Just A Pinch

Oh hi 2012!

2012-01-18T19:04:00.003+01:00

Things are crazy and wonderful and I honestly have no idea how people with jobs find time or inclination to keep a steady blog going! I am missing working from home and the regular blogging but do lovelovelove working full time for the first time in forever! 3 months have passed and I think it will continue to get better and better, do see myself working at this place for a while if everything continues to get better :)

As for my last post on being curious about nutritional ketosis, well that never happened, obviously, otherwise I probably would have been posting regularly. I've not lost anymore weight as the holidays came with lots of things that prevent weight loss for me like sweets and all that, but I can happily say no weight gain at all was had :) yay!! Still think LCHF is to thank for that maintenance. Can't remember the last time I had a new year without weight gain! Nice to know it'll never happen again woohooo!

Of course I want to lose another 10-15kg before my bday in june and while LCHF is the way I eat on a normal daily basis, even with occasional treats the weight loss really slows down to a sad crawl and not much gets accomplished. It takes a week, week and a half to get over the carb flu so methinks it may well be worth it and who knows, more than 15kg could even be a possibility! Actually I know it's a possibility, just comes down to suffering the ick for a week.

weekdays

breakfast : 150g kwark/strained yoghurt
lunch : lunchbox (some combo of veggies/meats/eggs/fish/nuts)
dinner : meat, veg, bone broth
snack/dessert : kefir smoothie (kefir, few berries, cream, cinnamon, vanilla)

weekends

breakfast : bacon, eggs, coffee/cream
dinner : meat, veg, bone broth
snack/dessert : kefir smoothie

Pretty simple right! Simple and satisfying. Now to find some easy recipes to help get back on track to cooking so I don't use the IM TOO TIRED excuse and continue living on bunless burgers and pizza toppings lol

Also, to get walking. Went once. boredface. Gym = full of new years resolutionists so I'll head on over in march when they fade out. If my sports bra fits by then of course... best get walking I guess! Maybe take my bike round the corner to get air in the tires :)

Life is good! On another note, The nerd is still loving his work and has been growing a beard since half november ohhmaaagawwwd it is so weird, looks nice but doesn't feel that great on my skin RUGBURN lol

la dee da, pork rinds and other bits

2011-12-07T18:50:00.006+01:00

Would ya look at the size of these eggs?! The ones we get from the farm are even bigger than this now, the farmer won't fill the carton all the way because the eggs are too big. All double yolkers! Love it!

I'm still not quite sure why the farmer stamps the eggs, the chickens are right there running all over the grass, fields and gardens. Seems a tad redundant to stamp them with a 0 which in NL = organic. Sorry but being simply organic just doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to eggs! (and dairy) (and meat)

However when it comes to lovely little pork snacks, there is no organic to be seen. Surely I can have a wee chat with the pork farmer to discuss adding crispy pork rind snacks to their array of fabulous products but we'll see. In the meantime there are 2 kinds I always have on hand...

The one on the left in the pink bag is the poofy baked kind with flavouring. 1 bag = 230cal; 30g protein; 0.8g carb; 12g fat (4g of which is saturated, most is monounsaturated ie the "good" stuff if you believe that nonsense)

The one on the right in the clear bag is the hard crunchy crackling type pork rind with no flavour, just a pinch of salt and awesome. 1 bag = 595 cal; 59g protein; 0.1g carb; 41g fat (15 of which saturated blahblah)

Either way you look at it, a perfect meal on its own.

Except when coworkers steal the bag and refuse to let you eat it till you've had a "proper" lunch... pffft whatever THAT means.

LCHF WINS! porkrinds = perfect meal.

I've kind of been a slacker in my diet lately, once a week I "treat" myself after a hard workweek and those one after meal treats turned into one day/week turned into 3 days a week. I thought hey no harm no foul, the weight still comes off even if it's a bit more slowly.

Well, after watching this and having a few (many) thoughts in this brain of mine (I'd like the book eventually if ever money falls in my lap -- maybe i can find it online somewhere for free weeheww!) Thinking thinking, too much thinking as per usual...

This is what I found...

I'm very curious about what nutritional ketosis could mean for progress, still waffling about going 6 weeks 'hard' to figure it out.

1)No treats *shrugs* I'd be logging in everyday to write about what's going on, especially in those whiney i want i want i want moments (there tend to be a lot of those; typical of anyone with a weight problem, we all have childish relationships with food in one way or another)

2) nope, that about sums it up...

Guess i'll be going for it after all. Would say I'll wait till after xmas since every year I get a box of frootloops, my favourite as a kid which I always got to eat when going to stay with my Dad. Happy nostalgia.

Maybe it's time to let it go! Besides, no money for anything besides video games makes it a bit easier methinks XD Priorities, priorities!

So, starting after the work xmas party this weekend it will be as follows:

<20g carb/day till Jan 23rd & beyond if I'm so inclined (probably will once the ball is rolling). Checking in daily with all the nitty gritty. Maybe I should weigh in one of these days too, see where things are in that regard.

Xmas won't be an issue since it's at the inlaws and we do fondue, plenty of meat and i'll bring my own mayo to avoid the sugary sauces. It might be a little higher carb but will avoid sweets and the usual culprits like the plague that they are ;) GET OUT OF MY BRAAAAAAAAIN sugar <_<

And one of these days if I ever get out of work on time, it's off to the gym!

Something something something and something else

2011-11-27T11:31:00.003+01:00

Man my whole family is exploding with baby fever, this year alone there have been 4 new additions and my nephew is due to be born end of January *excitedface* It seems everywhere I look (mostly facebook & work) people are pregnant, the majority of my age-mates either are already or are going to be breeders.

I have always maintained that children don't fit into my life plans and have never wanted them but recently I'm starting to become very confused and think about the possibility? So many people said after 30 it starts to change but *Shrugs* haven't yet had a I NEED A KID feeling and still swing more towards the 'oh what a burden' side of things. Who knows what will happen... maybe one day I'll wake up and think yes, my life is not complete without a little projectile vomit/poop/*insert inevitable projectile body fluid here* and things will become clear.

Mostly I think it's just this feeling of being left behind somehow and that is not a good reason to have a kid, especially since the world is falling apart.

Maybe a good pro/con list would be smart. Although I already know the con list will be 10 times longer.

pro: baby laughs are cute.

Ok, but I can get baby laughs from everyone elses babies and give them back to their parents once the crying (and projectile pooping starts)

pro: ?

Yeah I'm out of ideas *shrugs*

Guess I better face it, being an Aunty is as close to having kids as I'm going to get, even if it is sometimes fun to think of baby names and imagine how great our little green-eyed multilingual home-schooled hackergenius children would be.

HAHA O_O

Cat is not, in fact, playing Skyrim (yet)

2011-11-20T20:39:00.003+01:00

:D work is busy, weekends are spent on the couch barely moving and trying to make up for lost sleep.

HOW long can it possibly take to adjust to a full time out of home job after a decade of part time in home work?? Surely it's not going to take much longer?? I'm so impatient.

To make matters more poop, last sunday I woke with a scratchy throat before having to fly out so caught a cold BLEH. Still have a cough here and there but feel pretty much better.

Damned flying + too much work + too much junk food + everyone around me being sick <_< = SICK. bleh-hey.

In any case, I've enforced a strict 15:30 computer shut rule for work, no more over working for this girl. My new mantra is "it's not my problem until they pay me to make it my problem" TADA instant greatness.

Not to mention the whole gym thing is starting to look so much more possible with an hour and a half to kill before getting a ride home! Now to find gym shoes, workout clothes and a backpack to carry it all in O_O Perhaps chucking out all the workout stuff in 2009 was a tad hasty.

As for cooking, I simmered meat in broth and mostly just drank the broth then made a kefir smoothie *sigh* I'm in a cooking is stupid phase. Good thing there are a ton of pork rinds in the pantry so I can maintain my fabulous diet. Except when eating a lot of pizza and crap, obviously, then the weight doesn't really go anywhere *shrugs* the gym will probably counteract that little issue. We'll see what happens and adjust accordingly!

*yawn* bed beckons, happy sunday!!

Nother quickie

2011-11-12T18:46:00.002+01:00

Past the month trial and into the 2nd month now at the new job, still tons to learn, tons of traveling and almost no time for blogging. I don't know how people who work out of the home do it! Working at home was so awesome, there always seemed to be time... of course then it was also 'only' part-time. Ah well, I'm enjoying the pace and the Danish butter (mmm salty) and a couple more kilos are gone. Would have gone faster but I do indulge quite often, especially in beer on those work trips!! Surely once the pace calms I can figure out a way to fit in the gym time as well which would help immensely, really looking forward to that but still not ready to add 1 more thing to the schedule now that I'm only just catching up with the pace!

And there are still those nights with wicked traffic that takes almost 2hrs to get home when we scarf a pizza and crash into bed *sigh* maybe we should move closer to my office lol ... we'll see, give it a good honest year and maybe then we'll think of moving closer. Lots up in the air!

On a fun note, Skyrim was just released, A.C. Revelations and Uncharted 3 are to be released in a few days *excited face* :D

Ohhh and lamb packs should be ready to order soon too!!! weeee!!!

Phew!

2011-10-19T20:09:00.002+02:00

Gotta take a breath here lol everything has been pretty crazy, been at work for a week and a half now, had 1 trip to another country and will go again next week then the final week of the month. I guess time will tell if I make it through the trial period!! Till then I'm gonna keep on keeping on and try not to let myself get overloaded. Need a car! Well, I could bike but it's 2.5 hours to bike and the weather is turning to freezing now, with a ton of rain. Not the most bike friendly conditions for that long of a ride.

No food photos, just eating quick meals.. smoothies, soups, bits of meat and veg here n there. Wonder if I'll ever get used to a routine :)

Hope all is well out in LCHF blogland!

The start of a new chapter

2011-10-09T14:07:00.002+02:00

Tomorrow is my first day of work at the new job and I'm quite excited, not only because it's going to be a great challenge with a lot of wonderful opportunities to learn and grow within a supportive corporate atmosphere, but because there's FREE GYM!!!!

Oh man my weight loss is going to get kicked up a notch which is great. I set a goal of losing 25kg when I set out on this thing in March and while I'm half way, there are a mere 12 weeks left in the year so the gym will certainly come in handy with getting close if not completely achieving that goal!

It's going to be exciting to see how everything unfolds. The gym will definitely help with stress management too which = better weight loss as well. Massages and such are not included in the package but I think it will be worth my own money to get them once a week or every other week as each bit of extra relaxation will help. I'm hoping the first month trial period goes swimmingly well because it's a place I can see myself working for years and years to come!

Steak salad! Delicious and filling and nutritious. Steak, veggies, mayo. Slice/chop, mix, eat.

Before there was leftover steak, there was hot steak fresh off the grill, with a fried egg for extra yum. I only ate the yolk, tend to do that these days, egg white is not a favourite thing to eat.

Last night we had to turn on the heating in the house for the first time since spring, it's getting properly chilly out so it seemed only right to make a piping hot cream of broccoli soup and have it with rookworst (smoked sausage).

3 diced cloves garlic, 1 head + stem broccoli chopped in small bits, 300-400ml bone broth. Simmer all 10-15min. Buzz with stick blender. Season to taste, swirl in heavy whipping cream before serving...or greek style yoghurt... or sour cream. Whatever takes your fancy. Leave it out even if you're off the dairy.

Ahhh warming delicious food for the soul.

Tonight, rib steaks simmered for a couple hours in broth reduced down to gravy & the last of the summer salad.

Pretty soon it will be all kale and parsnips and sauerkraut and lactofermented vegetable juices again :) Almost that time of year!

I'm going to go back to making and consuming more bone broth, we got a good 6 kg of bones from the farmer when we picked up our meat pack yesterday and I want to start consuming 0.25-0.5 liter of it per day... gelatinous lovely broth. Will make a perfect breakfast with some greens, quick easy and nourishing.

Huzzah to health!

Partaaaay

2011-09-30T19:59:00.003+02:00

Jooooooob! Hurray!! Start in less than a week and a half. Here's hoping the stress continues to go AWAY! Well, income wise it will, still dealing with a property mess trying to sell our other place. -0.5kg this week too, 400g left in getting back to that 1st 10kg chunk then on to 10kg chunk number 2! (Then 3 more 10kg chunks after that but let's just focus on 1 thing at a time k? k!)

I tried an awesome new recipe this week, butter chicken! Man it was delicious, I have no idea how authentic it was but it was SO GOOD. Next time chicken breast pieces are on sale I'm going to stock up because butter chicken is awesome! The recipe I found online, there are a million of them out there.

Kind of a crappy photo! I much prefer photos with that natural light look...stupid flash, terrible photo.

whateeeeever I got a job, yay! Getting through the month trial period should be fun! lol

The stress is not your friend!

2011-09-26T11:28:00.004+02:00

As the weeks and stress sludge on so to does the weightloss another -0.1 kg for the week. I think some deep breathing techniques will be in store this week, I'd like to see a nice drop one of these days, more than a kilo thanks! Getting on those deep breathing techniques, caaaaalm caaaaaalm oooom ooooom.

After looking back through the weight loss and it hasn't been as bad as I thought

March -3.4kg
April -3kg
May -2kg
1st half June -1.6
------------
-10kg
------------
2nd half June +7.5kg
July -1.8
August -2.9
Sept: predict maybe 2kg but friday will tell. Maybe it'll be another 100g loss for the 3rd week in a row lol

In any case it has been a pretty consistent downward trend despite the monumental gain in June. Let's just say that won't be happening again :P

I know 2011 will end with me being at least 15kg lighter than I started and that 2012 will bring me really close to being finished losing weight, if not all the way there!

The most comforting part is knowing this is the way I can comfortably and easily eat for the rest of my life so there won't be any of that "going off a diet re-gain" nonsense.

Cause when it's this good, there's no such thing as suffering :D

Farm fresh sausage, chicken salad, devil eggs and cold crunchy paprikas

or steak and fried egg with salad in lots of olive oil/avocado oil and sea salt.

A few weeks later...

2011-09-19T20:47:00.003+02:00

Man have things been crazy around these parts, job applications out the yinyang and tomorrow the first meeting *fingers crossed*.

Weight wise all is copacetic, last post it was -2kg then last friday -0.5kg and today another -0.1kg although official friday weigh saw no change. Meh, things are going and however slowly I'm about 0.9kg away from before the 30th birthday debacle.

Did I expect it to take almost 12 weeks to get those 7 kilos back off? Hellz no, but with all the stress and madness I'm surprised it has gone at all!

Last time I was experiencing this level of stress I slowly but surely packed on about 15kg and thanks to LCHF weight has actually come OFF in this period of extreme stress and as a bonus it has allowed me to continue the stable mood and avoid the depression it took so long to recover from -- Thanks not only to LCHF but also WAPF and all things buttery for helping me out! I couldn't be more grateful, that's for sure.

So I'll continue eating my ghee, beef, fish, mayo, raw milk kefir, bone broth and avoiding sugars/grains/soy/oils and processed foods forever!

What's weird is I was looking through some old journals the other day and came upon what was a typical day of eating for me in 2006 and almost fell over from shock, I was on that well known point counting plan... you know the one.

Breakfast: puffed rice, skim milk, banana, 2 tsp sugar. coffee = 4.5
Lunch: 2 whole wheat bread, slice goat cheese, turkey. peach = 3.5
Snack: activia prune yoghurt, 50g air popped popcorn with 1.5 tsp olive oil= 6.5
Dinner: whole wheat spaghetti aglio e olio & salad = 9
Snack: 2 cinnamon jawbreaker bubblegums. 30g dry ricekrispies (felt nibbly) = 3

No wonder my cravings and appetite were so out of control and to make matters worse, I was spending 1-2 hours per day on the elliptical.

Healthy? No one will ever convince me of it ever again.

Hope tomorrow goes well!

Easy week

2011-09-02T12:37:00.002+02:00

Here we are again, weigh day fun lol -2kg this week which puts me firmly back on the path towards obliterating the birthday gain, still 1.5kg to go but hey, I stand by my choices and while it's taking forever to get off again, I certainly had fun!! Now had I not panicked about money and started putting cheap carbs like potato/rice back in our diet I would have been done by now and that irks me a tad but I think by this time next week it'll be close to done.

Every day (after mainlining about 1 litre of water) I whip up a delicious kefir smoothie with 0.5L kefir, a generous pour of heavy cream (go through almost 1 litre per week), 3 big frozen strawberries, a spoonful of berry preserves, teaspoon of cinnamon and a decent squirt of vanilla extract. Deeeelicious.

The tasty BBLT salad I had twice this week, beef/bacon/lettuce/tomato. This one I drenched in mayo

This one I drenched in a mix of extra virgin olive oil & avocado oil, delicious both ways!!

Creamy boursin chicken & broccoli. Panfry chicken while steaming broccoli, add broccoli to pan, chicken broth, boursin, stir well and serve.

and sometimes I don't have veggies at all (only buy what's on sale) so some roast beef in onion'y broth jus... not pictured after, more slices of cold roast beef slathered in mayo.

Also not pictured, the extremely delicious enchilada casserole which I truly thought was photographed. Ahh well, it has been made before, it's in the blog somewhere lol

I'm not sure why losing weight came SO easily to me this week, I did my usual amount of walking, usual foods (without the cheap carb fillers that had me lose less last week)... the only thing I did differently was 3 full days of gaming and more studying. I think there is something to be said for the power of working our brains to solve puzzles and learn. I will do it again this week, continue studying and game a few days and have more conclusive results in the following weeks.

I do love an excuse to play more games :D Last night I finished Assassin's Creed 2 so will now start Brotherhood. I'll probably be finished in time for Revelations release in November *psyched*

Experiment over

2011-08-28T15:47:00.002+02:00

The last weigh I had +1.2 which was stress induced, it's all but gone now and I have to say, despite the fact that certain carbs are extremely cheap and they do bulk out the meals nicely, I'm just not prepared for such slow weight loss. If I wanted the annoying 0.5 lb per week losses that had me believing it was something to get excited about, I'd go back on weight watchers. I much prefer a couple pounds per week with high fat. I have been tweaking the budget and will simply rely more on cheaper things like kefir, eggs, bone broth and slow cook cuts of meat. Less cheese, more liver pate. The farmer asked if we'd have some chickens when it's their time to go to that great freezer in the sky, we jumped at the chance! I'm going to ask for a big bag of the feet too, maybe he'll give them for free and I can get extra gelatine'y broth. That's the best kind. My nails & hair have never looked better anyway and my skin, while still recovering, is coming along nicely :)

Stirfry with beef, asian style veggie mix and a sauce i made of broth, tamari and sambal

Stirfry with leftover roast beef, broccoli and some of aforementioned cheap carbs buckwheat noodles in spicy 'peanut' sauce... buckwheat noodles were important for our vegetarian diet, we ate them twice per week. This gave me a terribly painful reaction in the guts, won't be buying them ever again.

One of the cheaper meal ideas, boiled sausage, scrambled eggs with a bit of herbed cream cheese, liver and veggies

A small but satisfying lunch of a little wedge of camembert, ham rolls with mayo and a little piece of baked oatmeal.

Yet another stirfry of italian style veggie mix, beef, broth, cream cheese, tomato paste and italian herb mix.

Not posted were the other cheap carb experimental meals with potato and rice. With the ups and downs of weight, I can say this money saving meal bulking experiment is over. I have a goal to reach and will figure out a way to get my main diet into the budget! Every week it gets closer and closer which is awesome! For me a main diet of High fat, Low carb, Moderate protein = happy, satisfied, no food symptoms and getting fit. It's worth it to find a way to make it work when those carby things just make me sick (well duh, phytates and glutens) or slow down progress to frustratingly low speeds (hello insulin = fat storing).

Oatmeal for oatmeal haters

2011-08-28T15:07:00.005+02:00

You can find the original recipe here if interested!

This makes enough oatmeal squares for the Nerd to take in his lunchbox for 2 working weeks, I cut it into 12 squares once cooled and freeze in wax paper to whip one out for his lunchbox each evening before heading to bed. This really is delicious and I abhor oatmeal, porridge, anything of this consistency.

For 24+ hr soaking:

2.5C oats + 1 heaping Tablespoon whole wheat spelt flour, mix

1.75C kefir, buttermilk or 1 TBSP whey/lemonjuice/vinegar in water -- I used homemade kefir as there's always a ton of it in the fridge

Mix and cover.

24+hrs later, you have a poofy, alcoholic smelling soaked oats ready to be mixed! Preheat the oven to 175 celsius

gently melt 0.5c coconut oil and 0.25c honey/maplesyrup

add 0.5tsp salt, 2tsp cinnamon, 2tsp vanilla extract to oats, mix.

whisk in 4 eggs

Then pour over the melted oil/honey and add:

3 small chopped apples, 1C currants

Pour into greased pyrex, bake 30 min till set.

Revel in the wonderful aroma and wait till completely cool before cutting... last time I didn't wait and it began to fall apart.

Helps bulk out his lunchbox and save money in the process! win win! I don't really eat much and won't till weight maintenance time but have tried a couple small pieces and it's absolutely delicious... and I despise porridge!

Baaaad week

2011-08-20T10:41:00.002+02:00

Wow that was a crappy week, I was stressed, job searching was fruitless, I have 3 or 4 options to study but only if the career counselor agrees it's necessary for work in which case they will pay under the requirement the courses are finished a.s.a.p. And it's possible they will pay my salary while studying, although it won't be enough... and for the love of all that's holy, I really need to relax. Why do I need to relax? Because I gained 1.2kg this week, that's why. Further taking me off my New Years goal track = more stress = less weight loss ∞

I did manage to take 1 photo this week, I was that absent minded. It's a BLT salad. Really delicious with lots of olive oil, avocado oil and just a pinch of seasalt.

I'm going to schedule the talk with the career guy soon and hopefully sort this all out soon. On top of it, we're in process of switching realtors on the 2nd property we've been trying to sell for almost 3 years... I tell ya, paying 2 mortgages for 3 years now? Not fun :P

On the bright side? Hmm... is there a bright side? It's kind of grey and blurry from my perspective at the moment. Not that easy for a naturally optimistic, positive person.

LCHF on a budget?

2011-08-16T11:11:00.003+02:00

I'm having a more difficult time than expected sticking to a budget while eating low carb. It wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have to include household expenses like laundry and cleaning and pet supplies in with the food budget but I do so it's creating some obstacles. It's hard for a girl who never had to really stick to a very strict budget in the past. Sure I've budgeted and we've paid business loans and made other things a priority over food... but this is the strictest budget I've ever had and It's giving me a frigging headache.

I've already added soaked/fermented oatmeal and potatoes back into our grocery list, for the nerd mostly, to help bulk out his meals, as we don't want my progress to fall by the wayside and he's already in maintenance mode and not as sensitive to those starches as with bread/pasta. Still, it's hard to avoid the fact that grains and starches are cheap!

I'm thinking to eat more kefir and less pricy stuff and to instead of having fish 3x week for lunch, to have it twice and focus more on sardines and mackerel than salmon. There is a lot of tweaking to be done but dammit i'm determined to make this work! The first thing to go will be cream. at €7 per jar I can't justify the indulgence which means no more coffee as well *shrugs* maybe just on sundays ;)

The baked soaked/fermented oatmeal is a huge hit with the nerd, it's cheap, freezes well and bulks out his meals so he's full and happy and energetic. The original recipe is over here but I'll do a post on in when I make the next batch the sunday after this coming sunday.

Stress makes weight loss impossible, I really need to chill the eff out and stop worrying about this so much. Things will fall into place as they tend to do. Now if I could just find a job that actually made me WANT to go to work.

Makin' kefir

2011-08-13T10:25:00.005+02:00

I've been wanting to do this post for a while and don't want the blog to be all weighty all the time, I DO have other interests and this is mostly a blog about food, weight loss is just a fun part of eating tasty things! (0.5kg down for the week) Moooooving along.

Kefir! This is some interesting stuff, I first heard about it as a teenager - of course nothing sinks in then - my mom made kefir at home but none of us ever drank it, she said she liked to experiment on herself first and foremost lol

Well, it all starts with a jar of fresh milk we get from a local organic pasture farm, they have set up a tap to the refrigerated raw milk tank so you plop in a 1 euro coin and get a fresh jar of raw milk anytime of day or night, tada! Awesome. We also get meat and eggs from them, they're good people doing good work.

The milk is the easy part really, you can use any milk you want. Getting the kefir grain may be a bit trickier. I paid 6 euros, that's including the delivery. for approx 50g which was .... mmm maybe 2 tablespoons? Mine have grown quite well in the past couple months, I have a strainer full now.

They are squishy and interesting and smell like beer (yeasty and a bit alcoholic) They grow in all shapes and I have a few almost as big as walnuts and a weird one that looks like a question mark, his name is Frank.

Milk + Kefir SCOBY + room temperature dark space (pantry) + 24-48hrs = Kefir ready to strain!

Straining the kefir, careful not to sploosh everywhere.

I tried to catch a photo of the stringy web-like substance that comes with these little guys but it was a bit difficult

The stringy web-like coating is supposedly called 'keiferan' and it's the good stuff according to the kefir guru's website.

As a side note a lot of people say to rinse the grains before reusing, I really don't see the point in doing so... I've never rinsed them except after accidentally dropping one on the floor or in some coffee. Don't rinse them, there's no need.

Kefir all strained and ready to wait in the fridge till breakfast. I like making smoothies with it, or stirring a few drops of vanilla in or cinnamon (neither mixes very well, it has to be done in stages) or a spoonful of jam is always nice. Plain is a bit of an acquired taste, I don't really CRAVE it plain but it's not entirely unpleasant. It's like beer'y, tongue-tingling, extra sour drinkable yoghurt. In a nutshell.

Oh look, it's a parrot riding a bicycle!

Happydancing as usual

2011-08-10T12:43:00.002+02:00

Oh look some more tasty things!! And another kilo bit the dust from saturday weigh in which leaves about 3kg left to go of birthday month gain. No worries! Happy dances all round and pretty soon it'll be gone and the 2nd 10kg chunk will be on its way off.

This was the most scrumptious entrecote with sauteed chard. A sprinkle of parmesan to top off the greens and dig in! The steak was cooked to my taste, medium rare.

This was a delicious way to make use of bulk chicken breast, my least favourite cut of meat EVER. I cooked it in onions & ghee, added taco seasonings & water, whisked in cream cheese, added the steamed broccoli & quartered cherry toms, simmered and served. Always looking for delicious new chicken breast recipes that don't make me want to kill myself (i really hate chicken breast but it's cheap and we're on a budget)

More deliciousness, slavinken which is a fun thing we eat in Holland, it's seasoned ground beef shaped into a sausage then wrapped in a very thin slice of beef (or bacon) I like to roast them. Always a good meal idea! Served with scrambled eggs, liver and green veggies.

Keeping a positive attitude is half the battle in a goal towards weight loss... and when you get to eat filling and delicious things, it's easy to keep a positive attitude! Love it :)

It's a win win situation

2011-07-31T18:03:00.005+02:00

Since posting a handful of days ago another 0.9kg has gone missing which is a good thing.

Everything about life, absolutely everything without exception sucks with an extra 50+kg. EVERYTHING. This fat is history.

And it's a complete win win situation because I get to eat a lot of yummy.

Here's a burger with a fried egg blanket, so cozy! And some pickled onions because i love me some pickled onions.

And here's a bacon cheeseburger with homemade mayo.

This is a little less low carb, in fact I probably got about 100 carbs just from this meal of crispy prawns and calamares.

It's not usually my intention to fast after a meal like this, I usually just 'pick up as usual' on with my normal eating but today I just wasn't interested in food so ended up on a 24hr fast anyway. *shrugs* it happens.

ON THE EDGE (of greatness)

2011-07-25T20:26:00.002+02:00

Is that title supposed to mean something? Who knows, these fingers speak for themselves and have lives of their own.

So I lost my first 10kg chunk then gained a lot back partying in June (maybe all? A lady never tells) and I'm still 4.9kg awaaaay from that point. Damned party month, take it from me kids, celebrate for no more than a week!

At least it's pretty easy going, a kilo a week? Not shabby really, too bad it has only bee 3 weeks so far and there are 4.9kg left to go... oh... I just told you how much I gained in Party month. Boooo. So much for discretion. Whatever, I'm not a lady, I play videogames and drink beer and eat pork rinds. Well I surely would if I had them. Somebody send the broke girl porkrinds *sadface*

Sauteed cavolo nero in bacon (mmmm) with meatball soup it's faaaantastic

Beef, egg salad, coffee

Burger with a shit-ton of homemade mayo. Seriously, it's not enough mayo unless it's a shit-ton of mayo.

I'm not going to lie to you people, I have a weakness for can shaped meat products. It's true, it's true. I will always love them. Here you have about 50g of cubed smac fried in ghee with a couple eggs over easy and a foamy creamy cappuccino in my awesomely awesome WWBD? mug.

Dutch smac is often compared to the American spam but it's really not the same thing. Spam for example is all ham I believe, while smac has a ratio of ham to toothpaste chicken. Whatever, it's all protein & fat. Waste not want not.

There's a Monty Python joke in it somewhere.

blueberries & whipped cream for dessert.

Spicy almond broccoli with beef - so good! Mix 2 spoons of almond butter with some tamari, chili powder, garlic powder, salt/pepper and pour small amounts of boiling water over it while mixing till it's a thinner and melty consistency. Toss through broccoli, serve with whatever!

I'm thinking it won't be long till I've conquered those last 4.9kg. Now time for some kefir & assassin's creed before bed!

Breakthrough?

2011-07-19T12:37:00.004+02:00

All of june was a party for me, I turned 30 and spent the whole time in a haze of fun but July I have been getting "back to business" of weight loss and was a bit worried as I gained more than 5kg after a month of partying and I lost a bit of it, then bam, it stalled and wouldn't budge, I thought it would never go again!! Sure it has only been about 3 weeks but I'm notoriously impatient, must work on that lol Doesn't help last time I focused on weight loss it was 25kg in 5-6mths, of course it was low carb low fat low cal and very high hunger. (the sucky way)

I have cut the meat portions from 250 to 125g and it's just as satisfying so I think I was definitely eating more than necessary before. Also, I tweaked the berries intake down to 0.125c lol and together with cinnamon those 10 berries or so lol make a fine smoothie. It's going down again, 300g so far these past 3 days and I'm keeping fingers crossed it's not a fluke. I do adore this way of eating!! I will keep a close eye on it and these last gained kg should quickly be gone and I'll be well on my way to losing the 2nd 10kg chunk.

Now on to some tasty food!!

This was a lovely baked dish of beef/courgette minced together with garlic/onion and beef spices. Cream/egg/creamcheese sauce poured over, a layer of parmesan and gouda, bake @ 200c for 20 min covered, take cover off bake 10 min more till cheese is golden and bubbly, remove from oven let set 10 min if you can wait that long!!

I had my 125g meat portion and saved the other 125g meat portion for breakfast the next day, tastes great cold!! Of course I'm kind of weird and love cold food. in the "olden days" cold spaghetti bolognese and cold pizza were 2 favourite meals :)

I had a ton of courgettes to use, this is another great way to use the minced courgette/beef together with a bit of pasta/tomato sauce, olives, cover with parmeggiano and enjoy! It's like bolognese without the spaghetti, very low carb friendly :)

Now this, this was a salad accident and amazing one at that. I was planning a bacon, avocado, tomato salad but the avocado was rotten inside... I tossed in some extra tomato and turkey, tossed a bunch of mayo through there and it was like the stuffing of a turkey bacon club sandwich, very delicious!

And last but definitely not least, Freckle's Swedish meatballs! So delicious, I will stick to this recipe for always. I did forget the egg but they held up nicely, the all spice and mustard were great. I also had too much stock so it was more like meatball soup lol Still, absolutely delicious and the leftovers made a great breakfast the next day.

Blood pressure getting better!

2011-07-15T11:05:00.005+02:00

Both mine and the nerds b.p. has gotten so much better since we've been changing our diet! In January 2010 we were in the middle of our vegetarian journey from oct2009-may into a bit of june2010 and my b.p. was 135/90 which was even more than the 120/85 it was at the doctor while we were stressed from moving!! Of course my weight was at an all time high as well which makes quite an impact, while for the nerd he was 120/80 which is always high for him.

We just had our BP done again and tadaaaa I was 117/75 despite stubborn weight and his was, and no this is NOT a typo, his b.p. was 95/60 the ATHLETE range. And I tell you in all seriousness the only sport he does is Wolfenstein! He of course has also gone from 95kg to his normal weight around 78kg which he always was.

I know my weight will continue to come off, it has to I just need to keep tweaking the carb number till I find the sweet spot and make sure to not get too much protein either which I was doing, over 100g per day and sometimes over 120g which is crazy as it still converts to glucose which will also stall weight loss efforts and I believe my perfect protein number is around 65g. Tracking can be so valuable in times like these.

Starting with smaller meat portions with more fatty stuff! That'll be easier with a new food budget, meat is expensive but mayo is cheap wooo! lol

Kefir cheese, awesome salad and HIIT

2011-07-11T19:44:00.003+02:00

*cue fanfare*

I made Kefir cheese *bows* thank you thank you... Feeling pretty pleased with myself over here. Hung 3L of Kefir to strain for oh 52-58hours? Mixed the cheese with some salt, shaped into balls and plopped them into olive oil. Dang tasty too! Will be making plenty more of this in the future, that's for sure!

I do love this salad, it's one of my faves without question! It's 100g bacon cooked crisp, a whole avocado and a couple small tomatoes. I don't eat it very often as the whole LCHF thing I try to stay under 30g carb per day on a stricter day and under 100g carb overall but this salad has 30g carb all by its lonesome! I do love it though :)

I know there's a lot of kerfuffle about nitrites and whatnot but honestly I've read enough info to feel safe eating them as long as I pair it with vit c which tomatoes have. The old fry up is often served with o.j. Honestly, I think people stress way too much. People need to chill the eff out before they die of stress cancer or something. Do the best you can with what you have and enjoy life! Life = 100% chance of death *shrugs* whatreyagonnado

cheese crispies!

One of my favourite foods in the universe is mayo... no, seriously. Mayonnaise. This is why I love LCHF so much! Unlimited mayo awesomeness

Mayo with eggs

Mayo with salmon

(mayo with mayo)

Ahhh Breakfast, important if you get too hungry in the evening and can't control your impulses. Once I started eating breaky again instead of drinking coffee on its own, I was able to get a hold on evening eating, always a good thing.

So we have the kefir smoothie (kefir + tiny handful frozen berries), 2 boiled eggs with herbamare/pepper, coffee/cream and water (and omegas + vitD)

I'm going to make more effort to eat fish for lunch 3 or 4 times per week so i can stop taking supplements. I find the fish oils make me break out on my jawline which sucks the suck.

Now is my first HIIT session and I *scaredface* hope to live through it!

Extra tasty casserole

2011-07-07T13:14:00.003+02:00

This casserole was extra tasty, I encourage everyone to give it a try if you like melty cheesy meaty mexican flavoured goodness.

It was dead simple too,

500g beef mince
diced onion
green pepper

-Cook till beef is done, add taco seasonings. Set to side.

-In a bowl tomato paste, water (in equal quantities 1 jar paste = 1 jar water) stir till sauce consistency, add garlic, whole jar of diced black olives. Stir, add to meat mix.

Put it all in a casserole dish.

In a mug whisk 2 eggs & dash of heavy cream, pour over meat mix in casserole dish.

Top with grated cheeses of choice.

Bake @ 200c for 20mins covered with foil... remove foil, cook 10min longer till cheese is golden & bubbly. Let sit 10min to set before serving.

ENJOY!! nice with a green salad or side dish of choice. There was no room on my plate for such things besides, there is tomato, green pepper, onion, garlic and olive in it... it was just like eating a salad already!

Crispy awesomeness

2011-07-05T15:13:00.004+02:00

That rendered tallow? Fills the deep fryer = crispy chicken bits. Oh, would you like some awesome wings with that?

Served them up with a garden salad, some purple kohlrabi slaw and some awesomely awesome bluecheese dressing. LCHF FTW!

Or hey what about a mixed plate of cold things on a hot day? Cold lamb sausage, some tomato feta salad drizzled with amazing wild olive oil, some liver pate, pickled veggies and almond stuff olives! Hell yes

The amazing wild olive oil of which I speak? Why yes I DO happen to have a photo of it for your viewing pleasure.

As for the kefir smoothies I've been consuming a couple times per day, I'm going to have to start drinking it plain because this bad boy is stuffed full of fruit sugar and it's going to impede my progress. (kefir + bananas, dates, apricots, frozen fruit = 4 servings of too much fruit, yes, too much)

chopped apricots with heavy cream = a lovely seasonal dessert once in a while. Emphasis on once in a while.

You may not be able to see the sausages in there but this is my low carb attempt at hotdogs. Someone really needs to tell me what kind of lettuce to use because this was not working lol

And always a classic, 3 egg omelete cooked in ghee stuffed with parmesan. Ahhhh satisfying.

A Year on

2011-07-05T14:33:00.003+02:00

I remember a little over a year ago, seems like yesterday, when I had stumbled across (by accident?) some blogs about protein and fat and diabetes/weight connecting with carbs.

Immediately my diet began to change, this year has been so enlightening! I have finally come to the point now where there is no more doubt about weight loss, I have begun to CARE again. You see for a long time I stopped caring. I had given up to hopelessness, who cares if I was fat! (still with 50-60kg to lose in total) Nobody ever saw me anything other than who I was so it was easy to stay in that depressed state where nothing mattered and I didn't care for myself.

This is a double edged sword, while you don't take good care of yourself, you stop trying, nothing matters, there's a fake happy face yet with loathing and still, a secret longing for something more, something better. The voice of "maybe I do deserve something better" quickly shut out by something negative.

I watched my diet go from 'everything in moderation' to vegetarian/juicer to fruitarian to high protein low fat (lots of vegan smoothies/supplements) to trepidation in eating saturated fats to fully embracing butter again (bliss) and ultimately finding "my match" in LCHF where I feel happy, fulfilled, sane, calm, buttery (for reals) and last but certainly not least, concerned!

It's like a switch has gone on, all I want to do now is take the best care of my body as possible. This switch has finally been turned back on about 3 days ago.

Have not felt this since 2007 when I began a vigorous weight lose regime which by 2009 was completely undone and the re-gain of 25kg had also brought 20kg of friends :S I went from low carb low fat low cal... to all things in moderation to high carb vegetarian. It has been a very, very long time of living in a dense smog, of intense highs and lows.

This year has gone by in the blink of an eye, a year of much learning. Now it's time to move forward, to shed these layers. It has been a long journey yet still feels like it's just the beginning and in a way, it is.

Clarifying butter, rendering lard/tallow

2011-06-25T12:10:00.005+02:00

I have officially checked these 3 things off my "to try" list for 2011! Huzzah!

I posted about clarifying butter back in April although Nov 2010 was the first try. Then in February I rendered pork lard for the first time and now I can say I've done beef tallow! It was all very similar to doing the pork lard really and a lot less fussy than clarifying butter.

To be fair I did have to do 2 batches because of starting too late in the day, then I learnt the 2nd batch to put it up by the terrace doors and close it off to the house, it was kind of an odd smell which I wasn't expecting as the lard didn't leave any smell. Also in my first go I was a bit overzealous in deciding what were good bits/bad bits so ended up with less. Day 2 I processed it all which yielded more.

I got this huge bag of suet for FREE from the farm I get beef from! What can I say, they are an awesome set of folks doing awesome work!

Cut each piece into chunks to be processed

Process to fine pieces

Dump in crockpot, set to high for a whole bunch of hours

Stir once or twice as it's melting then leave it

Strain into jars and voila!

Since the deepfryer goes by weight I decided to put it into jars to later cut out by weight. In retrospect I won't be doing that again, what a pain. I'll just pour the liquidized fat into the fryer, making sure to not exceed the max level line.

scenic route

2011-06-23T21:53:00.006+02:00

I like to take the scenic route through life but sometimes it feels like I'm running out of time. That's probably a normal turning 30 kind of thing... right? I hope it's not just me lol not in any babycentric terms but it just feels like there's not enough time left to accomplish and learn everything I want.

Diet = also taking the scenic route, I went waaaaay off track all of June so far and have had only a few normal days interspersed with a LOT of not normal days! Not surprisingly, I now feel like week old dung. Surely it's not going to take a whooooole year to lose it all? Ahh well, I could think of worse things...like never losing it at all.

I have a hip size goal, 112 cm. That's the biggest size a really nice dress shop in the city sells. Hip size max 112cm. I'm aiming for quite a bit lower than that, obviously as that equals out to a size 44 in the shop, I'd like to be 38-40 *shrugs* sugar = demon. And not just because carbs are evil... they're demons because they haunt you forever. It's probably going to take longer than 28 days to be fully immersed, last time I thought I had it by 28 days. I think a more generous time range of 3 months should do it. 12 weeks. By end September, if I'm not cured of these demons ... well, I'll just keep going till however long it takes *shrugs* that's just how I roll.

Next post, Rendering tallow! weee exciting.

Dirty 30s

2011-06-17T23:10:00.001+02:00

30 FTW! More to come

2011-06-06T13:42:00.004+02:00

The work search continues as does the ongoing butt busting operation, good thing LCHF is so damned enjoyable :)

stirfry with taco seasoning

one whole smoked mackerel. I had to cut off the head & tail so it would fit on the plate mmmm fishies!

bits n pieces. cucumber cream cheese 'sandwiches', celery with liver pate & macadamia butter, coconut ball, cheddar cubes, crispy bacon and a couple boiled eggs.

steak au jus & salad

tuna salad

birthday cake balls, kinda jumped the gun on this one... instead of waiting for my actual birthday a couple weeks from now I decided to have my cake early lol I managed 2-3 balls before the sweetness won. Enjoyed those immensely but thankfully birthdays come but once a year!

bacon omelete

chicken salad and cottage cheese with the first strawberries of the season! woot! Gonna order more for next weekend if they're still out.

chicken salad with celery sticks mmm crunchy water!

3 different types of quickly grilled steaks, i have no idea what the english names are but it's hollandsebiefstuk (stringy/chewy) on the left, kogelbiefstuk (bit chewy but decent) on the right... and in the middle, oh my goodness, haasbiefstuk so tender and delicious it melts in the mouth. Grilled to medium rare perfection. The salad was so unimportant, it's all about the steak really :) Got some ribeye lined up for tomorrow and i can't wait!

I just looked up the English words... haas = tenderloin; hollandse/kogel are lean muscle steaks, from upper rump area i think? the hollandse we got was quite stringy and the kogel was a bit chewy but not stringy... lost in translation

eee

2011-05-31T17:12:00.001+02:00

testing testing working some things out

quickie update

2011-05-29T11:19:00.003+02:00

No pics today just a quickie update to do a happy dance for reaching my 1st tiny mini goal and a total of 6.4kg so far. Onwards to the first big goal of 10kg by my b-day in 3 weeks. Dare I tempt the fates by saying 3.6kg in 3 weeks is no problem? HAHA maybe. Doesn't mean I'm not going to try though. Cheers to the first 10kg chunk! Onwards and downwards my stalwart friends!

Tadaaaa

2011-05-22T20:16:00.007+02:00

Back on the downward trend indeedy do, it's all good and things are fabulous around these parts! Few more kilos gone, the nerd is back in his work groove and has a project interview tomorrow (at the same place we had our final company project, actually) so it should be interesting! 2 no goes work wise for me but 1 awesome bill of health with a go forth and minimize your butt with our blessings kind of doc, 1 amazing new freezer now about half full of farm fresh meaty goodness and the weather has been lovely lately, I've begun walking everyday and really enjoying myself.

MEATBALLS! I love these things, it's essentially meatloaf in ball form...balls are more fun, obviously.

scrambled eggs/bacon & beef, a staple round these parts. Filling and delicious

Fabulous new freezer... before we lugged it up to the top floor and broke a foot off it. Still freezes amazingly well with a foot missing! And thankfully we had a gift certificate so it wasn't to painful on the wallet.

Takeaway chicken drumsticks, with the 5 or 6 frites I stole from the nerds plate

My first attempt at a fish tail braid. Turned out surprisingly well! Not a lot of people know this but I'm a big fan of very long hair and am growing mine out to classic or slightly longer than classic length, it's down to my hips now but I will cut a bit off soon. In any case, fish tail braiding hair this long took me about an hour and I'm still not sure if all the feeling has returned to my hands yet (it has been over a week)

My best veal schnitzel ever! Served with onion gravy

Deli slices wrapped around pickle spears & mustard. Mmmm

Spicy deviled eggs, a favourite around here.

a bowl of lovely chocolate fluff

more deli rolls with mustard... and pickles/pickled onions. I loooove pickled onions

Easy dinner of beef & salad

Even easier dinner of lean stewing beef with marrow broth jus

Last night we got burger king burgers, I had a tendercrisp, a double whopper with cheese/bacon and a steakhouse burger before feeling full. Will remember to take a photo next time although I'm not so sure dissected burgers are all that tasty looking XD ok they are actually or maybe I just think so because I never eat the buns!

Cheers to eating awesome food & losing weight *does a happy dance*

Head on straight?

2011-05-08T10:40:00.011+02:00

I'm going to break my goals down into 10kg chunks it seems a lot less daunting than focusing on the whole shebang at once. I will lose 10kg = yeah no prob. I will lose over 50kg = omgwtfbbq.

Yesterday was a great visit with the inlaws, they took us out for dinner and I got to hold an old friends new baby, it was lovely.

I did squats for 1 minute on friday and now I can barely walk. Awesome.

BACON! There is also beef & eggs in there but the bacon is what truly matters

Since eating this way I eat once, maybe twice a day... very rarely though I get a tiny bit hungry in the afternoon but not hungry enough to eat a meal which will interfere with the evening meal so I run to CHIA amaaaaazing. Oh yes. 2T of these babies in 0.5l of water, whisk them up, let them sit... continue stirring (a fork works best) till the seeds are all evenly suspended and sip the refreshing gel. A squeeze of lemon or lime and you're good to go for hours.

Beef, eggs & creme fraiche ooooo

Taco beef salad, easy & tasty

Breakfast salad of bacon, avocado & tomato. Tea with cream. I've been off coffee since tuesday, so far so good! Waking up a lot brighter these days.

The coming week should be pretty straightforward, my main meal of beef/eggs/bacon/butter is working exceptionally well to keep me full until dinner at which point I can manage to eat a bit but nothing too much. Then I like to have a few sips of wine and a couple bites of cheese in the evening. I'm averaging 1300-2000 calories/day at the moment - not that it matters when you eat this way. The incidences of overeating on carbs are becoming less as I go on which makes me feel very relieved. It's hard to change overnight but small steps and attainable goals make everything easier :)

The one who has benefited most from my diet is the Übernerd! Look at him on monday his first day of work frying up some bacon

Seriously, his pants are loose. He is 2.4kg from the weight he was when I met him FOURTEEN YEARS AGO! He'll be 37 in July and has seen close to 100kg at times (highest was 96kg he's 174cm tall) but this way of eating has been exceptional for him too... It just makes me look forward to the day when I can lose all this extra baggage lol 10kg chunks. Slow & steady. AND HAPPY WITH BUTTER!

My highest weight when I was vego/pescetarian hybrid if it needs a label. We had fish 2-4x month and that weight after 3 months was 128kg *gulp* Reached that in January 2010. By June I started eating meat again. By August I was down to 115kg and fell into a depression after leaving my family, gained it all back from turning to sugar, stopped caring. I'm starting to care again, the fog is lifting. Only 3kg down but come hell or high water I'll reach that first 10kg chunk before my birthday in June. *shakes fist* HELL OR HIGH WATER!

meh

2011-04-30T10:00:00.013+02:00

I'm not one for dwelling on negatives and I got 2 job possibilities this week! Well, the 1st unfortunately turned out to only be 1 day per week for 3 months *headdesk* so here's hoping the 2nd turns out. It's not everyday that you try to change the direction of a career path and I have spent almost 10 years in a happy safe cocoon but not really experiencing or having adventures which is why I'm trying to change.

Not all things sucked this week mind you, the Übernerd made an appointment to sell his car for monday and as I said, I applied to a great job opportunity, the company will officially be closed either tuesday or wednesday and last but not least, I made the awesomest of all awesome mayos.

No really, it is amazing although maybe a little too mustardy lol I was going for TANG and it got that tang but also a touch mustardy!

No worries, the top secret recipe will get a tweak, it was a first time effort after all.

essentially to make mayo it's very easy, you make sure all your ingreds are room temp especially the egg yolks. 3 pastured egg yolks, 0.5L mild olive oil, couple spoonfuls of vinegar... blend the oil into the yolks very very slowly with electric whisk till fully incorporated. Season to your taste! I added a spoonful of store bought lacto fermented mayo to get the ferment going to prolong expiration, didn't have any whey so I hope this works!

bowchickawahwaaauwwww

beefpatty with fried egg

why are my egg whites yellow?I thought that was interesting. I tried to make meringues without sugar, it turns out that isn't possible.

pork loin with creamy mustard sauce I made for the Übernerd... wasn't very hungry that night

instead i had a bit of cheese & mustard and called it a day

ham/turkey/cheese/butter/lettuce/mustard rollups

I ATE THE WHOLE THING!!!!!!! and it was damned tasty I want to get some almonds and melt this bitch down and make my own toasted salted choc covered almonds. Minimal sugar, maximum awesome. (Sorry had my own epicmealtime moment for a sex there)

Ahhh beef bowl, this has become what I call the LCHF poormans special. See, not only am I job searching, closing the company and overall flailing about wondering what I want to do with my life....

But we also had our last client in December so what money we had for luxuries and such was used only for essentials and as things like steak are luxuries, our focus is on the organic ground stuff lol we drain off some of the fat, add high quality ones like grassfed ghee and pastured eggs and a bit of crumbled bacon because everything is better with bacon... and we can essentially feed our family of 2 the full range of essential vitamins and nutrients on less than €80/week for organic/wild which is pretty awesome. And yes, to get the full range of vitamins/nutrients you must eat organic organs too. I love liverwurst!! yum although I probably eat less than 100g per week. I believe that's enough. Bone broth I drink regularly as well, make up a huuuuge batch then freeze in ice cube trays, store in airtight containers. Pop a couple cubes into a mug, pour a bit of hot water over, drink it up. deeeeeelicious and full of healthy minerals, fat and collagen/gelatin... All I know is my hair grows fast, my nails are stronger than they ever were and my skin wounds heal faster than ever before. This is one practice that I shall keep forever since starting a while back.

Think that's enough rambling for the day, going to enjoy the koninginnedag festivities cheers!!!!

For the love of spinach

2011-04-23T13:01:00.012+02:00

This week has once again been a blur of paperwork, reading job postings of which none appeal. I wouldn't say stress has been particularly overwhelming but it must be having some affect as my weight hasn't budged and I have even begun walking more (3 times this week woohoo!) In any case I feel great so that's proof enough that I'm doing well by my body so shall continue even if my weight is being stubborn at the moment.

I was craving citrus juice this week so picked up a couple grapefruits & a few sanguinellos to juice. Used half to mix with fizzy mineral water for a refreshing drink on a very warm day. Apparently Holland is 10 degrees warmer than it should be at the moment (According to the experts) so it has been like July here lately, rather than the April spring fresh weather.

This was an interesting puree of watercress/potato/broth served with grilled chicken & drizzled with olive oil.

And yay for the first fresh broccoli popping up, I made a spicy almond sauce to toss over the steamed broccoli and served with carrot slaw & bacon

scrambled eggs with liverwurst, pretty self explanatory

Not only was the first broccoli out but the lovely fresh spinach as well! I suppose it starts popping up in March but not the organics. Creamed spinach with some cold green pepper (first of the season too! hurray for spring) and chicken... with the last of the citrus fruit pressed to mix with fizzy mineral water.

The last of my spinach for the week, creamed of course, a favourite tasty way to eat it :) Together with a grilled steak and 2 eggs over easy.

A rather decadent breakfast for when I don't feel like cooking in the morning... vanilla coffee!! Whipped heavy cream with vanilla powder. Poured espresso over et voila!

Here's a rather generous portion of brunch, ground beef with a fried egg & butter. Think I'll be eating this more often but half the portion of beef and add 1 extra egg (and slightly more butter). Could go all day on this meal alone!!! ZOOOOOM!

Isn't food grand :D

We're almost to the end of closing the company now, I think within 3 weeks it'll be done for good. On the 2nd of May the car will be sold as the Übernerd gets a car with his shiny new job (pretty common in NL for the IT sector) and I believe other than the trip to the chamber of commerce after the sale of the car, the sale of the car itself is the final step in the company closing process. I am somewhat remiss in my job searching, after 10 years of doing things MY way without bending to the will of any superior, is it any wonder that nothing looks appealing? Surely there's something out there for me, somewhere.

That's life!

2011-04-15T08:32:00.004+02:00

This week was a blur of meetings and signings and financial headaches, job searches and needless to say, very quick meals. Quick meals which I more or less have forgotten to photograph all week! I also didn't weigh in, I know with stress comes less than par eating and weight should be my last priority. Eating healthfully even when I feel like falling headfirst into junk, taking care to not eat too much sugar while stressed, getting fresh air & sunshine and of course lots of sleep.

That has been my focus this week and while I did pretty well in the sugar department, only 1 sugary episode, the fresh air & sunshine was a bit less than it could have been. I did start to get out for walks this week which means some sore muscles and stretching out after a decent winter hibernation.

We had our first bbq of the year last saturday, the weather was gorgeous. Sausages!

One of the quick meals... ground beef with ketchup. Pickles & olives on the side

And another quick meal... marinated chicken bits then baked and served with sesame seeds.

May will bring calmer days, I'm hoping. Closing a bizz is never as straightforward as you'd think :-S

Yay for clarified butter!

2011-04-07T10:22:00.028+02:00

If you want to get to the bits about clarifying butter then just skip right down :)
This weeks weigh was rewarding, -0.6kg (1.3lb) and things are progressing nicely! I even almost made it out for a walk once... and swung a kettlebell around for a minute lol weeee fun I'm so glad my energy is coming back! Soon it'll be up there and I'll be buzzing all over the place!

A favourite; mashed boiled eggs with butter & herbamare

Roasted chicken leg with carrot slaw (grated carrot,mayo,seasonings) and stuffed olives

Beef franks (went back for the other 4 later) with mustard, gherkins and a wedge of brie

A favourite pizza; salami, mushrooms, pineapple & extra cheese (which is still barely any at all unfortunately)

Mini meatloafs are delicious and easy, mix beef mince with a handful almond flour, beaten egg, tamari/ketchup/seasonings to own taste. Form, cover with sauce, bake till done. Voila!

Cold roast chicken, easy lunch

Beef stew with carrot/sunchoke in bone broth deeeelicious

2nd attempt at crockpot ribs, sauce wasn't to my taste. Think I'll stop trying to make these and go out for ribs whenever the urge to have some hits.

Sausages with stuffed olives

followed by 2 very thin slices of sprouted spelt loaf loaded with butter & almond butter

Dinner style bacon & eggs, thick cut bacon baked crispy with about 5-6 eggs which i couldn't finish

When I saw this I had to get it, it tastes like those tofifee chocolates, it's hazelnut raisin spread, so tasty... I normally don't like hazelnut anything but this is lovely with the roasted hazelnut and chewy bits of raisin!

And on to making clarified butter!

In a heavy bottomed pot, I use a 3+L Pot (same one for broth) I melted 10x250g blocks of unsalted butter. Melt over lowest heat on the medium sized gas element, not the biggest, it will go too fast and might burn.

After a while it begins to bubble and separate so you can skim off the milk solids. Some say stir it, some say don't stir it... I say do what you want because it works both ways.

Milk solids scooped aside

After an even longer while of scooping and letting it gently boil away, it will become clear golden liquid and you'll see all the milk solids stuck to the bottom. Keep a close eye on it now, if those bits at the bottom burn the batch will not be as tasty... when there is a distinct toffee/caramel'ish flavour, turn off the heat.

Let it sit in the pot a while to cool off before getting it ready to strain. 10x250g of butter = 2 litres of clarified butter (up to 4+ months worth)

Set aside, ready to cool. I poured some off into a pot to deep fry my dinner. Do not close the lids of the jars until they are completely cooled/solidified because condensation will form. water = bad in this case.

And Deep fried these tasty "breaded" prawns, delicious although me + prawns have a kind of love/hate relationship... I hate cooking them which means I only eat them while out and then I love them lol
The stirfried bok choy was ok, loved the spicy almond sauce (spoonful almond butter + tamari + spicy seasonings + hot water)

And after a day of clarifying a load of butter and making delicious deep fried prawns.... I also managed to make a hell of a mess :-D

But that's ok, Übernerd and I have an agreement that he tidies up when I cook and thankfully he thought the delicious meal was worth all that mess!! I did let him have quite a few more prawns so that may have swayed his opinion a bit ;)

a note

2011-04-07T09:57:00.005+02:00

Something that has made this LCHF lifestyle enjoyable is the fact that I can have all the butter I want and anyone who knows me knows this is most important. For almost a decade I did the low fat high carb hamster wheel diet, all the time getting bigger & sicker and more miserable. Well, miserable outside of the exercise endorphin high lol At least till I went lowcarb but that was also lowfat and lowcal so obviously never sustainable. I never gave up hope, I always believed something would work. Something HAD to work. Why would they say to eat 1200 calories a day 60% of that carbohydrate, and less than 10% saturated fat IF IT DIDN'T WORK???

Well, it doesn't. 10 years of experience tells me this. While on a popular point counting program which I tried more than 5 times, in NL we had something called a "free portion". What's a "free portion" you ask? Well, a free portion is simply ALL YOU CAN EAT potatoes or pasta for 3-4 points depending on whether you choose white pasta (4 points) or "healthy" whole grain pasta (3 points).

So you take 1 ravenous appetite, tell them they can eat ALL THEY WANT of carbs (sugar) because those things are filling and you 'can't eat too much' well, I could eat quite a bit and was always within my points for the week. I ate pasta every single day, more pasta than while living in Italy.

I lost weight for 3 weeks in a row before I started gaining almost uncontrollably. At this meeting they would make you announce out loud how much you lost/gained that week and I have never felt such public humiliation before and it made me so angry. Outraged. I saw shameful faces everywhere, looks of pity for people who hadn't lost. I overheard women in line for the scale say they hadn't had food/drink all day (it was a 7 pm meeting) hoping for a 100g loss because they 'had a bad week' ... of course all said while they were removing their 'heavy' shoes.

I have never seen such a perpetuation of disordered eating. And we are supposed to trust these women to teach the next generation of women a healthy body image?

I left and never went back. Something must be done. For the good of vulnerable confidence everywhere.

1 month down

2011-03-31T13:21:00.003+02:00

It has been a whole month now, I'm -3.4kg (7.48 lb) down which makes me so happy and positive for the future of this LCHF thing. I wasn't 'perfect' by any means but improving and that is what counts! Perfection is so overrated ;) We had takeaway 7 times this month, still plenty of room for improvement! Including the one or two days with sugar, definitely will not be a problem doing that less often, my tastes sure have changed a lot in the last month. No more food cravings, I feel much more FREE!

However our life is turning upside down at the moment and it's difficult to find a handhold in all that is rushing past. We want to close our company and go forward, start fresh somehow and haven't an idea how best to do so. Übernerd is on his way to have a meeting with our accountant to discuss the best way to do so, I personally think forfeiting all our current property and going into a nice little rental will be the best way to go about this situation but the accountant will know the best course of action for us to take for the future.

It feels like the end of an era, we started this company together in 2002 with nothing but 2 hopes and a prayer, during a low economic time and made it work. We reaped many rewards and created some lasting contacts and relationships. It has been a whirlwind of stress, uncertainty, joy, reward, hopefulness and seemingly helpless frustration but we've always been ok.

Now our ideas are changing, our desires and hopes for the future that going forward much longer with our company wouldn't be true to what we want, what we deserve. A break. Some financial peace and ease of mind. A holiday here and there that isn't stuffed with meetings for possible new contracts or afterwards rife with visa bills because entrepreneurs don't get paid holidays. We want and wholly deserve a breath of fresh air after having worked so hard for so long.

I know it will happen, hopefully sooner rather than later! Cheers to a great first month, here's to an equally great second month *cheers*

Navitas

2011-03-28T12:14:00.010+02:00

My energy is beginning to soar, I can't sit still for long anymore... I know there is a long way to go in the healing department but it is so nice to feel energetic again for the first time since... man I can't even remember. The years tend to pass in a fog of fatigue, depression, general nastiness and now it feels like the fog is finally clearing.
The small sugar incident on saturday obviously didn't have the lasting negative effect I feared it would. In fact, after the few sips of cola and 5 gummies I was in a coma then woke with a hangover. Pretty awful and it simply drives the obvious home, sugar is nasty and I'm much better off without it! huzzah!

Another 0.5 kg gone forever. Slowly but surely everything is falling into place, gotta love it! Now that my energy is coming back I may just be energetic enough to start some kind of low key exercise program! Probably just walking and swinging my kettlebells around, nothing too crazy :) Still, it has been over a year since I've had the energy, interest or inclination to even consider getting moving. Now that I do, it feels quite amazing!!

Sausages with mustard, sauerkraut, fermented veg juice

This is my "i don't want to cook" go to meal... turkey or ham & cheese roll ups with either mayo or mustard, with a bag of lettuce. I stole a few pieces of boiled meat off the übernerds' plate and called it a day

3 egg omelet (always eat the yolks!!) cooked in ghee with a bit of cheese inside

mince, courgette cooked in palm oil with caper/olive sauce sprinkled with parmesan

Tuna mayo with pickles

chocolate fluff

mince with courgette in palm oil with taco seasoning and sprinkled with parmesan with a couple of almond stuffed olives

coffee with heavy whipping cream, half a can of cat food.

I joke, I joke... it's liverwurst (maybe)

Reflecting

2011-03-27T12:26:00.004+02:00

28 days. What is it about 28 days? 28 day rehab programs in general are quite easy to come across! Apparently it's generally understood that alcoholics need 90 days minimum.

How does this relate to going off sugar? Quite a lot actually, although the majority of people who try, fail. Just like smokers. I am not immune to this phenomena. Addictions are never easy to conquer -- and if you think you are NOT addicted to sugar (including grain which turns to sugar in the body), go off all of it for a week and tell me how good you feel on the 3rd day when you have some withdrawal symptoms and all you can think of is your beloved pasta or bread or cola or *insert carb of choice here* It's worth it to push through the first week or two :D

I was sailing along, every day getting brighter and clearer and more enjoyable then last night I caved, I wanted sugarsugarsugarnownownow so I got some cherry coke (they didn't have dr.pepper which is my favourite liquid sugar) and some gummy frogs, my favourite candy. You know, those little green gummy frogs with the soft white belly of a different texture, more marshmallow-y. Between those and cinnamon hot lips I could eat my weight in candy when the mood hits (and it's a high weight lol).

I had fully intended to drink all that cola and eat all those frogs but after 3 sips and 5 frogs I was completely gone lol AND I woke up this morning with a hangover. Fabulous.

It may have been the 28th day but it will obviously take more time. I like how I feel without sugar/starch/grain, this LCHF diet truly suits me and it's something I can very easily do for the rest of my life, even if birthdays come with nachos, beer and cake :) After this blink in time, this 28 days, the so called 'slippery slope' I know so well when it comes to cigarettes, alcohol and drugs, it no longer applies when it comes to sugar and that, in itself, is a relief.

I could justify following through with indulging the craving with stories of current life stress, moving towards closing our IT company, taking a different life direction, catching up on paperwork yaddayadda but truth be told, there's not a lot in life that is free from stress. Feeling the stress, acknowledging it and working through the pains or difficulties as they arise can be so much more rewarding in the long term rather than dulling it out with a short term crux as sugar which has a long term negative effect on the body.

3 weeks no sugar wooo!

2011-03-21T11:15:00.008+01:00

Came in another 1kg down last weigh in, this morning I was on zombie mode and didn't get on the scale before jumping into the shower but that's alright, next weighin will be here before I know it.

I reached the first 21 day chunk with no sugar and feel great because of it, stable and sane and refreshed in body and mind. The approaching spring weather is certainly having a positive effect as well! I created a calendar chart type thing to track my progress and have split the rest of the year into 21 day chunks wherein I may go out for dinner every 21 days if I so wish (or if it coincides with special occasions/birthdays, then use those days instead) to indulge cravings if there are any while continuing to avoid sugary desserts and the obvious. Rice with takeaway or a pizza etc you get the idea.

This week in the meal plan there were quite a few repeats like spek with sauerkraut so no photos of those but also some new ones like this lovely wild salmon (not too expensive either but it was frozen, not fresh) with butter/garlic and tamari (wheat free fermented soysauce) for dipping...wasn't interested in vegetables this day, clearly lol

This dish turned out great, the carrot slaw was awesome with the addition of a bit of red pepper. Couple of garlic stuffed olives along side the chicken made for a tasty dish indeed!

Salad with pan fried panir, avocado & cucumber. Fairly straightforward. Dressed the leaves with olive oil and a teency bit of wine vinegar --not a fan of the stuff but didn't have any lemons-- sprinkle of salt & pepper, very delicious.

This was SO delicious. Taco salad, we ate it 3 times this week for dinner. THREE TIMES. It was that good. So easy and you can adjust the ingredients to your taste. Once we did with no cheese, and twice with no avocado... This one we had the first time though, fry beef in some palm oil (i like the red virgin kind, it's a bit fruity) then add some taco mix seasonings, bit of water. Dump salad into bowl - 200g lettuce/person, add seasoned ground beef on top, 1/2 avocado, 2 spoonfuls of salsa, 1 spoonful of sour cream/creme fraiche (can only think of south park when using this now), then grate some aged cheese over top to taste! So tasty!!

Ahhh the unspeakable evil. What was it about this seemingly harmless, lowcarb/diet friendly pancake that completely set me off? Let's check the recipe shall we? For 2 plate sized pancakes (1 for me, 1 for the übernerd): 4 eggs & 1/4 cup oil beaten till frothy then in a sifter: 2.5Tbsp coconut flour, 1/2tsp baking soda, pinch of salt. Sift dry into egg, beat a bit longer till well incorporated. Let set while pan heats. Cook pancakes till edges are dry, underside is golden, little bubbles appear and break on top. Flip. Serve with plenty of butter, cream, stewed fruit (if not lowcarbbin).

No sugar, minimal carbs. Set me off. This also happened to (thankfully) be my 21st day so I could indulge the cravings it caused... well, to an extent. It gave me terrible cake and cookie and muffin cravings none of which I ate, I was satisfied with the pizza, it may have triggered because of texture, my sister thinks so, I have to agree with her really. You never know the true effect food can have until you remove it for long enough to make realizations. It's a lot like the elimination diet I was on in 2008 which showed intolerance for wheat, soy, citrus and dairy -also can not eat tomato products very often or bananas- although the intolerance for dairy went away when I cut out all the wheat including wholegrain spelt and sprouted spelt.

Amazing indeed. When I indulge in something containing wheat (very rarely) I do it fully knowing what's coming and choose to do it anyway! Maybe it's madness, but until they find a suitable replacement that I don't have to cook myself, accepting the consequences of the decision.

Onward with the sugar free journey! -- I think the only reason I can see to have sugar would be with birthday cakes which happens what, once or twice per year? My birthday & übernerd's birthday.... yeah, that about sums it up lol birthday cake is not the pinnacle of all evil but sugar is definitely the root of food cravings methinks. Go 21 days without it and tell me it ain't so (that includes all grains/fruit). "can't do it"?? ya might surprise yourself. Once the first 7-12 days are through it gets a lot easier *smile*

7 more days

2011-03-11T21:22:00.012+01:00

7 more days and I'll have completed 3 weeks without sugar, my 2nd weigh in will be on monday the 14th, surely it'll be good, I lost 1.5kg the first week so 2nd should be good too, I'd assume. Long way to goal but as long as I can have my butter and all these fabulous tasty meals it will be perfectly fine ;)

Some nights, like tonight I don't photograph what I eat, especially considering it was a bad day and those tend to come with retreating into my shell and wanting to ignore the world... on those days, rather than forfeit my goals for emotional pleasure, I turn to other low carb comfort foods that I like but don't require cooking. Turkey/cheese/lettuce/mustard roll ups. They really hit the spot!

Here you have a goat cheese stuffed burger in a spicy chili pastasauce and a glass of fermented vegetable juice.

While here is a most wonderous experiment which turned out perfectly... the empty jar in the background used to contain the lard I rendered myself *proud* which then was used to make those lovely, very very crunchy sweet potato crisps which incidentally tasted nothing like sweet potato which was kind of awesome as we're not big fans of those. Then of course the less prideful but just as exciting part of the meal, the thick dinner style bacon and lactofermented sauerkraut (i do eat quite a bit of that stuff)

Perhaps a more simple meal is your thing? Last saturday morning I made steak with eggs over easy for breakfast (with butter on top) our energy was sky high as we zoomed through the day and didn't need to eat again till about 7 in the evening which is still about half hour later than we usually have dinner lol old fogies :D

This was a lovely rich broth I love...make it in bulk then freeze in portions, used it to simmer fatty beef bits and sunchoke chunks for a warming, nutritious soup. I ended up drinking all the broth, eating all the beef and leaving about 95% of the sunchoke behind.

And then a staple of gluten free sausages with sauerkraut, handful of olives and a glass of fermented veggie juice my favourite!

My sad meatza fell apart when trying to lift a bigger piece than necessary onto the plate lol it was still extremely delicious though!! It had salami, bacon, mushrooms, red pepper, olives, 2 kinds of cheese and tomato sauce of course! yum!!

And last but definitely not least, my first attempt at homemade ribs! It was delicious but I'll make tweaks to the sauce recipe and cook more than 1kg next time, just wasn't enough for 2 people. 1.5kg should do it :D

Meals galore

2011-03-10T14:05:00.015+01:00

Some lovely breakfast ideas to start the day such as a few fried eggs with salami, blood sausage and a little ball of goat cheese rolled in spices

Or what I typically eat, just eggs (with a side of coffee 'n' cream)

Scrambled in ghee is lovely

or simply boiled & mashed with plenty of butter!

On the rare occasion that I'm hungry between breakfast & dinner, I have something simple such as this lovely plate of liverwurst, stinging nettle & garlic goats cheese, and a half cucumber cause it's just tasty.

Or perhaps just a small pile of crispy bacon with the cucumber! mmmm bacon

Dinners tend to be equally easy as delicious :D

Take for example these lovely fresh (gluten free) sausages with lacto-fermented sauerkraut and mashed root vegetables topped with butter -heavenly-

chicken leg with "sauce" (it's just butter lol) and salad

Or an experiment gone a tad awry, pasta free lasagna which was extremely delicious but needs some tweaking in the recipe... it turned out quite messy as a first time go.

Porkchop with mushroom gravy, root veg mash & butter

Beef patties with cabbage/onion/garlic sauteed in ghee with a glass of fermented vegetable juice

crockpot lamb leg/knuckle/joint thing with the root veg/bone broth/ghee/meat juices left over in the crockpot

Ham with creamy mustard sauce & sauerkraut

And just for the fun, lard art! love it :D

For the first time in my life I'm losing weight without any effort beyond ignoring sugar cravings for a week. Most cravings by this point are all emotional, easy enough to get over. Finally found the best way to eat for me :D

Changes

2011-02-18T10:47:00.004+01:00

There have been a lot of changes in the way I eat in the last 8 months thanks to a variety of influences. From illness to awareness and many things in-between. Enough of that let's get on to THE FOOD yum!

This is one dish I made a week or two ago, it was so delicious. Lamb chops with crispy ham croutons lol some chorizo, fresh goats cheese balls and some crunchy fresh celery. I tend to stick to seasonal veg but I was craving some crunchy fresh celery like crazy... always happens near end of winter when I've had my fill of parsnips, turnips, beets, kale, celeriac and carrots lol

This one is one of our faves, we have this a couple times per week...

It's so delicious really, cook some bacon in advance till crispy and set aside. Sautee kale in clarified butter, add the mince to cook through, onion, garlic. Once the mince is cooked through add ham blocks or diced dried sausage and smoked sausage, add pasta sauce of choice. I use an olive/caper sauce and a pepperoncino sauce all mixed together. Warm through, serve in bowls, top with crispy bacon!

Slowly but surely with the axing of grains and most sugar and all processed food and of course with a bit of supplementation (vit d & b complexes, omegas) and rich in healthy fats my health is returning. Most peoples health doesn't degenerate as quickly on a veg diet as far as I know but since I was looking to veg to cure me in the first place (as it's touted as a cure all, so so so wrong), I went all downhill in only 6 months. Culminating in pre-diabetes and some nastiness in general, wheat belly? oh yes. gross. Thankfully I'm getting better now, health first!

Missing the food blog

2011-01-31T13:41:00.013+01:00

I came back to visit this blog today after chatting with a friend Hi Naz *waves* :) and it dawned, when I couldn't make vegetarian work for me, after I posted the fish dish, I began eating more fish then meat again and my health and energy started to return. It's not even remotely funny how low I got in only 6 months of being veg.

I've been adjusting to my new diet as such, Nourishing Traditions and WAPF both play a role in that along with some low carb readings of Gary Taubes and Primal blueprint from Mark Sisson, they're great books and have really helped me a lot.

My health deteriorated quite rapidly eating tofu and grains especially wheat which I've had problems with since 2007/2008 which became apparent after re-introducing wheat after half a year on low fat low carb low cal (not sustainable diet). Now I can tolerate a very small amount of sprouted spelt but still not enough to justify the amount of work involved in preparing it, it's easier to not eat it at all. It's weird how you never really know there's a problem till getting rid of the culprit long enough to let the body heal then try to reintroduce it to the diet *shakes head* sad.

I'll never be 100% perfect in avoiding those things that make me sick so while I don't mind giving them up for the majority of the weight loss process, giving them up forever? Who knows, maybe after tasting them once in a while will be enough... usually ends up being disappointing :)

Man I love my life, I finally get to eat all the butter I want and know it's ok :D Best diet EVER! And I've done my share that's for sure: herbalife, pills, shakes, weight watchers x 500 billion, anne collins and other low fat high carb (incl ww), dr.cohens, intuitive eating 'the given up dieting diet' , vegetarian with a few raw/juicing days thrown in for good measure culminating in 1.5 months of fruit which ended in pre-diabetes and other health shocks which brought me on an 8 month research journey to where I am today!

From June 2010, starting with reading about hypoglycemia and diabetes to books like 'big fat lies' and 'dangerous grains' and 'trick and treat how healthy eating is making us sick' amongst many others... on to September with the Primal blueprint which spurred my interest in researching body chemistry, science writings and so much more about the effects of grains on the unhealthy forms of cholesterol (tiny dense ldls) and It all ended with 'why we get fat' by Gary Taubes. So much has had a positive influence on my current understanding and I look forward to going on to put all I've learnt into practice :)

As it happens as I was researching I was also battling the depression of leaving family in the only way I know how (turning to sugar) which resulted in gaining back all the weight I lost from January 2010 which essentially means I started 2011 the same weight I was in January 2010, the highest ever. Not for much longer though, especially now that I've axed all the grain, sugar, tofu and majority of packaged nonsense. Looking forward to the future for the first time in a long time *cheers*

More blogging to come!

Weird pasta dish

2010-04-26T19:03:00.003+02:00

This one is a bit strange yet oddly enough, it works. I'm glad it did too because it's always nice to avoid disappointment and frustration!

It has: spelt tagliatelle, smoked salmon, asparagus, tomatoes, watercress and sour cream.

Weird but it works. I mixed the sour cream with some water to make a sauce consistency then added in the smoked salmon; tomatoes and let it cook, added a bunch of black pepper, diced asparagus and then tossed the cooked tagliatelle through and let it cook a bit longer. After taking it off the heat I stirred through the finely chopped watercress.

Voila!

Weekend Cat blogging??

2010-04-24T21:58:00.007+02:00

I wonder if anyone does Weekend Cat Blogging anymore. Will have to scour some old foodie/cat bloggers and check things out.

Cat blogging!

Lixue my little Tuscan princess

Tigger is the pretty boy

Jazzmatazz is boss man

And what about some delicious spicy peanut noodles with stir fry veg??? Delicious delicious delicious. Hit the spot perfectly, was easy and quick and I will definitely be making this again

Boil soba, rinse with cold water, drizzle with sesame oil, set aside. While boiling make sauce!

2T peanut butter, clove grated garlic, crushed chili & cumin seeds with pinch of salt, splash soy sauce, juice of 1/2 lemon, 8+ spoons boiling water (to desired thickness)

Then when that's done you can chop some onion, broccoli, mushrooms. stir fry those then dump it all in a big bowl, toss it up, serve in bowls and top with sesame seeds. Deeeelicious!

Tacooooo

2010-04-19T14:29:00.004+02:00

The nice thing about tacos is they're very easy and hey, on a friday night that's great. Especially if saturday is going to be spent in a long hot car ride to spend an entire day with inlaws. Sometimes easy is just the way to go.

All I had to do for these, other than put some shells in the oven/dice tomato/dice avocado, was spice some lentils with taco seasonings then puree some black beans to make "refried" beans.

I thank my sister for the inspiration for lentil tacos, she suggested them and I'm glad she did cause we'll be making these things more often!!

Make them up and top with salsa; have some salad and you're good to go!

Ahhh hyacinths, beautiful fragrance. Florist says this may be the last of the tulips for the season! Bummer!

First spring asparagus

2010-04-13T11:09:00.006+02:00

Good day fellow foodies! What a day it is, the sun is shining and the air is crisp.
Has anyone used watercress before? Last night was my first time and it was quite an experience.

The organic packet had a recipe for watercress soup on the back so I decided to give it a go. It was so easy, potatoes, veg stock, onion, garlic and watercress! Cook the diced potatoes/onion/garlic in the veg stock 10 mins or so, till soft. Then remove from heat, add the chopped watercress and blend with stick blender, season to taste.

It was absolutely delicious and I will be making it again!!! Watercress is a nutritional powerhouse. Check out THESE stats! Mmmmm nutrients. Satisfying and delicious nutrients. Feel the powerrrrrr

On another happy note, asparagus are back in the shop! Huzzah! It has been a long (colder than usual) winter and while I will miss those marinated kale salads warmed through with a bit of pasta, asparagus season is most exciting!

The only thing I wanted to do was a spring risotto with some spring mushrooms and spring asparagus! How many times can I say spring?! Yay Spring!

This one didn't have dairy in it though, I had yoghurt that day and try to keep my dairy to a minimum these days.

And now for some viewing pleasure! Ooooo pretty flowers. Now to find some bitter spray because I'm tired of the dumbass cats chewing on them!

Yay spring! *ties running shoe laces*

Simple meal

2010-04-07T21:27:00.002+02:00

Some days you just want a simple, cheap, easy meal. Thankfully I had all the ingredients in the pantry/fridge!

Onion/garlic into coconut oil, add garam masala (sp?) and chickpeas (drained/rinsed) chopped cherry tomatoes. Coconut milk. Sprinkle chickpea flour over for thickening.

Simmer till warmed through and thickened, remove from heat, stir through finely chopped spinach. Serve with bit of naan...or not. Whatever floats your boat!

More tofu experiment

2010-04-07T13:14:00.003+02:00

Another tasty Taifun tofu experiment. They were out of Rosso this week so put Basil into my basket. Hmm. Not sure what to make of it.

The tofu tastes of basil, obviously. It has that same soft cheese texture that the rosso had which was very lovely. The taste isn't as strong as the rosso though and it paired perfectly with a pesto I made earlier in the weekend.

Together with a green salad it was a lovely. Followed with a small piece of 85% dark choccy and it was indeed very very lovely :)

Some food & flowers

2010-04-06T16:58:00.006+02:00

Despite being wheat sensitive I can still tolerate small amounts of sprouted/fermented stuff

Tomato sauce, lentils, onions, garlic, courgette, herbs. Sprouted tortillas & you're good to go :)

Mostly dairy free veggie risotto. I say mostly dairy free because there's obviously a small amount of parmeggiano grated over this :)

It's a mushroom spinach risotto. Arborio + olive oil + white wine + veg stock. Add a ton of finely chopped mushrooms somewhere along the way. When it's done, take it off the heat and stir through a huge amount of finely chopped spinach. Deeeeelicious.

Weekly flowers!

Beety

2010-03-29T12:51:00.002+02:00

2nd time's the charm! My first batch of couscous was a sad porridgy mess, too much water to couscous ratio.

The second time it came out right! Yum

I roasted the beets, diced in small pieces, mixed with the couscous, bit of balsamic & olive oil, tossed in some pumpkin seeds and good to go!

Very pretty on the table with some hummus & carrots :)

Experimenting with tofu

2010-03-27T11:20:00.002+01:00

As the smoked almond seasme tofu from Taifun was such a success, I decided to grab another kind they offered; tofu rosso. Alas this tofu sat for a week in the fridge as I hohummed about what to do with it, fearing the packing material flavour of tofu with the textural squidgyness may be prominent. After all, it wasn't smoked.

I'm glad I decided to give it a go anyway because it was truly lovely and fit perfectly in a "chuck things in a pan" pasta meal.

It has a distinct olive flavour and a soft cheese texture. I tried to make strips but it crumbled instantly which would make it perfect for topping pastas or using in place of mince.

Fantastic. It is a bit oily for my taste but I cut back on the olive oil in the dish so it wasn't too bad.

Bag of cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, italian herbs and tossed in spelt pasta, squeezed lemon juice over and it was absolutely delicious!

More green

2010-03-25T13:05:00.006+01:00

Spinach. There's not much bad to say about this lovely green. I don't like it cooked so on sunday while pondering how to get the spinach into the frittata without the cooked spinach flavour I loathe, it occurred that maybe i should simply sprinkle it over the frittata before baking. There we have it! Success! It came out a bit crispy and very enjoyable, no cooked spinach flavour in sight!

The frittata also has green onion, fresh parsley, fresh thyme, cherry tomatoes and a bit of goats cheese crumbled on top *heavenly*

After a 3 day debacle in cooking chickpeas for the first time -had no idea they needed to cook for 1+hr after soaking all night- I was able to make falafel from scratch for the first time! And my own way too which always rocks. Who doesn't love to do things their own way?!?!

I blitzed up chickpeas, garlic, cumin seeds, turmeric, parsley and lemon juice in the food processor till it was a sticky but slightly chunky mass. Then I mixed it with a bit of chickpea flour (traditionally bulgur wheat is used but my guts wouldn't appreciate that) and used a small ice cream scooper to portion it, roll in a bit more chickpea flour, fry in a bit of coconut oil

Serve on a big bed of spinach and blob some homemade tzatziki on! wooo! That one is easy too... I didn't have any strained yoghurt so I mixed regular yoghurt with quark till it was thick and smooth, tossed in the previously grated/salted/strained cucumber (1 whole) and grated garlic. Pinch of salt, pepper... good to go!

Now that I know how easy it is, I'll be making it more often...with ready to use chickpeas of course haaaaa :)

oh... and 2 cups of cooked chickpeas gave me about 10-12 generously sized falafel for 2 people. I couldn't finish all mine though, the male counterpart was more than happy to oblige.

Broccoli madness

2010-03-20T11:51:00.004+01:00

Broccoli just happens to be one of my favourite vegetables and why shouldn't it be, it's great stuff! Especially if it's not cooked too much lol

Here's a lunch I have a couple times a week, it's really delicious and filling

I boil some soba noodles andrinse them in cold water then chop a head of broccoli and stir it through a small amount of vegetable broth, pour it over the noodles and enjoy with glee :)

And broccoli again for dinner last night!!! It's a dish of grünkern (green spelt grains) with the juice of 2 limes, some herbamare (a seasoning here with seasalt/kelp/herbs), a head of broccoli tossed through and some crispy almond/sesame smoked tofu

Absolutely delicious with some guacamole & carrots

Mmmmmm grünkern

Lixue loves her new sleeping place on the windowsill :)

Poor lighting?

2010-03-19T12:13:00.003+01:00

I take these photos a bit late and the lighting in the new house is low. Thankfully the days are getting longer so hopefully I can start taking food photos in a more natural light. Of course our house has north & west facing windows but the houses across the ally block most of the western sun so we don't get the best light (keeps us cool in summer) Except upstairs, the roof terrace is south facing. It's not quite bbq weather though :)

I got a great quinoa recipe from a friend last week and it sounded so good I had to try it! With some modifications of course especially since I'm not too fond of walnuts.

I boiled red & regular quinoa together, added chickpeas, pomegranate seeds, pumpkin seeds, lemon juice/salt/pepper. Piled it on a bed of dressed spinach & crumbled semi soft goats cheese over *heaven*

And I tried my hand at making buckwheat pancakes. They were lovely if not a little dry, next time I'll use more water & oil or maybe apple sauce or pumpkin puree would also be nice. I didn't save the recipe of this one out of recipezaar but I remember it went something like: 3/4c buckwheat flour 3/4c flour (i used spelt -- i'm wheat sensitive and can tolerate spelt) 1 1/4c milk (i used 1 c water) 2 eggs, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 T sugar, 3 T melted butter (i used oil), 1 t salt. Mix 5 dry together, make well, add wet... stir till just mixed as is usual with pancakes.

They were really delicious with some butter & lemon juice & powdered sugar... surely they would have felt less dry in the mouth with maple syrup but we don't have any at the moment.

Yumyum!

Happy 2010

2010-03-12T12:29:00.008+01:00

It has been a while since posting! Since October we have moved to a whole different part of the country, celebrated another year passing and more or less stopped eating meat.

I say more or less because it's still a transition, in the 4 months we've lived here I have cooked meat twice I just can't stand having raw flesh in the house anymore or handling it and the idea that the bloody juices on the plate are going to be rinsed in my sink grosses me out beyond belief. No idea what happened but whatever, over a relatively short period of time we were not eating much meat.

There was the occasional pepperoni on pizza or the smoked turkey in a sandwich, we still get fish once a week but I don't go out of my way to prepare or eat it anymore.

Things I have been eating

Once a week I like to make a stirfry with tofu and veggies and soba noodles

The tofu is brilliant, I've wanted so badly in the past to love tofu but it wasn't happening no matter what I tried. Till I found a health food shop with a huge range of tofus. I found this smoked tofu with almonds & sesame seeds from Taifun and it's freaking brilliant, I love it! And you can eat it cold in salads if you're so inclined.

Lots of grains and salads

Here was my first time trying buckwheat which is absolutely delicious by the way and cooks SO quickly.

I got the idea from a friend to make it simply, I just sprinkled salt/pepper, squeezed a lime over, some olive oil & diced a couple avocados for the top.

More deliciousness to come! pastas and soups and salads and all kinds of delicious healthy tasty things.

Cold weather meals

2009-10-09T18:39:00.003+02:00

I truly love autumn and now that the weather is cooling down significantly, the heater is being turned on more often, the cravings for wild game and veggies i don't usually crave in summer...

Along with beef sausages with mash & sauerkraut, this is easily another one of my favourite meals and now that the wild boars are coming into season, it's all very exciting :)

It's seared wild boar with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and winterpeen! which are just giant carrots really. It has been a while since I've eaten cooked carrots but am happy to, it really intensifies the flavour.

And for dessert, the bossche bol which is just fancy Dutch speak for an oversized chocolate covered profiterole. My favourite pastry... well, they're definitely up there tied with eclairs -which are pretty much the same but in a different shape- and tompoezen which are another fun to eat dutch pastry

popular meal!! :D

Anyone for pancakes?

2009-10-08T18:31:00.002+02:00

What about these speeeecial bacon pancakes? I made them on request after pulling some funny faces but they actually turned out pretty damned tasty.

Then it was his turn to pull faces when I put maple syrup over them. He just doesn't understand my internal Canadian.

my favourite + byebyebirdytake2

2009-10-06T17:24:00.002+02:00

My favourite meal: mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, beef sausage. I shouldn't have to post recipes, it's the easiest meal on earth ;)

Bye bye birdy part 2

I do believe in the (almost) 9 years I've lived in this flat, this is bird #5 to crash into one of the windows & die. They are some damn sturdy windows!

Beef veg soup

2009-10-05T11:27:00.005+02:00

With the weather cooling down it's perfect soup weather. I was in the mood for beef n barley soup but sadly there was no barley to be found in the store so used potato instead.

Boil the marrow bone, beef & stock together a couple hours

In the meantime chop veggies in small pieces

boil together half hour more till veggies are soft

Mmmmm good soupey!

Tasted just like my Grandmother used to make. Today is her 91st birthday, Happy birthday Grams!!!

Sure has been a while. Oh look, an omelette!

2009-09-28T12:33:00.006+02:00

The title pretty much sums it up. I miss food blogging! So here I present you with a tasty treat, spanish omelette (tortilla de patatas). Something unexpectedly delicious, so simple and easy. Potato, onion, oil, egg. Season to taste.

Always had an aversion to the idea of potato in egg but am so glad to have pushed it all aside to TRY this dish because wow. What a tasty reward :)

I also did a bit of baking on the weekend, a great de-stresser with everything going on (we're attempting to move) and they are so delicious, especially now a couple days later mmm mmm! Peanut butter oatmeal.

Here's the recipe for the cookies

I used all butter (no shortening) less sugar for my notsosweettooth, doubled the oats and used chunky peanut butter. They really are the best p.b. oatmeal cookies!!!

2009-04-14T19:29:00.001+02:00

Boar

2009-02-09T20:15:00.002+01:00

Delicious wild board and the tastiest mushroom sauce!!! Mushrooms, onions, mushroom stock and lots of pepper. Cook down till thick Ohhhh yes so good! And of course the yummy mash and glass of red wine.

Tasty salmon

2009-02-07T23:17:00.005+01:00

Tried something new today, a butter lemon sauce with parsley...

It was surprisingly good. I used the same amount of white wine & lemon juice, perhaps I should have used half the lemon juice. WOH lemony! Tasty but damn.

This sauce I made for 2 people was a small wine glass of white wine with the juice of 1 lemon (will use half next time) cooked down, 2 spoons of butter and before serving, stir through a bunch of chopped parsley.

Yum!!

Still not convinced this new little camera is all that great. I got it for easier toting around but have not yet been happy with the photo quality. Probably the lighting because the previous cake photo was in the light of day and I always complained about night photos on the big camera too.... It does take videos though, bonus!

123Dove

2009-01-31T14:07:00.000+01:00

And many happy bday wishes xox

YUMMAY

More yummy soups

2008-12-23T11:18:00.003+01:00

I have not been cooking much lately, preferring to pick at foods here and there in passing... I'm eating a clementine as I type, hardly considered a full lunch.

Hey, tis the season ;) When the mood struck on saturday, which also happened to be our anniversary, I whipped up a lovely nourishing vegetable soup to chase away the cold and get some vegetables in our systems. After all last time I checked, a green cookie does not equal a serving of vegetables.

But like I said, tis the season and during the season I become morose and perhaps a bit detached. Last year was wonderful, spent with family but this year not. Bring on the lackadaisical.

It was lovely and warming and nourishing. Just what the body was asking for and as a bonus, used up all the "end of week" veggies in the veg box

chop:

1 onion
head of broccoli
2 small courgettes
2 cloves of garlic
potatoes

sautee in chile oil: onion, potatoes. When thoroughly coated and sizzling, pour in 1-2 litres of bouillon. Simmer 10 mins.

Add in broccoli, courgette, garlic. Simmer 5-10 min more till all is tender.

Blend till smooth with stick blender (or regular blender, in batches)

season to taste!

Serve with some crunchy pumpkin seeds and hearty linseed bread for dipping

pretty risottos and yummy soups

2008-12-08T11:34:00.004+01:00

Beetroot risotto, very pretty and tasty. Easy too! Make a standard risotto and grate some cooked beets in.

This soup is sweet potato chickpea, I got it from a friend who posted it on her blog. The original recipe called for sauteed halloumi but we don't have that here.

Satueed leeks, sweet potato. Add stock, cook till tender. Add chickpeas, simmer few mins more. Blend with hand blender, season to taste. Add seeds, bit of stickbread. Enjoy :)

Green is good

2008-11-26T13:28:00.004+01:00

Green smoothies, very wonderful. Blend fruit with water, add handfuls of greens with blender motor still running. drink. yum.

Hot cocoa with marshmallows on a cold winter night. Heat whole milk with spoon of sugar, add cacao to taste. Top with marshmallows.

Ham & sprout sarnie. Always an easy lunch. Smear bread with mustard. Add ham & sprouts. Eat.

Lazy cassoulet... aka white beans & sausages with tomato. And wine, of course. Bake sausages. Heat beans & tom sauce on stove top. Add cooked sausages to bean mix. Serve.

Basically, if it isn't easy, I'm not cookin it. If it keeps me away from the takeaway restaurants, so be it ;)

Numynums with snow and byebye birdy

2008-11-24T10:34:00.009+01:00

Salmon/veggie tagliatelle with creme fraiche pepper sauce

Rack lamb with lentil veggie medley thingy. And a glass of wine

Curried chickpeas with naan

snow

more snow

byebye birdy

nice spot to eat a frittata

2008-11-21T11:28:00.006+01:00

Believe it or not dinner may well be my least favourite time of day. The headache of thinking up meals, the mess, the mandatory clean up. We usually scarf dinner in 10 mins sitting on the couch in front of the tv.

Till last night. We got this nice table to set in the kitchen to make a little eating area more than 6 months ago! I am always reluctant and falling back into old ways when it comes to this meal time, a very rebellious little girl indeed.

I do feel the shift and that it's time to move along, so I had the male counterpart clear off all the table --was using it as storage :) -- I set it, put a nice candle holder on there that my Mom gave for xmas years and years ago, put everything out nicely and then later went to Ikea for something to decorate the wall and fresh candles.

It's a work in progress but a big step however small it may seem to a random onlooker.

It was the perfect place to use up some end of the week goodies, tonight will use up the rest! I'm actually looking forward to eating in the nice little eating corner tonight :)

Frittata is easy enough, saute veggies, add whisked eggs. bake til puffy and set. The easiest quickie, no brainer meal.

After that we shared a salad and for dessert some of the banana pancakes i froze on the weekend.

Banananana pancakes

2008-11-17T11:44:00.003+01:00

I felt like eating pancakes for dinner last night so did. They were good. Lots of banana flavour, not great if you don't like banana... Naz I'm lookin at you ;)

It's a standard pancake recipe with mashed banana & cinnamon. Pretty straightforward.

We shared a few and I froze the rest for lazy days. So fab with some butter & maple syrup.

Enchilaadaaaa

2008-11-15T11:58:00.003+01:00

I like enchiladas but don't eat them often because they have a tendency to sit like a brick in my stomach. However the nerd had requested them and I was in the mood so went to it.

They look messy and strange but they taste so so so good. I cook onion, green pepper, beef then add in taco seasoning - with no water. While that is bubbling away I mix the sauce in a bowl, 2 cans tomato paste with 2 cans water, chilis, garlic, salt/pepper. Assemble tortillas with meat filling, roll and squash into a baking dish. Pour sauce over, sprinkle with black olives and grate over cheddar.

Bake till hot and melty... about 20 mins @ 200 celsius.

I like to purposely leave some pieces of tortilla wrap sticking out so they get nice and crunchy. I love me some crunchy edges.

Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be out hula hooping to some obnoxiously loud music in the back :D oooo yes baby.

crunchy spicy yummy stirfry... with rice.

2008-11-13T10:31:00.003+01:00

I have a bit of bad luck in the kitchen, it's nothing new unfortunately. I'm always setting things on fire, cutting myself, dropping plates (on the stone tile haha!) my kitchen appliances all tend to die at the same time costing quite a bit to replace them and one time... well one time I left the stove on all night and almost blew up the apartment block. But children that is another story for another day.

This week hasn't bee much different, my old processor finally busted fully and I got a new one on saturday, a shiny new philips which excites me to no end. Till I sliced clean through my finger a few days ago. It still bleeds and hurts on occasion like when I wash my hair or extend the finger but it's nothing akin to the time I sliced right to the bone and required a bunch of stitches... FUN!!!

Anyway, last night my rice cooker took his final nose dive and filled my kitchen with sparks and burnt coil smell ... mmmm... nothing like the scent of impending doom.

So I was freaking out because cost people! I'm on a mission to build a house and I can not afford for this to continue happening!! So the Nerd ran down the street and got us some steamed rice for 1 euro. That is so much more cost effective at the moment since we don't eat rice very often.

So on top of our steamed rice I piled on the spicy sweet thai chili chicken cashew stirfry. It's pretty straightforward. Chicken. Bean sprouts. Baby leeks. Sweet chili sauce. Cashews.

Take a crack at it and may you be much less accident prone than I in the kitchen.

phailed phyllo and passion for pumpkins

2008-11-09T13:11:00.007+01:00

Friday was a blur but I do remember being excited to try a phyllo dish because I always have it in the house but never really know what to do with it. End of the week, barely anything left in the fridge/pantry, it was just one of those mish-mash meals brought about by necessity. Tomatoes & feta go together, tomatoes & feta wrapped in phyllo are even better! The problem is I didn't know what I was doing so I got a crispy layer followed by layers of doughy yuck. Now I know, when wrapping things in phyllo, don't use more than 1 or 2 sheets at a time.

And of course the piece of salmon I mixed up with the last of the tomatoes. Yeah, it's what was left, a piece of salmon, pint of cherry toms, cube of feta and some phyllo.

Fascinating no? :)

This pumpkin dessert I'm quite proud of really, it was a total experiment using THIS recipe as inspiration and guideline. Mine was more of a Dutch mix, a Speculaas pumpkin tart as I called it and I used a suggestion from the comments and made a cognac cream which was absolute heaven ... and I don't even like cognac! The nerd drinks it.

Here is the steamed pumpkin waiting to be pureed and the speculaas crumbs waiting to be pressed into a tart pan.

Other changes I made to the original recipe, used real butter, whole eggs, sweetened condensed whole milk (can't find anything else here) and then less sugar to compensate for the sweetness of the condensed milk, speculaas spices instead of cinnamon/nutmeg.

And Voila!! It was off to the inlaws to wish them off on a happy trip (to Vietnam, lucky lucky!!) and told them it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they didn't like my experimental recipe. They loved it though so yay! It's so much more fun when there are people to share the baking with :)

It has a pretty triple layer effect because i sprinkled leftover speculaas crumbs over the top before putting the pie in the oven. Yumyumyum!

lunch and funny looking apples.

2008-11-07T11:56:00.003+01:00

This is one of my favourite lunches.. aside from the brilliance of beans of course :D It's just perfect on those days that require a lot of salt.

It's very easy too, chop up your desired amount of cucumber, throw in half a can of drained/rinsed lentils and crumble the feta over then toss. I don't like dressing on it but sometimes a sprinkle of dried Italian style herbs is lovely!

and to finish a dinner of leftovers, some unappetizing looking apples!!! They of course taste quite lovely. I cook them in a hot oven with a bit of water, honey and a lot of cinnamon till they start splitting and oozing. Serve up and pour the caramalized cinnamon honey mess over top, you're good to go.

Warming, filling and a delicious way to end the day.

Easiest meal

2008-11-06T10:07:00.003+01:00

Warm, filling, cheap, waist friendly, tasty, easy, versatile and very very quick. Beef'n'veg mince, brought about by circumstance and a creation that I shall go back to time and time again.

Lean mince (or whatever your preferred protein may be), courgettes, tomato paste or sauce, herbs, salt, pepper, garlic.

Process the courgettes finely but not a soggy mess. Brown mince, add courgettes and rest of the ingredients.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil & crusty bread or crispbreads or pasta or rice or lentils or hell, just with a spoon -- that's my personal favourite :)

turkey n warm salad

2008-11-05T11:42:00.004+01:00

I had a bit of an ingenious moment while making this salad. I wanted a warm salad without cooking the onion/pepper so after dicing, i placed the strainer directly into the pot of boiling potatoes and swirled around for a few minutes! Voila, hot veggies without losing crunch :D

The grilled turkey is straightforward as was the dressing for the potato salad, mixing olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, turmeric, paprika, garlic, mustard, salt and pepper then tossing it through just as the potatoes came out of the pot.

I'm not a huge fan of potatoes but this was just right and I'll be making it again in the future :)

amazing beans (and lamb)

2008-11-04T11:29:00.002+01:00

This is all about the side dish because while the lentils were fantastic and the lamb was lovely -- albeit a touch overcooked as I had taken it out too early, it was too rare and after putting it back, became distracted by something shiny... well, I think you know where this is going so on with the program.

The beans.

A friend had given me some inspiration but because of the mustard i was skeptical so proceeded with caution. I cooked the beans & onions in a bit of water, olive oil & lemon juice which cooked down and sweetened as the sugars in the lemon juice did their magic. Grated a clove of garlic, sprinkle of seasalt & pepper. At the end, stirred in just a touch of hardcore pikant mustard which just brought everything together beautifully.

And today I get to have leftovers for lunch because I sent the Nerd off on a mission and it took almost 4 hours to complete and he'd rather have hot pizza than cold lamb while i am quite partial to cold meat :D

Green

2008-11-03T12:08:00.005+01:00

It was a weekend full of green veggies.

Spinach lasagna, a pan full for 2 hearty appetites or 4 if you feel like sharing. I would share my top secret recipe... but I can't.

However, the broccoli feta frittata is another story. chop an onion, a head of broccoli. Soften in a bit of butter/oil, grate a clove of garlic and stir through. Season. Whisk 6 eggs with milk, pour over pan. Crumble feta over, bake till set

Jazzy had a chill weekend reading his magazine :D

The magical froot

2008-10-31T09:11:00.009+01:00

Here are a couple more breakfast ideas for those days when you are just a little hungry.

A slice of cheese on a crispbread with a big chunk of cucumber & glass of orange juice. You can adjust the portion according to appetite, if you are hungrier then have 2 crispbreads and break the cheese in half or have 4 crispbreads and 2 slices of cheese halved. Or hell get really adventurous and eat the whole cucumber! Your skin will thank you. Either way, it's an easily adjustable meal :)

Strained Greek style yoghurt with banana & a drizzle of honey... I used half the banana because they all seem to be mutating into giant bananas and I don't like THAT much banana on a good day let alone a day when I'm not hugely hungry.

The lunch of money saving, weight losing champions. Seriously, there is no better nutritional bang for your buck than when it comes to BEANS.

I adore beans for a multitoot of reasons.

Mostly it's the very filling and delicious 240 calories, 18g protein, 1.5g fat and whopping 16g of fibre for 65 eurocents :D Mmmmm the magical froot. If you are really hungry, you could eat the whole 800g jar while both saving money AND losing weight because surely there are some large strapping men out there with ravenous appetites. *fans self*

Then on to a most tasty dinner idea using my least favourite cut of meat... the dread chicken breast.

It's true, I have no real reason to hate on this innocent bystander but I do. I'd much rather have other cuts that this one that is always dry -- outside of the 2 ways I make it, as soup and as the spiced chicken/chickpea dish here.

It's so easy too if you want something quick and fuss free.

You simply put a pot of water on;
add a bouillon cube;
drop a breast per person in the water and 0.5 cup of rice white/brown, whatever you prefer.
While the chicken breast is boiling, chop up green onions or baby leeks -- i prefer baby leeks but it's entirely up to you.
I would chop up a fresh chili at this point but my plants are done for the winter so I use 2 small dried chilis ground up in the mortar with a pinch of seasalt, turmeric, garlic powder, black pepper.
By this time, 5-8 mins the chicken should be shredding ready but still pink. Shred the breasts on a chopping board with 2 forks, adding it back into the still simmering/gently boiling broth.
Throw in the spice mix & the baby leeks, give it a good stir and let cook 2-5 more minutes.

At this point i will turn off the heat and add a couple big handfuls of bean sprouts and stir them through right before serving but mine were off last night so I had a green salad with it instead. On the side of course, not stirred into the soup :D

Mmmmmm popcorn. I popped it on the stove top. Also excellent nutritional bang for your buck, 0.5c seeds = 340 cal, 4g fat, 10g protein and whopping 14g fibre!!!

And remember, if you want to shrink, it's always a good idea to stop at 1 bowl :)

An oaty experiment and another breakfast idea

2008-10-27T10:31:00.004+01:00

Last night I was in the mood for a hearty warm dessert that was wholesome and would contribute to my overall well being -- just one of those nights ;) Dinner was great but I forgot to take a photo, will take a bit of reminding to get back into the regular swing of things!

Anyway, I was thinking of something I could do for dessert that would also double as breakfast the following day and came up with the following...

Doesn't look too promising LOL it was though! I assure you as someone who abhors porridge but adores oatmeal cookies, this was the way to go. Especially warm from the oven... this morning I peeked in on possible breaky leftovers, made a face and went on to smoothie land but more on that later.

I cooked in a pot a cup of rolled oats with water, salt, cinnamon, 2 finely chopped apples. When it was stodgy and ready, I left it on the stove top to cool. When it was cool, I tested it and re-seasoned as needed -- it had a TON of cinnamon in it. Then I stirred in a couple eggs and tablespoons of flour. I then dumped it into a loaf pan and baked at 200 for 1.5hr... it was crisp around the edges and thick/creamy in the centre. The apples had turned into applesauce. OOooohhhh

I cut an oozy slice and dotted some butter on top then drizzled with maple syrup.

Exactly what the doctor ordered, let me tell you!! There will be more experimenting with this in the future, to get it just perfect and of course some chopped walnuts will certainly help with that :)

Since the cold hard leftovers left me... well, cold... I went back to an old staple and big favourite of mine, the smoothie. I have a couple of these a week -- on the days when I'm not eating eggs ;)

I love them thick and frothy, a cup of milk... sometimes i make almond milk, sometimes i use cows milk. Whatever floats your boat. Grind up a couple tablespoons of steel oats in a coffee grinder, add half a frozen banana, half a fresh banana, a large handful of frozen berries, a scoop of whey (for extra frothy fun) and a generous spoon of flax oil.

It's so good and filling. Not AS filling as the eggs but it's perfection for those days when I'm just regular hungry as opposed to eat my hand hungry.

It keeps you going

2008-10-23T09:52:00.005+02:00

Sometimes I like to eat breakfast, other times it's a chore but one thing I can not deny is that on days I do eat a good breakfast I can pretty much go full steam ahead till dinner. Of course it depends what it is!

A bowl full of cereal wouldn't get me more than an hour before I crashed.

This however;

A slice of (burnt) toast with a smearing of butter, 2 eggs over easy, a good sized chunk of cold cucumber and a glass of fresh orange juice.

Oooohhh yes.

Now I'm enjoying my first cup of coffee -- soon to be followed by the second and I probably won't be hungry till dinner. Maybe a light meal in the afternoon but otherwise? Looking forward to a repeat of last night tonight :)

Yummies

2008-10-22T21:49:00.008+02:00

This was the last of the peppers before winter set in, we ate them fresh off the plant like apples, absolutely incredible we'll never be able to eat store bought again :)

On to dinner. Salmon tagliatelle with asparagus, cherry tomatoes and a pepper creme fraiche sauce. There is enough for 2 but since the husband is in Denmark, I get to eat the same thing 2 days in a row! Sometimes there is an upside to business trips :)

In the picture I already portioned the salmon -- it's dear so I make 1 piece 2 portions for this kind of meal -- and the asparagus, tomatoes, pasta are also already portioned. The creme fraiche I used half the container to make sure to have the other half for tomorrow.

And the finished product. So good. I cook the pasta in some salted water with a bouillon cube then use a coffee cup of the water to cook the salmon in a pan, add in the creme fraiche, a ton of pepper, the veggies and some herbs & grated garlic clove. Then the pasta when it's finished cooking. It was so delicious I am already excited about dinner tomorrow ;)

I like to eat fruit in the evening if I get hungry so tonight I peeled/chopped 3 kiwis and they were very tasty! I think tomorrow will be time for some baked apples with a lot of cinnamon and some honey mm mm mm

Garden fresh

2008-09-01T11:43:00.004+02:00

The freshest, most tasty veggies I've had since eating out of my grandparents garden as a kid.

The only 2 orange peppers this plant produced.

All chopped up and served with the first 3 ripe tomatoes we got.

There is also 1 very red chili waiting to be plucked. I shall make spicy wonton soup mmmm.

The red and yellow peppers have yet to ripen and there are still many tomatoes on the way. The strawberries have been producing for a long time now, it has just taken ages for the tomatoes, peppers and chilis. I think the cool and very wet summer had something to do with that.

Still, so delicious and so worth the wait :)

No bake but....

2008-08-23T13:16:00.002+02:00

A tasty chicken salad!!

It was so easy too,

I cooked the chicken and added coriander, garlic and turmeric.
Added mushrooms, mange tout, asparagus & a splash of soyasauce

Served on a plate with the romaine lettuce. Yum! Would have been great with a few chunks of avocado, some sesame seeds and some chilis

Vegetables in the morning

2008-08-16T12:13:00.003+02:00

It can happen with carrot cake!

The one time when patience is actually a virtue... put the frosting on while it was still warm, I couldn't wait! So. WAIT ... if you can ;)

So incredibly moist and delicious

Recipe here

*changes I made: used a lot less sugar, only had some white with mostly brown in house so I used 1 cup in place of 2. I think 2 would have been too sweet for us anyway.
*Same in the icing, I used less than 1 cup (2 would have been WAY too sweet for us) and added a bit of vanilla extract

A tasty dish and some more saturday baking

2008-08-09T12:50:00.003+02:00

This was a very tasty, easy meal I made last night. Easy is great, especially at impatient meal time :)

meat balls with lentils in tomato sauce! Make meat balls, brown, add lentils, add tomato sauce, simmer 20mins. EAT. It doesn't get easier than that :D

And today another baking adventure, I was craving oatmeal cookies all week. Oatmeal raisin are my favourite but we have no raisins in house. Plain oatmeal is tasty enough in any case :) Used this recipe

Chicken for me.

2008-08-07T15:36:00.004+02:00

A delicious taste of something everyone (except those opposed to eating flesh) should try!

Mmmmmm so good. SO so so good.

Here, try it for yourself! Recipe

Of course with a little dessert and coffee to finish ;)

Bossche bol. Very Dutch, very tasty. A right sexy thing to eat in warm weather when you have cream and chocolate smeared all over your face ;)

Breakfast cake success!

2008-08-02T12:29:00.006+02:00

Using this recipe with slight modifications and we got what I think, is the perfect coffee cake! Not that I'm biased or anything because it's soooooo lemony ;)

My modifications were simple ones, replacing the shortening with butter, using slightly less sugar and quite a lot more lemon.

It has the texture and density of a cheesecake which was nice, gave a lovely element. Next time I want to try it with buttermilk in place of regular milk.

Easy, quick and delicious!

Cake just out of the oven, steaming hot soaking up the lemony syrup I made in advance.

Yumyumyum

On the other hand, because we have familial Lindt connections we get quite a bit of Lindt for free. Today I tried a flavour called lime & green peppercorns. Let me tell you, my taste buds have never been more offended!!!! squischkx it was like dish-soap.

I love the chili pepper & cherry flavour and can't wait to try the orange, the blueberry & lavender and the lemon & basil. BUT I do hope with all my heart, to never have to set eyes on the lime & green peppercorn eeeever again.

Breakfast cake

2008-07-26T12:25:00.005+02:00

I found a tasty looking cherry coffeecake over here and decided what better time to give it a go then saturday morning for breakfast??

As I do consider myself quite the novice with a ton to learn, there is plenty of room for improvement on the way I "made do" with what was on hand.

#1 improvement would be the obvious...

Buying a 'tulbandpan' as we call it here, a bundt pan. Doing it this way was just a bit dodgy and made me uncertain so I cooked it a teency bit too long, plus the pan was a bit too wide - 24cm so I barely had enough 2nd layer to cover the middle layer of streusel.

Improvement #2 would be to use white flour or at least less whole wheat, it was dense and dark when I was hoping for something lighter, perhaps fluffier.

Thankfully the flavour was there and it was lovely with some super dark roasted coffee :)

Oh, and improvement #3 would have to be using fresh cherries over the jarred ones I had on hand.

All in all not a 100% success but it was certainly tasty and I look forward to trying it -- and other baking again in the future!

Soup

2008-07-23T18:56:00.010+02:00

Soup! One of my favourite combos is beans with rice and since the weather has been kind of cold here lately -- yes, I even needed an extra blanket on the bed on monday night -- what better way to celebrate the cool weather than with some tasty hearty soup?!

So I set about mixing my desired flavour combos as the beans cooked. Grated ginger & garlic. Added in turmeric, chili, coriander, cinnamon, a pinch of salt.

As the spices were frying in a bit of butter, I rolled up the mince into little balls.

Tossed the rice in the spices, stirred up, added water. Drained the mung beans and added them into the mix. Gave it a good stir and popped the lid on.

In the meantime I cooked the meatballs crusty and brown over high heat but still raw in the middle. Stirred a good dollop of tomato paste into the soup and arranged the meatballs around the top, put the lid back on and left it to finish cooking.

Served with a refreshing cucumber/pepper/cherry tomato salad with herbs from the garden.

Dessert was a single solitary strawberry. It has been a wet month, not many more strawberries are coming out but they are getting bigger than the first ones we harvested!

Tigger is a good boy, sitting neatly with no elbows on the table :)

mmm rolls

2008-07-20T14:49:00.007+02:00

I bought some rice paper a looong while ago and tonight pulled it out to make some rolls for a pretty early dinner.

Bein' on a budget at the moment, I had to use my imagination and whatever is available in the house so after taking note of what we had, I just rolled it all up together into a simple yet very enjoyable meal :)

i used a couple cans of tuna, friet sauce (weird ja), mustard, olive oil. pickles, the last tomato in the house and chives from the garden.

Served with some sweet chili dipping sauce, crunchy prawns out of the oven and you're good to go!

Sometimes the tastiest meals come out of such simple stuff you have laying around the house :)

Miraculous!

2008-07-12T12:30:00.008+02:00

I've been doing short term fasting for a long while now so it seems the last couple posts are fairly redundant. Now I can eat whatever I want without excruciating pain and THAT makes me very very happy.

I enjoy baking but never considered myself great at it but you know what they say, practice makes perfect! Or something like that...

So I set out to make scones for my very first time, it seemed easy enough! Lo and behold... it WAS :D They turned out perfectly, light and fluffy on the inside, no hockey pucks in sight here folks. This will definitely be a repeat in our house!!

Top with some jam (reduced sugar so your tongue doesn't burn off from the sweetness) and clotted cream, and you're all set to go! yumyum!!

Luscious ;)

recipe

1.5C whole wheat flour
3-3.5T sugar
4-4.5t baking powder
0.5-1t baking soda
pinch of salt

pulse in processor

add 1/4C cubed cold butter

Pulse till butter is in small pieces
dump into bowl

fork in small amounts of buttermilk till it starts to come together

dump out onto baking sheet, form and flatten, cut into shapes until all dough is used.

Bake @ 200c for 10-15 min -- keep an eye on it every 5mins or so -- just in case!

*I got 9 scones out of this, you can double as needed

3 months later: part 2 - finding the balance

2008-06-18T13:48:00.020+02:00

I still stubbornly insist on finding a way around getting what I want and feeling great so after months of trial and error, there are definite noes and definite ways around the others.

beefy fusilli? maybe a bite or two but more is asking for trouble.

noodle soup. ouch

What is healthy for one is not healthy for another, more than a few bites and it's pain city. The pork, the olives, the wheat. Let me count the ways

My darling cacao. So worth the pain but it has to be the best in order for me to suffer afterwards. chocolate brownies is not worth it. Valrhona is.

Pizza. A love/hate relationship. Tastes great but the pain! Again a matter of deciding if I'm willing to suffer for my tastebuds. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Bread is 1 negative, add nut butter and it's a double whammy. Seems so innocent!

NO. Just... no

YES! A Life without icecream? Who wants to imagine such a thing... I just have to be very careful about my choices.

french toast with maple syrup and fruit... i will stick to oatcakes with maple syrup and fruit from now on (hold the bananas )

Grilled cheese... a necessary evil. It hurts but I can't live without them. The heinz ketchup adds to my pain but well, I can't help it. Call me masochist if you will but do not make me give these up!

lahmacun, not a problem if it weren't for the raw onions *ow*

durum donar, too greasy... bleh. no ill effect, just too greasy.

Always no.

And a birthday cake from last night. Strawberry shortcake, I can have 1/3 of the slice but not the whole slice.

All in all, I'm happy to have struck a balance and to have figured out that sometimes you just have to make the decision beforehand, knowing what the outcome will be and decide, truthfully... IS IT WORTH IT???? Sometimes yes, it is! Other times not so much.

Yum Yum and cheers to wisdom! Guess getting a year older helps ;)

**edited to add**

I now know the biggest problem was wheat, once I got rid of that I was much better off and slowly on the way to recovery :)

3 months later: part 1.

2008-06-12T13:50:00.028+02:00

Heya, I'm still around just not posting much about food. I've been trying to deal with some health issues which have brought me to today. As someone who absolutely adores food, to be told you can not have something, suddenly it's like WHAAAAT and you think you lose drive, passion and interest in things you once loved like crazy. Cooking, eating, discovering new things. They become chores and experiments. Hmmmm will this make me ill? What if it's juuuuust a little bit???

That's what has been going on. Wheat, cows milk, nuts, soy and a bunch of "iffy" things have lead me on to experiment.

salad with lentils and sheep feta -- sheep and goat cheese is great for easy digestibility

Green smoothies which I found no longer agree. Well, it's the dates and bananas that don't agree. This is about trial and error

courgetti spaghetti is a keeper. no wheaty noodles, other wheatfree options are 100% soba noodles, rice noodles, quinoa noodles

colourful salads, hold the avocado! love it but it doesn't love me

fatty fish and veg. onions are a no-no, especially raw onions. I can tolerate a small amount of well cooked onions but not too often.

Fat couer de boeuf tomato salad with greens & pecorino -- again, sheeps cheese is great :)

lamb sausages with lentils and veg stirfry. Lamb is easier on me than pork so I've cut out almost all pork and am eating a lot more grass fed lamb. Healthier for me, just not so much on the bank account :)

yoghurt with fruit, berries and flax oil. Have upped my intake of flax & coconut oils

The pork I can easily stomach, local wild boar. Great with mushroom sauce (thickened with non wheat -- arrowroot, agar agar, corn starch is a last resort)

More berries, fewer apples/bananas/citrus

A lot of salads with greens,assorted veg, eggs, goat/sheep cheese, legumes

pancakes made without wheat -- I grind steel cut oats into flour myself.

An ungodly amount of smoothies :) Using self-made almond milk.

More lamb with herbs, lentils and new asparagus

and a variety more salads & rice noodle stirfrys with egg/veg.

It certainly has been an interesting adjustment. Part 2 will come soon! Hope you all have been healthy & happy xo

happy quinoas

2008-03-04T09:59:00.004+01:00

Started with the ingredients for a filling and delicious veg meal. quinoa, black beans, leek, roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes, corn. Then I made a salsa which was more like a tomato sauce lol it had a spoonful of tomato paste, olive oil, red onion (half), garlic and some seasonings salt/pepper.

I boiled the quinoa with chili salt then when the water was gone and it grew happy little tails, I tossed it in the tomato sauce and then mixed it with all the other ingredients in a big salad bowl.

Yumyumyum. When I make this again, I'll use less onion or cut out the leek and replace it with crunchy green pepper bites. Also chunks of avocado, that texture would add another lovely element to the dish.

Lahmacun

2008-02-16T13:13:00.006+01:00

myyyyyyy favourite! Lahmacun ... pronounced as lah-ma-joun according to my Turkish friend, is a big flatbread with spiced meat mix and served with pretty much whatever, according to where you live. I picked up some from the freezer section and added fresh peppers, olives & feta. yum yum yum! Just roll and enjoy