Captain Cavewoman (sort of)

Hi folks, so this is my second week of eating paleo (or 'clean', whatever you want to call it). The only grain I have had in almost a fortnight was two tablespoons of rice and some prawn crackers on my 'off day' when we went to a thai restaurant.

On Friday I decided to cook a paleo style dinner for my partner. I made roasted squash, chorizo, asparagus, coley and prawns, followed by mini frangipane bites and coconut ice cream.
The roast fish was amazing, so much flavour, and so cheap! Two huge pieces for £2.50 from my local market, what a bargain. I just chucked it all in the oven and et voila, as Raymond Blanc would say. It was wonderful.

The frangipane bites were the easiest thing ever, I put some ground almonds in a bowl and mixed in a teaspoon of unrefined brown sugar, some vanilla, one egg and some blueberries, then baked. The coconot ice cream was pretty easy too, though I think I may have scrambled it slightly. Again, a pinch of brown sugar, vanilla, eggs and coconut milk made into custard, then put in the freezer and stirred every half hour. I found it FAR too rich, but my partner loved it, so I'll chalk it up as a success.

Saturday I made a sweet potato rosti with Jimmy's free range sausages and poached eggs. The sausages were really good, and I appreciate any that are gluten and crap free. We went out for Thai saturday night, which was delicious, and even though I'd pegged Saturday as my 'eat what you like' day, I didnt really feel the need to consume large amounts of grain or dairy.

Ive eaten a lot better since I started making an effort to eat unprocessed foods. Plenty of nice lean mean, fish, vegetables, nuts, eggs, etc. Ive been making amazing ratatouille style stews and adding chicken or pork, having delicious slads with baked sweet potatoes and fruit with almond butter. I even made some paleo-style muffins (I got the recipe from here... http://www.thepaleomom.com/2011/11/recipe-coconut-macadamia-banana-muffins.html). I switched a couple of things, I swapped the quantities of flour, as I ran our of ground almonds, and used olive oil. I think the coconut flour made it all a bit dry, so I added another egg and loosened it up with almond milk, and threw some ground flaxseed through. They were AMAZING. I did not expect them to be so sweet and delicious, but they were really good. Next time I may add some protein powder for extra power :). All in all, I think I could (and am) get used to this.

I am certainly enjoying myself, and am full of energy :D

Weekend Cleaning (food too!)

So this past week Ive been reading a lot about the Paleolithic diet, and on Friday decided to give it a go. I was going to wait until Monday, but I figured seeing as I did my weekend food shop I may aswell start straight away. My partner was on holiday this weekend, so as well as having time to do all my housework II had lots of time to peruse the market and cook lots of healthy food.

For anyone unsure of what Paleo is there are loads of sources online, but its basically cutting grains, legumes, dairy and all processed food. It may seen quite drastic, but so far its been fine.

On Friday I made chicken salad with hot guacamole and roasted sweet potato (theres a LOT of roasted sweet potato going to be mentioned).

I had omelette for breakfast both Saturday and Sunday, with herby green beans and ham.

I also bought ALL the vegetables, some cocnut flour, ground flaxseed and OH MY GOODNESS Almond butter! Where has it been all my life, its absolutely delicious!

I had a friend over for dinner on Saturday, so I made the Yottam Ottolenghi salmon curry, with sweet potato and curried cauliflower. The cauli was amazing, I just boiled it for a few mins, and then drained most of the water, added curry powder and a teaspoon on creamed coconut and cooked it down. It was so nice, I had the leftovers on a salad the next day.

Last night I went all out and made burgers (lean minced beef, seasoning) with roast sweet potato chips and hot salsa.

Who says healthy eating has to be boring!!

Mondays offering

Lately I have been trying to put a little more effort into my weekday evening meals. Laziness and CBA post-gym tiredness had got me into the habit of eating a LOT of stir fry in the evenings. Not that theres anything wrong with stir fry, ad my go-to meal post gym is often brown rice, fish or meat, and veg in oyster sauce. However, after getting a bit run down I've been trying to add some more interesting veg and variation back into my dinners.

Last night I made grilled salmon, with a baked sweet potato and a sort-of ratatouille.

I fried garlic, aubergine,courgette and mushroom, then added tomatoes, an anchovy and a chilli and cooked until nice and thick. It was delicious. (Minimum) Effort paid off.

Lovely Jub(i)lee

I spent the Jubilee weekend at my partners house, which meant I didnt cook as much as I usually do. My partner made an amazing dinner on Friday night, (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2176636/chicken-and-cashew-curry-with-coconut-lime-noodles) which he served with rice, instead of noodles. It was really tastey, the lime juice added a perfect zing, and the curry itself was really light. Like a lighter satay, and very tasty!

I did get to make a couple of things. I experimented with Rosti's again for brunch. After finally realising how important it is to squeeze the water out of the potato, I feel Ive nailed it! I grated potato, squeezed it out, added black pepper cheddar cheese, spring onion and seasoning. Then I fried them up in a pan, and serve them with diced and fried black pudding and a poached egg. YUM!

I also tried making a baked cheesecake. I havent really done much baked cheesecake before,and was a bit dubious, as in restaurants the ones Ive had always seem slightly curdled. I found a recipe on BBC Good Food  (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3842/baked-raspberry-cheesecake). I left out the flour, as we didnt have any.

Instead of raspberries I added some lime zest and cherries, which I cooked in sugar and water. I also poured some of the cherry compote on the top. It was REALLY nice, and definitely not curdled. I'll be having a go at making more baked cheesecakes now, as this has aleviated my fear :).