4-10th Nov

The past few days have pretty much been me chowing on the leftovers from the flat party last Friday. I ate Thai Green Curry until it poured out my ears. Even I, the great curry paste advocate, need a rest. So, here is the other half of what I ate over this week

Saturday: leftover thai green curry and dried meat. Grapes. None of it photoworthy.

Sunday: I had double of this, but just wanted to eat more slowly. The sausages were Cumberland, from the Ginger Pig. Courgettes are some of my favourite vegetables at the moment, I don't know why. Also, leftover cheesecake, generally because I had nothing in the fridge and WAS HUNGRY.

Monday was more leftover Thai Green curry, so no pics. I shall mention again - I will not be eating curry for a while. I basically took it to work in a container, heated it in a microwave, and refuelled, accompanied by a chai latte. Costa. Wayyyy too sweet, so I must remember to ask for no sugar. I'm so used to not having any that I forget it's automatically included in some dishes.

Wednesday: I wanted to use up my veg before it went bad - we'd purchased it in a batch for the flat party, and I somehow ended up with the ingredients. It was late evening; I hadn't eaten the whole day, so I was ready to go flat out - 8 eggs, a courgette, okra - it all went in there. Plus some full fat Greek yoghurt (Total - does that website say it comes in 5kg? For trade? Trade you my stomach, that's what) on the side, and dried meat. I tried to make it a frittata, but by the end I was too hungry. Therefore: scramble.

I had intended to leave some to take to work the next day, but no. I ate it all.

Wednesday: 2 sausages, Ginger pic bacon, and aubergine slices. The aubergine looks uncannily like zucchini, probably because I cooked it the exact same way. The bacon was a little too salty - Ginger Pig tends towards oversalting, I find. I remedied this the next day by mixing it up - see below. 

Thursday: had a friend over, and we watched Parade's End. He's not a very exploratory eater, so I stuck to basics (which I do anyway). I solved the salty bacon problem by frying it up with some mushrooms in small parts, so the dish basically seasoned itself. My two remaining eggs became a onion and spinach scramble. A small portion is below... I forgot to take photos until the very end, so that's probably 1/5 of what I ate - we had two sausages apiece, too.

Friday: tried out some new sausages from Tescos; there was an introductory offer on Chef and Farmer pork sausages, for £2 per pack, the same as the usual Debbie and Andrews brand I buy. They're 90% pork, where the latter brand have a higher pork percentage, but everyone needs a change once in a while. The ingredients list says: British Pork (90%), Water, Polenta, Salt, Parsley, Dried Herbs, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite), Nutmeg, Black Pepper, White Pepper. Filled into natural pork casings. I must have eaten about 15 sausages this week; too much?

with courgette.

Today (10th), Saturday: I was so hungry that I woke up at 4am, craving food. I could feel my hipbones. At one time I would have enjoyed that feeling of emptiness and approved of it, but I'm much more balanced now. So I went back to sleep, and woke near 7am. I couldn't take it anymore, sprang out of bed, and cooked up 600g of lambs liver.

Rare; the only way liver should be cooked.

This liver is unusual; I ordered and got a special delivery from Feldon Farms. In fact, I got £24 worth of meat: mutton sausages (500g), beef mince (500g), a rump steak (405g), some stewing steak (555g), 3 packs of lamb's liver (600~g each), and 2 packs of ox liver (700g~ each). What a steal! I normally have ox liver, and I can now say that lamb is a bit more delicate. I underseasoned it a bit, but it was wonderful. I also ate some minced pork, veg, beef, rice and salted fish today. And three scones, because me mum made 'em!

Tomorrow is the BBC Good Food show, so I'll be off there. No paleo if I see something good enough, though I will try to stick to it! I have a bit of a stomach ache at the moment, probably from the scones.

Exercise:

I've been getting back into a good routine, either kickboxing or breakdancing everyday. It's tiring; I'm now working as a temp from 9-5 on days when I don't have academic classes, and working around the classes that I do have. I'm also still a waitstaff member at my local pub. I'm thinking of letting it go, because I've also procured an offer at my local Costa coffee outlet, and coffee is something I'm pretty interested in. I need to learn to drink it, really - I can manage a latte and love 'em, but only since this summer, and I can't appreciate straight Americanos. But I do want to learn how to make them. The hours are better, too - I don't get paid past the official closing hours in the pub, although we spend a good 30 minutes past that cleaning up. I don't mind that much, but it adds up and it's normally the next day by the time I get back to my accommodation. The reason I was so hungry this morning was that my Friday looked like this: cook food. Collect food from Feldon Farms. Temping work from 10.30am-4.30pm. Breakdance from 5-6.30. Work from 7-11.30pm at pub. Collapse into bed.

Tonight, I am definitely gonna get my ZzZzZzs.

Paleo out

Laulet

31st Oct -3rd Nov

The week has really whizzed by! I've been really busy - not with exercise, but academic and part-time work. My foot's almost nearly recovered now; there's just a faint, aching click when I rotate my right foot. It's right in the middle of my foot; between my largest toe and the ankle, right on top of the bone that connects the two. Although I haven't been able to run, breakdance, swim, lift or kickbox, I've still been doing the simple V-sit ups, leg rotations and pushups everyday, so at least I get that in. My job at the local pub keeps me on the run all night too, and although I'm not lifting heavy, I certainly am lifting small weights constantly!

I mentioned in my last post that I'd been invited to a friend's for tea. We started watching Parade's End - I'm a sucker for well-executed, literary-based period drama, and had Shepherd's Pie. It was a little dry, and the broccoli under-salted, but it tasted like friendship. Win.

My appetite remained fairly unsated, even so. I popped into the local butchers and bought 500g of lambs' liver, took it home, and pan fried 2/3 of it in coconut oil.

1st Nov: The next day, was a little too much meat - even for me. Gave me a bit of a stomach ache to eat 500g of mince, plus liver. I needed more fat in there, I think.

2nd Nov: My flat had a party, so we all contributed food. Mine was the thai green curry in the middle - chicken with okra and aubergine. Two of the aforementioned flatmates are Thai, and it passed muster with them, so I was pretty pleased. I hadn't eaten the whole day, so I was starved! By the time we'd finished cooking, it was near nine pm, and we didn't finish 'til well past twelve. Sign of good company, that.

Anyway, the rest of the food, as you can see below: oven roasted salmon (crispy skin, yum), Coke chicken (very sweet, not my favourite but a very interesting Chinese dish), prawns with caramelised onions, the same again with more vegetables above it, and pasta, too. Rice on the side for those who wanted it. I declined. We had mulled cider and various other drinks. I think I had half a cup of cider.

I hadn't eaten the entire day, so I was ravenous by the time we started cooking, but oddly enough, once finished, didn't feel that hungry after all! I went past the point of hunger, if that makes sense. I got full rather quickly - I just ate from the curry, the meats, seafood and veg - no carbs, but within two bowlfuls, was stuffed.

We had desserts too, the type one buys from Tesco, unfortunately. We had grapes, a Tesco Finest Ultimate New York Cheesecake, and Creme Brulee. The link doesn't lead to the same creme brulee that we had, but it's roughly equivalent. It actually wasn't bad for storebought - not as incredibly sweet as I thought it would be. I cheated a bit by avoiding the biscuit base of the cheesecake, and eating mostly grapes.

3rd: To redeem myself the next day, I ate leftovers, really. There's no space in my fridge for anything more, so voila! Another bowl of Thai Green Curry. 

Exercise: none that's worth recording - walking around every day is natural and not focused exercise. I'm trying not to get too het up about it - I don't want to stress myself into thinking "oh-I-must-exercise-or-I-shall-get-fat-and-flabby". I need a break to heal; if I exercise on top of injury, I'll make it worse and be out for longer. If I keep eating healthily, I'll be fine.

25-30th

Erm, here goes:

25th: ended the night with raisins and Greek yoghurt. Pretty snazzy. I basically bought a pack of Crazy Jack Organic Raisins and mixed it with Tescos Greek yoghurt.

The next day, on the 26th, I travelled down to London. The best food at the Borough Market is as follows:

Cajun King Prawn Wrap. I ate most of the fish, avoided majority of the wrap, although to be honest I wasn't all that fussed. The wrap is a mix of various seafood; it's really fresh. They source their fish from Billingsgate.

Raclette - this is cheese, potatoes, and gherkins. The cheese was amazing.

Potted game.

Duck confit

This is kind of a "must have" as well.

Gluten free red velvet cupcake, beetroom brownie and caramel chocolate truffle cake. Wasn't keen on the red velvet - the icing was too sweet and the cake itself dry. Bean liked it, though, so I left it to him. The other two cakes were pretty good. I can't take too much sweet stuff anymore but I gotta say that they were moist and really chocolatey in a nice way. Not sickening, but definitely very filling.

Then at dinner, we went to a restaurant that served Nepalese cuisine - Yak and Yeti. It's a small chain; if you book through toptable you can get 40% off food, as long as each diner orders starters and dessert. It's pretty worth it - for three people, the price was about 36 pounds, and we had a three course meal, basically.

Tandoori lamb - really unusual, and it wasn't dry at all

Crab cake

The mains - aubergine curry, lentil dahl, and a chicken madras that was way too sweet.

Kulfi and Gulab jamin for dessert. Paleo out the window. I told myself I was carb loading for the next day.

Pre-marathon food -

Finished the marathon in 2:22:31. Not too shabby for a first timer. My knee gave in about 8 miles in, so I limp-jogged a third. I reckon I could get down to nearer 2 hours if I hadn't felt my knee grinding, as I felt fine stamina-wise; it was the pain that did me in - or rather the desire not to give myself pain. I've been limping around ever since. No other exercise because I'm trying to recover.

Need to get back to being stricter with paleo now; it's been 4 days of indulgence and I'm dining with a friend tomorrow who has kindly offered shepherd's pie and cake. Oops.

Paleo Out

Laulet

24-25th Oct

I've been systematically getting rid of what's in my fridge, and fighting off a cold. This, ironically, involves not doing any real fighting, but rather a lot of sleeping.

So, my meals for the past three days:

Wednesday:

6 sausages, and two eggs, cooked in the leftover sausage fat. Minimal pan use at its best. Also, chives. 

Thursday:

Roasted duck legs - I've realised that I got a pretty good deal on them in Tesco. I had three packs of Gressingham duck legs, and it was on a special offer - £10. So, I roasted 6 (ate one pack over the last weekend with Bean), and ate 5. If you want to be really exact, each duck leg is about £1.11 - so my meal cost less than six quid. Plus I've got a whole load of duck fat out of it, and my only seasoning was a lot of salt. Genius!

Finally, this morning, Friday:

This is literally everything I have left. Leftover duck poking out the top, then 2 shallots, some garlic, half a can of coconut milk, and two eggs. I used the duck fat saved from the previous day to cook it all up. It was a lot more filling than I anticipated!

Exercise:

Swam unknown lengths this morning. I've been winding down - the half-marathon, remember? Plus, I don't want to be ill. Lysine as per usual.

I've noticed; I have biceps. Whoa.

Cheers,

Laulet.

23rd Oct

I guess I'm a weekday paleo, weekend indulger. Let's see - that's about 70%, if I give myself the full weekend. Fortunately, even then, I don't go all out - it doesn't appeal to me that much to be honest. So the 80/20 rule? More or less.

Monday 22.10 meal:

Sausages, and roast broccoli. I placed the sausages on top of the broccoli so that the fat would drip down and soak into the veg, which sort of worked. I think next time I'll give it a bit of butter, too, as the broccoli was still a little dry.

23.10 - Tuesday

Two salmon fillets, two scrambled eggs with a shallot and garlic, plus the usual curry paste. In order to get the skin crispy, you've got to make sure your pan is as hot as possible before putting the salmon in. I always listen out for the sizzle of skin-on-hot-metal; that's when you know it's the right temperature. I only flip the salmon once the cooked colour has climbed halfway up the fillet - i.e. when it's turned from dark to light pink halfway. Before that, if you move the fillet around, it'll mess with the skin. Just use the time to chop the garlic and shallots. Once the fillets are done, toss the rest in, add the eggs, and bob's your uncle.

I take my salmon pretty rare - see that gorgeous pink?

What I do, to save me from instant temptations - shop when full. Don't buy snacks, but things that must be cooked or prepped in some way. As you can see, my weekly shop was a bit costly (the Bean required some things for the dishes he whipped up), so it was basically 62 pounds. However, a lot of that is things that I will use for a while - the oils, for example, and gluten-free soy sauce. Proper mustard. I try to buy Tesco's Finest and organic produce, even though it costs a little extra, I feel it's worth it. Most of this went during the weekend, as Bean and I cooked for a friend, and he was here for two days on top of that - we ate everything double quick, basically.

What I have left, after today's meal, is four eggs, two packs of duck legs (they come in threes now. I'm not complaining - more duck for me, but why? Are mutated ducks waddling around on three legs now? That's a scary thought!), a few shallots and garlic, and the oils. Two fillets of salmon, too. And one more pack of sausages. How to spread that out over the week? Well, I'm going home this weekend, and I am definitely stopping by Borough Market to get some fresh fish from Applebee's, and some meats (Ginger Pig collar bacon, YES, and Exquisite Deli cured meats). I'm also working this Friday, down at the local pub. Unfortunately I found out that we don't get free food; just a staff discount. They've also changed the menu, and I'm not that keen on it. I'm on the lookout for a better job, but it'll do in the meantime - I just won't be eating there!

Wednesday: roast duck legs

Thursday: 6 sausages (i.e. the entire pack, yes indeed)

Friday: the remaining salmon

I'm wondering whether I should keep it to zero-carb (thus kick myself as quickly as possible back into ketosis), or get myself some veg to go on the side. It's not strictly necessary, but I do feel better with some greens in my belly. 

Exercise: lifted yesterday; managed to squat about 50kg, and push-press 25kg. Slow but steady improvement. I also did a bit of breakdance training, though I'm got a stuffy nose, so I'm not overdoing anything.

I'll be doing Chinese Kickboxing tonight.

One thing I've noticed is that I don't feel the cold much this year - yet. I don't know whether this is because I've increased the amount of exercise I do, and every time I go outside I'm cooling down, or whether it's a dietary consequence, or a reaction to cold showers. I've been experimenting with taking cool showers, and I find them tolerable in short bursts. I can't take cold showers as of yet, but I'll get there. The timing isn't great, what with winter approaching, so I'm matching cold showers with cold weather, but maybe it'll help my tolerance more. I've never dealt with the cold well before; I'm usually the one in four layers and two pairs of gloves, who always needs to pee when it's cold. I'll keep the experiment going.

Cheers,

Laulet

19th Oct

Lyonnaise salad, a la Raymond Blanc. No tarragon or chervil in this though; our ingredients were as follows:

-2 baby gem lettuce 

-butter

-pancetta lardons

-chives

-3 pre-cooked beetroots

-quail eggs

Salad dressing:

-white wine vinegar

-mustard

-extra virgin rapeseed oil

-1 shallot

-one clove garlic

Recipe:

1) Heat 2 pans; filling one with water for the eggs, and the other to cook the lardons.

2) Whilst waiting for them to heat, wash and chop the lettuce, beetroot, garlic, and shallots

3) We did the eggs two ways - poached, and soft-boiled. The latter is much easier, as they require a short time in simmering water, but poaching is a little more complex. It's actually a little difficult with quail's eggs, as the ablumen (the egg white) is so miniscule that it doesn't really cover the egg yolk.

a) Soft-boiled: Once water simmers, drop the quails' eggs in for two minutes, and fish 'em out after.

b) Poached. Add vinegar to the simmering water (this helps the whites to coagulate), and stir gently in one direction. Crack the eggs into separate bowls, and, lowering each bowl as close to the surface as possible, drop the egg into the water, still stirring. Once the white has wrapped itself around the egg yolk, lift it out and place into a bowl of cold water, to prevent it from cooking further (you want the yolk to stay runny). This can be done with all sorts of eggs, of course.

4) Pan-fry the pancetta lardons in butter.

5) Put the garlic, shallots, about a tablespoon of mustard, a dash of vinegar, and whisk vigorously. Add the rapeseed oil in a slow trickle, still whisking. If you don't have a whisk, use two forks, and add a determined fury to your whisking. This is your salad dressing.

6) Remove lardons from your frying pan, and replace with the beetroot slices.

7) Put together - lettuce plus cooked eggs, pancetta and beetroot. Sprinkle some chives on top, and enjoy!

-

For dinner, we had a friend over and ate the food that Bean had purchased from Goldmine, a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Bayswater. Duck, Chinese crispy roast pork and bbq roast pork. How amazing does this look? Chinese crispy roast pork is just about the best kind of pork there is, and it's near impossible to reproduce at home - normal ovens don't get the heat required, and it needs to be hung afterwards, to keep it dry.

Beans made a mushroom and pak choi side to go with it. There was rice, too, which I declined. Delicious with or without.

Indulgence occured after dinner - banana fritters. Delish. The batter is made with white flour, egg, golden syrup and cold water. The bananas are dipped into it, then dropped into sizzling oil, as below.

If you're going to indulge, do it well - Haagen Dazs vanilla? Sure.

Crispy fried fritters.

The finished product - no paleo resistance from me. They were the bomb. 

Exercise: 90 mins of breakdance class, and random pushups throughout the day. Not that much, but not shabby either. I think I may be falling ill, so may dial it down over the next few days.

Paleo out

Laulet

18th Oct

I found this photo on my phone a while back. I've never really been a ketchup person (chips? Salt and vinegar, all the way), but I did like the sentiment behind it.

So on the 18th, I ate a proper mountain of stuff. These weiners were given to me by a friend who went on holiday to Munich, and bought these back as a present. Not the sort of thing I'd usually eat - in fact, I don't think I've ever had sausages from a tin before (unless unknowingly at some cheap restaurant or hotel). I struggled to drag up my rusty old language skills. Don't cook, say the instructions. Boil them in the brine, adding an equal amount of water.

I wasn't too sure about boiling sausages, but I did it anyway - here we go. I don't have a proper lid, as you can see; the lid belongs to a stock pot - one of two pans that I own. The circulon pan is a huge 28cm, as is the other pot. Minimal but easy to make multiple meals in.

I thought it would be a good idea to empty my fridge before Bean arrived, and sliced up both my remaining courgettes. They made a mini mountain. I actually had to pause to wonder if I could eat it all!

One of the sausages split whilst being boiled. It was a rather odd kind of sausage cocoon. It's hard to imagine any sort of butterfly emerging from that, though. A blobby flying pig, maybe.

The final result? As follows:

Five eggs, a dab of green curry paste, two courgettes and two sausages. It was incredibly filling. I actually had to stop in the middle, and rest for half an hour. It probably weighed at least half a kilo. Note to self - maybe one courgette is enough. I think it was slightly psychosomatic - it really looked like a lot, so I got fuller quicker. In fact, there was a recent question on paleohacks regarding hard-boiled vs scrambled eggs, which got me thinking.

I've been feeling tired lately; I suspect it's a combination of some pretty intense cardiovascular exercise almost daily and a horrible sleep pattern. I'm an early sleeper and riser (10-11pm/7am) type of person but ever since the fire alarm went off in my accommodation at 5am the other morning, I've been sleeping really lightly, and haven't felt very rested.

Exercise: two hours of kickboxing. I'm determined to grade and spar, but it's a pretty expensive endeavour to get all the gear. Well; better start adding more hours to my shift!

Lysine as usual, 3000mg per day.

Next time I'll give recipes - Bean is a much more competent cook than I, and whipped up some wonderful dishes during his visit. Not everything was paleo, but it was well worth it.

I've gained a fair bit of muscle tone over the past month. Although I haven't been running at all, I'm hoping that the constant exercise (more or less 6x a week, usually 90-120 mins) is a fair enough substitute.