Saturday, October 27, 2012

Asparagus and Sweet potato soup

Ingredients:

  • Asparagus chopped (keep the spear tops seperate)
  • Sweet Potato peeled and chopped
  • Onion (half) chopped

Method:

  • Chop the onions and add to saucepan with oil cook until soft
  • Chop asparagus save the spear tops add rest to pan
  • Allow to soften a bit
  • Add chopped sweet potato
  • Cover with vegetable stock
  • Bring to the boil with spears sat above in metal sieve so they steam
  • Once the sweet potato is soft blend the soup
  • Serve into bowls add the steamed spears

Breakfast: Bacon, Kiwis and Satsumas


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Bacon, Peaches and Kiwis

Ingredients:

  • Bacon
  • Peaches sliced
  • Kiwi sliced

Method:

  • Fry the bacon
  • Add the peaches allow to soften in the bacon fat
  • Add the Kiwi slices about 1 minute before serving
Delicious!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Chorizo Mushrooms and Cherry Tomatoes on a bed of Leeks

Ingredients:

  • Leek chopped
  • Cherry tomatoes halved
  • Mushrooms sliced
  • Half Chorizo ring sliced

Method:

  • Soften the leaks in a frying pan with oil or butter
  • In a saucepan add the Mushrooms, Chorizo slices and Cherry Tomatoes
  • Allow to soften then put the lid on the tomatoes will provide the juice
  • Serve!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Salmon with Leeks, Peas and Courgette Ribbons

Ingredients:

  • Salmon fillet
  • Leek chopped
  • Peas
  • Courgette sliced into ribbons
  • Lemon slice
  • Butter

Method:

  • Cook salmon in tinfoil parcel with a little butter
  • Melt butter in frying pan
  • Add leeks allow to soften
  • Add courgette ribbons
  • Pour boiling water over your peas leave for 3 minutes
  • Serve with a slice of lemon!

Yesterday's Vegetables Omelet with Gammon and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

  • Yesterday's vegetables (I cooked too much for my evening meal)
  • Mushrooms sliced
  • Gammon slice torn
  • 2 eggs
  • Splash of water
  • Seasoning (Salt and pepper)

Method:

  • Add the vegetables, mushrooms and gammon to a frying pan, fry in oil of choice
  • Beat 2 eggs and add a little splash of water 
  • Wait until the mushrooms are soft
  • Pour over Eggs
  • Sprinkle with salt and pepper
  • Allow it to lightly brown on the underside
  • Fold over and leave in the pan for maybe a minute longer (no need to flip the heat will cook the top when folded over)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Papaya with lime

Ingredients:

  • Papaya (big as you can get)
  • Lime

Method:

  • Slice Papaya
  • Slice Lime
  • Crush Lime over Papaya 
  • Eat!

Spinach based Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

  • Onion chopped
  • Garlic crushed
  • Red Pepper (1/2) chopped
  • Courgette chopped
  • Carrot chopped
  • Chicken stock (home made)

Method:

  • Soften the onions and garlic until the onions start to go translucent
  • Add chopped courgette and carrot
  • Add chopped red pepper
  • Toss in the Spinach and allow to wilt
  • Add stock
  • Bring to the boil then simmer until carrots are softened
  • Blend
  • Add seasoning (salt and pepper) to taste
Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Day in the life of a paleo lifestyle

After 8 hours sleep (2 disturbances... child and dog!) I went for a brisk walk about 2 miles.

Then I had breakfast which was some very good quality sausages from my local butcher grilled and served with chopped plums (picked locally).


Unfortunately my job is sedentary so I was then sat for 4 hours (a small amount of standing). At lunch time I managed another brisk walk but less than a mile (I usually try to walk about 3 or 4 miles).

Lunch was Tuna and chopped red pepper mixed with mayonnaise (olive oil based... which for me is good oil) served over a plate of fresh spinach and some chopped tomato's.

 
Then another 4 hours of sitting for work.

And then my treat of the week (I try to do something special at least once a week). Roasted duck breast with a swede and sweet potato mash, green beans, parsnip roasted with Parmigiano-Reggiano and some roasted red onion.

Raw ingredients

Cooked, eaten, enjoyed!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

White crab with a Spinach Salad

Recipe:

  • White crab meat
  • 1/2 red chilli
  • Lime (1/2 juice) and zest
  • Salt and pepper
  • Spinach

Method:

  • Lay the spinach out on your plate
  • Mix the rest in a bowl
  • Lay over the spinach
  • When eating I made parcels with the spinach leaves

Just moved down a jean size!

Less than 3 weeks and I have lost enough weight to move down a jean size!


Friday, October 12, 2012

Recipe: Chicken ratatouille

So far this is the best thing I have cooked that is Paleo...

  • Chicken thighs
  • Mushrooms chopped
  • Pepper Red/Yellow sliced
  • Tomato chopped
  • Courgette sliced
  • Onion chopped
  • Garlic clove crushed
  • Glass of wine (I used home made)
  • Tin tomatoes

Method:

  • heat some oil (your choice) in a frying pan
  • brown your chicken thighs on all sides (about 10 mintues)
  • add the mushrooms, peppers, garlic, courgette
  • Allow to soften
  • Add the chopped tomato



  • Wait until everything is softening
  • Then add to a perspex dish (very paleo lol) and cover with tin tomatoes (chopped) and salt and pepper (by next year I hope to be using just fresh tomatoes but its autmn and I dont have the resources right now!)
  • Season for me this means sprinkle with salt and pepper possibly add any herbs you want (I didn't this time)
  • Add to a pre heated oven 230C wait 30 minutes
  • Serve..
  • Scoff! but save half the sauce for tomorrows lunch!

Breakfast Mango's and Bacon

In the main I am trying to eat whole foods with little fuss... was a nice taste combination!


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Salad for Lunch



  • Spinach
  • Tomato
  • Carrot
  • Snap Peas
I don't know if it is psychological but everything tastes better, I can taste food like never before.

Breakfast

Just Pineapple!

Also today I walked to the shop to get the weekly vegetables, about 3 miles but 1 and half of it carrying 2 heavy bags of vegetables.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Paleo so far..

How I feel

Admittedly it is only the beginning of my 3rd week but I thought I would note down what I have been doing and how I feel so far.

The truth is I feel really good I really do have new levels of energy and it is strange not feeling sluggish after eating a meal.

Foods removed


  • Bread was no big loss to me as I went off of it a long time ago.
  • Potato's seemed hard at first but once I discovered swede wedges and how I can use sweet potato's in my cooking then that is no longer an issue.
  • Pasta I think will remain very hard for me... Italian food has been a big part of my adult diet and of course that included pasta. In fact looking back over the last 2 weeks I have hardly had any Italian based food.
  • Rice I am going to miss wild rice it was also a big part of my weekly diet.
  • Milk in my teens I loved the stuff but as an adult I have always found it a horrible drink and it definitely  aggravated my asthma

The change to my diet

In a way being paleo is a bit like being vegetarian but you can eat meat (a life without meat would not be worth living for me...). I can honestly say I have never eaten so many vegetables and such a variety of vegetables in any given day.

Some of the paleo people I have interacted with on social networks have made attempts to replace rice and pasta using all kinds of combinations but I have decided I am not going to do that, if its not pasta its not pasta.

Breakfast

This seems the most limited meal of the day as so far it has been eggs and something (bacon / veg) or fruit and nuts.

Lunch

This has been a really good meal I have made some lovely soups and salads. I have tried to use tuna in this meal as I want the protein for my exercise.

Dinner

I have really enjoyed the challenge of this, it is actually very easy... it has been very exciting coming up with various combinations of foods. As a hobby chef it has been an invigorating experience to try and think of interesting things to do.

Effects and lessons learned

I have not weighed myself this week (my reference scales live at my parents house) but I have lost weight (5 lbs in the first week) and possibly a bit more since. My shape has changed a lot, suddenly all the hard work I do with weights is showing.

Happily friends and family have also noticed and commented so that is really pleasing. I am probably going to be forced to replace my jeans / trousers as my waste line shrinks :)

As I mentioned above my energy levels are really good and I do not feel sluggish after eating. It has had no impact upon my exercise regime either so I am really pleased about that.

When you tell people what you are doing they think you are mad, I prefer to think of it as being more aware of what I am putting into my body.

I will remove sweetcorn (I only had it twice in 2 weeks) I guess in my mind it was a vegetable I just didn't think!

So overall I am eating more vegetables and I have had some really nice meat and fish!

The Future...

I can see that I am going to stick with this, the paleo diet is not a diet it is a lifestyle and I have changed mine. I have been convinced scientifically by the likes of Kurt Harris http://www.archevore.com and Robb Wolf http://robbwolf.com/ This is not a fad it is how I am going to live my life with confidence it is scientifically correct.

I plan to do more of the following:

  • Source the best food I can
  • Try to become more seasonal
  • Gather some of the foods that are freely available growing around us (I already do this with fruits for my wine making (for my purposes cave men ate fermenting fruits and I am not giving up this hobby))
  • Cook with fire (Will be gathering wood) although this will only be at weekends due to time constraints
  • Add a bit more exercise into my regime.

The bottom line

Going paleo has been a great experience and I will be continuing with it. If anyone reads this and you are thinking about doing it then I would recommend you research it properly but definitely do it.




Sweetcorn Chowder (with Wild Carrots)

Recipe


  • Onion chopped
  • Wild carrots chopped
  • Pepper chopped
  • Sweet corn (non paleo lol I didn't think about it... lesson learned!)
  • Vegetable stock (home made its easy!)
  • Pinch of mixed herbs or carriander
Method

  • Chop the onion
  • Soften in the pan using your choice of oil
  • Add the chopped pepper wait until it is soft
  • Add chopped carrots
  • Add sweetcorn
Stir it up before pouring over the stock

  • Add the stock and bring to the boil and then simmer until softened
  • Blend! Eat! Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Today's Food

Breakfast: Bacon and mushroom omelet
Snack: 2 slices of pineapple
Lunch: Cod (I ran out of salad need to adjust my weekly shop so had it on its own lol)
Dinner: Chicken with stir fry vegetables with a Jamaican Jerk seasoning

Jerk Chicken With Stir Fry Vegetables

I cheated I brought the seasoning! Really tasty

Recipe:

  • Chicken breast chopped into chunks and coated in Jerk Seasoning (I left this to marinate for about 8 hours)
  • A stir fry vegetables pack
  • I added extra broccoli and pepper slices
Method:

  • Stir fry the chicken until cooked properly through (you can rip a piece open to check)
  • Set the chicken to one side
  • Stir fry the vegetables for about 3 minutes until just softened (you can go longer but I like to have a bit of crunch)
  • Tip the veg into your bowl
  • Give the chicken one last blast in the pan if it isn't hot enough
  • Serve and enjoy!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Sunday Dinner Roast Pork with Spring Greens, Carrots and Parsnips

The pork was delicious!

Exercise

Just thought I would make a note of my exercise regime.

I am following a style of exercise known as periodization this is where you exercise using low weights high reps for 2 weeks and then heavy weights low reps for 2 weeks. The idea is that you work slow twitch and the fast twitch muscles and therefore you get maximum growth.

I am only working on my upper body because my leg muscles are pretty massive due to the cycling and walking I do.

So this is the routine:

Day 1: Chest and Triceps

Dumbbell Bench Press
Dumbbell Flyes
Dumbbell Pullovers
Tricep Pullovers (I do this laying on my back as standing up hurts my elbows)
Dumbbell Extensions

Day 2: Rest

Day 3: Back and Biceps

Bent over 2 Dumbbell Row with palms in
Bent over single Dumbbell Row
Hammer Curls
Dumbell Curls

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Shoulders and Forearms

Dumbbell Deltoid Raise to the front
Dumbbell Deltoid Raise to the side
Dumbbell Raise (arms by sides raise up so your elbows point out)
Shoulder press
Palms up wrist curl
Palms down wrist curl
Dumbbell supination

Day 6: Rest

And repeat... this gives you a spare day if you need it in a week to miss a day.

Also try to do the pilates plank and scrunch sit ups every day though currently not managing that... must be more disciplined.

Walk at least 3 miles or more a day.

That is all I have time for in my life at the moment.



Saturday, October 6, 2012

BBQ Lamb, Sweet Potatoes, Wild Carrots and Roast Parsnips


  • Lamb BBQ'd (trying to cook over fire at the weekends)
  • Sweet Potato Roasted with Red Onion with orangde juice, honey and chilli flakes
  • Roast parsnips and potatoes (paleo 2.0) just a small portion
  • Wild carrots (Purple, Yellow, Orange)
Meat should be cooked over fire whenever possible!

Yummy!!!

Lunch: Tuna Salad

Shredded carrots, cabbage (various colours)
Tuna, Mayo and Sweetcorn
Cherry Tomatoes


Breakfast

Bacon and Eggs... with big glass of Orange Juice... Paleo is not difficult!

Might eat a pear in a while too.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Recipe: Rainbow Trout with a medley of vegetables steamed in wine


  • Lay sheet of tinfoil over sized into roasting tin
  • Chop 1 leek
  • Chop 1 pepper
  • Throw in handful of cherry toms
  • Chop some mushrooms
  • Add a few chopped prawns
  • Slice 1 lemon add to the mix, juice the 2 end bits over it all
  • Pour over glass of wine (or 2 ;) ) I used my own home made wine
  • Seal over tinfoil so you make a bag with room for everything to steam
Add the vegetables to the tinfoil

Lay the trout on top

After roasting for about 30 minutes

Served... and enjoyed!

Breakfast

I will only post up when I have something different... but this was today's breakfast.


Thursday, October 4, 2012

Recipe: Piri Piri Pork Chop with Swede Wedges and Asparagus


Until this meal I was missing potato's...

Piri Piri Pork:

Tomato skinned (cross cut the bottom... drop in boiling water for a few.. peel)
Red Chilli (piri piri if you can get it) chopped
1/2 tsp honey
Blend! (This is a quick cheat version I will make a proper piri when I have some time and the ingredients!)

Coat Pork chop in sauce... marinate for 24 hours in the fridge.
Roast pork chop for 30 mins at 220C

Swede Wedges


Swede cut into wedges
Place in mixing bowl
Sprinkle with your oil of choice
Sprinkle with Parmesan (Ok this might not be strictly paleo but I am not that strict)
Sprinkle in some chopped herbs (I used rosemary)
Grind black pepper over
Mix around so they are coated

Roast for same time as pork minutes (time dependent on thickness) I put my oven at 220c

Asparagus

Snap the asparagus (it will snap in the right place) to remove woody bit
Put in a dish
Pour over boiling water just enough for them to sit in
Plate on top of dish
Nuke in the microwave for 3 minutes

Now you have a hot plate to serve it on!

Honestly the Swede wedges were amazing!!!


First week success

Today is day 7 for me and I am pleased to say I have lost 5lbs and I feel great. I have found it pretty easy as for me I only had to drop pasta / potatoes / all wheat based stuff, I never really liked bread so no loss there. I have not been this light in a decade!

I am going to try and cook as much using fire as possible just because meat tastes so much better. I only managed once this week but I will go out hunter gathering and get some wood stock.

Trying to remember what i have eaten:


  • steak bbq with a huge salad
  • pork chop roast with veg no potatoes
  • sweet potato, leek and lime soup
  • same soup above with sausages and sweet corn
  • home made beef burgers with king prawns and a selection of veg
  • chilli con carne with red peppers served with broccoli
  • same chilli served with a selection of leaves and cherry tomatoes

Recipe: Sweet potato leek and lime soup

Ingredients:
  • sweet potato x 2
  • leek chopped
  • lime
  • home made vegetable stock  (I make mine from veg scraps and chopped mushrooms)
  • 1/2 tin coconut milk
Technique:

  • soften leeks and chopped garlic by frying 
  • add chopped sweet potato
  • add vegetable stock
  • bring to the boil and then simmer until everything is soft
  • blend until smooth
  • zest the lime and add that to the soup
  • add the coconut milk (stir to mix)
  • crush the lime to get the juice add to the soup
Enjoy!

In the beginning...

In the beginning.... There was I listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and he was speaking to Robb Wolf and although this was the first time I had ever heard of eating like a caveman, I was convinced to investigate further.

And low I did research and much reading was done:

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/
http://everydaypaleo.com/category/food/
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/
http://www.archevore.com/
http://paleohacks.com/
http://www.roarbritain.com/
http://cookingcaveman.tumblr.com/
http://www.paleodietandliving.com/

And so on 28th September 2012 I joined the paleo community.

The paleo diet is not a "diet" it is a lifestyle. After all that reading I am utterly convinced that this is the correct thing to do and will be very successful.

My reasons are many but I guess in the main I am just trying to make an improvement in my lifestyle. I already exercise regularly so why not address my diet too.

This blog will act as my diary of events and become a record of the food I am eating.