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Showing posts with label Carnivore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carnivore. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Fall-back Favourites: Roast Leg of Lamb
When I'm pressed for time, I have a range of meals that I make without having to think about the details. Chop chop and in the pot - curries, stir-fries, etc. So in my new series of Fall-back Favourites, I will note the details of some of these recipes where measurements are open to interpretation, and effort is minimised.
First up, a classic leg of lamb. As an Australian, I take pride in my preparation of lamb, and now that my kitchen is equipped with excellent crock pots, fats and spices, my roasts are unbelievably tasty, even without using sauces or elaborate dressing techniques.
Secret ingredient: organic, grass-fed lamb! I imagine that grain-fed/finished lamb needs quite a lot of dressing up to mask the flavour of rank chemicals and tasteless meat, but pure lamb, fresh from Farmer Dan's farm is the pivotal ingredient. The preparation and cooking technique is to enhance the flavour, not change or mask it.
You will also need: coconut oil, bacon grease or other animal fat, dried or fresh rosemary, dried basil, fresh or dried garlic, salt.
Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to moderate (150 deg C).
2. Place leg of lamb in a pot with a lid - it needs to be big enough to house the lamb comfortably, with space all around the leg.
3. Melt your fats, and combine with the herbs and spices.
4. Rub your seasoning all over the lamb, including the underside and under any flaps of loose fat. If you want to cut strips across the fat so that the seasoning reaches the meat, you may. I don't bother when preparing grass-fed meat.
5. Cover pot and place in oven for a couple of hours. You can leave it for longer if you need to - just lower the temperature to 100 deg C.
6. For the last ten minutes, remove the lid and raise heat to 200 deg C so that the fat on the roast sizzles and crisps.
7. Remove from oven and allow the roast to rest for 10 minutes in the pot, before removing roast and placing on a wooden board. Be ready for the juices - catch them if you can.
8. Carve and serve the meat, drizzling with fats and seasoning left in the pot. You could add some cauliflower rice to the pot to soak up the juice, but this is too fiddly for my fall-back plans.
Et voila!
First up, a classic leg of lamb. As an Australian, I take pride in my preparation of lamb, and now that my kitchen is equipped with excellent crock pots, fats and spices, my roasts are unbelievably tasty, even without using sauces or elaborate dressing techniques.
Secret ingredient: organic, grass-fed lamb! I imagine that grain-fed/finished lamb needs quite a lot of dressing up to mask the flavour of rank chemicals and tasteless meat, but pure lamb, fresh from Farmer Dan's farm is the pivotal ingredient. The preparation and cooking technique is to enhance the flavour, not change or mask it.
You will also need: coconut oil, bacon grease or other animal fat, dried or fresh rosemary, dried basil, fresh or dried garlic, salt.
Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to moderate (150 deg C).
2. Place leg of lamb in a pot with a lid - it needs to be big enough to house the lamb comfortably, with space all around the leg.
3. Melt your fats, and combine with the herbs and spices.
4. Rub your seasoning all over the lamb, including the underside and under any flaps of loose fat. If you want to cut strips across the fat so that the seasoning reaches the meat, you may. I don't bother when preparing grass-fed meat.
5. Cover pot and place in oven for a couple of hours. You can leave it for longer if you need to - just lower the temperature to 100 deg C.
6. For the last ten minutes, remove the lid and raise heat to 200 deg C so that the fat on the roast sizzles and crisps.
7. Remove from oven and allow the roast to rest for 10 minutes in the pot, before removing roast and placing on a wooden board. Be ready for the juices - catch them if you can.
8. Carve and serve the meat, drizzling with fats and seasoning left in the pot. You could add some cauliflower rice to the pot to soak up the juice, but this is too fiddly for my fall-back plans.
Et voila!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Catching Up
My seniors are wrapping up their year of classes this week, leaving me with marking and one-on-one sessions with stressed 17 & 18 year olds preparing for the exams that they think determine the rest of their lives...
Thus, I'm worn out at the end of every day, so my evenings (save for Monday's belly dancing class) are usually filled with relaxation activities: reading books, getting massages (once), hanging out in the hammock (often, now that the weather is getting nicer), and watching light entertainment programs.
But, amidst all the stress-dodging and rest-seeking, I've also been eating really well. I'm sticking to meat and vegetables, with lots of animal fat and coconut oil, and I'm even seeing some progress via the scales. I am enjoying solid energy levels, and have added a new fun activity to my day - hula hooping! I've only done it a couple of times, to minimise boredom, and I can spin the hoop almost 100 times around my waist! I bought a weighted, large hoop, with red and silver holographic stripes, and I feel like a circus princess!
Here are a few of the delicious meals I've been enjoying, for your viewing pleasure:
And then there was the 900g grass-fed rib-eye steak we found at St. Jude's Cellars in Fitzroy, easily devoured by the beau and I after a long day of walking in the sunshine, book hunting, and carrying around a brand-new, weighted hula hoop!
Steak go bye-bye :)
GGP go bye-bye!
Thus, I'm worn out at the end of every day, so my evenings (save for Monday's belly dancing class) are usually filled with relaxation activities: reading books, getting massages (once), hanging out in the hammock (often, now that the weather is getting nicer), and watching light entertainment programs.
But, amidst all the stress-dodging and rest-seeking, I've also been eating really well. I'm sticking to meat and vegetables, with lots of animal fat and coconut oil, and I'm even seeing some progress via the scales. I am enjoying solid energy levels, and have added a new fun activity to my day - hula hooping! I've only done it a couple of times, to minimise boredom, and I can spin the hoop almost 100 times around my waist! I bought a weighted, large hoop, with red and silver holographic stripes, and I feel like a circus princess!
Here are a few of the delicious meals I've been enjoying, for your viewing pleasure:
And then there was the 900g grass-fed rib-eye steak we found at St. Jude's Cellars in Fitzroy, easily devoured by the beau and I after a long day of walking in the sunshine, book hunting, and carrying around a brand-new, weighted hula hoop!
Steak go bye-bye :)
GGP go bye-bye!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Recipes: Seafood? Eat It!
I like seafood.
A lot.
Some types, I would go as far as saying I love.
You probably know that I quite like sashimi.
I get excited when I see something like this arrive at my table:
But when I see the $65 price tag, I'm less excited.
Fortunately, I know how to cook, am not afraid of making mistakes, and can usually figure out how to do fancy things using local produce and a few vaguely sharp knives.
Much better! And sooo much cheaper, despite being enough to feed four people! All wild-caught seafood, and organic vegetables - I doubt the same could be said of the 'starter platter' from Kobe Jones I first pictured.
My salmon sashimi platter was the generous starter for one of the multiple dinner parties I've hosted in the past week since holidays began. I've been having a lot of fun with seafood, especially given that the warm Spring weather is finally starting to appear on occasion, and soon it will be BBQ time!
Here are a couple of recipes from the 'I'll be making this again' file amassed over the past week:
Pancetta-Wrapped Scallops
Ingredients (per person):
75g fresh scallops
50g pancetta (as flat and long as possible)
Wooden skewers (soaked)
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven or BBQ to moderately hot (around 200 deg C)
2. Wrap one or two scallops in one slice of pancetta, and thread onto a skewer to hold the pancetta in place. If your pancetta is flat and long, you can simply roll it up around the scallop, like this:
If your pancetta is more of an oval shape, you will need to fold in the edges like you were wrapping a gift:
3. If you are using a BBQ, just throw the completed skewers on the hot plate (you could use the grill, but fat will drip and you don't want flare-ups).
If you are roasting them in the oven (like I do), I would encourage you to lie the skewers across the top of a cake pan so that all sides of the pancetta can crisp up. You can reserve the fat that is lost for cooking your veggies in!
4. Bake/BBQ for around 10 - 15 minutes, until pancetta is crisp.
Serve with pancetta-wrapped asparagus!
As an intermission, here's the way I prepare most meals nowadays, including a lot of my seafood:
Ingredients:
Meat, in bite-sized chunks (diced beef, lamb, chicken, or whole baby octopus, prawns, scallops)
Vegetables that are amenable to sautéing - onion, cabbage, capsicum, mushrooms, tomato, zucchini, spinach etc.
Coconut oil, butter, or lard/tallow.
Method:
1. Heat oil in a large frying pan.
2. Add items that take a while to cook (meat, onion). Stir.
3. Add items that take less time to cook (cabbage, mushrooms). Stir.
4. Add items that take very little time to cook (zucchini, tomato, spinach). Stir.
5. When everything's cooked, sprinkle with a little salt & pepper, and serve in a big ungainly bowl. Scarf it all down, contentedly.
Baby octopus, red cabbage & mushroom sauté.
Chopped chicken thigh, asparagus, button squash, and mushroom sauté.
And that's my typical meal. Admittedly, this has primarily been the norm whilst our grill has been broken and lacking in replacement. Now I have a new grill, but I can't seem to be arsed to go back to seared meat. I don't see the point of cooking the meat separately when I'm sautéing veggies anyway. But this way I can cook fish quickly and easily, and make crispy bacon...
Speaking of cooking fish, the beau won't eat raw salmon, so I had to find a fun new way to cook salmon for him that was dairy-free, and did not require a grill. The idea of dry-baking the fish in the oven turned my stomach, but I found a way to add flavour and maintain the moistness that was practically effortless. It was eaten so quickly, I barely had time to snap a photo.
Baked Salmon with Spinach & Tomato
Ingredients (per person):
1 salmon fillet, skin on or off
1 roma tomato
1 handful of fresh baby spinach
A few fresh basil leaves
Method:
1. Preheat oven to moderate (around 175 deg C)
2. In a baking dish, place salmon fillets side by side, leaving no gaps.
3. Sprinkle with basil and spinach leaves, and place whole tomatoes on top.
4. Bake until tomatoes are shriveled and starting to blacken. This took around 20 minutes in my temperamental oven.
Check to make sure salmon fillets are cooked through. If they aren't, return dish to oven for another five minutes and check again.
5. Once salmon fillets are cooked as desired, go to town on those tomatoes - rip them apart and smear their oozy inner goodness across the top of the fillets and leaves.
Look at that - DIY tomato sauce!
6. Scoop out fillets with topping intact, and serve on a bed of tasty veggies.
(Apologies for the dodgy photo - the guests were getting demanding after the aroma of roasted tomatoes filled the air!)
So that's what I've been cooking! This past week has been devoted to socialising, since I see so few members of my social circle other than work colleagues during the teaching term. I was also sick with violent gastroenteritis a week ago, which put a crimp in my plans, but also meant I pulled off an effortless 40 hours fast! I'm tracking my calories at the moment, but being a bit liberal with my carbs from veggies. Fruit & nuts are still my danger zone, so I'm avoiding them entirely, and dairy is confirmed to be the cause of my acne, so it's truly off the menu once more. So I'm on meat, eggs and veg, and couldn't really be happier. My gut is really flat, despite the sag of flab hanging in the front - yum. I'm going to be really careful for a while, since I'd like to be able to wear a proper belly dancing costume if I get asked to perform later in the year, and I'm a long way from that point.
Other than friends and fatness considerations, I've scaled back my hygiene routines given that it's the holidays. I'm trying out a no 'poo regime, and I have baking powder on standby if a just-water approach doesn't cut it. I'm using coconut oil as my facial moisturiser, though I use a basic astringent wipe to remove my make-up first. My make-up is organic and uses few harsh agents, though if my dairy-acne clears up I may be able to go without anything. Right now I just use tinted moisturiser and a powder to conceal spots and dark shadows under my eyes. I'm also getting as much sun as I can, now that the days are starting to break past the 20 deg C ceiling. I'm about to head to the farm for a few days, so I'll be doing lots of walking in the serene bushlands near my parents' property, though I want to wear my Vibrams so will stay out of the scrub - snake country. Walking along the gravel road is peaceful enough - traffic is very rare. I usually walk along singing my head off to any wildlife that might care to listen. A perfect way to unwind the tensions of this year - fingers crossed it doesn't rain!!
A lot.
Some types, I would go as far as saying I love.
You probably know that I quite like sashimi.
I get excited when I see something like this arrive at my table:
But when I see the $65 price tag, I'm less excited.
Fortunately, I know how to cook, am not afraid of making mistakes, and can usually figure out how to do fancy things using local produce and a few vaguely sharp knives.
Much better! And sooo much cheaper, despite being enough to feed four people! All wild-caught seafood, and organic vegetables - I doubt the same could be said of the 'starter platter' from Kobe Jones I first pictured.
My salmon sashimi platter was the generous starter for one of the multiple dinner parties I've hosted in the past week since holidays began. I've been having a lot of fun with seafood, especially given that the warm Spring weather is finally starting to appear on occasion, and soon it will be BBQ time!
Here are a couple of recipes from the 'I'll be making this again' file amassed over the past week:
Pancetta-Wrapped Scallops
Ingredients (per person):
75g fresh scallops
50g pancetta (as flat and long as possible)
Wooden skewers (soaked)
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven or BBQ to moderately hot (around 200 deg C)
2. Wrap one or two scallops in one slice of pancetta, and thread onto a skewer to hold the pancetta in place. If your pancetta is flat and long, you can simply roll it up around the scallop, like this:
If your pancetta is more of an oval shape, you will need to fold in the edges like you were wrapping a gift:
3. If you are using a BBQ, just throw the completed skewers on the hot plate (you could use the grill, but fat will drip and you don't want flare-ups).
If you are roasting them in the oven (like I do), I would encourage you to lie the skewers across the top of a cake pan so that all sides of the pancetta can crisp up. You can reserve the fat that is lost for cooking your veggies in!
4. Bake/BBQ for around 10 - 15 minutes, until pancetta is crisp.
Serve with pancetta-wrapped asparagus!
As an intermission, here's the way I prepare most meals nowadays, including a lot of my seafood:
Ingredients:
Meat, in bite-sized chunks (diced beef, lamb, chicken, or whole baby octopus, prawns, scallops)
Vegetables that are amenable to sautéing - onion, cabbage, capsicum, mushrooms, tomato, zucchini, spinach etc.
Coconut oil, butter, or lard/tallow.
Method:
1. Heat oil in a large frying pan.
2. Add items that take a while to cook (meat, onion). Stir.
3. Add items that take less time to cook (cabbage, mushrooms). Stir.
4. Add items that take very little time to cook (zucchini, tomato, spinach). Stir.
5. When everything's cooked, sprinkle with a little salt & pepper, and serve in a big ungainly bowl. Scarf it all down, contentedly.
Baby octopus, red cabbage & mushroom sauté.
Chopped chicken thigh, asparagus, button squash, and mushroom sauté.
And that's my typical meal. Admittedly, this has primarily been the norm whilst our grill has been broken and lacking in replacement. Now I have a new grill, but I can't seem to be arsed to go back to seared meat. I don't see the point of cooking the meat separately when I'm sautéing veggies anyway. But this way I can cook fish quickly and easily, and make crispy bacon...
Speaking of cooking fish, the beau won't eat raw salmon, so I had to find a fun new way to cook salmon for him that was dairy-free, and did not require a grill. The idea of dry-baking the fish in the oven turned my stomach, but I found a way to add flavour and maintain the moistness that was practically effortless. It was eaten so quickly, I barely had time to snap a photo.
Baked Salmon with Spinach & Tomato
Ingredients (per person):
1 salmon fillet, skin on or off
1 roma tomato
1 handful of fresh baby spinach
A few fresh basil leaves
Method:
1. Preheat oven to moderate (around 175 deg C)
2. In a baking dish, place salmon fillets side by side, leaving no gaps.
3. Sprinkle with basil and spinach leaves, and place whole tomatoes on top.
4. Bake until tomatoes are shriveled and starting to blacken. This took around 20 minutes in my temperamental oven.
Check to make sure salmon fillets are cooked through. If they aren't, return dish to oven for another five minutes and check again.
5. Once salmon fillets are cooked as desired, go to town on those tomatoes - rip them apart and smear their oozy inner goodness across the top of the fillets and leaves.
Look at that - DIY tomato sauce!
6. Scoop out fillets with topping intact, and serve on a bed of tasty veggies.
(Apologies for the dodgy photo - the guests were getting demanding after the aroma of roasted tomatoes filled the air!)
So that's what I've been cooking! This past week has been devoted to socialising, since I see so few members of my social circle other than work colleagues during the teaching term. I was also sick with violent gastroenteritis a week ago, which put a crimp in my plans, but also meant I pulled off an effortless 40 hours fast! I'm tracking my calories at the moment, but being a bit liberal with my carbs from veggies. Fruit & nuts are still my danger zone, so I'm avoiding them entirely, and dairy is confirmed to be the cause of my acne, so it's truly off the menu once more. So I'm on meat, eggs and veg, and couldn't really be happier. My gut is really flat, despite the sag of flab hanging in the front - yum. I'm going to be really careful for a while, since I'd like to be able to wear a proper belly dancing costume if I get asked to perform later in the year, and I'm a long way from that point.
Other than friends and fatness considerations, I've scaled back my hygiene routines given that it's the holidays. I'm trying out a no 'poo regime, and I have baking powder on standby if a just-water approach doesn't cut it. I'm using coconut oil as my facial moisturiser, though I use a basic astringent wipe to remove my make-up first. My make-up is organic and uses few harsh agents, though if my dairy-acne clears up I may be able to go without anything. Right now I just use tinted moisturiser and a powder to conceal spots and dark shadows under my eyes. I'm also getting as much sun as I can, now that the days are starting to break past the 20 deg C ceiling. I'm about to head to the farm for a few days, so I'll be doing lots of walking in the serene bushlands near my parents' property, though I want to wear my Vibrams so will stay out of the scrub - snake country. Walking along the gravel road is peaceful enough - traffic is very rare. I usually walk along singing my head off to any wildlife that might care to listen. A perfect way to unwind the tensions of this year - fingers crossed it doesn't rain!!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Mini Frittata
Because everything is better wrapped in bacon..!
Ingredients:
Per mini frittata -
1 middle bacon strip
2 medium eggs
1T diced fennel
1T diced capsicum (bell peppers)
A few baby spinach leaves
1t finely chopped basil
1/2t minced garlic
1T chopped/diced meat (I used smoked salmon, but ham or cooked chicken would work well)
Optional - 1T diced cheddar cheese or feta cheese
Of course, you could make a vegetarian version of this by removing the meat (inc bacon wrapping, so sad!) and adding more veg, and conversely a carnivorous version by getting rid of the veggies entirely. The flavours are totally up to you.
I used a mega-muffin tray, and didn't trim my big slices of middle bacon at all. Perfect proportions.
Method:
Preheat oven to 175°C.
1. Line edges of muffin tray holes with bacon - you can trim the length to fit exactly, but overlap doesn't hurt. If your bacon still has it's rind, make sure it is along the uppermost edge so it crisps beautifully.
'
2. Line the base of the muffin pans with spinach.
3. Combine veggies, meat, herbs and cheese in a bowl. Mix well so ingredients are evenly mixed.
4. Gently spoon mixture into muffin pans, layering spinach leaves (but don't cover the layers completely, as the egg mixture needs to travel between the leaves) as you go.
5. In another bowl, beat eggs briskly. Pour egg mixture into muffin pans, filling 3/4s of the way to the top.
6. Bake in oven until the frittata is golden on top and is firm to the touch. For me, this took around 30 minutes.
7. (Optional) Remove frittata from muffin tray, and place onto a baking slide. Return to the oven and raise the temperature a little in order to crisp up the bacon shell. Watch carefully for burning. I recommend this step if you want to enjoy the frittata cold.
A winner for me, taking me through dinner last night, and cold breakfast and lunch today! Very low in carbohydrates and not too shocking when calories are considered, especially given the satiety factor. Next time I'm going to get even more fiddly and try cutting up bacon to fit in my mini-muffin tray! Bite sized wonders!
Ingredients:
Per mini frittata -
1 middle bacon strip
2 medium eggs
1T diced fennel
1T diced capsicum (bell peppers)
A few baby spinach leaves
1t finely chopped basil
1/2t minced garlic
1T chopped/diced meat (I used smoked salmon, but ham or cooked chicken would work well)
Optional - 1T diced cheddar cheese or feta cheese
Of course, you could make a vegetarian version of this by removing the meat (inc bacon wrapping, so sad!) and adding more veg, and conversely a carnivorous version by getting rid of the veggies entirely. The flavours are totally up to you.
I used a mega-muffin tray, and didn't trim my big slices of middle bacon at all. Perfect proportions.
Method:
Preheat oven to 175°C.
1. Line edges of muffin tray holes with bacon - you can trim the length to fit exactly, but overlap doesn't hurt. If your bacon still has it's rind, make sure it is along the uppermost edge so it crisps beautifully.
'
2. Line the base of the muffin pans with spinach.
3. Combine veggies, meat, herbs and cheese in a bowl. Mix well so ingredients are evenly mixed.
4. Gently spoon mixture into muffin pans, layering spinach leaves (but don't cover the layers completely, as the egg mixture needs to travel between the leaves) as you go.
5. In another bowl, beat eggs briskly. Pour egg mixture into muffin pans, filling 3/4s of the way to the top.
6. Bake in oven until the frittata is golden on top and is firm to the touch. For me, this took around 30 minutes.
7. (Optional) Remove frittata from muffin tray, and place onto a baking slide. Return to the oven and raise the temperature a little in order to crisp up the bacon shell. Watch carefully for burning. I recommend this step if you want to enjoy the frittata cold.
A winner for me, taking me through dinner last night, and cold breakfast and lunch today! Very low in carbohydrates and not too shocking when calories are considered, especially given the satiety factor. Next time I'm going to get even more fiddly and try cutting up bacon to fit in my mini-muffin tray! Bite sized wonders!
Friday, June 25, 2010
One For The Road
In fewer than seven hours, the beau & I will be hopping on board the first of a series of planes that will eventually deposit the two of us in sunny (it better be...) Canada! So I am bidding you adieu for two weeks, but before I rush off to pack my suitcase full of distressingly light-weight garments that haven't yet experienced my current figure, here's a quick breakdown of my situation at present and in future:
* I'm really enjoying yoga. It's really hard work, especially since I'm also using a non-beginner podcast to give me ideas for workouts between sessions at Balwyn Yoga, but I'm really loving it. This week, I went along at the tail end of a punchy series of fasting: 16hrs of nothing but water and tea, and then over 24hrs of fat fast food and portioning, although I hadn't yet had my fourth & fifth meals of the day (and decided to skip them thanks to the immense endorphin high that greeted me mid-way through my yoga class)! I floated home...
* For those of you who haven't heard of the Fat Fast per se - though you probably have heard of something similar - here's a quick summary:
- I am striving to garner 90% of my calories from fat, whilst limiting my caloric intake to create a decent deficit. Atkins recommended 1000kcal, spread out over four or five meals in the day. I'm more flexible - I just listen to what my body wants.
- My meals of choice (since I'm paleo, I don't do the cream cheese and whipped cream + sweetener concoctions Atkins recommended) have been 1) 30g macadamia nuts, 2) 1T nut butter with 1T coconut oil, and 3) a hard-boiled egg with 15g butter. I've been hitting a minimum of 80% calories from fat, and I could go higher if I liked the taste of my current coconut oil...
- The idea is to fast for 3 to 5 days (any longer and you're putting your body at risk of protein deficiency), and if fat loss is happening (which is pretty likely given the cal restrictions - if not, there's a major hormonal issue at play) then you can scale up the calories and add in foods such as fatty ground beef. Then you can return to Atkins Induction etc, to see if your body's newly revved-up metabolism will happily continue to burn stored fat.
For me, I'm playing with more of an Alternate Day Fasting situation. I'm not setting a rigid schedule, since going overseas would make that awfully difficult, but I'm planning to eat 'normally' for one day, and then fast for one or two days, then another normal day, etc. We'll see if this is necessary. I won't necessarily be doing a fat fast as such on my fasting days - just keeping my calories at or below the 1000kcal mark, if my body likes it.
Progress thus far: the morning after my yoga class, I weighed in at 2.6kg less than I had pre-fast! I know that I was holding onto some water thanks to sodium and such, but it was still wonderful to see! My body demanded a refeed after that though, so I used my sore muscles as an excuse to finish off what remained in my jars of almond butter and macadamia spread. The overall calorie count (albeit estimated in terms of servings) was pretty monstrous, and yet the today the scales only showed an increase of 0.5kg, which I would have expected merely considering the weight of normal food amounts. I'll be scale-free in Canada, so I'll be monitoring my gut jiggliness... Traveling is always rough on the cortisol levels though, so I'm not too bothered, so long as I don't GAIN weight!
To the future:
I've bagged up two hard boiled eggs and a pat of butter to take to the airport and eat before we get on the plane at 7am, if I'm hungry. I know eggs don't keep too long out of refrigeration, but I'll try not to eat for the sake of eating... I've also bagged up three servings (200kcal each) of macadamia nuts that should get me through the looooong flight! Dang, I should have bought some bagged white tea - all I have is the loose stuff and that won't work on a flight... Boo.
The beau's mother, with the assistance of the lovely Kat Garson, has found two very exciting farms in/near Ottawa to supply me with my meaty goodness for the trip, as well as hopefully becoming my MIL's continuing provider of good meat - you know, meat that's actually suitable for human consumption. Now, the original plan was to go out to the farms, take a butcher's (haha, a pun AND cutesy rhyming slang!), and do a write-up. However, time constraints mean I will not get to check out the wonderful Dobson's Farm this time, although we have placed an order for a variety of beef, particularly ground beef, that we will be picking up upon my arrival via the central city market in Ottawa. It's not all bad news though - we WILL squeeze in a visit to the terribly exciting Bearbrook Game Meats farm since it's snuggled up close to where I'll be staying! I'll finally be able to try the North American 'delicacies' my Tweeps often tweet about - buffalo, bison, & boar! I'll also be sure to stock up on smoked salmon, my favourite, and maybe I'll even try foods that are available in Australia but not easily, such as emu, duck, kangaroo (if they have unadulterated steaks, etc), and some sausages that are made of a mix of meats, provided they don't include flour.
I might get some cooking in during my trip, if there's demand at all, but otherwise I'll be sitting back and lapping up some much-needed sun!
The suitcases are calling - au revoir!
* I'm really enjoying yoga. It's really hard work, especially since I'm also using a non-beginner podcast to give me ideas for workouts between sessions at Balwyn Yoga, but I'm really loving it. This week, I went along at the tail end of a punchy series of fasting: 16hrs of nothing but water and tea, and then over 24hrs of fat fast food and portioning, although I hadn't yet had my fourth & fifth meals of the day (and decided to skip them thanks to the immense endorphin high that greeted me mid-way through my yoga class)! I floated home...
* For those of you who haven't heard of the Fat Fast per se - though you probably have heard of something similar - here's a quick summary:
- I am striving to garner 90% of my calories from fat, whilst limiting my caloric intake to create a decent deficit. Atkins recommended 1000kcal, spread out over four or five meals in the day. I'm more flexible - I just listen to what my body wants.
- My meals of choice (since I'm paleo, I don't do the cream cheese and whipped cream + sweetener concoctions Atkins recommended) have been 1) 30g macadamia nuts, 2) 1T nut butter with 1T coconut oil, and 3) a hard-boiled egg with 15g butter. I've been hitting a minimum of 80% calories from fat, and I could go higher if I liked the taste of my current coconut oil...
- The idea is to fast for 3 to 5 days (any longer and you're putting your body at risk of protein deficiency), and if fat loss is happening (which is pretty likely given the cal restrictions - if not, there's a major hormonal issue at play) then you can scale up the calories and add in foods such as fatty ground beef. Then you can return to Atkins Induction etc, to see if your body's newly revved-up metabolism will happily continue to burn stored fat.
For me, I'm playing with more of an Alternate Day Fasting situation. I'm not setting a rigid schedule, since going overseas would make that awfully difficult, but I'm planning to eat 'normally' for one day, and then fast for one or two days, then another normal day, etc. We'll see if this is necessary. I won't necessarily be doing a fat fast as such on my fasting days - just keeping my calories at or below the 1000kcal mark, if my body likes it.
Progress thus far: the morning after my yoga class, I weighed in at 2.6kg less than I had pre-fast! I know that I was holding onto some water thanks to sodium and such, but it was still wonderful to see! My body demanded a refeed after that though, so I used my sore muscles as an excuse to finish off what remained in my jars of almond butter and macadamia spread. The overall calorie count (albeit estimated in terms of servings) was pretty monstrous, and yet the today the scales only showed an increase of 0.5kg, which I would have expected merely considering the weight of normal food amounts. I'll be scale-free in Canada, so I'll be monitoring my gut jiggliness... Traveling is always rough on the cortisol levels though, so I'm not too bothered, so long as I don't GAIN weight!
To the future:
I've bagged up two hard boiled eggs and a pat of butter to take to the airport and eat before we get on the plane at 7am, if I'm hungry. I know eggs don't keep too long out of refrigeration, but I'll try not to eat for the sake of eating... I've also bagged up three servings (200kcal each) of macadamia nuts that should get me through the looooong flight! Dang, I should have bought some bagged white tea - all I have is the loose stuff and that won't work on a flight... Boo.
The beau's mother, with the assistance of the lovely Kat Garson, has found two very exciting farms in/near Ottawa to supply me with my meaty goodness for the trip, as well as hopefully becoming my MIL's continuing provider of good meat - you know, meat that's actually suitable for human consumption. Now, the original plan was to go out to the farms, take a butcher's (haha, a pun AND cutesy rhyming slang!), and do a write-up. However, time constraints mean I will not get to check out the wonderful Dobson's Farm this time, although we have placed an order for a variety of beef, particularly ground beef, that we will be picking up upon my arrival via the central city market in Ottawa. It's not all bad news though - we WILL squeeze in a visit to the terribly exciting Bearbrook Game Meats farm since it's snuggled up close to where I'll be staying! I'll finally be able to try the North American 'delicacies' my Tweeps often tweet about - buffalo, bison, & boar! I'll also be sure to stock up on smoked salmon, my favourite, and maybe I'll even try foods that are available in Australia but not easily, such as emu, duck, kangaroo (if they have unadulterated steaks, etc), and some sausages that are made of a mix of meats, provided they don't include flour.
I might get some cooking in during my trip, if there's demand at all, but otherwise I'll be sitting back and lapping up some much-needed sun!
The suitcases are calling - au revoir!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Recipe: Kangaroo Balls! (aka Meatballs)
I finally found a reason to push beyond my lazy burger-slash-rissole recipe and branched out into proper meatball country for my latest dinner party fun times! I used almond flour since I prefer the taste of an almond coating on my red meat, so I figured it would be the tastiest choice when it came to having flour on the inside of the meat as well. I was deliciously correct. These were the tastiest kangaroo balls I've ever had in my mouth.
Kangaroo Balls
Ingredients:
1kg minced kangaroo meat (or ground beef, of course)
2 free-range eggs
1 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs, especially basil!
1/2 cup almond flour
Optional - 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and mix thoroughly. I always use my hands so that all the lumps of meat are tenderised and combined with the other flavours. Grabbing about a tablespoonful of mixture per ball, roll into spheres and set aside.
There are two good options for cooking:
* Fiddly but tasty: heat a little tallow or lard in a frying pan, and roll a few balls around in the pan over a high heat until cooked through.
* Easy but drying: line a baking tray with foil, and place balls on top in a single layer. Bake in a hot oven for around 10 to 15 minutes, until cooked through.
You can also combine the two methods for the best results - fry the outside of the balls to seal in the moisture, then bake to cook through without burning.
Delicious on their own as finger food, since the roo meat packs an unexpected punch, or as part of a tomato soup combo or warm salad. I served mine alongside a variant of my Warm Beet Medley.
Kangaroo Balls
Ingredients:
1kg minced kangaroo meat (or ground beef, of course)
2 free-range eggs
1 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs, especially basil!
1/2 cup almond flour
Optional - 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and mix thoroughly. I always use my hands so that all the lumps of meat are tenderised and combined with the other flavours. Grabbing about a tablespoonful of mixture per ball, roll into spheres and set aside.
There are two good options for cooking:
* Fiddly but tasty: heat a little tallow or lard in a frying pan, and roll a few balls around in the pan over a high heat until cooked through.
* Easy but drying: line a baking tray with foil, and place balls on top in a single layer. Bake in a hot oven for around 10 to 15 minutes, until cooked through.
You can also combine the two methods for the best results - fry the outside of the balls to seal in the moisture, then bake to cook through without burning.
Delicious on their own as finger food, since the roo meat packs an unexpected punch, or as part of a tomato soup combo or warm salad. I served mine alongside a variant of my Warm Beet Medley.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Time To Play!
Just like in modern times, all work and no play made Grok a dull boy. Hunter-gatherers have always generally worked fewer hours and have had more leisure time than the average 40-hour-plus American worker. Once the day’s catch was complete or the roots, shoots, nuts and berries had been gathered, our ancestors spent hours involved in various forms of social interaction that we might categorize today as “play.” Young males would chase each other around and wrestle, vying for a place higher up in the tribe social strata. The males might also practice spear- or rock-throwing for accuracy or chase small animals just for sport. Young females might spend time grooming each other. To the extent that play was considered enjoyable, the net effect was to solidify social bonds and to prompt the release of endorphins (feel-good brain chemicals) and to mitigate any lingering stress effects of life-threatening situations.
From Mark Sisson's Definitive Guide to the Primal Blueprint
Whilst the irony of using play to deal with stress caused in part by my play is not lost on me, I'm enjoying a range of activities to take control of my cortisol levels, lower my food obsession, and get back into the activities I always found truly enjoyed and felt inexplicably driven to do. Thus, I have vanquished my preference for lazing on the couch, snuggled in my tie-dyed purple comforter, steadfastly avoiding the bitter chill of Winter (yes, once it drops below 20 degrees Celsius, I claim that the 'freezing' weather is too painful to endure), and have been getting creative:
Cookery
I have been experimenting with a few culinary tricks that don't really warrant their own recipe post. I tried making osso bucco for the first time, using the appropriate cut from my beef delivery from Farmer Dan. After searing the meat, I stewed gently it with lots of spices and herbs. The meat tasted wonderful, as did the fatty marrow, but since I was rushed, I didn't have time to allow the gristly sections to soften and break down completely. I don't mind a bit of chewing, but the beau ended up cutting all the tougher sections off and discarding them, along with the succulent meat still clinging to the gristle. Shame.
The next experiment was inspired by the beau coming down with a nasty cold - ergo, meaty soup was required! I acquired some smoked pork bones, to be different, and boiled them until the entire house smelled like bacon. Mmmm... After removing the bones and noshing on the softened pork goodness myself, I chopped up and seared some topside beef steak, red onion and leek, then added them to the pot, along with diced turnip, sweet potato, tomato, carrot, and celery. Then it was time for the epic simmer, serving some to the boy and then topping up the meatiness with diced ham and fresh basil. The wonderful aspect of soup is that it stores in the fridge so well and reheats elegantly.
Finally, I revisited my Zucchini & Coconut Slice as an afternoon treat for the sick beau, taking down the more savory aspects (cumin) and topping the loaf with Nola. I indulged in a slice - I felt like it and the concept of dabbling in a small amount of carbs on the weekend works well for me so I don't obsess - and topped it with salted butter to avoid triggering a sweet craving. It ended up being my dinner, since it kept me full all afternoon and evening!
In terms of my eating this past week, for those who miss scrolling through food porn shots, know that I've been eating much of the same meals that have been my favourites throughout this primal journey: bacon and eggs, lamb chops, salmon sashimi, smoked salmon, and chicken curry, and then some rarer bits and pieces like been steak, beef burgers, white fish, and roast pork. It has been very interesting desisting my 18 month long habit of logging my food on SparkPeople. I no longer weigh my food. I am trying not to consider the caloric density of my food. I am simply eating what feel like normal portions at normal and necessary intervals. I have been taking lunch to work when possible in order to limit the potential cortisol response of my usual two-meal routine, but given my ability to leave work when the students do, no longer held back for hours by rehearsals and University tutorials to run, I've been happy to wait until 4pm for a late lunch. I'm still turned off by drinking plain water so I've been supping on organic white tea, and also fresh water with a dribble of lemon juice added for flavour. So no major changes in terms of my menu, just a release of my mathematical analysis of my food and its potential for instructing me to eat more when I don't need it, and for beating myself up when I 'fail'. I haven't felt much satiety, so that hasn't changed, although the zucchini slice today hit my gut and had me feeling far from hungry for hours! I'm a little worried I'm going to get some serious munchies when I head to bed in an hour...
Sleep
I have been doing my best to get to bed before midnight, sleeping for at least 7 hours on work days and longer on the weekend. I'm hoping to kick my numbers up to a steady 8 hours each day, though it's very hard to get to bed by 11pm when the others in the household don't care to... Without sounding tragically co-dependent, I don't like falling asleep alone! Nyawwwww... It's cute until I point out that I just really don't like being woken up when some inconsiderate 6'2" lug flops into MY bed! Stresssssssss... :)
Visualisation & Meditation
Another struggling venture is my Jon Gabriel experiment. For the uninitiated, Jon Gabriel believes that he solved his weight and over-eating issues through a process of visualising his ideal body and other meditative activities, and over the course of two and a half years, lost weight steadily because his body now "wanted to be thin". I acquired the meditation recording from his CD (it comes with his book) and have been listening to it when I go to bed. Apart from the stress that comes from trying to follow a relaxation process whilst my bedmate shines his iPad in my face and coughs his guts up, the recording is quite interesting and listening to a calming recording has helped me off to a very sound sleep. One downside has been that, the first night, I fell asleep before the recording had finished, and woke up an hour later with my headphone cord wrapped around my face. Panic! And since part of the visualisation is to imagine yourself waking up in the morning feeling energised and alert, the jolt awake triggered the rest of my visualisation and I felt revved up and ready to meet the day! Not the best sensation to be faced with at 1am...
As you've probably picked up from my tone, I do feel that Jon's description of his process ("the weight will simply melt off and you will achieve your ideal body just by visualising it!") is overly simplistic. The power of positive suggestion is its ability to train your subconscious and unconscious mind to stop obsessing about food. Jon also attempts to encourage listeners to find physical activity more desirable, to get in touch with their body, but I can't vouch for his success there because I beat him to it!
Yoga
One of my favourite activities at University was to head down to the sports centre at least once a week and attend yoga, despite my weirdly short calf muscles. It was led by an amazing European bloke that inspired absolute confidence and could lead 30 beginners through a series of postures whilst also spotting every single mistake happening in the room and correcting it. He also would always demand that any women currently menstruating would inform him of the fact before the class commenced. I would understand if he then varied the postures to somehow accommodate the particular physiology of menstruation, but I never noticed such activity... Anyway, I continued with yoga when I joined Fitness First in 2006, but then failed to pick it up again after moving out to the suburbs where I currently reside. The classes were always held too far from home for this non-driver.
However, this Tuesday I bit the bullet and walked down to Balwyn Yoga for a class. Despite the 45 minute walk on a "bitterly cold" evening, I was revved up for my first session in a new space. I was put in the 'beginners area', a small alcove adjoining the main yoga room, where four young, pregnant women had their legs akimbo and there was very little space to move. We were led through a strenuous series of poses, much more difficult than my Uni/Fitness First days, whilst the girls chattered about due dates and baby names and (awkward for me to hear without commenting) breast-feeding/formula and hospital food! I had to pay for 5 classes at once, so I will definitely be attending sessions for the next two Tuesdays before we head overseas. The location of the classes really is inconvenient though, so I will be treating these classes as 'lessons' to inform my own practice at home. I'm also stocking up on free yoga videos and iPod applications to assist me. My enjoyment of yoga has been fully reawakened - I've been finding any old excuse to spend 15 minutes on some poses every day (it helps that I should be doing lots of assessment and writing reports - any reason to procrastinate!), and love watching my flexibility improve. Doing the splits is a long way off, but I'm feeling my leg muscles lengthen and release rapidly! Since yoga is a mixture of strength and resistance training, it is perfect for my body type and primal outlook regarding exercise.
Sprinting & Moving Slowly
My usual walks to work have been literally dampened of late, with rain water encroaching into my Vibrams and through my Injinji socks! Not a great start to the morning. On wet mornings, I have to therefore succumb to the necessity of my old runners. Bleh. I also had the urge today, a cold Sunday, to take a walk at dinnertime (since I was still satisfied by my zucchini slice and butter), and headed out in my KSOs after dark. Once I reached the vacant walking track, I was inspired to do a series of sprints! So I would run or sprint all out for short distances, and then resume walking quickly whilst I escorted my unbridled breasts back into their bra. That's the downside of spontaneous sportiness - lack of pre-meditated sports-bra encapsulation.
Massage
My plan to get a massage at least once per month has kicked off as I now have a membership with a mobile massage service in Melbourne. However, I bought a full 'beauty' treatment from them as a present for myself and my beau, charging the massage therapist (whom we had not experienced before) with the task of exfoliating, foot soaking & reflexologically rubbing, facial masking, and aroma-therapeutically massaging both of us in pursuit of relaxation. Whilst the beau enjoyed his treatment, having asked to trade in the facial for more massage, my treatment was anything but relaxing: 1) my massage was first, whilst the therapist still reeked of cigarette smoke; 2) the therapist apparently forgot that he was supposed to massage my feet - and (apparently) being a Pisces, I carry stress in my feet; 3) my shoulders were also ignored - a key zone!; 4) during the back massage, the therapist DUG his thumbs into my hip bones repeatedly, causing bruising! The beau suffered similar marking, and; 5) the therapist applied my facial mask OVER my make-up! Ew! And the combination caused a stinging sensation and, later, a disgusting break-out!
Relaxation fail.
Here's hoping I can get the other therapist that the company has sent to me before, since she was an absolute ninja when it came to my body and my tension patterns. This week's therapist may have been a gorgeous, buff, blond boy who gave off waves of heterosexuality, but give me my 40 year old, red-headed stick figure of a woman with scary arms like Madonna any day!
Retail Therapy
A trip to one of my favourite clothes stores proved to be a very poor idea, since nothing fit, so I thoughts more broadly - cosmetics & glasses! I now have a range of delicious miessence products to minimise the harsh chemicals present in my make-up & removal regime, and I have a sleek black pair of sass & bide glasses being fitted with my prescription in the lab! Good news - I had to have an eye test to update my prescription, and my eyesight has improved since my last test two years ago! Hmm, what's changed in that period of time? Hello, primal!
I also splashed out on a bunch of Injinji socks, at last, to help keep away with winter chill:
Live Entertainment
On Monday night, I went with the beau and his workmates to see Jimeoin at the Comic's Lounge. Although two obese warm-up acts made unimpressive jokes about their size and assumed gluttonous eating habits, the night was relaxing and enjoyable. I do love Jimeoin's style, and I can say that without being biased by my little role in one of his films... I also splurged and had some champagne to help me REALLY relax! Although the bubbly did kick my energy up a notch (and I'm sure I burnt off all the sugar through my constant limb-jiggling and more generous laughter), I proved to myself that alcohol isn't all that helpful in my pursuit of calm since my dangerous knowledge of the effects of alcohol on metabolic & other physiological processes kept me from enjoying my buzz too much.
On Friday night, we had tickets to 'The Ugly One' at the MTC, and enjoyed the twisted narrative that somehow avoided the usual cliches of plastic surgery whilst viciously attacking the usual target of superficial society. The show involves some very witty staging and theatrical devices, with the actors exceeding expectations and throwing themselves into their roles with vigor. Since good theatre is anything but escapism, the relaxation value is mostly due to the hilarity of the piece rather than the opportunity to sit back and lose oneself in the story.
All in all, I'm feeling good! I'm trying not to monitor myself for signs of fat loss, but it's difficult given the prospect of having to don a swim suit in two weeks. I've been finding my old, chipper mood dominating my outlook throughout the day, and have been finding the energy to be more active and involved in the classroom. During my fat gain, I would find myself feeling really sluggish and stuck at my table up the front of the room, even during Drama classes! The fat-cell greed process does far more damage than just encouraging over-eating - my diminished metabolism meant that I couldn't even find the spark of energy to get me out of my seat, so even when I was eating very little, I was burning even less. I'm thrilled to see that turning around!
Two more weeks of work before the Canada trip - I can't wait! And in the meantime, I will be enjoying my meat, stretching & flexing, and enjoying fine entertainment to keep that smile on my face and my cortisol levels dropping. Viva bio-chemical normality!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
June & Due For A Change
The play is done but the stress levels are still up, and the constant frustrations of my fat gain is the primary suspect. I've seen a number of prominent figures in the online Paleo community crashing and burning of late, perhaps due to the increased interest in the evolutionary perspective governing our lifestyle and dietary choices, and the increased pressure from commenters and critiques to nail down exactly what it means to be paleo/primal, and the demand for us to be 'golden children' for the movement. Given that many of us come from a background of obsessive & emotional eating, health problems, and other causes of over-weight, it makes sense that increased focus on the successes and failures regarding our weight and health can trigger old psychological problems. Even Dan, from At Darwin's Table, has admitted that he has fallen off the wagon and into his old eating behaviours, and is having to start again. I wish him all the best as he tries to take control of his food addiction once more, although he seems to be starting at what I found to be the wrong end of the perspective telescope; he is monitoring macronutrients and calories with acute detail.
My choice, however, is to finally let go of those measures. I have been logging my food on SparkPeople since January 1st, 2009. I have watched my carbs, primarily, but lately have been watching my calories just as closely. I would allow the numbers to dictate whether I should eat more or not, ignoring my own hunger signals. Post-Deptran, I found that I had no satiety trigger anyway, so calorie-counting became even more of a crutch. Given that Primal eating is designed to help us understand our bodies more accurately, I recognise that I have been consistently severing my mind's connection with my body, and this must have added to my stress and frustrations.
The obvious, but scary solution? Stop the tracking. Stop photographing every single meal. Stop worrying about fasting. Stop worrying about my metabolism. Stop eating for the wrong reasons.
Instead, I will be eating my lovely, grass-fed meat when I'm hungry, photographing particularly special meals only (i.e. recipe experimentation, such as last weekend's Savory Zucchini Bread & today's Coconut Crusted Salmon), and stay off the scale for a few weeks. I will be prioritising my need to relax and get back in touch with my body, so I'm going to build some Yoga back into my usual body-weight routine, and hopefully keep other stressors out of my life. It's report-writing time, but I've never found that terribly stressful, just time-consuming. In three weeks, we're heading off to Canada, and I've been in touch with a grass-fed beef farmer & a grass-fed exotics farmer so I'll be set for the duration of my stay in Ottawa. The trip is free of financial burden, so other than the usual travel issues, hopefully the holiday will be appropriately relaxing.
I'm in no rush, but I look forward to being rid of what I call my 'Cortisol Belly'! I'm glad that, even though 9kg of my 14kg loss has returned, and my body fat percentage is higher than it was pre-primal, my overall appearance is slimmer than before. My gut - and, to a lesser extend, my hips and thighs - is the only area I've put on weight, and my reading tells me that elevated cortisol levels tend to promote fat storage in the lower abdominal area. The evidence weighs heavily upon the dirty c-word...
This week's eats list will be the last of its kind for a while. I won't bother taking shots of meals I've shared with you before; I will record particularly interesting meals, especially if they're fresh experiments, and feature them here for your viewing pleasure. Other than report-writing, my weekday evenings are commitment-free, so I'll have lots of chances to play around in the kitchen.
Breakfast - salmon sashimi & Bertocchi's porchetta-style roast pork.
Dinner - coconut beef curry.
Breakfast - lamb chop & bacon.
Lunch - a chunk of raw cacao butter; my first try. What an amazing aroma! while there was no real taste, but my metabolism enjoyed the hit of fat.
Dinner - beef scotch fillet, pure beef sausage, lamb chop, and fried eggs.
Breakfast - lamb chops, bacon & eggs. Don't you hate it when you over-cook the eggs and the yolks cook through?! Boo...
Dinner: entree - mussels! Hooray for a fresh seafood delivery!
Dinner: main - salmon fillet topped with buttery marinara.
Breakfast - lamb chop.
Dinner - gummy flake fillet topped with buttery marinara mix.
Breakfast - bacon and eggs, classic!
Lunch - salmon sashimi whilst out shopping with Mum.
Dinner - Farmer Dan's leg of lamb, rubbed with garlic and rosemary, and roasted with veggies: fennel, onion, pumpkin and capsicum.
And my share of the roasted bounty - amazing! Served in its own juices.
Snack - purple kale chips!
Breakfast - that's right, I chowed down on the leg of lamb leftovers, straight off the bone!
Lunch - leftover lamb off the leg, curried with coconut cream until tender and succulent. I know what I'll be doing with my leftovers from now on!
Dinner: entree - sauteed marinara and scallops.
Dinner: main - baked barramundi with a lemon myrtle salt rub, with zucchini.
Dessert - savory zucchini slice, served with raw cream! Yes, I finally found unpasteurised dairy, but the company doesn't have a website yet... Melbournites, look out for Swampy's Real Milk - wonderful stuff!
Enjoy the voyeurism, food porn lovers, and make it last - it'll have to do you for a while! ;) From now on, each week you'll be getting just the best of the best that comes from my kitchen and other adventures. I also want to help people find their local suppliers of high-quality, primal-friendly foods, so be ready for more posts in that vein.
My choice, however, is to finally let go of those measures. I have been logging my food on SparkPeople since January 1st, 2009. I have watched my carbs, primarily, but lately have been watching my calories just as closely. I would allow the numbers to dictate whether I should eat more or not, ignoring my own hunger signals. Post-Deptran, I found that I had no satiety trigger anyway, so calorie-counting became even more of a crutch. Given that Primal eating is designed to help us understand our bodies more accurately, I recognise that I have been consistently severing my mind's connection with my body, and this must have added to my stress and frustrations.
The obvious, but scary solution? Stop the tracking. Stop photographing every single meal. Stop worrying about fasting. Stop worrying about my metabolism. Stop eating for the wrong reasons.
Instead, I will be eating my lovely, grass-fed meat when I'm hungry, photographing particularly special meals only (i.e. recipe experimentation, such as last weekend's Savory Zucchini Bread & today's Coconut Crusted Salmon), and stay off the scale for a few weeks. I will be prioritising my need to relax and get back in touch with my body, so I'm going to build some Yoga back into my usual body-weight routine, and hopefully keep other stressors out of my life. It's report-writing time, but I've never found that terribly stressful, just time-consuming. In three weeks, we're heading off to Canada, and I've been in touch with a grass-fed beef farmer & a grass-fed exotics farmer so I'll be set for the duration of my stay in Ottawa. The trip is free of financial burden, so other than the usual travel issues, hopefully the holiday will be appropriately relaxing.
I'm in no rush, but I look forward to being rid of what I call my 'Cortisol Belly'! I'm glad that, even though 9kg of my 14kg loss has returned, and my body fat percentage is higher than it was pre-primal, my overall appearance is slimmer than before. My gut - and, to a lesser extend, my hips and thighs - is the only area I've put on weight, and my reading tells me that elevated cortisol levels tend to promote fat storage in the lower abdominal area. The evidence weighs heavily upon the dirty c-word...
This week's eats list will be the last of its kind for a while. I won't bother taking shots of meals I've shared with you before; I will record particularly interesting meals, especially if they're fresh experiments, and feature them here for your viewing pleasure. Other than report-writing, my weekday evenings are commitment-free, so I'll have lots of chances to play around in the kitchen.
Breakfast - salmon sashimi & Bertocchi's porchetta-style roast pork.
Dinner - coconut beef curry.
Breakfast - lamb chop & bacon.
Lunch - a chunk of raw cacao butter; my first try. What an amazing aroma! while there was no real taste, but my metabolism enjoyed the hit of fat.
Dinner - beef scotch fillet, pure beef sausage, lamb chop, and fried eggs.
Breakfast - lamb chops, bacon & eggs. Don't you hate it when you over-cook the eggs and the yolks cook through?! Boo...
Dinner: entree - mussels! Hooray for a fresh seafood delivery!
Dinner: main - salmon fillet topped with buttery marinara.
Breakfast - lamb chop.
Dinner - gummy flake fillet topped with buttery marinara mix.
Breakfast - bacon and eggs, classic!
Lunch - salmon sashimi whilst out shopping with Mum.
Dinner - Farmer Dan's leg of lamb, rubbed with garlic and rosemary, and roasted with veggies: fennel, onion, pumpkin and capsicum.
And my share of the roasted bounty - amazing! Served in its own juices.
Snack - purple kale chips!
Breakfast - that's right, I chowed down on the leg of lamb leftovers, straight off the bone!
Lunch - leftover lamb off the leg, curried with coconut cream until tender and succulent. I know what I'll be doing with my leftovers from now on!
Dinner: entree - sauteed marinara and scallops.
Dinner: main - baked barramundi with a lemon myrtle salt rub, with zucchini.
Dessert - savory zucchini slice, served with raw cream! Yes, I finally found unpasteurised dairy, but the company doesn't have a website yet... Melbournites, look out for Swampy's Real Milk - wonderful stuff!
Enjoy the voyeurism, food porn lovers, and make it last - it'll have to do you for a while! ;) From now on, each week you'll be getting just the best of the best that comes from my kitchen and other adventures. I also want to help people find their local suppliers of high-quality, primal-friendly foods, so be ready for more posts in that vein.
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I cut out grains, sugar and starches at the beginning of 2009. I have been keeping a journal as I have progressively shed my bulges and my processed foods. I am aiming to live a clean, primal lifestyle, and I wish to share my eating habits with those who wish to clean up their lifestyle and live happily and healthfully. As the cliche states - if I can do it, so can everybody else.