Paleo Lasagna. Where are the Noodles?

I was so excited to get to the gym yesterday that I forgot to pick a winner for the food scale giveaway last week!

The winner is:  True Random Number Generator Min: 1  Max: 73 Result: 16

Blog Reader:

amy marantino said:

November 3, 2011 at 4:04 pm

my goal is to take a vacation

Amy, send me your mailing address to: mybizzykitchen@gmail.com – congrats!

So I put myself to bed by 10:45 on Sunday night.  I didn’t want to take any chances of not getting up to get to the gym yesterday morning.  I had my workout clothes all laid out, food made for the day.

It’s weird how diabetes works – I woke up with a blood sugar of 122.  Awesome number by the way.  Only problem is that in the morning, my blood sugar rises when I work out.  If I was 122 at lunch and I tried to work out it would bottom out.  So here’s what I did.  I ate a cup of honeydew melon and then did my work out.

• 5 minute warm-up
• chest press (45 pounds) 2 x 25
• leg press (135 pounds) 2 x 25
• core (planks) 2 x 4
• 35 minute treadmill (3:1)

So the plan is to pick a weight that would leave you fatigued by the end – I kept going until I picked my weights that I felt would fatigue me, and you better believe the 45 pound chest press was hard by the end!  For the plank I held each plank for 30 seconds, rested 20 seconds in between.

It’s up to the individual to pick a cardio – I decided to run.  The goal of the run is to run 3 minutes at a normal pace, then 1 minute really pushing it, and back down again.  Holy shizz was this hard!  But my last sprint was at 6.5 mph and I felt really good.  Then a 5 minute cool down.

So all in all my workout took about 55 minutes. 😀

Breakfast is what I am calling a turkey kialbasa hash.  I bought this kialbasa at Whole Foods on Sunday:

Sorry for the shitty picture in advance!

Here’s the mix:  3 ounces turkey kialbasa, roasted red pepper, 1 zucchini diced, chopped spinach, 1 egg, 1/2 cup egg whites cooked with 1 tsp. of oilive oil.

Stats: 326 calories, 15 fat, 9 carbs, 2.8 fiber and 32 protein – or 8 WW points.  This dish provides 118% of vitamin C and 46% of vitamin A!

I love the steam coming off the plate.  😀 This was super filling – I mean look at all that food!  It kept me full for hours.  I contemplated walking at lunch, but didn’t want to overdo it – I had no idea how sore I would be today, and suprisingly, I am not too bad.

When I first started thinking about Paleo recipes, one of the first things that came to mind was my zucchini lasagna.  I mean, I already subbed in the zucchini for the lasagna noodles, but then when I started writing down the recipe.  No ricotta allowed.  Fudge.  So I decided to sub in a cauliflower carrot puree in place of the ricotta cheese. Mind you, this may seem like a lot of steps, but you could obviously make the puree ahead of time.  I only ended up using 1/3 of the puree for my lasagna.

Cauliflower Carrot Puree  (the whole recipe comes in at 357 calories, 24 fat, 33 carbs, 11 fiber and 8 protein) Next time I think I’ll leave the butter out completely.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small head of cauliflower, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

In a stock pot add all the ingredients.  Simmer over medium low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the veggies are tender.  Using a stick blender, puree – taste to see if you need salt or pepper.  Mine needed a touch more salt and a touch more crushed red pepper to balance the sweet.

Lasagna Sauce:

• 20 ounces of crushed tomatoes (I didn’t end up using the whole can)
• 4 ounces Italian sausage
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• just cook down for about 15 minutes – my Italian sausage is homemade by our grocery store butcher and isn’t greasy at all

Lasagna Filling:

• 1 large zucchini, sliced lengthwise
• 1 cup baby spinach

To Assemble:

• layer of sauce
• layer of zucchini
• layer of puree
• layer of baby spinach
• finish with layer of sauce on the top

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until a knife goes through the zucchini.

I baked this in a bread pan – so it made two servings:

320 calories, 16.5 fat, 33 carbs, 8.8 fiber (!) and 21 protein – 8 WW points

The lighting in our kitchen at work is just awful – don’t let this picture turn you away – the flavor combination was really delicious!

We had a work deadline yesterday and I always bring my boss food on that day.  I asked her if she wanted to try my “alternative” lasagna and she agreed.  I brought it in her office, let her continue to work and shut her door.  About 5 minutes later, she yelled my name – I walk in and she looks at her lasagna and says “where’s the noodles??!!”  Needless to say I heated up a Lean Cuisine for her!

I didn’t have to work late so I came home to make zucchini cakes to go along side our steak.  I am not posting the recipe just yet – it needs some tweaking – we both liked the flavor, but I need to work on the texture to give it some more crunch.  I used two new to me products.  I thickened the zucchini/egg mixture with coconut flour:

And then I fried the zucchini in a teaspoon of coconut oil:

I originally bought this a while back when I saw Veronica made her own magic shell – this got buried in the back of my cupboard – still need to make that stuff though!

I only ate about 6 ounces of this steak – the dog got the rest.  Dinner comes in at 447 calories, 26 fat, 12 carbs, 1.5 fiber and 37 protein.

Stats for Monday:

• 55 minute strength and cardio
• 1263 calories, 58 fat, 54 carbs, 13 fiber and 90 protein (included 1 oz. of peanuts when I realized I’d only had 1093 after dinner)
• 28 WW points
• no wine! 😀

Thanks for all your well wishes, emails and support as I go on this adventure – it means a lot!  Now I am off to the gym for rows, leg curls, torso rotations and cardio!  Make it a great day!

p.s.  check out my brother’s last blog post – I loved it! 😀