Paleo Crockpot Butternut Squash Chili

The end of summer and the beginning of fall means less fresh berries (boo) but more winter squashes (yay)! I bought a butternut squash a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't really sure what to do with it. I looked up what to make with it, found some Paleo chili recipes, and took some ideas from a variety of recipes to come up with the following concoction:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups butternut squash, cubed
• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 4 pieces of bacon
• 2 cups broth (any kind, I used chicken because that's what I had)
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can green chilis
• 2 T chili powder
• 1 T smoked paprika
• 1 T cumin
• 1 T oregano
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• Sliced green onions for topping
• Avocado or guacamole for topping

You'll notice I didn't include tomatoes, which is usually a staple in any crockpot chili recipe. The thing is, I am not a fan of cooked tomatoes. I noticed when I would eat dishes that had cooked tomatoes, I would push all the tomatoes to the side. So I decided just to omit them and see what happened.

Steps:

Brown the ground beef in a pan, put in crockpot
Saute the bacon, squash, garlic and onions until cooked, put in crockpot
Add the broth, spices, and chilis to crockpot
Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 3 hours. Add spinach and cook for an additional 30 minutes on high.
Top with avocado or guacamole and sliced green onions.

I haven't actually tried this yet but it looks amazing, I can't wait for lunch tomorrow. I had extra butternut squash so I roasted the extras with salt, pepper and olive oil for 40 minutes at 400F, it was a delicious snack.

I also made this Simple Creamy Cauliflower and Artichoke Soup from PaleOMG. It was super yum!! I precooked the chicken yesterday in my crockpot with low sodium chicken broth and some garlic powder. I kind of doubled the recipe, I used a whole head of cauliflower and a can of artichoke quarters packed in water. Another awesome puree done by my one and only Vitamix.

I'm getting a little tired of eggs, I've been eating Omelet Muffins the past 2 weeks, so I decided to whip up some protein pancakes for tomorrow morning and Tuesday. I'll probably eat em with almond butter, or maybe I'll splurge and whip out the maple syrup (organic of course :P)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!