Beef and Butternut Squash

Beef is a weekly staple on my menu these days. It's versatile and mixes with all sorts of everything so you never get bored. Just rotate spices and vegetables or sides for an entirely different experience at every meal.

Red meat had a reputation for a while as actually bad for you and I went about twenty five years without eating it. Yup, you read that correctly: Twenty. Five. Years. Until I learned three important things: (1) how to cook (2) how to not be afraid of fat and (3) that red meat is an excellent source of various vitamins and minerals, including B6 & B12, zinc, selenium, iron and niacin.

So, ditch the gummy bear vitamins and whip up a batch of this beef and butternut squash. In fact, double the recipe and you'll have a couple easy and healthy lunches prepped for the week!

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef 
• 2 Tbsp of organic ghee 
• 1 1/2 Tbsp organic coconut oil
• Black pepper and Himalania pink salt to taste 
• 8 - 12 ounce package of butternut squash (pre-cut)
• 1/3 cup of chicken broth

Options: 

• Use bone broth instead of chicken broth. The bone broth adds collagen and other micronutrients. If you use chicken broth, choose low or no salt and add sea salt
  
• I typically choose 85-93% lean meats and add my own fats during cooking
  
• This is where you can spice up your life with different flavors, like red pepper flakes!
• Riced broccoli, roasted asparagus or riced cauliflower are great swaps for the squash
• You can always use butter. My body doesn't like lactose or casein, so ghee is my go to
• You can always cut up and cube your own butternut squash, but just don't tell me you did. You'll make me feel bad about myself :)

Quick Tip:  

• The lower the fat content, the less you'll need to drain the fat
• After you cover the dish to cook, the extra moisture will be absorbed: I promise it won't been beef soup :)

How to prepare

1. Preheat skillet to medium heat
2. Add coconut oil and melt
3. Add ground beef, salt and pepper. Brown the meat, stirring occassionally
4. After the meat is evenly browned, add the ghee, squash and broth
5. Mix well, turn the heat to medium-low and cover 10-15 minutes to finish cooking

Macronutrient breakdown as prepared with a 16 oz package of 93% lean ground beef  and 12 ounces of butternut squash combined with ghee and coconut oil

Calories per 6 ounce serving of beef/squash and 3 ounces sweet potato rounds with salt (as pictured above): about 360 . If you nix the sweet potatoes, you'll knock off 60 calories/15 grams of carbs, but I don't know why you'd want to. Man, I love sweet potatoes!

Protein: 25 grams    Carbs: 20 grams (5 from squash, 15 from potatoes)  Fat: 20 grams