Spaghetti Squash with a Lamb marinera sauce

Ingredients:

Sauce:

1 pound ground lamb

5 ripe vine tomatoes

olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves minced

1 handful fresh basil chopped

salt and Peper to taste

Squash:

1 spaghetti squash split in half and cleaned out

olive oil

salt and peper

1 cup water

Directions:

Squash-

Preheat oven to 400F. Drizzle inside of squash with olive oil and salt and paper to taste. lay inside down on a baking dish filled with about 1 cup 0f water. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, baked covered with foil for the first 35mins and then remove for remainder of baking time. 

When squash is ready it can be easily scooped out of its shell, let cool because it will be very hot. It will be stringy like Spaghetti and is a great alternative. Scoop into a bowl when it has cooled enough to handle. 

Sauce:

Blanch tomatoes to remove skin ( when removing tomato skins cut a shallow “x” at the base of the tomato just under the skin and soak in very hot water for about 5-10mins and skins should easily peal off) dice tomatoes and set aside. In a medium bowl mix chopped basil with ground lamb using your hands, add about 1 teaspoon of salt to this combination.

In a sauce pan, heat 2 table spoons of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for about 1 minute. Add lamb and basil mixture and sauté for about 5-10min until lamb is slightly browned . Add diced tomatoes and salt and paper to taste, stir . Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 18-20mins, stirring occasionally. 

Serve sauce over a plate of spaghetti squash and enjoy!

This is a great alternative to regular spaghetti!

 

 

Grilled Tomatoes and Peppers

Ingredients:

4 ripe vine tomatoes

4 ripe red and yellow peppers( halved and seeded)

olive oil

sea salt

fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Place tomatoes and peppers in a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Heat up BBQ, place foil on rack and grill veggies on foil for about 3-5mins (sprinkle any left over oil and salt onto veggies when placed on the foil). Take veggies off the foil and place directly on the grill, using a fork to poke a few holes into each tomato. Rotate tomatoes frequently and place back on the foil after about 1-2mins. Keep peppers directly on the grill and rotate occasionally for about 5-10mins.

Serve immediately

Cucumber and Avocado salad

Ingredients:

2 english cucumbers pealed and shredded

2 ripe avocados halved and out of shell (slice avocado in half lengthwise remove seed and scoop put of shell with a spoon.)

1 handful fresh parsley chopped

2 ripe vein tomatoes diced

Directions:

Slice each avocado half length wise, and plate. 

Mix cucumbers and parsely in a medium bowl.

Top each avocado plate with about 1-2 tablespoons of cucumber mixture (add more or less as desired).  Next top each with about 1 tablespoon of diced tomatoes. 

Serve with your favourite dressing ( I love to use Briannas’ homestyle Dijon Honey Mustard Dressing)

Note these can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated. Serves 4

Open face breakfast sandwich with herb and garlic potatoes

Ingredients:

1 ripe vein tomato (sliced)

4 cheese cheddar cheese slices

4 medium eggs

6 strips applewood smoked bacon (cooked)

3 potatoes (cubed)

Light herb and garlic cream cheese

2 tablespoons butter

salt to taste

2 english muffins

Directions:

Herb and garlic potatoes:

Boil cubed potatoes in a medium nonstick pan with 1 1/2 teaspoon salt until tender. Drain water and return to stovetop. over low/medium heat add 1 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons cream cheese, roughly mash into potatoes. when cream cheese and butter are mixed into potatoes remove from heat.

open face sandwich:

In a large nonstick frying pan heat 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat, crack each egg into the pan and cook over medium heat to desired firmness (I like my eggs over hard which takes about 7mins).

Slice english muffins in half and toast, top each  with a slice of cheese, and 2-3 strips of bacon each, and top each with the cooked eggs, and finished up with a few slices of tomatoes to each sandwich. 

Serve immediately with herb and garlic potatoes.