Tag: paleo

A great {and not boring} green salad

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A green salad that gets you up and going, but thankfully not the usual boring old green salad…
Surprisingly simple too – yet packed with flavour.

{Roasted zucchini, feta & avo salad}

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You will need:

3 medium zucchini
1 ripe avo
Cos lettuce leaves
Feta cheese
Salt & pepper
Olive oil

Thinly slice the zucchini with a vegetable peeler or mandolin, toss with olive and sprinkle with salt.
Roast in the oven under a hot grill for about half an hour, rotating the zucchini every now and then to ensure they all roast evenly.
As soon as they’re ready and out of the oven, sprinkle large chunks of feta on top and let it mingle and cool.
Toss with lettuce leaves, add diced avo. You don’t even need any extra olive oil or dressing, just use the oil from the roasted zucchini – voila!

Simple, delicious and totally tasty – oh, and healthy too! Fit for any detox!

Enjoy! X

Spicy bacon nuts – a Life Changer

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So, I joined a new gym where the goal is to guide you every step of the way through weekly assessments, personal trainers on hand and nutritional guidance…
At my assessment yesterday, I had a Daniel Lugo type character {from Pain & Gain movie} helping me and he reckons I should start off with a detox {before anyone can start their training there, they have to do a week’s detox}. I should only eat leafy dark greens and protein.
Right.
Well, it’s not far off from what we actually eat, but come on, not even a splash of milk in my coffee? Ok.
Like he said: ‘your coffee should be how you like your Nigerians – strong and black…’ Seriously.

Anyways, back to the point – so detox it is – and armed with these yummy nuts I’m ready to go!
{From Real Meal Revolution cookbook – totally Banting and totally Paleo! All protein.}

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You will need:
250g streaky bacon
4 cups of assorted nuts {macadamia, Brazil nuts, pecans, almonds}
2 tsp butter
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Pinch of nutmeg

Grill the bacon in the oven until nice and crispy. Place onto paper towel and keep the fat.
Next, dry roast the nuts in a large pan until golden. Add the butter and bacon fat. Add spices and toast until fragrant and dark brown.
Remove from heat, add the chopped bacon and a few drops of water.
‘Dry’ in the oven for 5 minutes at 160C.
Let it cool and keep in an airtight container.

Perfect for daytime snacking or adding to a salad or veggies.

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Here’s my version:

Heidi has 12 strips of bacon, she grills them and eats 2. She adds 4 cups of spiced nuts.
What does Heidi have now?
Happiness, Heidi has happiness! 😉

Beef steak, crème fraîche with a kick & roasted tomato salsa

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I’ve been craving a good beef steak for a while now – it’s been mostly lamb lately! Not that I can complain – lamb is a real treat and I do love it – but a change is also good.
I adapted the recipe from The Real Meal Revolution, my current favourite cookbook. Not only are the recipes great, they’re also healthy and so yum you will think it must be bad…
I must also say that the recipes are very simple and just focus on delicious ingredients – my way of cooking for sure! I often just tweak them here and there to suit what I have on hand, or based on what I feel like.

This dish was fab – loads of flavour, loads of tummy-filling-goodness and didn’t take that long to make:
{Beef steak, crème fraîche with a kick & roasted tomato salsa}

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{not the best photo I’ve ever taken – but hey…}

For the steak:
2 beef steaks {preferably rump, I used sirloin, about 500g total}
1 tsp coriander seeds {roasted and then ground}
Freshly ground sea salt
Black pepper
Olive oil

Rub the steaks with all the above ingredients and let it sit for about half an hour before cooking.
Cook on a hot grill for about 2 minutes on each side to seal the meat and then finish off in an oven of 180C until medium-to-rare {or however you like your steaks}.
Of course, we used our Big Green Egg for the entire cooking process!

For the crème fraîche:
Half a cup of crème fraîche
2 tsp hot English mustard

Mix these together and keep in the fridge until you are ready to dish up.

For the salsa:
A cup of small rosa tomatoes
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
Sweet basil, torn
1 Chorizo sausage, chopped and fried

Place the tomatoes under a hot grill and let them roast until slightly charred. Chop the tomatoes and mix with the chorizo.
Let it cool slightly, then add the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper. Let that marinade for a bit.
Add the vinegar and sprinkle with basil.

Now honestly, what is better than a big chunk of beef steak topped with a meaty salsa?! And yet, it is still refreshing and ‘light’ to eat and doesn’t feel like you’re in some greasy diner in Louisiana somewhere… {No offense to anyone in Louisiana, but I know what goes down there… Shrimp stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and deep-fried, served with a side of green beans and mince! Yep, that really happened! I suppose it can be called Banting…}

Anyhoo, back to the steak – another great one from Real Meal Revolution cookbook and a definite must-cook!

Serve the salsa over the steak and top with the crème fraîche.

Enjoy! X

Cauli ‘couscous’

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Cauliflower – the ‘new’ potato! That’s like saying orange is the new black…
Look, like orange {as in the colour – not the fruit}, cauliflower is not for everyone – but me, I like it! {I don’t care much for orange though…}
I find it much lighter than potato and it lends an interesting twist to the meal.
Hubby – not such a fan…! Although he did enjoy the cauli-mash.
With my blender well and truly broken from a previous terrine-blending-exercise, I had to settle for slightly more course couscous, as I had to crumble the raw cauliflower with my fingers. {Stick blender did not do the trick – it made it into a mush.}
Right, so with my slightly large couscous as a base, I whipped up quite a tasty Mediterranean-inspired couscous salad.

You will need:
Cauliflower, crumbled or blitzed into a crumbly texture
Olive oil
Salt
Wholegrain mustard
Small Roma tomatoes
Green pepper
Chorizo sausages
Sundried tomatoes
Feta cheese
Fresh sweet basil leaves
Olives
Bird’s eye chili, finely chopped {adds a nice kick!}

Pour boiling water over the cauliflower couscous and let it sit for 15minutes or so. Drain through a sieve and drizzle with olive oil and about a tsp of wholegrain mustard. Season with fine salt and mix well.
Fry the chorizo in olive oil and add diced green pepper & chili – fry until well cooked and golden – then let it cool to room temperature.
Toss all the other ingredients together {as much of each as you like}, as well as the couscous and chorizo & peppers.

Such a perfect meal on a hot summer’s eve – and quick to make too! Enjoy with a cold glass of dry white vino. Cheers! X

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Roast butternut & rocket salad

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Our veggie garden has been delivering some yummy goods for the past month or so, including a few giant varieties… Well, sadly, it is coming to an end now and I need to plant new seeds. Sweet basil is still thriving and so are the tomatoes {except that something is eating it!}, but everything else is starting to come to an end.
I picked these butternuts – they were HUGE but didn’t really look like butternuts, so I thought, well let me use it and see how it turns out…

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Turns out, these taste almost like normal butternuts, or a cross between a regular butternut and baby marrow, and they’re just much lighter and sort of longer…
Anyways – I’ll have to read up on this variety.
Here they are in my roast butternut & rocket salad – simple and delicious:

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Cut the butternut and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and your favourite ‘sprinkle’. {I used Peppadew spice.}
Roast for an hour at 180C until they’re tender. Just before they’re done, add some pine nuts and return to the oven to finish roasting.
Let it cool slightly and toss with fresh rocket leaves & olive oil. Season with ground sea salt.
Add a few dollops of cream cheese.
Enjoy! X

Blue cheese & caramelised onion meatballs with rocket & marinated tomatoes

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These tasty little treats were quite a surprise – one of those ‘will it work, or won’t it…?’ kind of experiments…
Inspired by the blue cheese gem squash I made earlier this week, these meatballs were born. Ok, so not so much a meatball, but something like it…

You will need:
500g mince {I used venison mince}
Salt & pepper
1 egg
Half a handful of chopped coriander
A pinch if fresh origanum, chopped
50g blue cheese, crumbled
1 onion, sliced
Red wine vinegar
Honey
Butter

Saut̩ the onion in butter, add a splash of red wine vinegar and a drizzle of honey Рcook until caramelised.
Mix the caramelised onions with all the rest of the ingredients and scoop into a muffin pan. Pat the mixture down firmly into each cup {it should make 6}.
Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

Serve on a bed of rocket and top with marinated tomatoes and a dollop of cream cheese.
{Marinated tomatoes: cut small cherry or Roma tomatoes in half and sprinkle with freshly ground salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar – let it marinade for at least half an hour.}

So yum – enjoy! X

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Peri peri chicken livers with ‘cauli-mash’

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These chicken livers are quite similar to how I usually make them, but this recipe is adapted from the one in Real Meal Revolution – as promised, I’m posting recipes I made from the book…

{Just to paint a picture here, and slightly off topic… I’m sitting in the car writing this, as I wait for the boys to wake up! I can’t go anywhere without them falling asleep in the car and I’m not one for waking up sleeping children. So, here we are, parked in the shade, windows down on this scorcher of a day, waiting to pop into a shop on our way home from the chiropractor.
I also just read an article about slowing down, which I found so true and inspiring and thus, my rushing around like a mad chicken stops here!}

Ok, getting back to the recipe – I actually made this the day before yesterday and just haven’t had a chance yet to post it – these lovely spicy livers went down a treat with some creamy cauliflower mash. Hubster actually thought we were eating mashed potatoes – ha, had him fooled!

For the chicken livers:
500g chicken livers {cleaned, cut into bite-sized chunks and tossed in olive oil, salt & pepper}
1 onion, diced
2 red chilies {I used hot bird’s eye chilies}
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Tomato paste {about a tbs}
1 cup of dry white wine
Juice of half a lemon
Salt & pepper to season
Butter
Olive oil

I started off by frying the livers in a smoking hot heavy based pot {I used a medium-sized, flat, black pot} until nice and golden. I added a dollop of butter while they were frying.
Remove the livers and use the same pot for the sauce. {Don’t clean it!}
Start by adding some more olive oil and butter to the pot and sauté the onions. Add garlic and chili.
Deglaze the pot with the wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the tomato purée and lemon juice and let it simmer for a minute or so. Add the cooked livers and just let it mingle. Season with salt & pepper.

For the cauli-mash:
1 large head of cauliflower
Cream
Butter
Salt & pepper

Steam the cauliflower florets until tender. Using a stick blender, blend until you have a smooth consistency. Add enough cream to suit your taste {I used about half a cup} and to give it a nice and smooth consistency. Add a dollop of butter, season with salt & pepper and mix well.
So simple and trust me, it’s freakin’ delicious!

Serve the chicken livers on top of the ‘mash’ and scatter some torn fresh basil on top. {We also had some leftover ‘pizzas’ from the afternoon’s lunch.}

Enjoy! X

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Aubergine pizzas

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I asked my 2-and-a-half year old what he wanted for lunch today {I never ask, don’t know why I did today?!} and he went ‘hmmm… pizza!’
So pizza it had to be…
I made faux-pizzas with aubergine slices:
Slice aubergines into half a centimeter slices, brush with olive oil and fry in a pan until golden. Top with tomato purée and a slice of mozzarella cheese. Grill in the oven until the cheese has melted and has turned a golden brown.
So simple! And yes, Seb loved it! We rolled it for easier eating.

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Enjoy! X

The Real Squash Revolution – cheesy, ooey-gooey gem squash

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We have such a lot of gem squash ready for the picking, from our garden, that I’m constantly searching for new recipes to use.
I love these little gems, but let’s be honest, they’re not the most popular, or shall I say, most used of the pumpkin family, so finding new and tasty ideas for what to do with them, can be tricky.

Anyways, so here it is – adapted from the Real Meal Revolution cookbook {my current fave!} – blue cheese & caramelised onion baked gem squash:

Boil a few gem squash until tender, then cut in half and remove seeds.
Season with salt & pepper.
Crumble some blue cheese into the hollow of the squash and top with caramelised onions {see below for recipe}.
Add a dollop of butter and grill in the oven until the cheese has melted.
Easy peasy!

For the caramelised onions:
Slice an onion and sauté in butter and olive oil over low heat.
Add a drizzle of honey and a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook until the vinegar has reduced, the onions are cooked and everything is nice and caramelised.

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Enjoy! X

Glazed & confused…

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My blog is about the food I love to eat and cook, delicious treats, life stuff, mommy stuff, etc.
It’s not about dieting and dieting dilemmas, because frankly, I don’t do diets and it’s boring talking about it non-stop… However, the odd opinion regarding Paleo and Banting, etc has come up because that’s how we’ve been eating and a lot of the food I’ve been cooking fall into those categories. Anyways, getting to the point, yes there is one…

I feel there are so many different ‘expert opinions’ about what to eat, that it can be quite overwhelming and confusing.
I saw a link to an article the other day about a 70+ year old body builder who’s apparently in the best shape of his life – on a vegan diet.
Then there’s Paleo, eating like our ancestors did a million years ago – meat, preferably game that you’ve speared down yourself, fruits, veggies and nuts.
Banting has us eating a high fat, low carb diet, so it’s kind of like Paleo but with fatty meat and fish and lots of full-fat dairy. Vegan, well, shame, poor vegans don’t eat any animal-related products and their diet probably consists of a lot of grains and veggies. {I’m no expert on these diets, so please take it with a pinch of salt…}

My philosophy is this – keep it simple. Yes, it makes total sense to follow a more Paleo-friendly ‘diet’, but the odd pizza or cupcake every now and then won’t kill you. Unless, of course you are intolerant. I personally think that if you’re going to cut grains from your diet – then do it, cut it. Don’t substitute bread with nut breads and the likes – yes, occasionally, but the effort involved in doing it daily will put anyone off, giving it up! I say, do it as a treat, have that nut bread, zucchini bread, cupcake or whatever – gluten-free or however you like it, but as part of daily living, if you’re going to cut carbs, then really cut it. I’m sure we don’t really need those carbs anyways.
It took a few weeks to get used to not eating bread, rice, pastas and potatoes but it’s not so bad, and honestly, I don’t miss it.

When we lived in India, we had rice and/or potatoes every.single.day. So no, I really don’t miss those!
Legumes I do miss and I battled with breakfast, as I loved my morning cereal.
{My morning routine now, is to have an egg and some fruit with yoghurt.}

But now, December apart, I feel so great – NEVER bloated or over-full or any form of indigestion, my allergies are much better and I just feel much healthier and more energetic. The minute I have bread or things like that, I feel sluggish…

What do we eat? Well, it’s basically just meat {mostly game or proper free-range privately sourced}, veggies {no potatoes or legumes} and fruit, a bit of dairy, like cream and cheeses. Lots of eggs. We use honey instead of sugar {apart from occasionally in cooking and baking}, only real butter and NOT margarine {yuk!}, no {very seldomly} packaged fruit juice and no sodas. NO processed foods. {It’s sometime a bit tricky when you see a yummy-looking marinated chicken or steak or whatever in the shop, it looks harmless enough, it’s meat, it’s raw and you will cook it yourself – excellent! But, it’s so full of processed junk and heaps of sugar – you’re much better off just putting in the bit of effort and just making your own marinade at home. It will probably also taste better…}

It sounds like a long list of can’t do’s, but it’s really not – like I said, just stick to the basics and build from there. You just have to use your imagination a bit, especially for lunch time {no sandwiches…} and get creative! And if you feel like a hamburger, have one! But just make sure then it’s a proper burger, with real cheese, a proper patty {!!} and some greens and tomatoes.

Ok, so after that babbling, I just wanted to say that it’s confusing out there – what to follow, who to listen to, etc, etc… Just keep it simple, I say… After all, those cavemen were pretty darn fit and healthy and they lived on a basic diet of meat and veg! {Go Paleo..!}

I am still also liking the Banting idea of a bit more fat and cheeses, so yes I will incorporate that {which I’ve actually been doing in any case}..

Happy Sunday! X