Hi honey, I'm home!

Wow, 4 and a half months since my last post...my bad! As most of you know, a lot's been going on for me over that time. Firstly, we made a baby! Super exciting, but it totally wiped me out for about 3 months there. Come August, Bear & I were off on our rather belated honeymoon to the UK & Europe for a few weeks, and then I was treated to a week in hospital upon our return.

And now here we are, past the middle of September, and I'm 5 months through the pregnancy - crazy times! But now that my energy has returned, I don't want to vomit at the smell of red meat being cooked, and I'm staying away from hospitals (touch wood), I'm planning on getting back to blogging.

When I came out of hospital a couple of weeks ago, I was essentially on a fluid diet...which meant a lot of soup & smoothies! Thankfully I'm back to solids now, but I did make a pretty darn good chicken & leek soup, which helped keep me on track with my nutrition over that time.

Chicken & Leek soup

1 whole free-range chicken
2 onions, cut into halves
4 large cloves of garlic
3 small kumara
3 leeks
Vegetable water (from boiling vegetables) (optional)
3 tbsp butter (or other form of fat if you want it strictly paleo)
2 tsp Colemans mustard powder
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper to taste

Place the chicken in a large stock pot. Add onion and whole garlic cloves. Season with salt & pepper. Fill pot with water until chicken is almost covered. Boil for 60-90 minutes, until chicken is almost falling apart. Leave to cool for about half an hour.

Remove chicken from the pot, setting aside the liquid. With a knife and fork (I found this the easiest way), take all the meat off the bones and return the meat to the pot of liquid. Add in chopped kumara and leeks, then top up with vegetable water or tap water. Season, stir, then bring the mixture to boil. 

Simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Allow to cool slightly, then add 2 tbsp of butter and the mustard powder. Blend with a stick blender until smooth. Stir in the remaining butter, lemon juice, and salt & pepper if needed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I'm not American & I don't celebrate Thanksgiving...although I do think it's a pretty cool idea. But I do like the flavours of pumpkin pie - that mix of sweet (but not too sweet), savoury, and warm spices - so I made up a primal one a little while ago. I never got around to posting it though, so now seems as good a time as any! Unfortunately, I wrote down the ingredients but forgot to note down what I actually did with them, so I'll just have to do my best to remember...

Primal Pumpkin Pie

For the base
2C almond meal
1/2C dessicated coconut
25 dates
1 Tbsp almond butter
A dash of cold water

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until it forms a sticky dough. If it's too crumbly, add a little more water and mix again until you reach the right consistency.

Press dough into a greased flan tin (with removable base). Refrigerate until filling is ready.

For the filling

3C pumpkin, cooked & mashed
1C coconut cream
2 eggs
1 banana, mashed
1 ½ tsp mixed spice
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground vanilla
2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp chia seeds

Beat all ingredients except the chia seeds together (I used a cake mixer for this), then stir in the chia seeds.

Chill for a while! (I would suggest at least an hour, so that the chia seeds absorb some of the moisture. Longer is better).

Once the filling has begun to thicken, pour into the base and cook at 180 degrees celcius. I think this took about 20-30 minutes, but you want the base to be golden and the filling to be set.

If you're feeling particularly naughty, this tastes great with cream whipped with maple syrup!

It also works well as little tartlets (using a muffin tin instead of a flan tin).

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

Cupcakes

1 C coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground vanilla
6 eggs
¾ C coconut milk
2 tbsp coconut oil
100g 85% dark chocolate
1 tbsp raw honey

Combine dry ingredients, then whisk in eggs and coconut milk.

In a separate saucepan, over a low heat, melt together coconut oil, chocolate & honey. Stir frequently.

Whisk chocolate mixture into rest of ingredients.

Spoon into cupcake patties placed in a muffin tray (each should be about ¾ full). Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes, or until cupcake bounces back when lightly pressed.

Cool on a wire rack.

  

If you’re feeling particularly decadent (I was, obviously!), ice (using frosting recipe below) then top with toasted dessicated coconut. 

Chocolate butter cream frosting

100g butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp honey 

2 tbsp cocoa
Approx 3 ½ tbsp coconut milk

Whisk butter and honey together until butter begins to pale. Add in 1 tbsp cocoa & 1 tbsp coconut milk, then whisk again. Add in the other tbsp of cocoa & 2 tbsp of coconut milk. Whisk. If necessary, add extra coconut milk until it reaches a ‘frosting’ consistency (creamy but not runny).

Primal smorgasbord

So I've got a few recipes and ideas up my sleeves, but they haven't yet made it out my sleeve and into the computer, so I thought I'd share a few of my favourite primal blogs for you to check out in the meantime. Super exciting to see lots of primal cookbooks on their way too!

The Clothes Make the Girl
The Food Lovers' Primal Palate
Tastes for Everyday Life
Everyday Paleo
Nom Nom Paleo
Life as a Plate
Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations

Enjoy :)

Little pots of goodness!

These don't need words to go with them - they're awesome just as they are!

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados

3 small ripe bananas (or 2 normal size ones)

2 tbsp pure cocoa

2 tbsp honey

2 tsp chia seeds

1/2C very strong espresso (I used 4-5 heaped scoops in a plunger)

100g 85% dark chocolate (I kept aside a square to shave onto the top of the pots)

Blend all ingredients except chocolate in a food processor.

Melt chocolate over low heat (stirring constantly). Add to other ingredients and blend until fully combined.

Add extra cocoa and/or honey if necessary, to suit your tastes.

Spoon into fancy looking pots (I used glasses, but now, thanks to some wonderful friends of ours, I have the perfect little ramekins for next time!) and refrigerate.

To serve, top with toasted chopped almonds & chocolate shavings. You could also put a spoonful of whipped cream on top.

To train or not to train

A few months ago, I started a new job, working for a big organisation. It's great - I get challenged, I get good colleagues, I get free alcohol, and I get paid. But I also get everybody's bugs. And I get stress.

In the past few months, I've had more minor colds than I had in the previous year. And I've probably cried from sheer exhaustion more times too.

It's hard to juggle training, work, health, and relationships. I'm learning that I only have so much intensity to give...so I'm also having to learn to make choices about what I give it to.

What do you do on those days when you can feel yourself coming down with something, or you're so tired that your eyes actually hurt? To train, or not to train?

Sometimes, sweating it all out in a bad-ass WOD is the best thing for me. But sometimes it's not. I'm still trying to figure out how to recognise which option is the best course of action. And I'm still trying to figure out how to fight the guilt if I choose the latter.

Cooking good food might just be the answer. I certainly think Bear hopes it is!

Roast duck breasts with blueberry balsamic sauce

2 duck breasts
Duck fat
Cloves

Scour the skin/fat layer of the duck breasts (almost to the flesh). Insert 5-6 cloves (per breast) into the cuts.

Melt duck fat in a roasting dish (enough to almost cover the breasts). Add breasts and roast for approximately 1 hour at 150 degrees C.

Remove duck from oven and drain fat. Spoon some of the blueberry balsamic sauce (recipe below) over the duck breasts and return to a hot oven (200-220 degrees C) until crispy.

For the sauce
1C chicken stock (use a good, gluten-free liquid stock)
1/2C white wine
1/4C balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey (I think...I can't read my writing...it might say 1 dsp!)
1 tsp ground cloves (I used a mortar & pestle to ground whole cloves)
A touch of cinnamon
1C blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Combine all ingredients except blueberries in a saucepan & bring to the boil, stirring often. Add blueberries and bring back to the boil. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly. Season to taste.

To serve
Serve each duck breast on cauliflower mash, topped with additional sauce.

On the side, I served brussel sprouts - halved, placed on a baking tray, topped with coconut oil and salt, and baked until just starting to brown (about 15 minutes at 200 degrees C).

The fruity flavour of the berries and the warmth of the cloves matched particularly well with a good montepulciano!

A love affair with food

Historically, my relationship with food has closely resembled a love affair - passion, excitement, indulgence...and the ensuing guilt. At times, food, or more specifically the emotions associated with food, has consumed me (and there I was thinking it was supposed to be the other way around?!).

But I'm on a mission to change that.

I've started by choosing a more appropriate, more reliable love interest (thank you, primal diet). I'm working on my commitment - trying to stay faithful to this new love; trying to reduce incidences of infidelity. And I'm investing quality time in the relationship. Bear & I have started doing an early CrossFit session on a Saturday, so that we can then spend the morning wandering around a farmers' market, finding fresh, organic, quality food for the week; and exploring the wonders (and meat specials!) of Nosh or Farros. With good ingredients on hand, I get even more pleasure from creating healthy, tasty, nourishing food. And I find myself spending more time cooking for enjoyment, rather than just because we need it.

Slowly, but surely, my relationship with food is improving. The passion and excitement are still there (and every now and then, so is the indulgence!), but the guilt is starting to fade into the background. At least, until those reckless moments of infidelity!

Next step is to reduce the frequency of those unsatisfying moments of weakness. And maybe replace them with something like this...

Avocado & lime sorbet (or Avocado, lime & pistachio tarts!)

Sorbet
4 ripe avocados
Juice and zest of 2-3 limes
1/2 tsp crushed chili (chili powder would probably be better, but I didn't have any!)
~2 tsp ground vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp honey
1/2C pistachio kernels, chopped

Put all ingredients except the pistachios into a food processor and blend until combined. Stir in the pistachios (or you could add them into the food processor & just blend briefly).

Put mixture into the freezer for about 30 minutes. Remove and blend again. Repeat a couple more times, to get a creamier sorbet. (An icecream maker would probably be an awesome addition to my kitchen toys!)

This was really yummy, but I decided it might also be good as a pie filling. So I defrosted some of the sorbet and made it into...

Avocado, lime, & pistachio tarts

For the filling:
About 1/3 of the sorbet mixture (defrosted, if you froze it first)
3 eggs
~1/3 C coconut cream

Beat eggs and coconut cream together. Gently fold sorbet mixture into the egg/coconut cream mix.

For the base:
200g pistachio kernels
10 dates
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp macadamia butter (or other nut butter)
Cold water

Put all ingredients except for the water into a food processor & combine. Remove mixture and place in a bowl. Mix in a small amount of cold water, so that it becomes a sticky-ish 'dough'. Refrigerate if you have time.

To make the tarts, take spoonfuls of the 'dough' and press into a muffin tin to create the bases (I put enough in so that the base went about halfway up the side). Spoon filling into each, then bake at 180 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, or until filling is set.

Cool for a few minutes in the tin, then remove onto a wire rack to cool.

If I'd had extra limes, I would have served this topped with lime zest. As it was, I just served them with a delicious 2007 Shingle Peak Late Harvest Riesling instead! ;-)

These also work well as mini tarts...

Following your dreams

Dreams. I'm not talking the weird stories that run through our heads when we're asleep. I'm talking the plans, the hopes, the aspirations we have for our future; and for our now.

Dreams can be exciting and inspiring. But they can also be downright scary. Sometimes following our dreams means getting out of our comfort zone and taking a risk. Sometimes following our dreams means making decisions that others don't understand, and will possibly never understand.

I have dreams for my future; and right now, continuing with my PhD is standing in the way of those dreams. So I'm taking a break from it. It might be a permanent one. A lot of people don't understand this, and they're not shy in telling me so. But I know, in my heart of hearts, that this is what I need to do. It's scary, no doubt about it. But it's also really exciting. I can't wait to discover my future.

Dreams aren't much use if they forever remain dreams. What would have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr. had said "I have a dream...but I'm too scared to make it a reality"? Probably not much.

So live the life you were meant for. Make your dreams reality.


Speaking of dreams, I was dreaming of nachos the other week; so much so, that I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. But I had a dilemma: nachos, with their pile of crispy corn chip goodness, aren't exactly primal. So I followed my dreams and made them primal!

Primal chicken nachos

For the chicken

1 whole chicken (or you could use chicken breasts/thighs)
1 onion, chopped

400g chopped tinned tomatoes
1/4C tabasco sauce
4tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 red capsicum
Salt

Roast the chicken, then take all the meat off the carcass (which you can later boil up for chicken stock) and place in a saucepan with the remaining ingredients.

Bring to the boil and then simmer for ages (until the chicken is all stringy-like!).

Alternatively, you could probably just cut up uncooked chicken pieces, put all ingredients into the crock-pot/slow-cooker, and separate the chicken with fork once cooked.

For the chips

Kumara

Coconut oil

Salt

Slice kumara thinly using a mandolin.

Heat a few tablespoons of coconut oil in a wok or deep frying pan.

Drop a handful of kumara slices into the oil, making sure they are separated, and fry until golden.

Remove chips from the pan, place on a cooling rack covered with paper towel, and sprinkle with salt.

Guacamole

1 ripe avocado

Approx. 1/2 red onion, finely diced

1 or 2 tomatoes (depending on size), diced

Juice of 1 lemon

Fresh coriander, chopped

Salt

Pepper

Mash avocado well. Add all other ingredients and combine well.

Putting it all together

Place the kumara chips around the edge of a plate, then spoon some chicken mixture into the middle (try to avoid the chips as much as possible, or they'll go soggy). Top the chicken mixture with grated cheese.

Place each plate under the grill until cheese is melted.

Served topped with guacamole, sour cream, and a bit of fresh coriander.

Happily ever after

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...well actually, not far away at all, but that sounds better...there was a young (let me indulge myself here) woman who totally sucked at power cleans. She knew she sucked at power cleans - they just felt so wrong, so awkward, so...sucky! And because she knew she sucked at power cleans, she worked hard on her technique, she rehearsed it over and over again in her mind, she thought about every single part of the movement...in fact, she over-thought every single part of the movement...and yet she still sucked. And it didn't matter how many people told her she could do them, that the bar was going well high enough, that she really was capable of lifting heavier...she still sucked.

But then, one day, this young woman realised that she was sick of sucking at power cleans. She decided she didn't want to suck at them anymore. Instead, she decided that she was actually awesome at power cleans. Not going to be awesome, you understand; actually was awesome.

And lo and behold, she was.

She went into a workout that day and nailed 45 x 35kg power cleans.

Then, less than a week later, she knocked 2 minutes off her previous 'Grace' (30 clean and jerks) time.

And now she knows she's awesome at power cleans. And so she lived happily ever after.


So it just goes to show how much of what we do, in workouts and in life, comes down to mindset. Often, the outcome is already determined by our approach. We can choose to suck, or we can choose to be awesome - it's up to us.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we can always choose what happens to us in life, but I do think we can choose how we respond. And we can always choose how we approach each day, each workout, each challenge.

We can choose to be processed-carbohydrate-laden, sugar-laden chocolate shell pudding (WTF?!?)...

...or we can choose to be primal-crumbly-goodness...

What will you choose today?


Apple, blueberry & dark chocolate crumble

2 cups almond meal
50g butter, softened & chopped

Ground mixed spice

Ground cinnamon
100g 85% dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup pecans, chopped (hazelnuts would also be tasty)


Apples
Blueberries (frozen or fresh)
Ground mixed spice, cloves, and cinnamon


For the topping
Place the almond meal, spices, and chopped butter in a mixing bowl.

Using your fingers, rub the butter into the almond meal, until it looks a little like biscuit crumbs.

Stir in chopped chocolate and pecans.

For the crumble
Stew apples with some ground mixed spice, cloves, and cinnamon.

 Here's a little something I prepared earlier...

Place apples and blueberries in a baking dish.

Spread the topping evenly over the fruit mixture.

Bake at 180 degrees, until topping is golden and fruit is heated through (approximately 20-30 minutes).

Leave to stand for at least 10-15 minutes before serving (preferably with lots of cream!), although I would recommend baking in advance and serving cool.

Tastes even better the next day, cold and swimming in cream, after smashing 30 clean and jerks! Just like my 'Grace' performance, it improved with time...

Excuses, excuses

I'm good at pushing myself, good at challenging myself, good at exercising self-control. But recently, I've discovered I'm also really good at excuses.

I've had a lot going on lately - I've been sick; I've been making some major life decisions; I've been stressed about money; I've been worrying about family, friends, and strangers down in Christchurch; and I haven't been getting enough sleep. That hasn't left me with a whole lot in reserve to fight those moments of dietary weakness. And so I haven't.

Instead, I've justified the choices I've made. I've told myself that it's ok because I normally eat so well, that it's ok because it's a special occasion, that it's ok because I'm celebrating, that it's ok because I'm tired, or stressed, or down...the list goes on. And so I've eaten a dessert here, some chocolate there; an icecream with a friend, a piece of birthday cake with Mum. And I've felt justified in doing so. For a few minutes.

But then I just become more tired, more sick, and in more of a low mood...and I feel like I've let myself down.

Of all the excuses I come up with, my favourite one seems to be "I deserve this". Deserve what? To be more sick and more tired than I already was? I might have convinced myself I was being kind to myself, but I wasn't. Not at all. So now I'm going to start.

It's time for the excuses to stop.

I've been meaning to put this recipe up for a while, but I've been too busy, too tired, too...you get the idea....

Roast Pumpkin and Bacon Soup

1 butternut pumpkin, chopped and roasted
1 whole garlic, roasted
2 onions, roasted
Olive oil
350g bacon
Butter (measure if Zoning)
3 carrots
2 red chilis, chopped
A few lumps of fresh ginger
Salt & pepper
Thai basil leaves

Roast the pumpkin, garlic, and onions in olive oil and a bit of salt.

Chop the bacon into small pieces. Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then add the bacon, and the roasted onion and garlic (peeled).

Add chopped carrots, roast pumpkin, chilis and ginger. Top up with enough water to cook everything in (probably so the level's about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up all the vegetables, but you might need to add more as you go). Season with salt and pepper. Cook until all the vegetables are soft, then add some fresh thai basil (or you could probably use standard basil) and cook for a little longer.

Blend with a stick blender (you might need to add more water).

Serve with a spoonful of sour cream & some chopped fresh thai basil sprinkled on top.

According to Bear, this is the best thing I've ever cooked for him. Not bad for something that was thrown together to use up some pumpkin we had in the fridge!