Tag Archives: paleo

Wednesday Food Fest:: Paleo Style

Posted on by Renée
1

Hey All

I know I haven’t written for a while and that’s a combination of too little time and not knowing where to start.

I have some stuff on my mind, I want to share it, I REALLY do, but I have to also be careful what I say here on the blog in case it could affect my every day “normal” life. Nothing to worry about, just stuff I am worrying about that is making me angsty!

Anyway I missed a couple of food fests because I also haven’t had time to cook. That’s what you get for having goals people! It’s OR I cook and go to the gym less or I go to the gym twice a week and run twice a week and do all that other food prep stuff as well. However, tonight, I decided to skip the gym to cook for my husband. Normally I get a buckload of recipes from WebMD in my email but nothing was inspiring me. I didn’t even know what I wanted to eat so I just googled “paleo burgers”.

O. M. G. you guys. Seriously.

I found this recipe at the Civilized Caveman and then tweaked it a bit.

Honey Mustard Burgers with Sweet Potato Apple Hash

Here’s the Civilized Caveman’s recipe
Servings: 6
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 15 Minutes
Tools you may Need:
* Mixing Bowls
* Vegetable Peeler
* Kitchen Knives
* Saute Pan

Ingredients(Burgers):
* 2 Lbs Ground Beef (I used 80/20)
* 1/2 Cup Organic Honey
* 1/2 Cup Dijon Mustard
* 1 Tsp Sea Salt
* 1 Tsp Pepper

Process:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine your ground beef, honey, dijon mustard, sea salt, and pepper
2. Using your hands, mix the meat well to ensure an even coating
3. Once mixed, make 6 patties about 1/2 inch thick and set on a plate
4. They are now ready to grill
5. Grill over medium high heat about 7-10 minutes on the first side and 5 minutes on the second side until done to your liking
6. Serve over a bed of Sweet Potato Apple Hash below

Ingredients(Hash):
* 2 Cups peeled and diced sweet potato
* 1/2 Red Onion diced
* 1 Granny smith apple peeled and diced
* 1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Process:
1. Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat
2. Melt a cooking oil of your choice, I used coconut oil
3. Add your apples and onions and saute until the onions start to carmelize and turn brown
4. Next add your sweet potatoes and saute for 2-3 minutes
5. Now take some water, and pour in the skillet mixing well and ensuring nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan
6. Cover the entire pan and let the water steam your potatoes
7. I diced my potatoes really small so all it took was one session of steaming all of the water off and they were done
8. If after all your water has evaporated your potatoes still aren’t done, just add more water and repeat
9. Once done to your liking, turn off the heat and add the cinnamon and mix well, then plate
10. Enjoy

and here’s what I did –
I took 400g of mince (lean, bio) and added 1/4 cup of bio honey and dijon mustard, a bit of salt and a bit of pepper. Mixed that up and left it to the side for a bit.
In the meanwhile I also cut up some broccoli and put it in the steam basket so we’d have a green veggie to go with our meal.

The potato hash was so easy. Take a giant (well, to me) sweet potato (this one was a bit over 2 cups, I measured on the scale and it was 230 grams), a half a red onion (had one leftover from lunch) and a granny smith apple and peeled and chopped that up. The sweet potato was in one bowl and the apple and onion in the other. Then I thought, “this is missing something” so I added a teaspoon of New Mexico Hot Red Chili and some of the McCormick’s Garlic Powder that I got from Fitbloggin. I heated up one tablespoon of coconut oil and started to saute the onion and apple.

After a couple of minutes I added the sweet potato in the pan. Then I had another thought “Damn. Bacon would be so good in this” so I added the rest of the lean bacon bits that we had in the fridge (75g) and let that cook with the potato for a bit. At this point I had formed up four burgers and put them in a big pan that I sprayed with some olive oil just in case.

I added just a tiny bit of water to the sweet potato hash and put a lid on that puppy to let it steam cook it’s way to softness. I flipped the burgers, took the broccoli off the fire and put some cheese on the burgers. I stirred up the sweet potato hash and put the lid over the burgers to make sure they cooked through. I totally forgot about the cinnamon. Just as well.

Hubs got a burger on a sesame bagel with some rucola greens, some hash and broccoli. I got a loaded plate of everything but the bread.

The burgers were absolutely delicious! I never could have imagined putting honey in my meat to make a burger but it was amazing. The kick from the Dijon was also nice, subtle but still had some “oomph” to it. The hash was amazing. I will totally make that again. I think the bacon and the chili powder really sealed the deal. The best part? It took maybe 30 minutes to prep and cook this entire meal. My kind of recipe!!

We did end up eating two burgers and splitting everything else in half (well, I took a bit of broccoli to put in my lunch for tomorrow).

Check out the Civilized Caveman for more delicious paleo recipes! And if you try this one (one or the other or both) please let me know what you think!

What do you do with your burgers? How do you normally eat your sweet potatoes?

Wednesday Food Fest: Paleo Hummous

Posted on by Renée
4

I’ll be honest with you guys – one thing I really thought I would miss when I started eating in a more “paleo” way was hummous. I love most beans anyway, and I haven’t been 100% bean free since I started this in February – growing up in New Mexico for example we had a lot of pintos and black beans for sure. For some time I was vegetarian (from 20 – 29 years old) and I ate beans, including chick peas, like they were going out of style! I love hummous and falafel and could never imagine my life without them. Kind of like how most people feel about bread or pasta.

I told my former trainer I would give it a try and that I have done. I’ve not made any pintos, no anasazis, no meals or salads with chick peas or kidneys, no refried beans on my burritos (GF wrap of course), but… I have had black beans in very small portions, generally when the hubs makes his famous über-delicious chili con carne. When I was back home just a few months ago I also had a bit of pintos (and, not beans, but I also had gluten-full sopaipillas because, hey, no chance of getting those here).

I came upon this recipe from Mellissa Sevigny at I Breathe I’m Hungryand while it’s a bit heavy on the tahini, I love it. Basically it goes like this:

4 cups peeled & chopped raw zucchini
3/4 cups tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)
1 Tbl ground cumin

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until thick and smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.

So yeah. Piece of cake.

What I did: I only peeled “half” of the courgette (zucchini) – so like in stripes. I liked the added flecks of green in the hummous. I used all the tahini she mentions (or that the person who she got the recipe from mentioned) but I would do only 1/2 a cup rather than 3/4. Unless you *really* like that sesame taste.

Sadly I can not eat this stuff fast enough, because I worked out that it’s about 150 cals per 50g serving. It’s still in my fridge and I can probably get one more day out of it, but after that it’s going to have to go. Hubs isn’t a real hummous eater, so he’s not really dipped into it either.

I ate mine on GF toast, some GF pumpkin seed crackers and of course, with little carrots!

a little snack for on the train ride home

close up! see the little green flecks from the courgette peel?

If you love hummous and are trying to avoid windy beans, this could really be something for you!

Do you have an alternative to one of your favourite foods ever? Something that you thought you could never live without?

Phew! I made it!

Posted on by Renée
4

It was a ROUGH week, at least from a work perspective.

It’s busy, people are still on vacation, it’s end of the month, it’s almost end of the year… there’s just a LOT going on.

I wanted more than anything to run twice and go to the gym once this week and I DID IT. So happy about this. I could tell you that it wasn’t exactly how I would have wanted or expected it to be, but actually I’m even starting to “not care” if it’s brilliant run or not, you know what I mean? It’s more like, “Did you plan it?” Yes. “Did you do it?” Yes. Good, that’s what matters.

So Tuesday as you know we ran in Sonsbeek Park. My new thing is to warm up with stairs:
steile tuin

This area of the park is called Steile Tuin which literally means “Steep Garden”. We did not run up all of these stairs, just counted up to twenty and then back down again, over and over until 10 minutes had passed.

The few times we have been at Sonsbeek we just do a walking warm up which unfortunately lands us on an uphill climb once the 5ish minutes have passed that we determined for the warm up. I don’t know about you, but I find directly running uphill to start kind of hard…

Hubs had a pain in his leg (he struggles a lot with pain various parts of his body and this weekend we got him new shoes so we are hoping that may at least make his problems less) and it was just too much after 3KM. So he stopped and I went an additional 3KM.

On Wednesday I went to the gym! YES, I WENT TO THE GYM! I haven’t been since the end of June. Seriously. I skipped July of course because I was away, but wow has it been challenging to get there in August! First I was sick and then I was just exhausted and busy at work and my head wasn’t in the right place. But I went and it felt good! Of course I am still feeling my legs and butt from those squats I did… I guess that means that it’s working right?

I also did planks (2 to be exact) at the gym – I remember my trainer “cheering” me on, that I could make 45 seconds, one minute, etc. I felt like I couldn’t but I did. So now I did them just with his voice in my head and it worked. I know these are really good for your core so I want to do them daily. Well, at least one.

On Thursday I planned with a colleague to go for a run after work. So that’s the thing – make an appointment with someone, you are not likely to cancel (making an appointment with yourself is much easier to cancel, though I don’t see why it should be!). So, 16:15 rolled around, we got changed and headed out.

This wasn’t the greatest run of my life but it didn’t matter- I’d had a REALLY stressful day and just going outside really, really helped. The temperature was PERFECT, we were in the woods, we got a little lost – hahaha! – but I had a bit of a cramp in my side (not a stitch, no idea what it was) so I had to keep stopping to just walk for a bit. We are going to run next week together too. I don’t have a lot of running partners, and I don’t mind so much to run alone, but it’s nice to have this with someone who understands mentally the need to get out and let go.

Highlight of the Week:

NOT paleo, mind you…

Hahaha! I can’t tell you how much I needed that after the week I had! We had a couple of beers at our favourite Greek restaurant and for the first time in my life took some of my dinner home because I just couldn’t finish and I didn’t want to explode by eating it all. It’s kind of tough to find places in NL that will give you a doggy bag, but Rhodos does so guess what I had for breakfast Saturday morning? Yeah, Paleo-style baby!!

Yesterday we also did some health and fitness shopping; Hubs got a new pair of running shoes (asics – after analysis and trying several different pairs), I bought a new/better pair of bike shorts (a sort of two in one so I don’t look so much like a twat – yes I said that!), some biking gloves (lost the other pair) and now I’m pretty much ready to go to Cornwall for the Cycletta Event at the Festival of Sport. I also bought some ingredients to make my own Larabars; if I’m lucky/make the time I should still be able to do that today and let you guys know how it goes.

Oh and rest assured, I finally got a new running sports bra. No more twin floppies and old lady boobs photos shall be taken of me until the NEXT time I need a new sports bra!

How was your week? Were you able to do the things you planned for yourself? Did you learn anything about yourself?

Wednesday Food Fest

Posted on by Renée
2

As I’m trying to bring more life to the blog I thought I would try to have at least one regular post per week. I have a pretty busy life and I know I’m not alone; we are all trying our best to eat well and be healthy AND come up with new ideas for meals at the same time. I keep finding recipes I want to try (and don’t ) and while my food is pretty much the same week after week I do try to change things up from time to time.

I really love leftovers since I changed up my diet a few months ago. I also love taking a bit of “gravy” or even fat and juice from the previous evening meal and then use it on something else. For example, Monday night the hubs made roasted chicken and potatoes for dinner and it was absolutely divine. There was quite a bit of gravy left over so I took three frozen chicken breasts (at 100g each) and basically marinated them in the juice all night. The chicken I buy in a box of 5 as I find it extremely handy to have and it’s the exact portion I want.

Tuesday morning I took the chicken and put it in the roasting pan, chopped up two half bell peppers and some sweet potato, added some sea salt and 1tbsp of olive oil and threw it in the oven. While that was busy I then steamed some broccoli and prepped the rest of my food for the day (including what I make for hubs daily). Here is the result:

I can’t tell you just how satisfying it is to have a meal like this at lunch time. I have very long days and on a day like Tuesday – I went running directly after I arrived at my home station – this meal gets me pretty much through the entire afternoon. Now I also have two other pieces of chicken to use this week, maybe in a salad or for breakfast. Whatever floats the boat at the time :)

What are your favorite meals for during your work week?
Do you plan ahead?
Use leftovers to create a new meal?
Do you get up early each morning or cook huge batches of food in the weekend?

Well, Well, imagine that!

Posted on by Renée
10

You know that saying that goes around all the billions of weight loss boards, communities, groups and what not?

Well, it’s pretty true. I’ve been doing different stuff over the past couple of years but still pretty much the same. You know, maybe less of this and more of that, or different combinations of foods, more protein, less carbs, no carbs before 11am, only carbs before running, etc. One thing I didn’t do very successfully was cut down on pasta and rice in particular.

Until a couple of months ago of course… now that I’m getting used to NOT eating grains, it’s actually OK. I even went to ITALY and DID NOT EAT THIS:

But instead I went to the supermarket and for example I ATE THIS:

I mean, seriously, I never would have imagined I would go to Italy and NOT have pizza (I was tempted whilst we were out, but I had a salad instead) or pasta (and thankfully my relay team-mate Hanna who lives in Milan invited us for dinner on Saturday and her boyfriend made me a special meal of steak and salad while the rest of the gang carb-loaded). Actually, if you ARE A meat eater, Italy is a great place to be, plus the vegetables are wonderfully ripened by the sun, the olives are divine, the cheese amazing. You don’t even NEED pasta or pizza, there are plenty of other choices.

I have to say too, I feel good. I feel strong. I feel kind of lean. It sounds strange to say it maybe but when I’m running lately my core feels really strong – I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that before.

Anyway, the whole point of this is that I am actually losing weight:

and down 900gr according to the scale at the gym this evening, from the last time I weighed in.

So yeah. About time I did something different!!

How to make a simple dinner look and taste amazing

Posted on by Renée
Reply

Sometimes I get a little sick of how limited I feel at the moment with food. So what I know how to cook I’ve been trying hard to make not only look nice but taste delicious as well.

Saturday night I made salmon. That’s a really great fish with loads of good oils in case you hadn’t yet read the memo. With it I had sugar snap peas (OMG – I thought these were off the list but in Melissa Joulwan’s Well Fed book, they are listed as yes foods), broccoli, sesame seeds and sun dried tomatoes. I made some rice for the Hubs (needed a break from cauliflower) but stayed away from the fluffy white stuff myself.

I use sun dried tomatoes that are NOT in oil already; I basically take them, add a bit of white wine vinegar, 1 TBSP olive oil and boiling water and let them swell up for a bit.

I “marinated” the salmon in lemon juice, garlic and 1 TBSP sesame oil – for two pieces of fish (1 was 140gr and 1 170gr), fresh rosemary and sesame seeds, salt and pepper to taste.

I steamed my vegetables but put a bit of lemon juice and sea salt on top – this made the colour stay incredibly green!

The end result was really amazing! Just a simple meal that really looked and tasted amazing. No one can say that eating healthy is boring!

Hmmm. This May Be Working.

Posted on by Renée
8

After more than 2 long years of nothing happening in the weight loss department, it seems I have had some success for more than a few weeks in a row. I haven’t noted all results here on the blog, but I have been tracking on My Fitness Pal:

Interesting enough is that I started this “silly” Paleo thing in February and my first weigh-in (on home scale) was on the 23rd of Feb (the few weigh-ins prior to that were after I’d started at the new gym). As you know, in the beginning I was struggling to find my way, struggling with the concept of not eating grains – rice, bread, pasta – but after several attempts, and several chats with my PT there is a clear path of moving downwards. Check this out:

Translation:

lengte – height
gewicht – weight
BMI
BMR
Vet% – Fat Percentage
Vet Mass – Fat Mass
Vetvrije Massa – Fat Free Mass
Lichaamsvocht – Body Moisture
Ieasle Waarden – Ideal Values

I think all the numbers look quite interesting, especially the vat percentage change and the amount of kilos (fat mass). Then if you look at the Ideal Values, I’m actually close as far as Fat Mass goes, with being “normal”.

This is more convincing to me than just losing weight – of course we all know how much i would love to be under 80KG and dareIsayit I do think it may just be possible, but I’m most interested in being fit and reaching other goals than just the one on the scale. I want to be LEAN and FIT so not necessarily fitting into the “perfect weight” box with the actual amount of kilos in total.

For you food porn lovers, a few things I’ve eaten recently:

Chicken sausage. Goat’s cheese, mushrooms, red onion tomato, courgette
image

Turkey, bimi, light feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, bit of olive oil

Little omelet the hubs made for me

Cottage Cheese with cherry tomatoes, celery, spring onion, teaspoon olive oil

Cottage cheese with courgette, cherry tomatoes, avocado

Leftover meat (spaghetti) sauce with steamed broccoli and fresh parmagiana cheese

My famous tuna salad with romaine lettuce (I have this often, changing the veg or “salad” type, but always use a small tin or Rio Mare Italian tuna in oil)

A little snack: chicken, chorizo, celery sticks and mustard

I found this recipe and then changed it a wee bit by using Salmon instead of tuna and sun dried tomatoes instead of mango chutney. My vegetables used were string beans and broccoli with 2 teaspoons sesame seeds. So really I just used the recipe for an idea and it turned out really well yummy

And finally – recently I participated in Ali’s photo contest for Running With Spatulas – here’s me, well, “running” with spatulas (I didn’t win, boo, but I still love you Ali!!)

As far as exercise goes, finally a good workout yesterday at the gym but OMG do the kettlebells KILL!! Last week I ran once and cycled 35ish KM. Trying to just stay active but not overtain. Milan is not this weekend but next (!!!!), week after that I have a 10 K, one in May, 2 in June, and one in September! I’m excited to have a few races lined up!!

Why I’m Still At It

Posted on by Renée
12

In February I signed up with a personal trainer. To be honest I am not sure that I am a better person for it. But fine, I signed the contract, I’m in for 3 – 4 months.

Part of the deal is that I give a specific diet a try even though I said several times I did not want to diet because I was sick of it being such a focus in my life when nothing ever changed. And, only three days in I was pretty much Bitchy McBitcherson and convinced I would not give it any further time or energy. I spoke to my PT about it, he helped me figure out how to work it into my life and schedule and so I carried on.

It’s something like 6 weeks later and nothing has really changed that much. At least not on the scale. Well, wait, that’s not the truth because I have seen 81.5 KG recently, which is a whopping 700 grams less than when I started the diet :) So, just weight wise, I’m not super convinced. I have NOT been 100% and I’m just putting that out there because I am fully aware that I can not blame the diet, the trainer, the candy jar, or anyone or thing else for ANYTHING except for myself.

As we have had a fairly rough start (he’s been ill and cancelled many appointments) I also don’t see a huge change in my body shape or fitness level. On Monday I went to my appointment and basically said “I want to get fit. I want to work out. I don’t want to diet.” However, I promised I would give it another 30 days with the weekdays being full on and shooting for under 1500 calories and the weekends being a bit more free and having bread if I want it (and I don’t eat much bread but Hubs makes it fresh and damn if that is not hard to pass up!), for example.

I did notice that after 3 weeks of no pasta, one night I decided I was just going to have it, I totally felt a difference in my digestion! My stomach was working VERY hard to process it! This was even whole wheat pasta, you know the stuff that is supposed to be good for you! Now I’m not going to tell anyone to throw out their pasta and rice but honestly, had I not gone without it, I wouldn’t have known. I also had rice a couple of times and noticed a slight tinge, but not as bad. As for dairy, I still have a wee bit, but again I never really had much milk for example, and was limited on cheese. I tried coconut milk on my cereal (well muesli – and on this plan I have TWO carb meals a day and FOUR protein/veg/fat meals) and I LOVED it! So, score on replacing some dairy. Goat’s cheese is fine, cottage cheese is fine, kwark and greek yoghurt is fine too (as a protein though, so NO fruit or sugars with it, I’ll pass thanks). Yoghurt is fine but it’s a carb, so I have it with fruit (preferably berries, totally skipping my banana for the time being).

The change we’ve now made is to have only ONE carb meal a day and replace the other with or a little protein or just munching on veggies. That’s fine, I am prepping a load of veggies on the weekend and then just taking little baggies with me. I’m eating so many vegetables, it’s kind of insane. Like at least a kilo. I feel LESS hungry than before I was eating this way.

I am getting a little bit bored with what I have so I’ve actually bought a cook book called Well Fed and I’ve been listening to Robb Wolf‘s Podcasts of the Paleo Solution. I like the science behind the solution, but I do not think I could fully avoid grains, dairy, legumes and potatoes the rest of my life. I do think I could sustain quite a lot of the plan, simply because I feel pretty good at the moment.

I also feel good because Operation Get Enough Sleep is actually working out quite well and that has a lot to do with the supplements that my PT recommended – namely Magnesium Citrate and Melatonin. I am also going to be picking up some Vitamin D soon (even with sun you can be deficient) and I take Valerian from time to time when I feel my stress levels rising. So actually food, plus exercise, plus sleep, plus less stress actually is not a bad deal. It really shouldn’t be able the scale, even though I am still officially overweight. I’m going to say it again, I don’t want it to be my focus, it doesn’t create a good feeling for me.

More food on the paleo front:
Chicken jalfreezi with sauteed courgette

image
Chicken sausage with mushrooms and spinach
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And look I’m still running, in fact hubs started running with me again!
image

Oh happy day!

Posted on by Renée
3

What a month it’s been! In my quest to find balance one thing that’s fallen by the wayside is the trusty blog. It wasn’t my intention to not update but one has to have priorities, right?

As you know I have been seeing a personal trainer and been on a different duet than “normal” and honestly it’s going all right but sometimes I wish I had never made the decision to do so. I can do the diet and have adapted mostly to it but I don’t find it sustainable or practical for the rest of my life.  Suddenly I am the difficult one at home and in social situations and I’m just not a fan of that.

I have lost a bit of weight but am still not celebrating yet. Call me cautious but it honestly could be the exercise and not the food. Don’t worry though if for some reason I break through the  80kg mark you’ll be the first to know :-)

My PT has also cancelled on me several times, all for good reason I guess but I haven’t got that rhythm with him that I would have expected by now.

Anyway we shall see how the next 2 months work out!

I got a new phone and can now blog from the phone! So for your viewing pleasure,  here’s what a bit of paleo looks like:

Breakfast, after having tea and a hard boiled egg at the house; cottage cheese, cherry tomatoes, celery and a bit of olive oil

image

Lunch; spinach tomatoes onions courgette and shrimps

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Spinach mushrooms leeks chicken and goat’s cheese

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Snack of cucumber and red and yellow peppers

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So nothing hugely different than before just no grains.

I’m going to talk a bit more about paleo and what I’m learning in the next post. It’s pretty interesting stuff!