The weekend before last, Trevor and I got sick. I might be kind of a wimp when it comes to being sick, but I was sicker than I have any memory of ever being before, although Trevor says he was sicker in Ecuador. We think it was some sort of norovirus we picked up, probably compounded by the fact that we’re in Portugal and we don’t have as much resistance to the viruses here. (I could be making that up though; feel free to correct me if you know about these sorts of things). I was totally miserable but at the same time a little fascinated: since I was wearing my fitness tracker, I could tell that I had been “active” for 75 minutes even though I was lying in bed, asleep. That visualization of how hard your body has to work to fight illness was really interesting for me.

It was a good reminder that health is one of the most important things in life. The Herophilus quote in my passion planner is fitting: “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.”

Health is one of my major focuses for this year. Not just weight loss, or exercise, although those are important pieces. Health. Being well. As a day-to-day reminder, I’ve set a little mantra: eat smarter, move more. Simple, to the point. If I tell myself this when evaluating options – what to have for lunch, whether I need that chocolate after lunch, if I should walk home or take the bus – it serves as a gentle reminder of my goals. It’s not a rule, or a restriction. It’s just a little push towards better choices.

The food we put into our bodies plays such a huge role in our overall health. I feel worlds better when I keep my meals light and bright – the trick is coming up with meals that make me crave eating this way. Generally, I find that lunch is the easiest time to get a lot of vegetables in, and when I’m home, I frequent b.good, a Boston-based chain. I think they started out as a burger place, but they also offer great grain bowls and salads. I love their butternut squash and apple salad (and when I’m really hungry, I add a burger to the top – all the flavor and none of the guilt of the bun, french fries, and cheese).

This salad was easy to recreate at home, and so good that I ate it 3 times in one week. In the spirit of #EatSmarterMoveMore, I forwent the burger and replaced it with farro to make the salad filling enough for dinner. In addition to the farro, the salad has roasted butternut squash, diced apple, tamari almonds, cheddar cheese, pomegranate, and spinach. All kinds of good flavors going on. I can’t take any credit for the combination, but I can vouch for its deliciousness. Also, I’d love to see how you’re choosing to #EatSmarterMoveMore, so follow along (and contribute!) to the hashtag on Instagram. I’ll be using it all year to track my healthiest recipes and active adventures.

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Butternut Squash and Apple Buddha Bowl

Inspired by b.good. Serves 2.

• 2 cups peeled butternut squash cubes (1/2 inch pieces)
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups cooked farro, warm (reheated if  not prepared fresh)
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 2 small apples, cut into bite-sized cubes
• 2 oz. cheddar cheese, cut or shaved into thin pieces
• 1/2 cup fresh pomegranate seeds
• 1/3 cup tamari almonds
• Your favorite tangy salad dressing, or a simple mix of lemon juice and olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the butternut squash cubes with olive oil and sea salt and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast until tender when pricked with a fork, about 30-40 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Remove from the oven and set aside.
2. Divide the farro and spinach between the bowls, mixing together gently to combine. Top each bowl with some of the butternut squash, apple cubes, shaved cheddar, pomegranate seeds, and tamari almonds. Drizzle with your favorite dressing. Salad is best when the farro and butternut squash are warm.

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Last weekend we got up to the White Mountains for a hike, something I’ve been aching to do since the first hint of coolness crept into the air. The weather wasn’t great – low gray clouds and cold – but I just wanted to get out there, so we went anyways. It’s so refreshing to be somewhere so quiet and fresh, and the four hours we spent walking up the misty slopes, and meandering down along the brook were exactly what I needed. The hike was invigorating, but with temperatures in the low 40s at the bottom and high 30s at the top, I was daydreaming about a big bowl of chili and a hot toddy before we even made it to the summit. It was 30° warmer back in Boston, but I already had my heart set on chili, so chili it was. I’d been brainstorming all the way home, and I knew I wanted a lamb, roasted butternut squash, and fresh tomato base with hints of sweetness and chocolate from cocoa powder and our home-brewed Russian Stout beer.

This chili came out even better than I wanted it to. I was kind of winging it, taking a few tricks out of other recipes I make as I went. – cocoa powder and allspice from our favorite steak rub, red wine vinegar and a splash of beer from my mom’s chili recipe, and roasting the squash with smoked paprika before adding it to the chili the way I do with pretty much all vegetables.Rich and saucy and slightly sweet, with just a hint of lip-tingling spice, it blows every chili I’ve made (except maybe my mom’s vegetarian chili, which is a completely different animal) out of the water. For me, at least, the slightly gamey, tender chunks of lamb are so much better than beef. I know there’s all kinds of debates raging about what qualifies as chili and what doesn’t, but in my book, this is chili and it’s damn good.

I’m also sharing this over on Instagram today for the Huckle and Goose #InstaPotluck. Huckle and Goose is a meal-planning service that provides truly inspired menus to your inbox once a week, with a focus on finding creative ways to use the vegetables you’re finding at the farmer’s market or in your CSA box that week, both the common ones (tomatoes, corn), and the stranger ones (hubbard squash, radicchio). In addition to creating their own seasonal recipes, they also license recipes from a group of really talented bloggers, and I’m thrilled to have some of my own recipes included in their meal plans from time to time. Seeing the recipes they use from other bloggers actually inspires me to create more original recipes that utilize whatever I’m picking in my garden or grabbing at the farmer’s market that week, rather than defaulting to old standbys – there are so many things you can do with fresh tomatoes besides caprese and tossing them with pasta!  If you’d like to give Huckle and Goose a try, you can use the code “INSTAPOTLUCK” to get 50% off any annual subscription (code valid today only, 9/23/2014) or sign-up for the two week free trial.

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Lamb, Butternut Squash, and White Bean Chili

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 4-6.

• 1/2 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 4 cups cubed)
• 3 TBS + 2 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 lb. cubed boneless lamb (cut for stew)
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
• 1 serrano chile pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely minced
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and diced
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 c. water
• 2 TBS tomato paste
• 3 c. chopped fresh tomatoes, about 2 large (cores and stems discarded)
• 1 TBS red wine vinegar
• 1 (15 oz.) can of canellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 c. dark beer, such as stout
• grated cheddar cheese, for serving (optional)
• sour cream, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the butternut squash with 3 TBS of olive oil, a generous sprinkling of sea salt, and the smoked paprika until evenly coated. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast until tender when poked with a fork, about 30 minutes (stir/flip the cubes once after about 15 minutes). Remove the butternut squash from the oven and set aside.
2. Add the remaining 2 TBS of olive oil to a large stockpot and place over medium-high heat. Generously season the lamb with sea salt, then add to the stockpot and brown on all sides, which should take about 5 minutes (1-2 minutes per side). Use a slotted spoon to remove the lamb from the pot and set aside.
3. Add the onion, garlic, serrano, and bell pepper to the pot and saute, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, cocoa powder, and allspice, and stir to coat the vegetables. Saute for 2 minutes longer, then return the lamb to the pot and stir to combine with the vegetables and spices. Add the bay leaf, water, tomato paste, chopped fresh tomatoes, and half of the roasted butternut squash, stir to combine, and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and let simmer for 1 hour.
4. Remove the lid from the pot and continue to simmer the chili until it is thick and saucy. About 15 minutes before you plan to serve, add the red wine vinegar, canellini beans,the remaining half of the squash, and beer (add the beer slowly, as it will bubble up!). Stir to combine and taste for seasoning. Simmer for 15 minutes longer, to heat beans through, then serve immediately with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream.

The post Lamb, Butternut Squash, and White Bean Chili. appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

On Monday morning, lying in bed and catching up on my blog-reading after a happy and busy weekend with friends, I saw this post from Cookie and Kate, and was immediately obsessed. I spent the rest of the day thinking about various versions of the creamy butternut squash linguine, and by the time I stopped at the store on the way home from work I had reversed all of Kate’s healthy twists to the dish and it had morphed into a full-blown, decadent carbonara in my mind. Which, it turns out, is how the folks over at Bon Appetit had originally published it anyway. There’s no denying that I’m a fat kid at heart – give me the opportunity to cover pasta in fried salty bits and cheese and heavy cream and I’ll go all out  (and then hide the rest of the leftovers to help keep my vegan challenge going strong).

Now that it’s (finally) March, we only have a few weeks left where root veggies, kale, and heavy winter flavors are what we need to keep us going, so I’d suggest that you indulge in this dish now before all you can think about are radishes and asparagus and rhubarb. I’m not sure how best to convince you that it’s worth the calories, so I’m just going to ask you to trust me. If it makes you feel better, serve it with gently sauteed bitter greens, like broccoli rabe or mustard greens – the bitterness is a perfect counterpoint for the sweetness of the roasted squash and the saltiness of the pancetta. And enjoy it! One of winter’s redeeming qualities is the comfort food it inspires, so if eating food like this is what gets you through the lingering cold, go for it.

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More creamy pastas…

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Cacio e Pepe with English Peas

Roasted Garlic and Shallot Mac’n’Cheese

Butternut Squash Carbonara with Fried Sage and Caramelized Onions

Spaghetti carbonara gets a healthy-ish twist with a butternut squash sauce that’s as creamy and smooth as if it were made of eggs and cream! Well, there’s still a little bit of cream… 

Inspired by Bon Appetit and Cookie and Kate. 

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 small butternut squash, about 1 1/2 – 2 lbs.
• 2 TBS olive oil
• sea salt and pepper
• 1/2 lb. slice pancetta, cut into small cubes
• 1 small onion, peeled and sliced into thin half moons
• 1 lb. fettucine
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 1 TBS butter
• 1 small bunch sage

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Peel the butternut squash and cut into slices that are half an inch thick. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Flip slices with a spatula to coat with the oil. Roast until fork tender and slightly caramelized, about 20-25 minutes, checking and flipping after 10 minutes. When tender, remove from oven and place in a blender. Set aside.
2. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat and add the pancetta cubes. Cook until crispy and browned on all sides, stirring frequently. Once cooked, set aside on a paper-towel lined plate. Discard all but 2 TBS of the pancetta grease. Heat the 2 TBS of grease over medium-low heat, then add the sliced onions to the pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until thoroughly caramelized and slightly crispy, about 15 minutes.
3. While the onions are cooking, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook the fettucine according to package directions and drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water. Place the cup of pasta water in the blender with the squash and the 1/4 c. heavy cream, and puree until very smooth. Toss the squash puree with the fettucine.
4. Just before serving, melt the 1 TBS of butter in a small frying pan. Fry the sage leaves in the butter until crispy, about 2 minutes. To assemble, divide the pasta between the serving plates, and top generously with cooked pancetta, caramelized onions, and fried sage. Serve immediately.

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