Recipe review: Fat Guacamole Devils

This morning my boyfriend woke me up with a breakfast in bed. He had spend his early hours browsing the web and came across this recipe at Mark's daily apple. A very cute surprise indeed! Too bad I can't really eat anything, let alone eggs, right after waking up...

Ingredients (for 8 devils):

- 4 hard boiled eggs

- 1 avocado

- 2 teaspoons hot sauce

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- salt & pepper to taste

- 8 thin slices smoked beef

Peel and half the eggs and spoon their yolks into a bowl. Mass the yolks with the avocado, hot sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Refill egg whites with the yolk mixture. Drape smoked beef slices on top, and serve!

You'll notice the recipe is just slightly modified from the original on MDA. A little less avocado, a little more smoked beef. They were very tasty, Tamara Baysinger, who came up with this recipe for MDA's challenge really had a great idea. The avocado replaces the original mayonaise very well. Plus my bf noted they are actually easier to make than plain old deviled eggs.

I did think he was smart not to use as much avocado as Tamara called for, because they were already very very rich. The smoked beef was nice as a topping, but anything salty would probably do. The yolk mixture doesn't have much taste of it's own, so I wouldn't go without a topping.

A little downside compared to our good old deviled eggs is that they don't keep even half as well. So if you do serve this at a party, mix them up right before you're getting started.

Brussel sprouts with beef and apple

Even as a kid I liked brussel sprouts. It's probably because my mother didn't turn them into soggy little green balls... Now I have many recipes for brussel sprouts. This is one of them.

In the past I've only put recipes on this website that were a 100% paleo (before the tomato change anyway). No beans, dairy or salt. (Yet it wasn't always very low-carb).

But I've not been eating that strict for a long time, and it just doesn't make sense for me not to include the more primal style recipes I enjoy. After all, there are many people who would still find those useful! If you are very strict and 100% paleo, not to worry, there will still be plenty of that.

With every recipe from now on I'll mention any none-pure paleo ingredients. I'm sure you can make a good estimate of low-carbness yourselves ;)

Ingredients(for two):

- 200 gr beef slices

- 250 gr brussel sprouts, halves

- 1 firm, sour apple (breaburn)

- 80 ml sour cream

- butter

- nutmeg

- salt to taste and dietary beliefs ;)

Cut your apple into little chunks. Cook the brussel sprouts in water for 3 minutes, this is the most important bit because you really don't want to overcook them! In a frying pan brown your meat in butter, don't be stingy with the butter, it'll make the sauce yummy. When it's completely seared add the cooked sprouts. After another minute add the sour cream and the apple chunks. While that simmers for a minute or so finish it with nutmeg and some salt if you like. Enjoy :)

This is also very nice with bacon. But if you do use bacon do not add any salt!

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.

Spinach Soup

Autumn has officially arrived. The weather is still in denial, but already there are some colder days. It's time to switch from eating salads 90% of the time to include some warmer food, like soup!
Now that the USA has had some spinach scares, it's time to give this veggie some love. Here in Holland there are beautyfull local fresh crops in the store. I'll be sharing two spinach recipes, soup today and a 'warm' salad in the next post.

Not doing any measurements today, just.. wing it.

Ingredients;
- Spinach, a lot
- Ground beef
- Onions
- Garlic, loads
- Beef broth

Make sure you've got a good broth, full of flavour- because apart from a garlic shock you won't be adding much.
It's quite easy to make- first pretend it's a stir fry; cook the onions and beef in a bit of coconut oil or other fat. Add half the garlic and a bit later the big, big amount of spinach. When the spinach starts to decrease in volume a bit, it's time to add the broth. Throw in the rest of the garlic and let it simmer for at least half an hour.

Remember, you shouldn't reheat spinach because of the nitrates. So if you're making a big batch, just leave it simmering and share with the whole neighbourhood. Or just help yourself a couple dozen times :)

Paleo Tjatjiki

Tjatjiki is a well known yoghurt based dip used in the Turkish and Greek kitchen. Because it's made with cucumber it's incredibly fresh yet it also has an insane amount of garlic. What more could you possibly want? Therefore it seemed like only the right thing to use it as inspiration for a paleo dip. As always, it's not going to taste anywhere like the real thing, but that's not the point!

Ingredients
For the mayo;
- 1 egg yolk
- 0,2 ml olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
For the dip;
- half a cucumber
- 4 cloves garlic
- mint, dill, basil, chervil or rosemary
- a little bit of black pepper

After you've made your mayo, take your cucumber and rasp it into little bits. Make small bits out of your garlic aswell- if you have the time, it's a good touch to use roasted garlic. Mix both through the mayo, be gentle.
Next it's time to pick your herb, use chervil or rosemary if you want it to taste a little bit stronger- stick with mint or dill for the extra fresh taste. Of course, feel free to experiment!
If the dip is still a little bit to thick for your taste or purpose, either up the cucumber or add a little bit of water to make it thinner.

This goes does well with as a dip for veggies, like cucumber or carrots. It's a little bit too light of a taste for paprika imo, but as a thinner version it can be used to compliment spicy chicken wings :)

Cabbage stir fry with ginger

Cooking vegetables without salt is not easy, just omitting it from recipes doesn't always work. Most of the time it will just come out pretty bland. I'm pretty used to eating without salt now, that's why I do a salt-test on new recipes;

First test is my roommate, before he came to live with me he would not even taste his food before grabbing the salt-shaker. Now he'll at least do that, and a recipe passes the test when my roomy does not add salt.
Final test is always my mother. She adds so much salt to food that I've sometimes just not been able to eat it. Literally not able too. So when she likes it without the salt, it's a winner. With this recipe she helped fine tune it and she's a real good cook.. please give this one a shot!

Ingredients(for two);
- 2 carrots, in half inch slices
- a 2 to 3 inch ginger piece
- 200 grams white or pointy cabbage
- 1 apple in little pieces
- 2 teaspoons nutmeg
- handful sunflower seeds

When cooking with ginger you need to be careful to chop it up real small. It tastes far too sharp when you get a big piece in your mouth. Also, I prefer to use pointy cabbage cut into pretty wide strips. Over here it's even cheaper to get it pre-cut than to get a whole one, so check that out.

Start with the carrots in some oil, then work your way down the ingredient list with 30 to 60 second intervals. If you're not worried about the extra carbs, add some raisins. You'll know when it's done. This goes really well with some white fish!

ps. I'll be away for two weeks and I haven't figured out how to do posts in advance, so ehh... This'll be up for a while. Good reminder to actually make it ;) Sorry!

Mushroom Salad

Mushrooms aren't actually the main ingredient, but it's them that make this salad different for me. Most of the time I don't actually like mushrooms you see, so when I find a way to prepare them that is tasty- it's a little bit special ;)

Lately I've started to use a bit of vinegar, just to mix things up. Not entirely paleo, I know- but I'll see how I feel. There were a lot of fancy vinaigrette's on MDA, which I'm looking forward to trying out. This is a bit simpler though..

Ingredients
- half a cucumber
- 5 mushrooms
- 2 tomatoes
- some curly salad leaves

- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- basil, fresh or dried

It's the cut that really matters here, start by making really thin cucumber slices. A cheese grater works perfectly for that. Mushrooms also need to be slices pretty thin- as thin as you can manage without them falling apart.
Trickier is the tomato, imagine you halving it, and then halving the halves- and so on. But you can't actually cut like that because tomatoes are too squishy, so instead you half them and then start making the small slices from there. Heh, do I win a price for the most complicated explanation ever?
Ahum, so make the salad leaves tiny. Put it all in a big bowl, just drizzle your oil and vinegar on top. Add basil, give it a good toss, bon appetit ;)

So ehh, hope everyone had a good national salad week!


This is what happened to my leftovers.... :(

Zucchini summer soup

This blog has been way too recipe deprived, so here is a recipe for a simple paleo and summer proof soup. It's a light soup and works wonders before a nice roast with salad or something like that. (Damn blogging always gives me cravings.)

Ingredients;
- 1 medium onion
- 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes
- 1 carrot
- 2 small zucchini*
- any kind of broth
- oregano or mint

Chop your zucchini into a medium size, and dice the other veggies a bit smaller.
Start by frying the onion in a bit of coconut oil. Add the tomatoes next. When your tomatoes are starting to go mushy add the carrot. Wait another minute and add the squash.
After one more minute it's time to add your broth and either oregano or mint, whichever you feel like. Let it cook for 10 minutes or so. You could add a little splash of lemon juice before serving.

*For this soup I prefer to use the small light green variety of zucchini, because it is softer and sweeter and just plain better. I know the name for it in dutch and in turkish, but not in english- if anyone feels like sharing, please do so in the comments! Many thanks in advance ;)

Food as reward and more salad..

When you're browsing the net for weight-loss tips, one of the things you'll come across is to never use food as a reward. I disagree. In fact, rewarding yourself with food is possibly one of the most beneficial things you could do!
Now, keep in mind I'm talking about healthy food. If I've been a very good girl (lol) I'll spoil myself with a piece of salmon, or some fresh wild spinach. When I've had a very rough day and feel like shit I'll go shopping for exotic fruit, oils or spices. If I want to treat myself, I'll spend some time in the kitchen preparing the best paleo meals I can manage.

I'm sure you can see that this will not do your healthy goals any harm, but you might be wondering how it's beneficial.. Thing is, when you're using this type of food as a reward you're telling yourself that it's very desirable. Repeat it often enough, and soon you'll be craving salmon with spinach instead of homemade apple pie.

What inspired today's food ramblings? My use of walnut oil in my chicken salad and in today's recipe. Walnut oil isn't exactly a budget-cooking staple item.. It's one of my 'rewards' that turned out very very very well. I am now an addict. Cravings, seriously. So here's the recipe;

Ingredients(for 1);
- 10 small shrimp
- half a bag of salad
- one third of a zucchini
- walnut oil!

Quickly toast the shrimp in a stir-fry pan. Get them slightly crispy and hot. 4 minutes max. Fill your plate with the salad and thin slices of zucchini, put the shrimp on top. Sprinkle with walnut oil and start fighting the addiction. Battles you don't really mind losing are so much fun ;)

Pakchoy & Chicken Salad

This weekend I had my brother, his girlfriend and my friend Jop over for dinner. We had a good time. Unfortunately I was a bit distracted* by my company so I didn't take a close-up picture of the food.. Instead you can take a good look at these lovely people ;)

Even though there is no good food pic, I'm still going to go ahead and share the recipe with you. It would be a crime to make you wait for the next time I'm going to eat it.

Ingredients(for two);
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 pakchoy
- some salad
- cinnamon
- 2 handfulls of walnuts
- walnut oil

Start by cutting up your chicken breasts into bite sized chunks. Heat up a frying pan and add a little oil**. Brown your chicken on all sides, and leave for a little bit to make sure it's all cooked.
While you're letting your chicken sit (don't let it burn!) rip the pakchoy greens to shreds and arrange them on your plates. Cover the leaves with some mixed salad, anything you've got lying around will do. Then top that off with the white part of your pakchoy, cut into bite sized pieces.
Pour some walnut oil on top of the salad-base. Sprinkle your chicken with a lot of cinnamon and add the pieces to your salad. To finish it off, crush the walnuts in your fist and toss them on top.

*Honestly, I was just in stress because I'm a complete disaster at planning this type of thing. I want it all to be perfectly nice when people come over, but I always end up forgetting something, burning something, or.. well you get the idea ;)

**Preferably coconut oil.

Tuna Salad

A question people often ask is what to eat for breakfast when you're following the paleo diet. People have said it before, but i'll just repeat; breakfast is like any other meal of the day. Just make sure there are vegetables and there's protein. As long as you're not having only fruit and nuts for breakfast*, you're on the right track!

This is one of the meals I make quite often, for breakfast, dinner or lunch. Mostly when I forget/neglect to make lunch the night before and I'm rushed in the morning, I'll just grab a bag of salad- toss in some olives+oil and close it tightly. Then throw that in my bag with a can 'o tuna. All 3 ingredients are staples in my kitchen.

I'm a bit planning-challenged, but I've managed to work around that by having certain items always around. A lot of my meals are based around bags of salad. They are pure win.

*This was one of my beginner mistakes, and just goes to show that you need to understand some of the theory behind the paleo or other healthy diets. It's not just a list of food you can and can't eat.

Parsley & Onion Salad

No picture here, just a link- I wrote a guest post for ModernForager.com and the author Scott Kustes decided to put it up, check it out here. What I like most about this whole thing is that Scott tried the salad before posting, which is awesome- It says a little something about the quality of Scott's blog and the care he puts into it.

Summer Fruit Salad

- Blueberries
- Pineapple
- Strawberries
- Mango
- Banana

Who could possibly resist all the summer goodies? It's the perfect dessert and totally worth a little sugar shock. Though I recommend sharing ;)

Shrimp Shish Kabob

This weekend the european football* championship started, and yesterday was Holland's first game. It was versus Italy, the current world champion. A friend invited me and a couple others over for a barbeque before watching the game, and we went dutch- everybody bringing their own food. So I made some shrimp shish kabob, since I'd wanted to post some of those here anyway.

Ingredients (for 1 stick);
- 3 medium sized shrimp
- 3 cherry tomatoes
- 3 small chunks zucchini
And the marinade (for +/-20 shrimp);
- a tablespoon olive oil
- a teaspoon garlic powder
- a teaspoon cayenne pepper
- a teaspoon dried thyme
- a teaspoon dried parsley

First put your marinade ingredients in a bowl that can hold your shrimp aswell. Toss in the shrimp and rub in the herbs, I prefer to do this with my fingers just to make sure they all get an even coating. Leave the bowl in the fridge for half an hour or so.
After those 30 mins, grab a stick and alternate your 3 ingredients. You can also choose to go with the decorative version you can see in the picture on the left- just use a cheese grater to make some zucchini slices. Put them on the grill for 10 to 15 minutes, you only want the veggies to go a bit soft (not too much) and the shrimp slightly crispy. If you like, serve with garlic mayo. Yumm.

The bbq was fun, my friends tasted and liked the shrimp. Then 'we' beat Italy with 3-0 by truely outstanding football* play. Friday is the next game versus France, cheer for us? ;)



*Aka soccer.

Pakchoy and Peach

Since peaches are back in season, I can finally share with you the very first paleo recipe I ever came up with. This is still a favourite and I've missed it soooo much while the peaches were unavailable. I've made it a lot for guests last summer (&today) and they all love it. Yes, I'm rather proud of it- please be gentle with my feelings ;)

Ingredients (4 servings);
- 4 peaches
- 1 pakchoy
- 2 onions
- 1 or 2 sweet red paprika's
- 500 grams/15 ounce of lean beef
- dried green herbs

Start by cutting everything into bite-sized pieces, except for the onions- they want to be sliced. Keep an eye on those pakchoy greens, as it's easy to accidentally cut them too big. When you're all prepared brown your meat in some coconut oil. Add the onions and paprika, give that 2 minutes. Then throw in your pakchoy, and last but not least- the peaches.
Now it's time for the herbs, I use a different mix everytime. Take your pick of oregano, thyme, basil, dragon or chervil. Pick at least 2 or just use them all. Be generous. When you've sprinkled them on top, drown it all with a glass of water. Stir a couple times and then cover your pan. Leave it for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then it's done. As an added bonus, this will make your kitchen smell extremely good.

If you're just cooking for yourself, don't bother cutting the recipe in half or anything like that. This recipe works very well for the freezer. Re-heated it still tastes brilliant. Unfortunately tonight it tasted so good I was barely able to save some for breakfast tomorrow, otherwise my freezer would now be full of the stuff. Yumm.

Lunch hacks nr. 2

It's about time I'm getting some of the practical stuff out I've been planning to blog about for months. So, here is another lunch hacks post. The last post was something for on the road. Today though, is for when you're in a school cafeteria or workplace that provides you with some cutlery and a plate, but nothing healthy to eat. The recipe is one from the archives, easy egg salad.

You need;
- 1/2 a bag of mixed salad
- 1 or 2 hard boiled eggs
- a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil
- some lemon juice
- a peg
- some toilet paper

Take that bag of salad and add the olive oil and lemon juice. Shake it up real good, then close it with a peg. Wrap your egg(s) in toilet paper to prevent accidently breaking the shell. Be carefull with putting this stuff in your bag, especially the salad needs to be on top.
When it's time for lunch, grab a plate, a knife and a fork. Drop that salad on your plate. Peel the egg(s) and cut it into pieces right on top of your salad leaves. Smile to the people looking at you like you're crazy and dig in.

Maybe add an apple, a bell pepper or a brown bag 'o veggies if you need some more to be satisfied. You can discard both the toilet paper and empty salad bag, so no dragging extra dishes back home. Isn't that great?

Turmeric and Zucchini

Though I haven't quite managed to convince my brother he should give paleo and evo fitness a shot, he did give me a very good recipe tip. It's great that it only uses 3 ingredients, but what's even better is that one of them is a spice I hadn't used before. I'll take any excuse to buy new spices and so should you ;)

Ingredients ;
- lean beef
- zucchini
- turmeric
Use twice as much zucchini than you do beef, and be generous with the curcuma.

Start by cutting up your beef and zucchini in bite-sized cubes. Grab a frying pan, and heat up some coconut oil*. Brown the meat first (+/- 5 min), then add your zucchini. Count to 60 and then spice it up with the turmeric. Give it 2 more minutes and you're ready to eat!

*I've just realised that I've never before mentioned that I always cook in coconut oil. It's one of those things that just Need to be in your house if you want to follow any sort of low carb or evolution based diet. The price might scare you, but you don't go through it very fast. So it's actually not at all bad.

Shish Kabob

Before I read about intermittent fasting* and other things on Prof. DeVany's website, packing food was an absolute disaster for me. Some days I am away from home at 6 in the morning and don't return 'till midnight. That's a lot of food to pack if you believe the whole '6 meals a day' thing. I actually always brought a second bag just for food...
So if you're having problems with long days away from home, first just stop eating so damn often and then apply some IF.

Unfortunately, we can't skip lunch everyday. I have 2 criteria for a good packed paleo lunch;

• Easy to eat, 1 piece of cutlery max.
• When you're done eating, it shouldn't still take up space.

That last one was added when I just got SO sick and tired of carrying tupperware around with me. I still do it sometimes for a good salad, but it's definately limited.

And that's where the shish kabob comes in- all your protein and veggies on one stick. No cutlery required for eating and as an added bonus, people will just think you're finishing leftovers instead of thinking you're a crazy healthfreak ;) Wrap it in some tin foil, et voila.

Ofcourse that's not nearly enough to fill you up. Another no-tupperware required option is the brown bag 'o veggies. As you can see in the photo below, I just cut up anything that's lying around. A few personal favorites though; bell pepper+pak choi stems, carrots+chinese cabbage and fennel+radish. (I passionately hate celery sticks.)

When you've finished, you can throw away the tin foil, but I always save the brown bag for later use in some desperate attempt to make up for my not so very environment friendly tinfoil use.

This lunch combo allows for a lot of variation. I'm usually a bit boring with my shish kabob, but I might make up something especially tasty and post it here later.
Incase you can't tell from the photo, this particular one was made with zucchini, bell pepper (both raw) and grilled chicken.


*I thought about adding some links, but I can't pick. So just google it if you're not already familiar with IF. Trust me, it's worth your time.

Eggsalad

A friend asked me the other day why I don't update my blog more often. "You eat everyday, right? Surely you must have something to post!" He said. While he's got a good point there, hardly anything I eat I'd consider worth sharing the recipe. Or I already have shared it, I tend to eat something I like for a couple days sometimes weeks in a row and then I'm sick of it and move on to the next thing.
If i'm not cooking for the fun of it, I just eat to improve the quality of my life.. If I then end up fussing about it too much, it would kinda defeat it's purpose. That's why I get salad in bags, easy.

Ingredients; A bag of mixed salad, 1 hard boiled egg, olive oil, lemon juice.
Just make sure you drown your salad with the juice before you add your egg. Or maybe that's me being weird, but in my head it sure does make an important difference!

Ps. It's spring, sunny, warm! And I love my balcony! :)

Goulash with a twist

Pretty photo huh? Yea you're right, that wasn't made by me! Steve Caddy took it, while he was preparing his goulash with a twist. He read this recipe, and ran with it. I'm Steve's new fan, that's what cooking is all about! Being a real star, he even gave me permission to post his recipe here, and to use his awesome pictures..

Modified Paleo Goulash Recipe;
Add
- Zuchini
- Carrot
- Mint
Replace
- Cloves with Caroway seeds

Check out the other pictures. And don't forget to drop by Steve's website!