food

Broccoli

1 Comment Posted on August 4, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

I love Broccoli a lot. Like it is in my top 10 list of foods to eat.

The other half hates Broccoli more than anyone could express in human terms. Like Newman from Seinfeld, he feels that it is a VILE WEED.

This does make life mildly difficult when it comes to cooking meals that both of us are going to eat. 99% of the time our meals are broccoli free. The 1% is when I make a meal and cook the broccoli separately and put it in my serving only. It is a bit of a hassle so I don’t often bother. Especially when I can use cauliflower which he will eat, and I love that nearly as much as broccoli.

When I am cooking for myself only, 99% of the time it is going to include broccoli. The 1% being when I don’t have any in the house. And on the odd occasion, I will just have broccoli on its own. Today was one such time. So here is my very quick how to make broccoli with cheese shortcut recipe.

1. Boil the kettle.

2. Prepare the broccoli for steaming. Cut into florets and place into the steamer pan.

3. Put boiling water into saucepan, place steamer pan on top, with lid on.

4. Empty 1 packet of Masterfoods cheese finishing sauce into saucepan. It must be the Masterfoods one, not the Gravox one. Just trust me on this one, ok? :) Add parmesan cheese and tasty cheese, cook on low while the broccoli steams and stir occasionally.

Alternatively if you have the time make your own cheese sauce from scratch. This day I wanted to empty and fill the dishwasher between putting on the broccoli and cheese sauce to heat, so I used the quick option, but I always add cheese into this sauce and make it in the saucepan rather than via microwave.

5. Broccoli steamed? Take it off the heat and use tongs to place the florets into a bowl.

6. Pour the cheese sauce over the top of the broccoli.

There you go, broccoli with cheese. This was my lunch today and it was *awesome* and fulfilled my broccoli cravings for a little while.

food, recipes

Is it really hidden?

Leave a comment Posted on July 14, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

When you tell me on the packet? :)

No, I didn’t buy it – I like my surprises to come to me as an actual surprise.. :)

food, shopping

A little red curry..

4 Comments Posted on July 10, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

So I have been a little addicted to a super simple vegetarian red curry made fresh daily in my kitchen this week. You could also consider it a soup..

I started my love affair with red curry after a visit to the Nan Tien temple in Wollongong, where I ate red curry noodles.

They were stunning. I dreamed of them. I tried to recreate them at home and was vastly unsuccessful. Though I did make a somewhat decent red curry soup which I enjoyed.. it was not the same.

I had to return to the temple to satisfy the craving. This was no great chore as I love the place. It is beautiful and serene.

I’ve made my current obsession 4 times so far, either for lunch or dinner. When I get a bee in my bonnet about a recipe, I might make it over and over until I run out of the ingredients. Or I might make one big batch and then eat the leftovers for days. So satisfying!

The current recipe is this –

Drizzle Olive Oil
Teaspoon Coconut Oil
1 x Teaspoon Minced Garlic
2 x Teaspoon Red Curry Paste
400-500mls Chicken Stock (depends how many veg you are putting in as to how much liquid you need)
1x 50g sachet of Ayam Coconut Milk Powder (alternatively 1x can coconut milk or cream)
Various vegetables.

I would put a little olive oil in a saucepan, then add garlic and red curry paste – I like the Aldi version.

At this time you could add in an onion or a leek or even some carrots and celery. This recipe is endlessly custom-ise-able. :) Today I added in half a leek.

Then you add in about 400mls of chicken stock. While that is bubbling away –

I had a cauliflower in the fridge so I would cut off a few florets and then chop them up small. Throw this in the saucepan.

I would peel 2-3 potatoes and chop them up into tiny little cubes. Add this to the saucepan.

At this time you could maybe add in some pumpkin, broccoli, sweet potato, swedes or turnips, cabbage, silver beet, baby spinach.. you can make this recipe as complicated as you might feel like.

I would make up a packet of the Ayam Coconut Milk Powder. Its 50g of coconut milk powder and 250mls of water, or so. Pour this in and stir together well. You could use a can of coconut milk or cream. Make sure all the veg is covered with liquid, if necessary add in a little more chicken stock or coconut milk.

Let this simmer for 15 minutes.

Then you scoop some into a bowl, and your awesomeness is created.

It might not look like much but it is so flavoursome and tasty. If you have the time you can also let it simmer until the vegetables literally melt in your mouth.

When I get a bee in my bonnet about a recipe, I might make it over and over until I run out of ingredients. There was a two week stint of chicken cacciatore I made, gorgeously salty with anchovies, tangy with olives and mushrooms, scented with Banrock Station Cabernet Merlot and with fresh cooked white or sweet potatoes underneath it, topped with parmesan. This might be my next bee. I’ll let you know if it is. :)

food, recipes

Sydney Trip Report

1 Comment Posted on February 11, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Very interesting outcome of the Sydney Trip.

Darling Harbour right before heading to Sydney Aquarium at 6pm.

I was not as bad as I expected I would be. I had one gelato a day and I gravitated towards the more savory flavours in any case – salted caramel, salted coconut and mango. Even so I consumed more sugar than I had in a while.

It took 2 days before I felt hungry as a surprise. The amount of calories expended in those 2 days I could not even tell you. It was constant walking from the time we arrived in Sydney.

The gorgeous fish scale style ceramic wall at Sydney Aquarium

The first day we visited Chinatown and n2 extreme gelato, Paddys Markets, Sydney Aquarium, Pancakes On The Rocks for dinner, then off to Star City Casino for a look around there.

And what a look it was – they had mirrored crystal seating booths. I can’t even. The beauty of these cannot be shown in a photograph, I am sorry, you will just have to go and see it for yourself. :)

The second day was probably the most draining exercise wise as we prowled the shopping district during the day, walked from Westfield Sydney to Grilld at World Square for lunch (we shared a burger and fries as neither of us felt very hungry, it was such a hot day) then back to Paddys Markets, we walked around Darling Harbour multiple times, we liked Grilld so much for lunch we went to Grilld Harbourside for dinner, then to Star Casino for dessert at Gelato Messina.

Sydney City as seen from Darling Harbour.

The Sydney shopping district makes zero sense to me. I grew up in Adelaide where everything is laid out all neat like. Sydney is a mess of secret malls, overhead walkways that link shopping centres which come to you as a surprise, and underground corridors full of shops. It has a very short mall compared to Rundle Mall in Adelaide and the rest of the main shopping strip cars and pedestrians fight for space especially on a busy day.

Even the newest shopping centre – Westfield Sydney – has a dizzying layout which makes it impossible to see every shop without backtracking and walking in circles..

The third day we chilled out, had a lovely Paleo friendly breakfast at Darling Harbour, then I went wandering on my own via the monorail back to Westfield Sydney and the CBD while The Other Half met his friend for lunch. Then to Costco, then home via a Sushi Train..

I’m going to write up some reviews this week – including the longest photo review known to man thus far – and I also want to do some linking to Sydney food sites I read which inspired me to visit the places we visited.

So what did I learn?

For me, sugar, carbs like potatoes and rice, and grains, make me hungry. They also make me crash big time – on the third day I had a major blood sugar spike when I had a Starbucks coffee in the morning without any sugar added but it was a flavoured one and plenty sweet by itself. I then experienced a crash, a low blood sugar thing.

It was interesting to recognise that for what it was and see the symptoms it caused, and to look back and see where that has happened to me in the past and I have put it down to other things.

food, paleo, Sydney, travel

Update On Everything.

1 Comment Posted on February 6, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

PALEO – EATING

Things have been going well. I have been eating paleo for 23 days now. This will end tomorrow. It simply will not be practical to eat that way while in Sydney. I will not have a lot of control over the amount of sugar in things or the ingredients. And I have been reading about these gelato places for *months* and longing to try them.

This is going to be a very interesting thing, to see how my body handles sugar now. I wonder if I will get an appetite back. I still do not have one.

My intentions are to go back to Paleo when I return home, and start over again.

MEATINESS

I recently mentioned in my food exhaustion post about the huge amounts of meat involved with Paleo. On second thoughts, it is not truly that meaty. I think the reason it seemed like a lot more meat for me is because I did not eat very much of it beforehand. If I did eat meat, 9 times out of 10 it would be chicken.

I certainly didn’t eat things like pork or beef much previous to going Paleo – unless out somewhere and it was served to me as a surprise. An occasional pork roast, tacos with beef, a hamburger or a spaghetti bolognaise were the extent of my experience with those foods. I’m so excited about pork, I am a huge fan of it now. Beef I can take or leave.

I have been cooking meat in bulk which is not something I ever did before, so it seems like a lot more meat in the diet when you put in a 1.5kg (3 pound) pork roast, a 1.5kg beef roast or 4-6 chicken breasts into the pressure cooker. But most of the meals I cook in there I get 8+ meals out of and some of them end up frozen for eating later.

SUGAR OUTAGE

I think the most important thing for me has been cutting out the sugar. I think has changed everything.

I have always been someone who chooses full fat over fat free because I find what they replace the fat with is generally sugar and I have always believed fat is preferable to sugar because our bodies know what to do with it.

But if someone new to paleo was used to eating the low fat stuff, and they had a mindset that fat is bad, it would be a big change in their mindset. Plus, they would be used to getting those sugar highs from the “fat free” sugary food they were eating.

I was going to update you on my teevee watching but I have run out of time and could not get the images to cooperate, so that will come to you as a surprise later. ;)

food, life lessons, Making Choices, paleo

Food Exhaustion

2 Comments Posted on February 1, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Gina from Running To The Kitchen said something the other day that truly resonates with me right now.

I think I’d like this whole strict paleo thing a lot more if someone could just prep all my meals for me. I feel like I’m constantly in the kitchen, constantly defrosting meat and going through protein at an alarming rate.

I am just exhausted by the constant food preparation and the huge amounts of meat.. I am also exhausted by trying to have to *decide* what to cook.

Part of this is because of the Lite N Easy – each day had a menu right down to the snacks so for two and a half months I did not have to make any food decisions.

Sometimes I like being told what to do. When it comes to food I love that because given the option between making a good choice which is difficult to cook, or making a bad choice that I can nuke in the microwave, I will choose the latter every time.

If given the choice between an apple which you have to cut up, and a packet of chips which you merely have to open and eat, I used to choose the latter.

Now I see how completely ridiculous making that bad choice that is. Cutting up an apple takes moments, and a decent knife.

food, paleo

Update On The Lack Of Sugar.

Leave a comment Posted on January 21, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Wow..

So I wrote a few days ago that everything seemed ok. And it did. But then, the dark days reared their head.

First of all, zero appetite.

None. Nada.

You could pile up a huge feast of the most awesome foods in the world in front of me, and I’d turn up my nose at it. Smell does nothing to change it. I’m eating because I have to, not because I want to. I’m forcing it every 2 hours.

This could turn into a pretty big issue – I’m finding it hard to get enough calories to begin with. If I forget – if I get caught up in something interesting or lose track of time, there is no ding ding HELLO time to eat signal from my body.

Second of all – my internals.

I don’t know why but over the past two days there has been an intense intestinal reaction to this new diet. I won’t go into details – TMI! But I did want to share it because from my googling on the webs, this is not an uncommon thing when switching to paleo. You change what goes in, you change what comes out.

A big part of me thinks that this is toxins leaving the body.

Another part of me wonders if this is a reaction to some of the spices I have used – eg chili which I do tend to react badly to – and the fact that I am using a lot more spices now.

Another part of me kinda suspects this might be because I had a massive pig out on pork crackling about 24 hours before this happened. I don’t usually consume that much fat in one sitting but wow, it was awesome. That was the first time I ever made my own pork crackling.

Actual Results

One week of zero sugar = 4kg lost.

When I say zero sugar, I mean absolutely no added sugar with two exceptions, which is one teaspoon of coconut sugar per day in my coffee, and the coconut sugar used in the chocolate recipe.

What Next?

This looks like something that might work for me. I’m not sure how long term this could be. By the end of January I am going to make a decision on whether or not to try the whole 30 in February.

food, paleo

Making Chocolate From Scratch!

2 Comments Posted on January 19, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

This is incredibly simple and once you try this you will likely not want “regular” chocolate again. The recipe I used can be found here –

Chocolate (Homemade)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
1 tablespoons sweetener of your choice (I used 3tsp Coconut Sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
(I added cinnamon)

I made one small change to the method – I added all the dry ingredients into a mug plus the vanilla extract and added hot water to dissolve them. This was mainly because of the coconut sugar which is quite granular when dry. On this plate the coconut sugar is directly next to the vanilla essence in the teaspoon measurer.

Then – Place all of your ingredients in a bowl with the coconut oil and whisk well until combined.

It’ll look weird because the chocolate separates from the coconut oil until you whisk it enough.

You’ll know it is ready when you can’t see any coconut oil and it is all amalgamated into an awesome liquid..

It is magic whisk time, peoples!

I ladled them into small plastic containers so I can have some chocolate snacks to take to work. Then put them in the fridge – or freezer if you want to eat it soonish. Once the coconut oil hardens, it is ready to eat.

The levels of awesomeness cannot be described. :)

UPDATE –

I tried a new recipe for chocolate which I found here – Good Girl Gone Green – this recipe turned out great and will be the one I am using in the future.

Chocolate
1 cup of coconut oil, melted
1 cup of cacao powder
1/2 cup of maple syrup
1 Tbsp of vanilla flavor

It works out a lot more solid than the previous recipe.

Here is a link to some other chocolate recipes which might be worth trying. 8 Vegan Chocolate Recipes.

food, Paleo Recipes, recipes

Sweet Potato Fries

1 Comment Posted on January 15, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

I cannot believe how easy this was to make, and how awesome it was to eat! Where have these sweet potato fries been all my life?

Oh, I know where. The regular white potato has overshadowed all other forms of potato. Now, I know better..

All I did was cut up some sweet potato, coat them in extra virgin olive oil, then used the salt and pepper shaker on them. Baked for 20 mins, flipped over with the tongs, baked for another 15. Done!

Update on all things Paleo – Saturday was my first day of eating paleo – or a slightly modified version of it. There has been some dairy in the form of yoghurt. I have a huge tub of it to finish off, and I have been eating it for breakfast with fruit.

The main thing I am worried about right now is cutting out added sugar. If there is sugar on the ingredients list, I’m not eating it. And there is sugar on a lot of ingredient lists, found in unexpected places. Like tinned beetroot, tinned tomatoes, vegetable chips – which would otherwise be a perfect thing for me as they have a sweet potato flavour. And stock! Chicken, beef, vege.

I have only found one brand which is sugar free in the health food section of Coles. Please carefully note, it is NOT with the other stocks, but with all the gluten free super healthy foods area. Why make things logical when you can make people wander the supermarket like ghosts unable to leave the planet earth until they find the one thing they are looking for in all these different sections?

So anyone searching the internet as I did for “where can I find sugar free chicken stock in Australia” will hopefully find their way here and know which packet to look out for.

There is one teaspoon of coconut sugar in my daily coffee. That is all. I will eventually cut that out as well.

The second concern is avoiding grains. I have always been somewhat meh about bread – I can buy it and eat a shedload of it as a surprise, or I can buy it and forget to eat it. But I do love my Hot X Buns. I had a packet of them last week as a kind of goodbye to grains.

I am hesitant to say this now because who knows, there could be dark days ahead. I was concerned there would be side effects of cutting out the sugar. As it stands right now, I feel ok. Possibly better than ok. I’m not craving sugary foods nor am I craving foods in general. I’m less hungry than I have been for a long time. Partly that is thanks to the lite n easy teaching me to eat less more often, partly that would be because of all the proteins.

Basically the eating looks like this right now –

Breakfast – plain sugar free yoghurt with fruit

snack – almonds and cashews (bought loads of these from Costco in bulk)

lunch – chicken in coconut cream sauce (recipe to come as a surprise eventually, I made this one up myself and I made a lot of it yesterday)

snack – olives stuffed with almonds or marinated olives

dinner – another chicken in coconut cream sauce

snack – an apple or an avocado

It seems boring but it turns out it is not. I can’t believe how much flavour everything seems to have now. I had an apple today and it was the sweetest thing I have eaten in centuries. It was like an appley can of coke. Is this what happens when you cut out the fake sugar sweetness?

food, paleo, Paleo Recipes, recipes

Coconut Mango Chicken

2 Comments Posted on January 11, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

So easy, so awesome. Recipe here.

I didn’t have any chipotle and I am not the greatest fan of hot chilli in any case, so put in some Paprika instead. It didn’t really need much in the way of spices – the mango reduced into this awesome almost buttery sauce. There were still chunks of mango which were so soft and incredible..

More than likely I overcooked it. It will take some getting used to, these insane tiny cooking times with the pressure cooker. It was trying to tell me it needed to cook for 4 minutes or some such nonsense. I took the safer way out and cooked it for 30. I doubled the recipe as I had plenty of chicken however it made a lot of mango coconut juice left over. Probably should have used 1 can of coconut milk and one of coconut cream to thicken it.

food, paleo, Paleo Recipes, recipes