The End of Summer & Suffering

Time sure becomes tight when you're going through drug withdrawal whilst also preparing for a big birthday party! But it's good news all around - I'm feeling like my chipper self again (and am trying to ignore the NINE kilograms I'm carrying post-DepTran; here's hoping it is easy enough to shed), and my birthday party was very successful, both food- and fun-wise. I'm already looking forward to throwing a bash for the beau's next big day, although that's not until April... We seem to have enough leftovers to last us from now til then though - and not to mention the massive supply of alcohol now in the cupboard! I somehow ended up being given three bottles of wine as gifts - not bad for a non-drinker... So that means I'll have to throw some dinner parties to help share the wine with friends who don't mind a bit of tipple, although then they often bring a bottle of wine anyway, even if I tell them not too... Ah, what a hassle my life is. :P

So to briefly catch up on the eats of late - there have been lots of protein shakes during most days, so rather than bore you with every little detail, I'll just post some shots of the best actual food from each day of the past week:

Monday

Rockling coated in egg, almond flour and spices, a la my White Fish Fingers recipe.


Tuesday

Oopsie pizza, topped with smoked salmon, smoked bacon, and green capsicum.


Look how foldy!


Wednesday

A circular fry-up of zucchini, tuscan sausage from Jonathan's, fried eggs, and pepperoni.


Thursday

Jonathan's chipollatas & fried eggs


Salmon sashimi!


Friday

I intended to fast for the day, but since I was up half the night cooking desserts and crackers and such in preparation for Saturday's party, I had to nibble on a few things to check the flavours. I avoided sampling my desserts though, relying on the beau for the yay or nay.

First up I made Choc Date & Walnut Balls, forming both balls and slice pieces for variety. I then tried to make the recipe using the usual dried apricots, but the batch was drier than usual I suspect, as the mixture failed to hold together. I was left with a bowlful of finely chopped nuts and apricot, so I had to get a little bit fancy...

First I made apricot nut biscuits by adding coconut flour and almond flour, as well as eggs and coconut oil:


I then thinned the mixture with water and more oil to make a batch of muffins - some with added cocoa, some without:


(Photo credit - party guest Dorothy S.C. - see her photo blog, Arrows To The Underground)

I then used the rest of the mixture to make an incredibly dense yet surprisingly moist apricot & nut loaf - it disappeared within seconds or serving it on the day, which is why I'm left without a shot of it! The muffins were just as good, but their large size scared off party guests who were already full of the other menu items...

I then made up a batch of Sunflower Sesame Crackers - another one that quickly left the plates!

I then cooked up a HUGE batch of my delicious pumpkin soup - it was really hard not to spoon it straight into my mouth!

And finally, I made my birthday cake - a vanilla & cinnamon cheesecake on a nutty coconut crust, topped with whipped cream and berries. The guests couldn't believe it was sugar-free!


With everything in the fridge, I finally toppled into bed at around 2am...

Saturday

I ended up stuck in the kitchen, serving course after course, and didn't have enough hands nor time to get photos of everything, so you'll just have to imagine it...

Guests were greeted by platters of soft cheese, roasted nuts, primal crackers, and a number of primal dips: beetroot, spinach & basil (using cashew nut butter), and smoked salmon and olive.


(Photo credit - party guest Dorothy S.C. - see her photo blog, Arrows To The Underground)

Shortly thereafter, an array of single-serve Cauliflower Pizzas were served; some vegetarian, some with pepperoni and ham, and some with anchovies. Gone in a flash.

Then out came the fried chicken drumettes with caveman chicken sauce. The next day, my brother called to invite himself out to dinner on the condition that I would make him more chicken. And he's not a fan of fatty food. Win.

Once people had time to digest those (and the last few late-comers had arrived and were hanging out for some food), I heated up the pumpkin soup and served it with crumbled sunflower sesame crackers as croutons. Rave reviews! I'm really happy with this recipe - I don't have to measure anything any more, so I know I'll be able to make it forever.

That was the end of the savory courses, so then out came the muffins, balls & slices.


(Photo credit - party guest Dorothy S.C. - see her photo blog, Arrows To The Underground)

And finally, after we were into the swing of 80's SingStar madness, we whipped out the cake and topped off our happy bellies with delicious saturated fats! What a feast! And lots of happy faces! :)

Sunday

After sleeping most of my actual birthday away, I didn't want to eat anything but protein shakes until dinner time. This was a little awkward as my Mum wanted to take me out for a birthday lunch, but we all went along to a little place in Melbourne Central before going to the movies (I get a free ticket on my birthday).

When we finally arrived home, I whipped up tasty bits and pieces for the beau & Mum, focussing on one of the recipes I wanted to try for the party but didn't get around to trying - the fried goodness that others know as Popcorn Shrimp!


I treated my shrimp in the same way I do my fried chicken and fried white fish - coated in egg & then coconut flakes, almond flour, herbs & spices. Then into the coconut oil until browned and crunchy. Om nom nom!

Monday

Today, after weighing in to note a starting point for March (currently weighing more than I did this time last year, how crushing), I continued my protein shake ritual, breaking for dinner of two favourites - cooked & peeled prawns, and salmon sashimi!


And since the beau doesn't like raw salmon, I tried something to tantalise his taste buds... I kept the sunflower crackers that weren't quite the right shape, so I put them in a shallow bowl and crushed them back into sesame seed-sized crumbs. I then dipped the salmon fillet in egg and rolled it in the crumbs, then repeated the egg/crumb process. I then fried up the coated fillet in coconut oil, and served it on top of romaine lettuce to a boggle-eyed beau who squealed excitedly upon spying and then tasting the fishy treat!


So now that I've kicked the DepTran out of my system, and am reminding myself that it's NOT normal to want food late at night when there isn't a drug driving my hormones, I'm enjoying the return to tackling the challenge of creating small but satisfying meals that my particular physiology prefers!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Shahi Paneer Recipe

Shahi Paneer recipe is my fourth recipe in the Paneer recipes series. In this recipe soft paneer cubes are cooked in a creamy, buttery gravy prepared with ghee (clarified butter), cashewnuts, onions, tomatoes and spices.

The other paneer recipes are: Paneer Butter masala, Palak Paneer and Mutter Paneer recipe

Ingredients for Shahi Paneer Recipe:

• Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) - 250 gms
• Ghee - 4 tbsp.
• Onion – 1 (chopped into strips)
• Ginger - 1/2 inch piece (chopped finely)
• Green chillies – 2 (chopped finely)
• Curd -  1/4 cup
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
• Garam masala - 1/2 tsp.
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Tomato sauce - 2 tbsp.
• Tomatoes – 4 (chopped finely)
• Cardamom – 2 (crushed)
• Cashew nuts – 10 (made into a paste)
• Salt to taste

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serving: 4-6 people

Shahi Paneer Recipe Cooking Method:

1. Cut the Paneer into medium sized cubes. Take a pan on medium heat. Add 1 tbsp ghee and fry the paneer cubes for around 3 minutes and keep it aside.
2. Heat 2 tbsp. ghee in  a pan. Add onion,ginger, green chilli and cardamom. Fry for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and cook for 7-8 minutes with the lid covered on the pan.
4. Add curd and cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Add 1/2 cup water and allow the contents to cool.
6. Blend in a blender till smooth.
7. Heat remaining ghee and add gravy.
8. To this add tomato sauce, chilli powder and garam masala.
9. Boil to get a very thick gravy.
10. Now add milk, cashew nut paste and paneer. Mix well and boil for 3-4 minutes.
11. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve the Shahi Paneer hot.

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Recipe: White Fish Fingers

In the same vein as my much-loved Fried Chicken Fingers, I decided to give the almond flour treatment to some slender white fish fillets (I can't remember the type of fish, bad me!), bought from the organic butcher up the road, who also sells wild-caught salmon and other fish on Wednesdays. I'm not a fan of white fish, or any fish that tastes 'fishy', if you know what I mean. Solution? Herbs, spices, and coconut oil!

Ingredients:

4 white fish fillets (around 150g per serving)
1 cup almond flour
2 eggs
1 or 2T dried herbs - thyme, basil, parsley, etc
2t cumin
1t garlic powder
Coconut oil, lard or butter


Method:

1. In a shallow bowl, combine almond flour, herbs & spices.

2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs until combined well.

3. One at a time, dip fish fillets into egg mixture, and roll in almond flour coating.

4. When all fillets are coated, heat oil/fat/butter in a large frying pan.

5. When oil is hot, gently place fillets in a single layer in the pan. Let sizzle until crust begins to brown and meat begins to become opaque.

6. Turn fillets carefully, and sizzle until crust is golden. Test to ensure meat is cooked thoroughly by slicing the end off one fillet.


Serve fillets immediately, with fresh vegetables and Lemon & Macadamia Mayo. If you like your root veggies, you could also make fries - et voila, the perfect Paleo replacement for Fish 'n' Chips!

Update (22 Feb) - also works on larger fillets! Check out the gorgeous rockling I prepared and scoffed down for tonight's dinner:


It requires care and precise spatula work to handle a 200g fillet of this shape and coating, but so long as you keep the amount of frying fat to a shallow depth, and flip way from yourself, you should do fine! The heat doesn't need to be terribly high either - no need to raise the fat to a spitting heat. Enjoy!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Trying To Find Equilibrium...

Without going on and on about the whole drug-induced hyperphagia bizzo, I'm still experiencing surprising bouts of deranged eating frenzies, as well as mood swings. However, my weight is holding steady, either because the six-week cure is doing its thing, or because the weight is mainly water-retention and my cells are full. My average food intake over the week is still much higher than I would like it, but I'm feeling a bit slimmer and have been receiving some leptin signals after particularly large meals (i.e. a protein shake with extra cream and water). The message might not last long, but it's an improvement. So that's the good news, but the bad news is that I'm still being taken over by the feed-demon every few days, and the best I can do is remove myself from all access to food. Last night I actually left the house at 10pm and went walking in my Vibrams, but ended up with such bad stomach pain that I had to call the beau to come rescue me after just an hour. Also, it seems like everyone but me has knowledge regarding the link between anti-depressants and weight gain. No wonder my doctor was always very keen to know whether I was having any 'reaction' to the drugs we were trying. I always thought he just meant fatigue...

Anyway, even if I've been eating what I'd class as too-much food some days, it's always been good food!

Thursday

Protein shakes for breakfast, recess & lunch:


Dinner - entree: salmon sashimi with a dollop of my Lemon & Macadamia Mayo


Dinner - main: kangaroo steak fillet, cheesy scrambled eggs, and chipollatas from Jonathan's, served with a bit of butter


Friday

Protein shakes for breakfast, recess & lunch.

Dinner: White Fish Fingers, bacon, sautéed red cabbage, and an avocado! I've been scared of avocados since a nasty sushi incident in 2004, but after watching this avocado slowly ripen in my fridge after being purchased for my Dips Recipes experiment, I decided to give it a go... Yum! If it weren't for all the fibre, I'd seriously consider putting avocados on regular rotation...


Saturday

Breakfast: Tasty beef snags from Jonathan's


Lunch: snacked on brie cheese, blueberries, strawberries and a nuts & seeds mix at a friend's place. The beginning of a very bad appetite domination - makes me wonder about the role of carbs in this reaction...

But amidst the inhalation of Nola, lots of double cream, saganaki, and macadamia nuts, I managed to whip up another Oopsie Pizza for the beau and I. The eggs were freshly bought and therefore were at room temperature, resulting in a VERY fluffy crust. Yum!




Sunday

Like a good little catch-up faster, I ignored food for a solid 24 hours after breaking away from the pantry on Saturday night (and putting a couple of kilometres in between myself and the fridge), eventually breaking the fast with some leftovers from the lunch I made for the beau - a succulent preparation of roast chicken thighs using a lot of coconut oil and lots of chopped basil, plus other herbs & spices...

Before cooking:


After cooking (with a sprinkling of almond flour added mid-cooking):


I served the beau's share on top of sautéed red caabage and red capsicum, which itself was on top of romaine lettuce leaves.


I served my post-pushup dinner 'plain', although the flavour was anything but!


Yes, I said post-pushup. Why? Because, to help keep my beau to his plan, I have joined him in the Hundred Push-up Programme, which states that you can improve you push-up ability through adherence to their six-week programme. I finished Day Two today, managing to eek out 12 push-ups in the fifth set. I'm going to be sore tomorrow...

Due to today being a push-up day, I decided to wash dinner down with a protein shake, trying the Macha Green Tea flavour of Natural Factors' Whey Factors powder range. Interesting taste, and noticeably lacking in sweetness - a good thing in case a sweeter shake would have sent me running for the kitchen! So despite my fasting, I've met my protein intake minimum - no lean mass loss for me, I hope!

Back to work tomorrow, with shakes in tow, and a tasty meal already planned for tomorrow's dinner...

Until next time, I wanted to share with you a recent post of Melissa's Hunt.Gather.Love, where she presents a fantastic starting-point for discussions with non-paleo eaters, focusing primarily on health (right where the focus should be!). Her Human Health Quadrants diagram is a little hard to make sense of at first, but is an interesting way of looking at how particular lifestyles link to nutrition and environmental hazards. A very neat way to shut down the usual 'paleolithic people only lived til 30' bollocks, and a pithy picture to point out the realities of today's choices. I love it when the primal/paleo community works to make the info we amass more accessible to the average SAD-eater; a dynamic grass-roots movement is the best way to propel health understanding forward. Keep it up, team!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Recipe: Grain-Free Granola (Nola) - The Final Cut

Way back in June of 2009, I tried my hand at making a granola-replacement for the beau's breakfasts, and was thrilled with the results. I posted the recipe to this blog so that he could log on and see how to make it himself. Sadly, he has never pulled his finger out and made himself a batch. So, every few weeks, I'm begged to make up a new lot of it for him and, fool that I am, I do it. Why? Because I don't want him eating carby garbage. He's already started effortlessly losing weight now that he rarely strays into Neolithic Land, except for the odd lunch bought during the work day.

Over the months, I have honed the recipe to the point where I don't have to measure or think as I make it. The ingredient list has diminished to a core of never-fail elements, and I have explored use of healthier and more natural sweetening agents, such as true maple syrup, appealing to his Canadian upbringing. I use less and less sweetener every time, and he has stopped adding fruit to his granola as well, so this is helping him avoid lunchtime carb cravings.

So I present to you - Grain-Free Granola (or, as I call it, 'Nola', since there's no 'Gra' in my mix!): Theme & Variations.

Core Ingredients:

1kg raw almonds (soaked if possible)
500g raw walnuts (same)
150g coconut flakes or grated coconut
3 egg whites
Optional - 2T sweetener (either maple syrup, or xylitol & a pinch of stevia)


Method:

1. Preheat oven to moderate, and line metal trays with foil or paper. I have Xtrema ceramic bakeware, so I use them as is - nothing sticks too firmly, and there's no liner waste.

2. Using about a cup of nuts at a time, depending on blender size, process nuts in a deep or sealed bowl until chunks are at the desired size. You can also chop the nuts by hand if you're keen for a long, steady workout.

3. Place prepared nuts in a large bowl, and add coconut.

4. In a small, dry bowl, beat egg whites until smooth, glossy peaks form. Add sweetener, and stir thoroughly.

5. Add egg mixture to nuts & coconut, and stir thoroughly until no egg foam is visible and everything has been coated. If you feel the egg didn't stretch far enough, whip up another white and add that to your bowl.

6. Spoon nut mixture onto bakeware, keeping the layers no thicker than an inch high.


7. Bake in oven for around 10 minutes, or until the top layer starts to become golden.

8. Remove from oven and stir mixture to bring uncooked nuts to the surface and to break apart any lumps. Replace in oven and bake for another 10 or so minutes, watching for burning. You may need to repeat this step if your batch is cooking unevenly (if you're oven is anything like mine, you'll be in this situation for an extra 20 minutes or so of stirring and replacing).


9. When cooked to your liking, remove from oven and allow to cool thoroughly before storing in an air-tight container. Don't worry if your cereal pouring container is adulterated with gratuitous corn flake imagery:


Serve with berries & cream (or coconut cream) for best results, but is also good with straight raw milk, or so I'm told. Personally, I could eat it like trail mix, by itself, so long as there's no sweetener added to the batch!

(NB: If the SAD's portion distortion has you thinking that a normal serve of such foods is upwards of two cups, I'd like to point out that just half a cup of Nola will satisfy you, especially if served with cream. The beau, being a tall boy, tends towards a full cup serving, with his milk. Eat slowly, enjoy, and listen to your leptin receptors.)


Variations

Sunny Nola - After baking, add dried fruit such as sultanas, chopped apricot, goji berries, and even dried apple slices. Good for those with a sweet tooth or those who use carbs after a workout.

Seedy Nola - add sunflower or pumpkin seeds to the chopped nuts before adding the egg whites.

Norridge (Nola Porridge) - after baking, put batch through the food processor to create a semi-fine meal. Fantastic served with warmed milk, cream or coconut cream, or just add hot water and cooked fruit.

PumpkiNola - warm and add canned or previously roasted and pureed pumpkin to your bowlful of Nola, and stir thoroughly. Top with cream, and enjoy a hearty treat!

A lovely, luxe breakfast for those mornings where you just can't face eggs and bacon. I clearly don't understand your mind-set, but I hear there are such people out there... :)

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Makin' Merry & Makin' Mayo!

Well, I have a big birthday coming up - 25! The clock rounds off a quarter of a century on the 28th of February (at 7:29pm EST, to be precise), the end of what promises to be a big weekend! I was told that hitting 25 would feel like a transition into 'oldness', but I dunno; I look at that number and still see spring chicken. Not that age has ever meant much to me. I wonder if I would feel older without my newly-acquired knowledge of how ageing works and why some individuals present superficially, in the physical sense at least, as much older/younger than they are. Attitude, it seems, is not everything after all. I think I have good genes though - Mum is nearing 60 and even though her face is starting to sag, the cheekbones we share hold her face's youthfulness where it shines beneath the surface. As for me, my face looks a bit younger than it used to in some ways (eg. my upper eyelids aren't saggy with chub anymore), but losing fat from ones face is always going to give an air of lost youth. Chubby cheeks are always going to signal childhood, and plumpness rules out most wrinkles. I'm still far from wrinkle territory though, and it excites me that minimising glucose consumption may help me stay that way, thanks to avoidance of glycation, etc.

I'm having a party on the Saturday (the 27th); a 1985 themed event, where dressing up is mandatory! We'll see how that goes... And I'm now a bit miffed by the fact that my chosen outfit doesn't fit nicely! With only ten days between now and costume-donning time, I doubt I'll be able to make that much of a change, especially since I'll still be on my drug, and upping the dose at that!

Speaking of the drug, it has been decisively proven that yes, this drug IS causing my increased appetite and is also accelerating fat accumulation. Yay! Full disclosure for the reference of others on the same thing - I'm on DepTran for the chronic pain caused by the damaged and hyper-sensitive nerve cluster. DepTran (Doxepin) is usually used as an anti-depressant, but as my boyfriend put it, apparently taking an anti-depressant when you're not depressed makes you depressed. Yup. The types my GP & I have tried in various rotations over the past few years haven't had any side-effects whatsoever, as far as I could notice, so he was hoping that I would not have an adverse reaction to this tougher one either. Frankly, it's a pretty bloody scary drug, and I'll be happier once I'm off it. If you have a look at the Wikipedia entry about its pharmacological relationships, you can see why and how it is messing with my energy levels, causing fatigue, and weight gain. Big bold letters, kids - weight gain. You can't miss it. Thanks doc, for the heads-up on that one... Oh, and if you look further down, into the Side Effects area, you'll see the frequent increased appetite info, and also breast enlargement! Yep, check that one off my list too - that happened first, before any other weight gain. I'm not small up top in any sense, but now even my looses blouses are pulling across the front! Oh gosh... So anyway, I have an appointment with my GP on Monday, and I'm expecting he'll tell me to stay on DepTran since it's pretty much our last resort short of amputation of the nerve cluster, and given the location of the cluster, that would NOT be fun nor easy, and potentially not even effective since pain may remain at the location of the scar! Gotta love medicine.

But anyway, with that reference there for anyone who is ever in the position of being prescribed DepTran, let's get back to the topic - makin' merry! I am merry, too - despite the fat 'n' fatigue, I've accepted that my drug-driven behaviour can be under my control if I work at it, and I shouldn't beat myself up if my resolve weakens against the forces of compulsion! Look on the bright side - when I over-eat, at least some metabolic healing might be taking place, and I can reap the rewards of a pumping metabolism for the following few days! I'm working hard to play all of my cards to combat my urge to eat, by getting back into the Drs. Eades' Six-Week Cure program (since it satisfies me and I'm also never tempted to eat after my belly is full of protein shake thanks to sheer volume!), reminding myself of the keys to balancing my hormones for fat burning (see this fantastic post on Animal Pharm about Blood Glucose, especially the last section on Entropy Production), and finishing my day's eating earlier than usual to extend the fasting period for as long as possible without risking hunger during times I have access to food. I pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow, thanks to my drug and the cycle of fatigue, and am dead to the world until morning, so at least I'm protected from the dangers of midnight snacking!

Oh, and for those readers who were interested in my Alternate Day Fasting experiment, I'm hoping to reincorporate that back into play soon - maybe not quite as frequently so as to lessen the stress (and therefore cortisol production) on my body, but hopefully some days will just be three small shakes and no meal... And in other experiment news, the beau and I are beginning the Hundred Pushups programme - the beau will try anything so long as there's an iPod app for it! It's just for fun, so we may only make it through the six-week course once and not make it to 100, but we'll see... I've never been good at proper push-ups - my toes don't seem to bend back far enough to support me comfortably, so I end up doing girly ones even when my arms can handle the full plank position... I'll see what I can do about that as well.

Yesterday I tested the shake waters by packing a shake made of Natural Factors Double Choc Whey Factors powder, pure cream, and water for lunch. With a moderately-sized breakfast of Jonathan's Pork & Fennel sausages in my belly for breakfast...


...the shake got me through my busy work day and through most of my late show rehearsal before the tummy rumbles started up and the limb energy started to dissipate... So when I finally trekked home, I replaced that rumble with tasty meats, pronto!

First up - a grilled pork forequarter chop, wrapped in bacon. Yes, damn it, wrapped in bacon!


And a bit later, since the hyperphagia hyena was chasing me down, I fried up slices of zucchini in a copious amount of macadamia nut oil, and grilled some pork & fennel sausage to serve on top. Perfection (although the appetite engine would not shut off - I fought the good fight!)


Today was Day 1 of 6WC #2, so I supped on chocolate protein shake for breakfast, and packed one for work as well. The beau & I headed up the street after work to pick up our weekly veggie box and get wild-caught salmon from the organic butcher - they only get salmon on Wednesdays, and I usually miss out, but today there were five fillets left, and I snagged the lot! I also picked up some smoked salmon and some cooked prawns to serve as a light entree for dinner:


I grilled pork chops for the beau, and he graciously left the thick & gorgeous fatty rinds on the grill for me, so I cooked them a bit longer and then had a good ol' chew!


For my actual dinner, I was left with minimal appetite, so I grilled up a bunch of Jonathan's Chipollatas and washed them down with another protein shake - Natural Factors French Vanilla this time.



My eating for the day was done, but not my cooking...

I've been wanting to try to make mayonnaise for a while now, especially since Every. Single. Product. in the supermarket is based on soybean oil or undisclosed vegetable oils. I wanted to have a tasty salad dressing (or component of salad dressing) for the beau and I to dip into should we desire it, and the fact that it would be one filled with healthful fats would be a wonderful bonus! Tonight's experiment was a texture & flavour, if not photographic, success. I will add visual stimulation when we use the mayo on top of salads or as a component of deviled eggs, etc.

Recipe: Lemon & Macadamia Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

3 pastured egg yolks (save the whites for making Grain-Free Granola)
1T lemon juice (about half a lemon's worth)
1 cup of healthful oils - I used 150ml macadamia nut oil & 50ml extra virgin olive oil, but coconut oil would be a great one to add to the mix too.
Ground seas salt & black pepper to taste.
Optional dried herbs (lemon thyme works really well) or spices


Method:

1. Place egg yolks and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor, or a small mixing bowl if using an electric whisk like I did.

2. Start mixing, and drizzle the oil slowly into the bowl as you mix, allowing the mixture to gradually emulsify and thicken.

3. Once the mixture is thick and creamy, add salt & pepper and optional extras, and beat a couple of times to combine.

4. Pour or spoon mayo into an air-tight container and refrigerate. I'm not sure of the fridge life of this one - I'll update this when I know more!

My batch has a distinctively nutty flavour, which I LOVE but the beau responded to with the comment, "It tastes kinda like paint". We ask no questions regarding his frame of reference... So. This is one to adapt to your own tastes - personally, I wouldn't like a detectable coconut oil taste, and I imagine EVOO alone would be quite bland... So play with your oil mix and your herbs & spices to find something perfect for your uses. I certainly look forward to working on this one some more as well - it's a safer way to get your fat intake up without creeping into sweet treat territory...

So after I packed my little tub of mayo away in the fridge, I still had some exposed egg whites waiting for me... So, I risked tempting my appetite, cracked open a kilo of nuts, and made the boy a new batch of Grain-Free Granola! It's about time I updated my recipe, so I might make a new post about it tomorrow. In the meantime, here's how this batch looked straight out of the oven...


There will be lots of culinary experimentation in the next week, as I trial ideas of '80s-esque party food! Colourful fun! ;)

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Zzzz-Day Weekend - Recipes for savory frittata and choc-raspberry muffins

The beau & I joined my folks in Daylesford this weekend for a pleasant family getaway. I was still lugging my drug's side effects with me (i.e. fatigue, wooziness, and hormonal disruption in the form of mood swings, raging appetite, and some unexpected feminine issues), but I fought to stay as alert and pleasant as possible - something I found easier to manage on Saturday once I gave in to a couple of handfuls of cashew nuts for afternoon tea. Apparently keeping my fat intake up helps immensely with countering whatever particular hormonal disruption the drug is causing.

Breakfast: hard boiled eggs for the road trip - an early start. The beau 'forgot' to have breakfast and tried to pull the old "Oh, I better get something from McDonalds cos I forgot to eat before we left..." Not so fast, boy-oh! I boiled four eggs, and knew I would only need two, so I peeled the other two and popped them in his gob faster than he could say McMuffin.


Lunch: we met with my folks at Pipers By The Lake in Ballarat for a 'light' late lunch before our early dinner plans. The lightest non-neolithic offering was the eye fillet beef steaks on broccolini (and a pile of asparagus, apparently). I was hungrier after lunch than before, so I succumbed to Mum's big bag of cashews, a nut I had previously been sure that I didn't like. Well, in this state of hyperphagic hovering anyway, it would seem that I do indeed like them.


Dinner: I booked us an early seating at Mercato in Daylesford, where the menu promised many primal options, and I was keen for some fish. As the FOD turned out to be barramundi on potato mash, bathed in an unfriendly sauce (can't remember exactly what the waiter said), I ended up going for the kangaroo fillets, hold the potato. Well, they didn't hold the potato, but they did serve up a posh side salad of wilted greens, avocado and feta cheese, which I shall certainly reproduce with my own twist for my next dinner party!


Taken with the beau's iPhone - don't buy one of those if you like your phone to double as a half-decent camera! I love my Sony Ericsson C905...

After dinner, we returned to our rented residence for movies and - against my will - snacks. I actually wonder whether my mother didn't believe me when I told her about this weird drive to eat I'm currently experiencing, so she put the platter of meats and cheeses right in front of me... Well, she believes me now. I wish she had bought wheaty and sugary garbage, because I would never be compelled to consume something that could harm me. The down-side of teaching her about nutrition... So, the plan for Sunday was to make up for a bit of excess with a normal-to-low eating day...

Sunday - Valentine's Day

After a very deep, generous sleep, we rose from the luxurious bed in our cottage to be greeted by an entire lack of hot running water. The house was build in the mid-1800's, but we were still expecting a few mod-cons... Fortunately, I'm more than accustomed to skipping a shower or two, so I headed to the kitchen to breakfast on salmon sashimi. Sadly, my ever-efficient mother had already unpacked the fridge, and had left my salmon fillet out on the bench after packing everything else away for the drive home. I opened up my room-temperature fillet, and sliced a bit from the middle, but it was lacking in taste and texture. It would have been fine had I some lemon juice (since plain sashimi is best chilled), but without it I couldn't manage more than two bites. Ah well, I was eating light anyway... Having identified the positive effects of fat consumption on my side effects' symptoms, I bought some double cream (51% fat, practically solid!) and devoured a spoonful for breakfast.

We passed through the Daylesford Sunday Market on our way out of town, hoping to find the organic meat supplier that my parents had spied in Ballarat - they put up a stand at a Saturday market near Pipers but it closed before the beau & I arrived. There was no meat to be found, but plenty of trashy trinkets, so we hopped back in the car and made our way back to Melbourne for our Valentine's Day celebrations. The day was teetering on the edge of disaster from a very early hour: the beau had been up frequently throughout the night, tending to work issues, and thus was pretty tired; I was in my usual fatigued state, coupled with some off-schedule PMT to deal with; it was a two-hour drive back home, and as soon as we arrived we were heading to the first part of our V-Day (or as it felt, Zzzz-Day) plans - to see the live cinema streaming of the play, Nation, performed at London's National Theatre.

After the show, it was off home, and the beau was banned from the kitchen whilst I whipped up some secret picnic fodder:


Ham, feta & red capsicum frittata, roast chicken, and fresh garden salad for the beau.


I served myself a frittata sans capsicum, a bit of chicken, and a generous chunk of double brie for the fat content.

The frittata muffins were made much like my Mini Frittata recipe details, but lazier as I was pressed for time:

Simple Savory Frittata - Single Serve Sized

1. Heat the oven and grease the muffin tray holes with butter.

2. Dice 400g ham (free-range and unadulterated), 180g smooth feta cheese, and one large red capsicum. Combine in a large bowl.

3. Spoon diced mixture into muffin tray holes - don't pack tightly. Fill holes evenly, and the mix should be no higher than level with the top edge of the tray.

4. Crack 7 or 8 eggs into a cup and beat until yolks are combined with whites. Pour egg mixture evenly over dived mix in tray, filling to around the 3/4 level.

5. Bake in moderately hot oven until risen and firm to the touch. Turn off oven and allow to cool with oven door ajar before removing - this will ensure the bottom of the frittata cooks properly and may make them easier to remove from tray. If they stick, loosen gently around the edges with a knife.

Delicious served hot or cold. They keep well in the fridge if you need to make them a day or so in advance.

These treats were served to the beau at Moonlight Cinema's V-Day Screening of 'New York, I Love You'. Unlike the beloved 'Paris, Je T'aime', this one wasn't terribly romantic, and a bit slow, so there was time to notice the lack of padding between us and the ground of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, but at least no one can see you shifting around and sprawling on top of piles of blankets under the cover of darkness... Plus, on V-Day, no one would really care what other couples got up to on their picnic blankets...

As a special V-Day surprise, I experimented with making choc-raspberry muffins based on the chocolate sponge recipe of eggs and cocoa. Success, although how I failed to photograph it, I'll never know! But here's a photo that is fairly similar to what my experiment ended up looking like, although my mixture was much darker and denser - I didn't bother separating the eggs, but the mud-cake result was just as satisfying, if not more so!



Here's what I did:

Choc-Raspberry Muffins

1. Heat oven to moderate and grease a mega-muffin tray hole with butter or coconut oil.

2. Combine 40g unsweetened cocoa, 3 pastured eggs, and around one teaspoonful of sweetener (stevia & xylitol here, for the beau) in a bowl, preferably using an electric beater.

3. Spoon mixture into muffin pan until hole is half-full.

4. Add a layer of fresh or frozen (not defrosted) berries on top of the cocoa mixture, and top with more cocoa mixture until berries are covered.

5. Bake until risen and firm in the centre. Turn off oven and allow to cool with oven door ajar before removing - this will ensure the bottom of the muffin cooks properly and may make it easier to remove from tray. If it sticks, loosen gently around the edges with a knife.

Serve warm or cool with cream (or cream cheese, as that was all I had left in the fridge).

Monday

I was meant to step-up the drug dose last night, which is why I organised to take today off work. Yeah, forgot to boost the dose. Oops. So now I either do it tonight and risk crashing through my 11 hour day tomorrow, or put it off... I wanted to also call my GP to talk about my reaction to the drug, but I couldn't get through. Oh well. I'm feeling good though - upping the fats, and restricting myself to animal products again. Also, my protein powder has arrived, so I will have that to help control my urge to feast as well as hopefully help me to shed the gain. I'll be more-or-less following the Six-Week Cure Shake Weeks program, sticking to meat and eggs for dinner. The powder is making its journey to me via the beau, so today I went for the carnivor-friendly foods that were already in my fridge:

Breakfast/Lunch (eating window from 11:30am til 4:30pm) - roast chicken leftover from the picnic yesterday...

... and haloumi fried in copious amounts of coconut oil and macadamia nut oil. The haloumi was just the messenger, really. I bought the macadamia nut oil to make mayo with, but haven't tried yet, so I figured I'd try cooking with it - yum! I could possibly eat it alone too; something I can't stomach with coconut oil, no matter how I try...



I also had a leftover ham & feta frittata, and my eating for the day was all done by 4:30pm (satiety- & calorie-wise). I metaphorically locked myself out of my kitchen, sticking to tea and water for the rest of the evening. I kept myself busy with a bit of a bodyweight exercise, and then half an hour of sweeping the back patio and pulling out chunks of grass squeezing their way through the paving stones. Hard work, and quite a bit of sweat, so I'll be grateful for my hot running water tomorrow morning!

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