Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Mushrooms and Sun Dried Tomatoes

This is a great recipe to make with your homemade pesto! 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Homemade Paleo Friendly Pesto

• 1 Large Spaghetti Squash
• 1 lb Ground Meat browned (if desired)
• 1 Container of pre-sliced Mushrooms
• Sun Dried Tomatoes
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise.
3. Scoop out all seeds from the center.
4. Place two halves cut side up in a large baking dish.
5. Drizzle olive oil over the cut side of the spaghetti squash. Make sure that it is coated evenly.
6. Bake the two halves of the spaghetti squash for about an hour. The spaghetti squash is done when the outer edges start to turn golden brown.
7. Once the spaghetti squash is baked. Allow to cool for several minutes.

8. Remove all of the "meat" from the spaghetti squash by using a fork. Separate the "spaghetti" from the skin of the spaghetti squash.

9. Place all "spaghetti" in a skillet along with your browned meat (if you desire).

10. Add pesto and stir.

11. Allow all ingredients to simmer together.

12. Add mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. You may also add other types of veggies.

13. Continue to simmer together for about 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

You may substitute pesto for another sauce such as marinara. My husband is allergic to pesto so I make him his own special portion with marinara. It still tastes great! :) He also still eats grains occasionally,  the bread rolls.

Amazing Homemade Pesto! Paleo friendly, GF, Vegan, Raw, and AIP friendly

Homemade Pesto! This is an extremely easy recipe to follow. It only takes a few minutes and tastes amazing! It contains no dairy so it is Vegan and Paleo friendly. Yield 1/2 cup.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 Cup of Basil (I found this at Kroger and it worked out perfectly)

• 3 Tbsp Pine nuts 
• 1 Large Clove of Garlic
• 3/4+ tsp lemon (more or less to your liking)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Splash of good quality Balsamic Vinegar

Steps:

1. Gently wash and pat dry the basil leaves. I used scissors to cut the leaves from stem.

  2. Toast the pine nuts on low heat until light brown. Agitate every few minutes to ensure that all are toasted evenly.

3. Add all ingredients except the olive oil into a blender or food processor. Blend until all you get a thick paste.

4. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and blend for 15-30 seconds until mixture thins out.

5. Store all remaining pesto in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 

Enjoy! This recipe is great for a meat marinade, pasta, spaghetti squash, dip, or on bread/crackers.

Ice Water Challenge

So my very loving husband challenged me to participate in the Ice Water Challenge. This is an awareness event that is used to help raise money for charity. Here are the rules of the challenge:

1. You are nominated to complete the challenge by someone who has done just that.
2. You have 24 hours to complete the challenge AND donate $10 or $20 to the charity of choice as defined by the person nominating you.
3. If you are unable to complete the challenge, you donate $50 or $100 to the charity they defined.
4. The amount of the donations varies. The most common is $10 if you complete it, $100 if you do not. 
5. If you complete the challenge, upload the video of you completing it to Facebook or Youtube and nominating 5 more individuals to Facebook.

This was found at: http://www.firecritic.com/2014/05/29/cold-water-challenge/

A few of the other things that are not listed on this website are:

• If you are having ice water poured on you, your feet must be submerged and the length of time that the water is being poured on you has to be at least 10 seconds long.
• If you choose to do this as an ice bath, you must submerge your head in the water. OR you must stay in the ice water bath for at least 10 seconds.

The stipulations of my husband's challenge were that you had to complete the challenge within 24 hours, if not, you have to donate $100 to the charity of his choice. If you choose to accept the challenge, you still had to donate $10 to the charity of his choice. 

We ended up doing this challenge late last night with two other friends. We stopped at a Buc-ee's gas station and purchased 6 qty 20lbs bags of ice. That is correct, 120 lbs of ice total! We have an average sized bath tub, nothing too big or too small. We filled the bath tub with a little bit of cold water then added all 6 bags of ice. We filled the remainder of the bath tub with cold water so that the volume of the bath tub was about 80% full. We allowed the ice water to sit for a little bit so that the water would get as close as possible to the temperature of the ice. Water freezes at 32F so the ice was at least 32F. The average temperature of the ice water bath was 33.5F. This was measured using a laser thermometer.

 I STFU (Spartaned The F*** Up) and wanted to go first! I had no problem getting into the ice water bath, laying in it, and completely submerging my face for a second. I didn't scream, didn't complain, and didn't panic. I conquered this obstacle like a true Spartan! Here is my video:

The charity I chose to donate to is The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) through Team in Training (TNT). I am running the Houston Chevron Marathon with TNT in January of 2015 to help support LLS. If you would like to make a donation or to learn more about LLS or TNT please see the links below.

To donate to LLS through TNT and to learn more about TNT: http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/houston15/sgambino

To learn more about LLS: http://www.lls.org

My two friends went next July then Krista, and finally my husband. This was a really fun challenge with a great benefit! I really enjoyed it! 

New Blog Introduction

Greetings everyone! I am Stephanie a.k.a the Paleo Spartan and this is my story. I maintain a Paleo lifestyle to conquer an autoimmune disease as well as to accomplish my fitness goals. I avidly train for Obstacle Course Races (OCRs), running events, etc. I will be running my first marathon on January 18th, 2015. Being healthy and fit is not a phase, it is a lifestyle. In everything I do, I train each and everyday to accomplish my goals. Not only to be healthy, but to be the best me possible.

Going Paleo has changed my life for the better. It has made me leaner, stronger, and even decreases the amount of recovery time in between intense workouts. Even though being Paleo is difficult at times, I never regret my choice. Subscribe to my blog, and stay tuned for more posts about the Paleo diet, recipes, health, fitness, OCRs, running events, and so much more!

Follow me on Instagram: paleo_spartan