3: half of turkey marinara
Layer 4: half of sautéed veggies
Layer 5: baby spinach
Layer 6: eggplant slices
Layer 7: 1 cup raw cheeze
Layer 8: sautéed veggies
Layer 9: turkey marinara
Layer 10: drizzle as much "Parmesan cheese" as you like

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. And you'll be as surprised as we were when we devoured this lasagna! By far, our most flavorful and colorful dish yet...wow!

Chocolate Banana Milkshake

Ah yes, childhood memories of chocolate milk.  Mom would either buy ready-made chocolate milk off the grocery shelves; or pour some powdery brown stuff in our whole milk.  And don't even get me started on Yoo-hoo! I used to bring one everyday for lunch during middle school!

As we got older, we learned that chocolate was not good.  Twix and Snickers are bad because of the ridiculous amount of sugar and calories. So we thought we were doomed from consuming chocolate.

Or so we thought...

After much research, we come across cacao nibs. In a nutshell, they are broken up pieces from cacao beans, which is where good ol' chocolate comes from.  According to another awesome documentary, Food Matters, raw cacao is actually considered a superfood!  It is nutrient rich with high sources of magnesium, calcium, iron, sulfur, protein, etc. The list goes on and on. But as soon as cacao is processed into the chocolate bars and candy we see in grocery stores, most of the nutrients are gone.

So, after much research for a chocolate shake, we came up with a delicious recipe, and finally blessed our brand new blender!

Chocolate Banana Milkshake (serves 1)

1 ripe banana
1 cup unsweetened or sweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon cacao nibs
4 dates, seeded (feel free to add more for sweetness)

Blend until desired consistency or until majority of nibs are pulverized. Pour over ice and viola! how easy was that! It will be the healthiest chocolate drink you'll ever have, we promise!

Healthy Filipino Bistek "Beefsteak" and Quinoa

Nope, not a typo.  And no, you’re not seeing things. It really does say, HEALTHY FILIPINO BISTEK! We figured it out folks!

As we were explaining to my brother about our real food project and how our plan was to recreate meals, such as hamburger and fries, he simply asked, “What about Filipino food?”  Well, that certainly stopped us in our tracks. 

Took a bit of researching, but we finally did it!  And we chose to recreate Bistek, which is a marinated meat dish topped with caramelized onion rings and served with white rice.  Typically, ingredients used are: soy sauce, calamansi, sugar, garlic, onions.  Swap the soy sauce with tamari, the sugar with honey, and use organic veggies. 

Why tamari? It's made with 100% soy, versus soy sauce, which contains 30-40% wheat. Pretty weird considering the words "soy sauce" should only be...well, soy, right? Calamansi, also known as calamondin, is a Filipino lemon that almost tastes like a lemon with a touch of orange.  If you don’t have access to a store that sells this, or a Filipino person who has a tree in their backyard (like us!), then use lemon. 

Disclaimer!! We were so excited to make this, we forgot to measure quite a few things! When cooking Filipino dishes, we tend to “eyeball” everything. 

Good news is that we will definitely make this again, and when we do, we’re going to measure and update this post.

Healthy Filipino Bistek and Quinoa

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 lb flank steak or flap meat, cut into 2 inch strips

1 whole white onion, sliced into rings (do not separate the rings)

Tamari

4 calamansi

1 head garlic, coarsely chopped

Honey

Filtered water

Olive oil

Cook quinoa according to package directions.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, add tamari and calamansi and meat.  Toss to make sure all of the meat is coated.  Set aside to marinate.

In a skillet, heat olive oil and cook onion rings a few minutes each side, so they’re slightly caramelized.  You don’t want this fully caramelized; that slight crunch makes it fun.  Since not all rings will fit at one time, make in batches, and then set aside. 

In the same skillet, add a little bit of olive oil and cook the marinated beef.  DO NOT DISCARD the marinade because this is key for Bistek.

When the beef is done, set aside.  Again, using the same skillet, pour in the marinade, along with the garlic, and let it boil for a few minutes to soften the garlic.  Add the cooked beef and lower the heat to simmer.  Add water and honey to offset the saltiness of the marinade.  When you’ve reached your desired taste, add the onions on top, cover and simmer for another few minutes…and that’s it!  Serve with quinoa and eat Filipino Bistek, guilt-free.

Quinoa and Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers are always fun.  And now they’re even more fun because we’re using quinoa in place of rice.  The store ran out of ground turkey, so we figured we try ground chicken.  Here ya go!

Easy Quinoa and Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

1 cup cooked quinoa
1 lb ground chicken
6 bell peppers, any colors (cut top of peppers and remove seeds)
2 cloves minced garlic (we love garlic by the way)
½ red onion, chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 can organic diced tomatoes, do not drain
Cumin
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat over to 350 degrees

In a large skillet over medium heat, add garlic and onions until onions are soft.  Then add in the ground chicken and season with cumin salt and pepper to your liking.  When chicken is about finished, stir in diced tomatoes.  Finally, add the cooked quinoa and mix everything together. 

Stuff the bell peppers, place in 9x13 casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake for about 30 minutes. If you think the peppers need more time, go for it!

Next time, we’re going to use ground turkey and add more veggies.  We’re still learning our spices, but we’ll be sure to add in more of those too. Not bad for our first try! 

Banana French Toast

Father’s Day was nearing and the family decided we’d have brunch at our place.  My sister-in-law and I planned out the menu.  She was to make her hearty breakfast casserole and we were in charge of French toast.  Her silly husband (my brother) wanted white, fluffy bread. Ha! Not a chance!

This recipe is inspired from the Simple Veganista.  We had quite a few mouths to feed, so we doubled the ingredients.

Banana French Toast

2 ripe bananas

1 ½ cups Almond milk
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Organic butter from grass fed cow (we found a local farmer who made their own butter; she even had pictures of her cows)
Udi’s whole grain gluten-free sliced bread
Organic maple syrup

In a large bowl, mash the bananas until creamy. Mix in the Almond milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. 

Heat the griddle and melt the organic butter.  Take each slice of bread, dip both sides in the banana batter and place in griddle for a few minutes (or when ready) each side.

Make them look pretty on a serving dish and drizzle maple syrup.

My brother tried the French toast and loved it!  Success!

Bagel and Lox

Such a classic breakfast meal and so far, the easiest to make.  We have yet to discover a cream cheese substitute, but it’s ok because the raw cheeze did not disappoint.

Bagel and Lox (serves 4)

4 toasted gluten-free bagels – Udi’s brand
Lox
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Raw cheeze

Stack ‘em up! Too easy!

Cheezeburger

Now that we have “cheese” in place, the possibilities seem endless!  But one night, we were craving cheeseburgers.  Off we went to our favorite grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market.  We even replaced the regular grocery chain with a healthy grocery store.  Each time we’re at Sprouts, we feel like a kid in a candy store or an ant on top of a mound of sugar!
Cheezeburger (serves 4)

4 gluten-free hamburger buns - we recommend Udi’s brand

1 lb grass fed ground beef
1 tomato, sliced

1 organic lettuce
1/2 onion, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste 
Raw cheeze – spread as much as you like on the bun

Season the ground beef with salt and pepper and form 4 patties.  Heat your griddle or pan to medium high and cook each side 3-4 minutes or until juices run clear. We like to toast the buns; so after the patties are finished, we placed it on the griddle for a minute to take in some of the flavor. Assemble that cheeseburger and you're good to go!