Paleo Butternut Squash Lasagna

So this is one the first recipes that I decided to make since I had most of the ingredients and it seemed easy enough. Their have been tons of different varieties of this recipe, but the one I used is from Health-Bent. Health-Bent is a GREAT place to find lots of great paleo recipes and they haven't stirred me wrong yet!
Health-Bent 'Paleo Lasagna"

I follow their recipes almost to the T, except I used Grass-Fed ground beef instead of Italian Sausage since it is what I had on hand and used a marinara sauce that was Paleo that I found in the grocery store. I forgot which one it is, but just look at the ingredients and make sure sugar isn't one of them!

Some Butternut Squash pieces

Peeling a butternut squash is a b*itch!! I think that is what took the longest since I never had peeled one before and I wasn't sure how to cut it either. After I peeled that sucker, I cut the bulb side off and then the long part I carefully tried to cut equal thickness round circles. The description said to cut length wise again, but that was confusing, but here is a picture to the left of some planks, it is ok if there is space in between the squash when you put them in the dish, just make sure they aren't overlapping. After taking a lot of time to cut the butternut squash (I suggest a Mandolin if you have one,  I just got one today, and OMG equal size pieces...what a concept). I finally had all the pieces. I actually didn't even use the 'bulb' part, but just got that up into cubes and made some butternut squash bites! (Just added salt and cinnamon and threw them in the oven on a cookie tray with the lasagna and just watched until they were done!)

I didn't feel like bringing out a food processor, hence why I just got pasta sauce from the store and it was SO much faster, but making your own like the website says probably would taste awesome also since its fresh!

I also added mushrooms, thyme, oregano, and kale to the ground beef, onion, basil, garlic mixture. Not sure about the Kale, if you don't like it, I'd probably keep it out. I thought I would experiment for once, and add a little superfood to it. For those of you who don't know about Kale, just know you should eat it, Duh!

After I did my prep and browned my meat, which probably took about 30min I started to assemble the 'lasagna.' Now it does take me a little longer than those expert cooks out there as to chop an onion took me forever because my eyes kept watering. I hate cutting onions, I wish someone could always do that for me.

So this is how it went...little sauce, butternut squash pieces to cover the whole bottom of the 9x9 pan, then a layer of ground beef mixture followed by sauce, then repeated with the butternut squash pieces, beef, sauce. Simple! It only took me about 5min to put that together. Now that is more like it. Popped it into a preheated 400 degree oven for about 35min and checked until the top was bubbly.

Now here is the hardest part! After you take the lasagna out of the oven, immediately throw aluminium foil on top of it and let it sit for at least 30min. Trust me it still will be hot, but this is super important otherwise it is really soupy. If you let it sit then the juices get soaked up and when you plop it on your plate the juices won't seep out into the other great things on your plate. I don't know about you, but I hate it when my food juices mix...eww sorry that was gross. You get the idea!

So all in all, I give this recipe 5 stars in being tasty and super easy! You can make this for sure and don't be afraid to add whatever you want into the ground beef. The first time I made this my boyfriend and I ate the whole 9x9 serving and I made it for a bunch of crossfitters with high remarks also! Leftovers were great the next day too, so I recommend making extra! Give it a try and let me know what you think too! YUM :-)