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.