Apr 4, 20123 min read

The Birth of Beef Heart and Spinach Lasagna + Meal Plan

**Post by guest blogger & mom, Gretchen Kingsley**

Yes, you read that right…BEEF HEART.

This was NOT on my meal plan for this week but the whole chicken I got down from the freezer on Monday night was definitely NOT chicken when I went to place it in the crockpot on Tuesday morning. My initial reaction was not of shock but disappointment. I wasn’t planning on having a roast, but roast it was…or really, roast it wasn’t. Throughout the day, the smells wafting from the kitchen seemed different and well, it just looked different too. My disappointment soon turned to shock when I pulled the paper packaging out of the trash and noticed these words right away – NOT FOR SALE – I knew right away what it was. The half cow that we had purchased with my parents had come with specialty meats if we wanted them. Special in that they were free. Heart, liver, tongue. My frugality would not let me turn down free meat. FREE MEAT.

I have read all about organ meats and the benefits of eating them but we are so unaccustomed to eating them and especially preparing them, that it is a bit nauseating for even me. I will eat basically anything and enjoy it. Cuy (read: guinea pig) head and toenails were a regular staple during our year in Ecuador as well as my first taste of tongue. I LOVED it! It was actually one thing that didn’t nauseate me during the first few months while pregnant with Isa. BUT, even though I REALLY like it, the thought of preparing the 1 ½ foot long cow tongue that sits in my freezer makes even me squeamish. And so, it continues to sit there.

After the shock of realizing I had a cow heart the size of a chicken cooking in my crockpot and quickly Googling how to prepare it, I realized this accident was the only way I was ever going to get the courage to eat this delicacy. My meal plan was definitely chucked out for the week and I began to improvise. The suggestion from Google to eat it like steak almost sent me to the bathroom and so did not make the cut. You regular organ-eating people think I’m weak by now but the act of preparing the meat makes it almost unbearable for me to eat (note: I couldn’t even touch raw chicken the first year or two that Chris & I were married) and I knew I needed to place it subtly into recipes. Thus, BEEF HEART & SPINACH LASAGNA was created.

Note: During the whole preparation of the lasagna my dog was eagerly by my side. I soon realized that beef heart smells exactly like canned dog food and I continually had to forget this fact the rest of the evening!

Half of the heart after it was cooked.