Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all have a good day, good luck with any paleo-ish ambitions! ;)

We don't do thanksgiving in Holland, and now that I'm here I'm heading to the grand canyon today- so still no turkey for me.. awwwh. Eat some extra for me!

Contrast

Being in the USA is such an overwhelming experience. So many new impressions and different ways to look at things. So many, many thoughts swirling around my head that when I even think about posting here my brain goes topic-hopping like there's no tomorrow.

One of the things I want to tell y'all about is the farmer's market on pier 1 I've been to last week. It was absolutely amazing, best food I've ever tasted! Such a nice atmosphere too... I fell in love straight away- first time I thought that I wouldn't completely hate living here. 

Second time I thought that was while hiking along the coast... so beautyfull! I wish there were mountains and loads of water in holland. Oh a good temperature wouldn't hurt either. 

Are you wondering why I would hate living here? To tell you the truth, the contrast everywhere is completely messing with my head. 

Within 30 seconds I can see both a

 big ass limousine stopping in front of macy's, the biggest temple to consumerism you've ever seen- and a homeless person begging for some change. 

While I haven't seen as many McDonald's as I thought I would, there are literally millions of places they sell the most horrible junk food. And at the same time there is a 24 hour fitness gym every few blocks.. 

The recycling at the hostel I'm staying at is horrible, yet every grocery store hands out paper bags instead of plastic..

The fruit and vegetables at some places is completely inedible due to lack of taste apart from this weird chemical that seems to be in sooo much food. Brr. And then there's the farmer's market with the most delicious things on earth.

You can get everything here for about 20% you would pay back home; shoes, clothing, electronics, GAS! etc. But 'normal' food can be so insanely expensive it's not even funny..

Oh and everyone's going bankrupt due to high gas prices (riiight) but everyone is also spending insane amounts of money on pure convenience... and... starbucks! 

It's all insane. I think I might go crazy. Oh and you know, I saw a lot of people running with little baby's in buggies. Admirable but completely crazy. And what the fuck is up with people running on treadmills in San Francisco? There's hills people, hills! and parks! and the most beautyfull cliff trails ever... 

Ok, stopping rambling now. Hope you're all having a good day ;)

Foraging in San Francisco

While roaming the streets here in San Fran I spotted a high bush full of the most delicious blackberries I'd ever tasted. It took a bit of climbing and I couldn't get them all- but boy was it enjoyable. It reminded me of earlier this summer when I found out about a blackberry bush just two streets from my place. Nobody, including the birds, knew about that bush- it was absolutely loaded. That day I spend about an hour stuffing my face. 

When people try to lose weight they tend to focus on what they should and shouldn't eat, good food- bad food. Even the paleo side of things claims that as long as you stick to the paleo foods that you're guaranteed to lose weight. But it's just not true. That's why a lot of people who try a low-carb lifestyle feel cheated. It doesn't work for them. And why not? Because even with the most perfect food in the world you can still overeat and you can do obsessive or emotional eating.

When I'd eaten all those berries I felt a bit sick, a little sugar shocked I guess.. Why did I eat all of them? Because I thought maybe they wouldn't be there next time I checked. An anticipated future deprivation is often a reason for us silly humans to eat.

Could this have happened if I were truely a 'cave-woman'? I don't think so. In that case I would probably have had plenty of other women and kids to share them with.

Sharing is a powerful thing when you're aiming to control emotional/obsessive eating. You're far less likely to feed crap to the people you love, and you wouldn't deprive them entirely either. You're a lot more motivated to get up and cook instead of drive-through for people you love. When you share all your food with someone you care for then you're likely to treat yourself the same. Yay.

You can also use sharing when you're in a social setting or on vacation and you want to taste some food you've never had before. No reason to deprive yourself when you can just share a little. I had a bit of blueberry muffin today at starbucks with my best friend. It tasted awful but we sure had a lot of fun :)

I've been pretty stuck with her for the last two weeks and it's doing me a lot of good. She keeps me sane and not so obsessive. Even though I'd progressed a lot with beating my damn OCE (obsessive compulsive eating) her presence is finishing the job.

In short: Share, share and share some more to ehh... beat OCE and lose heaps of weight? ;)

Bigger and better?

Everything is bigger- the streets, the cars, the houses, the bins, the amount of homeless people and of course the food. To celebrate that my plain hadn't crashed I got a chocolate milk on the airport (I really really love hot choco). Before ordering I took a look at the cup sizes... turns out the small was about the size of a dutch large. As you can imagine, I didn't manage to finish it- especially because it was far.. fuller and richer than I'm used too. It was really good.

At first I was pleasantly surprised to find bananas and apples in almost every little food shop. Until I tried one. The apples were unnaturally huge and tasted like water.. bummer! Later on I did find an organic honeycrisp and that was probably the most delicious apple I ever had.

It was really shocking to see the kind of things people eat for breakfast here. In holland it's pretty normal to eat bread, but here it's all things I'd consider a snack or dessert. Our hostel has breakfast included, and usually you can make some good choices from stuff like that in europe- but here it was just waffles. Waffles for breakfast! Seriously. 

Left is my tuna salad breakfast and on the right is my friends waffle.

Yet I didn't see as many fat people as I'd expected. Not as many skinny people either. To be perfectly honest, if it wasn't for the horrible, horrible accent I hear all the freaking time I could imagine myself to be among europeans. 

Ok, a couple more obese people, more asians, a lot more black people and not enough Turkish/Moroccan folk.. but still! 

ps. Oh my god- my roommates just opened a bag of chips and it was only half full! I'd read about how the packages keep getting bigger and yet the amount is less and less but it's still absolutely completely shocking!

Pictures and other things

Hello!

A couple things today, which should really be in different posts but I'm pressed for time and figured I'd just throw it out all at once. So, there will be some recent meal pictures I took, no recipes but just to give anyone interested a little look at some things I eat. Then I'd like to highlight a couple new links in my blogroll, which I've neglected to update for a while and it's long overdue.

But first I wanted to share that I'm going to be visiting the USA! San Francisco, California to be a bit more precise. My flight leaves next tuesday and I'll be there for 3 months. Hopefully I'll be visiting the rest of California and making a little detour to Las Vegas.
There's two reasons I'm wanting to share, the first is that any posting here will be a bit different. I may or may not feel like posting, but if I do, it won't be recipes. Maybe I'll have a thing or two to say about the differences in food-culture.. I heard that our large size sodas are a medium over there for example.
Second reason is because.. well, if anyone wants to say hi, maybe grab a cup of ehh... water, then that would be awesome! I'm really wanting to visit a crossfit(-like) gym, but I'm not traveling alone (with a girl friend), so we'll see. I'll worship anyone willing to give me a tour through one though. (I've never set foot in a gym before, just so you're warned.)

Ok, on to the pics! First, a stirfry much like this recipe. It was ok, not great but definately not bad either. Having a couple of basic recipes allows you to vary endlessly with whatever you have lying around :)

On the right is a simple tuna salad. I eat endless amounts of tuna salad, yet I don't grow bored of it easily because of little twists each time. I do grow bored though, and then I simply stop eating tuna for a couple weeks. Which might actually be good for you, switching the toxins and all that.

Then we have a salad with some.. green leaves, red cabbage, apple and a mustard dressing. I think. It's a very long time ago that mustard dressing showed up for the first time on my blog. I should do a post on all the mustard dressings I've ever made. It might be a very big post..

And a basic zucchini, tomato, beef thing my roommate shared with me. Simple but tasty. It's all in the quality of the ingredients there.

Well, this is turning into the biggest post ever! Next up is some marinated chicken over green leafy stuff. I eat a lot of that green leafy stuff, it makes me feel awesome.

And last, but hopefully not least- a shrimp stir fry ala this recipe, over some more of that green leafy stuff. Also packed some for lunch, (and snack if I remember correctly). And yes, that was breakfast. All minus 1 was breakfast. Guess which?

Please do let me know if you like a picture post like this, then I'll do another before flying off.

Ah yes, the new links on my blogroll. First highlight is the recently made over Free the Animal by Richard Nikoley. Richard not only shows what 2 years and consistency can do for you, he also has many very intelligently written post and a lot of integrity.

Then we have Conditioning Research by Chris. I'm very picky about what I read, since I like to spend as less time online as possible- so while I don't read everything Chris posts, there are some that catch my eye and are always very well written, thought provoking and well researched.

Next I'd like to say a few nice things about Zen to Fitness, done by a different Chris. It's all pretty basic stuff, but perfect for a little reminder, some quick motivation or when you're bored and don't want to concentrate on too heavy reading material. It's to the point, often updated and providing a lot of nice links.

I'm having trouble coming up with a new way of saying 'next' so ehm. Yea, Nikki's blogspot. Not very often updated, but good reference material. Nikki is also the author of the paleo cookbook. She asked me months ago whether I wanted to put an ad up for it, and I said I'd have to read it first. But I never had the money to spend on it (saving for flying yo!) and thus it never got done. BUT, I've seen her freebies. Which are good, more than good even. Lot's of nice ideas from there- so if you need those ideas, gogo click.

Last but not least; The great fitness experiment, by Charlotte. Charlotte is awesome. She makes me laugh, cry and think. She pushes me way out of my comfort zone. Did I mention she's awesome? Just go check it out for yourself :)

Now don't forget the gems already there- Like Marc's blog, loads of practical examples! Plus he's somewhat dutch. And Orie, who has a great view on cooking and food. He helps us all remember it's not just fuel for your body.
And there's Kelly from FitnessFixation- not so well known in the paleo-ish circle of blogs, but I think it just might be my favourite blog ever. She cracks me up and at the same time teaches me about life.

Pff, hope it doesn't take as long to read as it did to write, going to bed now- good night!

Warm kohlrabi and spinach salad

A week or two back I was food-shopping with my sister. I'm a big fan of food-shopping, and I can spend hours doing it. Probably explains why I only own one pair of shoes.. but I digress.
So we were in the produce section planning to make a sweet and sour chicken salad when I spotted a kohlrabi. Of course I'd seen them before, but I'd never actually used it myself. After much begging, my sister who had really been craving some chicken (I'm evil) allowed me to pick the kohlrabi and anything I thought might go well with it.

Pure joy! Once you get familiar with all your veggies, comfortable with the different way to combine their flavours and herbs, you get to a point where you can stand in a shop and just go.. "mm, yea some of this- and that might go well with spinach... and of course spinach with beef... tomatoes? nono, I always eat tomatoes, something different then.."
And then you get back to the kitchen, and you start putting your choices together.. some of them cooked, some only washed. When the time comes to add the extra flavours another whole world of options opens up. (I know I'm starting to sound a little insane.) So, there's the honey, mustard.. Garlic, always garlic. Basil flavoured olive oil? Oh yes. Now something to spice it up.. and that's where my brilliant daring sister who inherited most of the cooking genes comes in.. "Some dille?" she says. Dille? With beef? huh?
But yea, dille it is. And it was brilliant. Re-made it yesterday, served on a lovely blue plate to get y'all a picture. Isn't it nice?

Ingredients (two servings);
- Spinach
- a Kohlrabi
- 300/400 grams of lean beef
For the dressing*;
- 2 tsp mustard
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 or 3 tbsp olive oil (with basil)
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp dille
Optional;
- pinenuts, pistachios or other nuts/seeds. A combination works too.

Wash the spinach, preferably the wild yummie kind with big leaves. And tear those big leaves into managable bits. Arrange them on a plate. Chop your kohlrabi into cubes and your beef into strips. Throw them in a pan, beef first- kohlrabi following when that's browned. While that's cooking mix up your dressing. After a minute or five take your pan and drop it all on the spinach bed. Finish it off with the dressing and perhaps nuts or seeds.

Enjoy :)

*Please keep in mind that I NEVER actually measure things when I cook them, and anything I make will never turn out the same way twice. It depends on the products you're getting, the type of mustard or honey you're using, the quality and mildness of the olive oil you're using.. When making a dressing, taste it! Mix it 'till you get a consistency you're happy with, and whatever you do- never stick to something a recipe says when your gut and tastebuds are telling you it ain't quite right.