Stuffed Butternut Squash Recipe

With Thanksgiving coming up this week I thought I’d pass along a “healthy” recipe that would be a great addition to Thanksgiving dinner.

Stuffed Butternut Squash

1 squash per two people, multiply recipe as needed

1 butternut squash, medium
1 large onion, chopped
1 bag frozen leaf spinach
olive or canola oil
salt and pepper to taste
pinch nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Cut squash in half vertically and remove seeds and strings. Place squash, cut-side down in a pan with an inch of water in it. Bake in a 350 degree oven until tender, about 45-60 min. depending on size of squash. You want it firm enough to hold it's shape for stuffing, but soft enough to remove the flesh.

When done, remove from oven, and when cool enough to handle, carefully take out some squash flesh but leave the shells intake. Put the removed squash flesh in a bowl and set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet or heavy bottomed pot. Saute onions in oil over medium low heat until very golden, about 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper and frozen leaf spinach and turn up heat to medium/med.high, stirring frequently to break up spinach as it thaws. Add nutmeg and cinnamon.

When tender, add to the squash flesh in the bowl and mix well. Put a scoop of the mixture into each squash shell and return to the oven and heat through, about 10-15 min. Serve hot.

Variations: add raisins and/or pine nuts to the spinach mixture. If you do dairy, grate some smoked gouda into the spinach mixture, and top the stuffed squash a little more cheese. It's really good melted on top.

Eating Clean

Hi everyone

Congrats on all your hard work this past week!!! Here is some information on eating non- processed foods.

There are varying degrees of following a "non - processed" food diet. This is sometimes referred to as "Eating Clean." Eating clean means eating food that is not processed or minimally processed, and in it's purest form . The lifestyle that I find to be very successful for myself and clients that I have coached and consulted with nutritionally is "The Paleo Diet. " The Paleo Diet which I will be giving you information on, recipes from, and suggestions on is based on eating lean meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables, nuts and healthy omega fats.

This may sound challenging based on our society and all the fast , easy, food we are used to just grabbing because we're in a hurry. Eating clean or Paleo, takes more time, effort, and planning. You have to cook most of your food and plan your meals so that you aren't just grabbing something processed. It also involves shopping more often because fruits and veggies don't have the shelf life that processed food does. It also involves making a big change from what many of you are used to eating and giving up foods that are a staple of your diet right now, including bread, pasta, refined sugar, refined grains, soy, gluten, and dairy.

Having said this, you have to make eating healthy, eating non - processed work for you. It does involve giving up some of your favorite foods though. Being healthy, losing weight, getting lean is not easy and takes work. You have to be willing to change your lifestyle.

If you have been exercising regularly but just haven't been able to lose weight or see any change in your body composition then I would strongly recommend following the Paleo lifestyle.

What I recommend to some clients if it seems to hard to jump in full time eating this way is to ease into it by cutting sugar out completely in the first week but choosing one meal for the first couple of days that you only eat lean meats, fruit and veggies. Once you get that down, add a second meal. I was more successful going cold turkey but others have had more success easing into it.

What it comes down to is "Eating REAL food. " Learn to read labels. If there are more than 4 or 5 ingredients then it is most likely processed and something to avoid!!!!

Your body is like a car. You want to put good fuel in it to make it run efficiently and so it performs the best for you. Refined sugar, processed food, cereals, breads, and pasta are a huge contributer to obesity in our country. I guarantee you will see a difference in your body and will lose weight by changing to a non processed lifestyle.

If it is too difficult for you to cut out processed foods than at least try and eat "less" processed more "real" food and you'll be heading in the right direction.

To find out more about the Paleo Diet go to http://www.thepaleodiet.com/