Zoodles and Squoodles Pizza Casserole

****UPDATE****

Want to know how it tastes?  Check out my web series Table Scraps, where my friend Jeremy and I eat and discuss this delicious Paleo dish.

Mmm...veggie sketti

I used to love spaghetti with meat sauce.  It was my favorite food back in the day when I was a really picky eater and refused to eat anything resembling a vegetable.  This dish tastes EXACTLY like that - but it's got so much more going on than just pasta, meat and tomatoes.  This is one of those dishes you can easily experiment with, adding spices and veggies as you like - although I would recommend keeping with the Italian theme of the dish so that all new flavors you introduce won't clash with the existing base flavors.  I originally found this dish at PaleOMG but replaced most of the dry spices with whole vegetables for a more well-rounded dish.

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 8

Equipment Needed:
mandoline slicer with julienne attachment (if you can julienne veggies with just a knife, more power to ya)
colander
paper towels
skillet
13x9 baking dish

Ingredients:
2 lbs. grass-fed ground beef (I've also made it with ground bison)
15oz. can pizza sauce
15oz. can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
4 zucchini
4 yellow squash
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 box of mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp. Herbes de Provence (or Italian Seasoning)
2 tbsp. cooking oil (coconut oil, bacon grease, duck fat, olive oil)
salt and pepper

Directions: 
1. Cut the ends off of your zucchini and yellow squash.  Using a mandoline slicer, julienne the zucchini and squash.

Don't forget to use the safety holder!

2. Throw all of your veggie noodles in a colander and salt liberally (tossing to make sure salt gets to all of the noodles).  Let sit (over a bowl or in the sink) for half an hour.

Noodles mid-sweat

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4.  While noodles are 'sweating', heat your cooking oil in a skillet and add your ground beef.  Then add your onion, garlic, mushrooms, and italian seasoning.  Once the meat has browned and your onions and mushrooms get soft, add the crushed tomatoes.  Cook for another 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and set aside.
5. Rinse the veggie noodles to get rid of the salt, then, two handfuls at a time, gather some in a few paper towels and firmly but gently squeeze them to wring out the excess water (there will be a lot).  Do not skip this step - it will give your veggie noodles better crunch and will keep the casserole from being too watery.
6. Add the veggie noodles to your casserole dish along with your ground beef/tomato mixture.  Add pizza sauce, salt and pepper.  Mix thoroughly to combine (be careful - your casserole dish will be quite full).  You can also mix everything in a large bowl and then pour it into your casserole dish.
7. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes until the top veggies are slightly browned and the noodles are soft.
8.  Let sit for half an hour before cutting into it.

That's it.  Pretty simple.  And it makes a ton!  You can use the 'sweating' method for any recipe that calls for zucchini noodles.  It makes such a difference in the texture of the final product.

Want to know how it tastes?  Check out my recipe review web series Table Scraps where my buddy Jeremy pulls no punches in reviewing all of my homemade Paleo recipes.

(EDIT: I recently updated the ingredients list in order to double the amount of zucchini and yellow squash used.  In order to truly make this an all-in-one meal, I felt the casserole needed more veg to balance out all that protein)

Homemade Chorizo From Scratch

 

homemade chorizo chillin' in the freezer

Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash with Homemade Chorizo

I LOVE Mexican chorizo.  And I take great pride in making as many dishes as possible from scratch.  This is one of my favorites as it is a bit labor intensive and includes waiting at least 2 days(!!!) before getting to taste the fruits of said labor.  The depth of flavor you get from this chorizo vs. store-bought is ridiculous (one might even say riDONKulous - not me, of course, because I'm an adult).  This is what I like to call "project cooking" (a term I stole from some bouldering lingo).  Don't zone out during the prep work and hurry through it just to be done cooking.  Relish the amount of care and time it takes to make something that is truly homemade.  The final flavor profile (smoky from the chiles and sour/tangy from the apple cider vinegar) is your reward.

Prep Time: 1.5 hours

Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour for the chile/spice mixture to chill and 2 days for the chorizo to marinate

freshly-made chorizo needs 2 days to marinate

Equipment Needed:

large skillet (I recommend cast iron)

large mason jar (or large glass bowl)

gloves (latex/disposable)

large food processor (or blender)

small food processor (or molcajete - preferrably made from volcanic rock)

large non-reactive bowl with lid (if you don't have a lid, plastic wrap/aluminum foil works just fine)

parchment paper

plastic wrap

Ingredients:*

8 guajillo chiles**

4 ancho chiles**

2 fresh ripe (red) jalapenos (pith and seeds removed), roughly chopped***

2 bunches of scallions (green onions), chopped

6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons fresh oregano, minced (or 4 teaspoons dried)

2 heaping teaspoons black peppercorns

4 teaspoons roasted comino (cumin) seeds

1.5 tablespoons achiote powder**

2 heaping teaspoons allspice berries**

2 tablespoons sea salt (or kosher salt, just not that iodized table salt crap)

1 cup apple cider vinegar

2 pounds ground pork

*This makes A LOT - about 3 pounds worth of chorizo when all is said and done.  Feel free to halve the ingredients.  But I figure, if you're going to take the time to make it, why not make a lot!  It keeps great in the freezer.

**available at most Mexican markets.  My favorite here on the Westside of Los Angeles is Top Valu Market in Del Rey.

***I find it pretty impossible to find red jalapenos anywhere.  I was lucky enough this most recent time to get some from my co-worker's backyard garden.  Green jalapenos work just fine.

rehydrated chiles and herbage pre-blend

Directions:

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil (I use an electric kettle - best $25 I ever spent).  While the water is boiling, heat your cast iron skillet over medium-low heat and toast your chiles until the skin is slightly darker (not black!) and they are more pliable.  The guajillos should puff up a bit as well.  Turn them often to make sure they don't burn.  Shouldn't take more than 8 minutes tops.

2. Add your toasted chiles to your mason jar or glass bowl and pour the boiling water over them.  If using a glass bowl, you may have to put a colander over the top of the chiles to keep them from floating on the surface of the water.  Set aside for 20-30 minutes.

3. Drain the chiles.  Put on your gloves (the oil from chiles can stay on your hands for days and you do not want to rub your eyes with chile hands).  One at a time, tear the stem off of the top of the chile.  Stick your finger in the top opening and rip open the chile lengthwise.  Remove the slimy pith and all of the seeds (I do this over the kitchen sink - it can get a bit messy).

4.  Add the cleaned chiles, jalapenos, scallions, garlic, oregano and apple cider vinegar to a large food processor and puree.

5.  Add whole comino seeds to cast iron skillet over medium-low heat and move around until toasted/fragrant - about 8 minutes.

6.  Add toasted comino seeds, black peppercorns, achiote powder, allspice berries, and sea salt to a small food processor (or grind by hand with a molcajete) and process until they form a coarse powder.

7. Add spice powder to large food processor and process to combine.  Put mixture in non-reactive bowl, cover and chill in fridge for an hour.

8. After the spice mixture has chilled, add cold ground pork and combine mixture thoroughly by hand (don't forget to wear gloves!).  Cover chorizo and store in the fridge for 2 days before using.  

9. After 2 days, I usually split the sausage into 6 equal parts (1/2 pound each) if I'm not cooking any of it right away.  I take each part, roughly form it into a sausage shape (gloves again!), roll in plastic wrap (as tightly as you can), then roll in parchment paper, twisting the ends of the parchment paper to help the sausage keep its shape.  Toss in the freezer until you're ready to cook!  

my gloves after making chorizo

Phew.  It was a lot of work and waiting 2 days before cooking it will definitely test your patience, but it will all be worth it when you taste it for the first time.  I use this chorizo in place of regular pork sausage in lots of my favorite recipes, including Primal Breakfast Casserole, Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole and Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash.  Most store-bought sausages are about 1/4 pound each so each of your homemade sausages should be the equivalent of 2 store-bought.  Happy cooking!