Homemade Salsa + Butternut Squash Hash browns

I have two great, Whole 30 and Paleo compliant recipes to share with you today. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to share more so I decided to include both!

If you have been reading my blog (all 2 of you), you know I am going through a change in my eating habits called the “Whole 30”. I’m not going to say that I’ve been totally 100% on what the Whole 30 is supposed to be….I’m not going to stress out because something was cooked in soybean oil, or the marinade for the chicken I ate had dextrose in it. I know that I shouldn’t  be eating these things, but when circumstances to cut that stuff out stress me out more than just eating them, that’s how I know I just have to give in. Eating shouldn’t be complicated. It should be easy and good. But I don’t think it’s fostering a healthy relationship with food if I’m passing up on fun things/time with friends in order to avoid eating/drinking. That’s stupid.  If the Whole 30 creators want to tell me I’m wrong, whatever. I’m doing my own version of Whole 30.

Anyhow (slight rant), after closely examining some of the ingredients in the food I eat in order to stay compliant to Whole 30, I have realized that sugar is in EVERYTHING. I mean everything. Sugar is in salt. Why? Because it makes things taste good.

SUGARRRRRRRR!

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Sugar is in everything that you never thought would need sugar. They add sugar to dried fruit. Our modern taste buds are so immune to it and this is what causes out of control sugar cravings. These have been the worst since I have had absolutely no sugar (except in fruit) for the last week and a half. No chocolate, no fake sugar, no sweets of any sort. And contrary to popular belief: sugar=sugar. This means honey, raw honey, agave, Stevia, molasses. It’s all the same. There’s no such thing as ‘healthy’ sugar.

The craving for it is ever present and I do my best to try to smother it. I keep dreaming about diner rolls and white chocolate cheerios (do those even exist??? I’m inventing them!). The book INSISTS that the only way to kill the ‘sugar dragon’ is to starve it. So I’m trying my best. First things first- create homemade versions of foods that regularly have sugar. Cue the homemade salsa recipe!

 

5-6 Roma tomatoes, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 small onion, minced

1/2 cup of fresh chopped cilantro

2 tbsp of lime juice

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp salt

dash of garlic powder

1. Chop your tomatoes and cilantro.

2. Place everything in bowl.

3. Enjoy. The longer it sits the better it gets!

 

This was yummy on top of the steak fajitas that we had for dinner last night.

Another thing that I had to share was part of my breakfast this morning. Due to the fact I’m cutting out all sweets, things that have natural sweetness like fruit and squash taste EXTRA sweet. Like, an apple might as well be an ice cream sundae. Technically you are not supposed to be feeding this ‘sweet tooth’. But I didn’t do this on purpose -I swear! I had extra butternut squash I wanted to get rid of and it just happened.

 

Okay, it looks like dog poo, but I swear it’s delicious. And that’s a glob of homemade sun butter on top, which made it 10X better. If you don’t know what sun butter is, get with the program and Google it.

Butternut Squash Hash browns

Serves 1

1 cup of butternut squash

1 tbsp coconut oil

dash of cinnamon and nutmeg

dash of dried oregano

dash of garlic powder

salt & pepper

1. Shred the squash. You can do this with a cheese grater, but I used the attachment on my food processor. It was awesome.

2. Heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat.

3. When melted, add the squash and stir around.

4. After 3-4 minutes add the spices, salt and pepper.

5. Keep stirring around until you get a nice crisp on the squash (Like traditional hash browns).

6. Top with sun butter or another nut butter and enjoy!

 

Don’t forget the coffee! So, while not pancakes, this inadvertently had my taste buds perking up. I’m okay with it. I’m not about to feel guilty for eating squash.

WOW this was a long post, congrats for making it to the end.

Which recipe would you like to try the most?!!!??!

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