Indulge Dessert Cookbook from ditchthewheat.com

Hey guys, I've just recently got my hands on Carol Lovetts amazing Indulge cookbook from Ditch The Wheat https://www.facebook.com/Carol.DitchTheWheat?directed_target_id=0

It's such a fantastic cookbook and a worthwhile purchase for anyone who has gone grain free/paleo/primal and wanting to create some yummy treat indulgences.

She shares her secrets with how to create delicious light and fluffy cake textures with coconut flours, almond flours and plenty of other great paleo ingredients. Many of these things I did not even know about and I've been primal for almost 5 years!

At the moment her book Indulge is on sale for 20% off, I'm not affiliated with this book at all, I just thought you would appreciate what I think of her grain free dessert cookbook and it gets a bit thumbs up from me!!! ‪‬

You can check it out here--> www.ditchthewheat.com/indulge

BTW The brownie recipe is to die for!!!

Homemade Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

• 2 small egg yolks (or 1 large)
• Fresh juice of one small lemon or a capful of wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• Extra light Olive Oil

Combine egg yolk, lemon juice, dijon mustard, salt & pepper in a medium bowl.

Use egg beaters as its easier, beat for about 30 seconds first and then start to add the oil very very slowly while beating constantly, the first part is vital or it won’t emulsify properly.

It will start to thicken and the more oil you add the thicker it will become, you need about ¾ cup of oil, once you’ve done the first part then you can pour the oil in a steady stream.

Once thickened add 1 Tbsp Boiling hot water, cover and keep chilled, will keep for 1 week as it cooks the egg.

Add wasabi paste to the mayo to make wasabi mayonnaise, adjust amount to your preference, I generally use 1 tsp to about 5 Tbsps Mayo.

Add 1-2 finely diced or grated garlic cloves to make Aioli.

*I use the immersion blender now and it's much faster! I will update this post to show how to do it or you can google youtube Immersion blender mayo, same ingredients :)

Almond & Coconut Chicken!!! "Extra Crispy Chicken"

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (boneless & skinless)
• 3/4 cup ground almonds
• 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp celery salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 2 eggs beaten

Directions

Slice your chicken breasts in half so you have two flat 1 inch thick pieces out of 1 chicken breast. (4 all up if cooking 2 chicken breasts)

Combine almonds and seasoning in a bowl. Whizz up your coconut to make it fine or leave chunky - the choice is yours!

You'll need 1 bowl for the eggs and 2 large places: one for the almond mixture and 1 for the coconut.

Dip all the chicken  in the eggs and coat thoroughly, then coat with the almond mixture, then coat again in the eggs, final step is to coat with the  coconut, the two coatings make for some 'fried chicken' tasting chicken and extra tender!

Line a baking dish with baking paper and place your chicken.

Bake at 180 Celsius for 30 minutes, flip chicken halfway through. 

Serve hot!

This salad goes awesome with this chicken:  

Julienne about 1/2 a cucumber, slice your green onions (spring onions), chop fresh basil and coriander (cilantro), toss them all with mesclun or spinach greens or both! Add the juice and zest of 1 lemon, 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper!

Almond Crackers

1 ¾ cups blanched ground almonds

1-2 tablespoons Masterfoods Italian or Tuscan Seasoning

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tablespoon olive oil 

1 egg 

In a large bowl, combine ground almonds, salt and seasoning

In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil and egg 

Stir wet ingredients into almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined 

Roll the dough into a ball and press between 2 sheets of parchment paper to ⅛ inch thickness 

Remove top piece of parchment paper 

Transfer the bottom piece with rolled out dough onto baking sheet 

Cut dough into 2-inch squares with a knife or pizza cutter 

Bake at 170C for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden 

Let crackers cool on baking sheet for 30 minutes, then serve 

Yields 24 crackers 

Original recipe here:

http://www.elanaspantry.com/rosemary-crackers/

Coffee Cake Muffins - Grain Free

I adore coffee cake and the flavour of these are really great!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour sifted
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger 
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup strong coffee brewed
• 6  eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar, maple syrup or honey

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 170C

In one bowl melt the coconut oil, then brew your coffee and add the coconut sugar to that so it dissolves.

Once all has cooled add your eggs and beat mixture. 

 In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients well and then combine wet and dry and whisk together well, mixture should be runny.

Pour into a glass Pyrex jug so you can easily pour into muffin cups, once filled all 12 then bake for 25-30 minutes. 

These taste pretty great and are best once they are cold, the texture improves after a while!

Roasted Broccoli!

This is god damn delicious! I sort of thought it wouldn't be as good as cauliflower but it is just as good if not better :)

Head of Broccoli

2 Tbsp's of Coconut oil, lard or tallow

1-2 Tbsp's Pinenuts

2 Tbsp's Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic

Lemon rind & juice

2 slices of bacon

Lemon Olive oil 

Salt & Pepper

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C.
Cut the broccoli florets from stalks, discard most of the stalks, only leaving enough to keep the florets in tact. 

Using an oven dish melt your coconut oil in the oven so you can evenly distribute the oil over the broccoli.  Toss the broccoli with salt and pepper and toss through the oil using tongs. 

Roast for 20 minutes, (but at 10 minutes just give them a little flip so they cook evenly). At the 15 minute mark add some grated garlic, if you add it earlier it will likely overcook, once cooked the broccoli  should be browned and crispy!

While your broccoli is cooking toast your Pinenuts in a non stick pan on a very low heat, watch constantly as they will burn if you leave them, only takes approx 2-3 minutes to brown. Chop up the bacon and cook that up also. Grate your Parmesan cheese and the rind of 1 lemon.

Once cooked remove the broccoli from the oven and in a bowl add the Pinenuts, bacon, Parmesan, lemon rind, and just a small squeeze of lemon juice. Once served drizzle with lemon olive oil.

Eat while its hot!

Meniere’s Disease

Over 7 years ago I didn't work at all because I felt severely bad ALL THE TIME! I've struggled with vertigo/dizziness (panic attacks because of it) since I was 8 years old, I remember my first Vertigo attack after an extremely stressful family holiday (to cut a long story short my father is an alcoholic and manic depressive since I was 3 years old).  Suffice to say a lot of my childhood wasn't always pleasant. Over the years I've certainly had my fair share of health problems.  The past few weeks I've had a flare up of it all over again.  Most of the women in my family have had bouts of vertigo, my nana, mother, aunty, sister and cousin have all experienced it in varying degrees.

I've just been to see my doctor and he has confirmed what I always suspected is that I do have Meniere’s Disease (you can read about it here: http://vestibular.org/menieres-disease) simply put it is excess fluid in the inner ear and causes attacks of vertigo (spinning dizziness), nausea (sometimes vomiting) and leaves me incapacitated for hours and sometimes days on end– hence my issues with flying, boats, heights, lifts, escalators, elliptical machines, treadmills etc etc.. He explained about how the fluid volumes in the inner ear are affected by the hormonal and electrolyte balance of the fluids in the body. To restore function and overall manage my symptoms I need to keep my insulin levels low and as steady as possible. So the more consistent I can keep my insulin levels and my sodium levels the less fluctuation there will be in the fluid volume in my inner ears.

A couple of weeks ago I had a servere vertigo attack that lasted almost a week.  I used to get them all the time before I was primal and I had forgotten how bad I used to be and that recently I have taken my renewed health for granted. During the last 6 months I've not really been what I'd call Primal, more like a 50/50 approach (you can read about my latest post here: http://primaljourney.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/everything-in-moderation.html) I've had a huge wake up call with regards to keeping myself healthy. 

When I eat Primal I'm about 80% free of these debilitating symptoms, the flare ups I generally have come when I've had a couple of days eating gluten, excess carbs and sugar. Also things like lack of sleep, stress and travel also exacerbate the symptoms. 

I have come to the realisation that for me personally I need to keep my carbs relatively low (50-80gms).  

It affects my neurological health and my ability to live a normal life.  I will always have Meniere's Disease as there is no cure but I can manage my symptoms with eating primal and keeping myself as healthy as possible.

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION?

When it comes to the word moderation I can tend to get a little wound up!

Especially when it’s used in the way that most people phrase it, the diet industry especially is ‘Everything in moderation”.  Hell if moderation had of worked for me then I would never have gotten so huge!

The reason I'm writing this post is mostly for myself to come to peace with where I am at! However I know that there are several others out there that feel like they are broken because frankly they just can't come to grips with everything in moderation.  I'm here to tell you that neither can I.  I've never been able to do moderation, this is my personality type.  

For years I've thought this was a fault and something to be ashamed of, as I've gotten a little older and wiser I'm starting to come to grips with my reality that it's OK that I don't do well with moderation!

The word moderate means: "Being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme"

Now I'd love to say that I can be moderate but it is without a doubt that I am NOT a girl that can do moderation!
I’m extreme.
I'm Intense.
I'm overly Passionate.
I‘m over the top.
With everything!
I’m a lot to handle for some who don’t understand me.
This is one of the reasons I don't drink alcohol, I don't consider myself an alcoholic but I know I could easily become one.  My father is and I tend to have the same tendencies as him so that is one area of my life that I just have to abstain.  When it comes to food however one cannot abstain because we need food to live!

So I'm a perfectionist, if I set out to create something (and this is my job as I'm a sewer), you can bet it will be the best and if it's not then I will start again, I'm extremely determined, that's the nice word, my husband calls it stubbornness.  I can be relatively demanding, opinionated and sometimes argumentative but on the flipside of that I'm extremely loving, caring, and loyal and I will go above and beyond for those I love.  Unfortunately I often have high expectations of the people around me and it's only because I have high expectations of myself.  I am also quite a relaxed person and I can joke around with anyone but I have no time for pussy footing!

So why am I writing this post? Mostly to come to grips with my dieting/eating/exercising history!

I’ve been Primal for coming up 5 years now, it’s worked for me! Now I have trialed a few different things throughout my weight loss/weight maintenance journey over the years.  I’ve done it all, low carb, high carb, intermittent fasting, nutritional ketosis, calorie counting both high and low, you name it I’ve done it and more recently I have tried a slightly higher carb version of Primal which has included safe starches.

This experiment has left me gaining weight.  I feel that I am just one of those people that cannot eat starches or sugars in moderation, I just can’t , I’ve tried a combination of it all, I’ve done more carbs and less fat, I’ve trialed different calorie amounts and I’ve also tried not counting my calories and just eating to my “natural hunger”.  What I’ve found is that I cannot eat that way and feel 100% at the same time.  I’d love it if I could but it turns out I can’t.  I don’t feel my best and I certainly don’t look my best.

What has worked for me for the past almost 5 years has been my original version of Primal where I never counted calories but I did keep track of my food in a food diary and had a fair idea of my calories (probably around 1500-1600 a day while in weight loss mode) I like to keep my carbs relatively low between 20-70 which includes lots of veggies, some fruit (berries), moderate protein and plenty of fat, and that’s what works for me, frankly I should have known better but I’m a bit of a experimenter, as they say if it ain't broke then don't fix it! I should have taken my own advice!

However I will say that I’ve learnt an awful lot about myself in this process.  This recent experiment of mine has left me gaining 6kgs and my beloved jeans don’t fit! Now don’t get me wrong, I think that the ‘safe starches’ debacle is great and for so many out there that really struggle with super low carb as I have in the past when going to low it’s great to experiment to find what works .  When I have my carbs too high (up over 100gms) I start craving all sorts of crappy food and I feel like I’m a heroin addict looking for my next fix! I think for me that there is a chemical reaction with these kinds of foods that send me on a downward spiral.

Mostly what I’ve learnt is that I don’t do well with moderation of any kind and I’m coming to a place of peace with that.  I cannot eat just one biscuit, I eat several, I cannot eat just one piece of pizza, I’ll eat the lot! And I cannot for the life of me just eat one potato, I will eat more than a person should!  I have trialed this on so many occasions that I’ve just had to realize potatoes might have to take a back seat even though they are my favourite thing to eat! Sigh!

So where am I right now? When I started my journey back in October 2008 I weighed 107.1kgs.  I lost 42kgs initially and got down to 65kgs (bikini picture on my blog), then I stabilized at 69kgs where I have stayed relatively stable for 4 years now (the last 6 months or so I haven’t weighed).  I broke my non weighing rule today after feeling like I needed a bit of a wakeup call! I was a bit gutted to see that I’ve gained back 6kgs from my stabilized weight so I’m now weighing 75kgs (as pictured to the right below).  I'm feeling pretty brave to be sharing this, I could just hide and not be honest?!! but the whole reason I started this blog was to have accountability, so here it is even though it feels somewhat scary this time around. Maybe it's because I have so many more followers than I used to!I’m not going to dwell on this but I need an action plan! 

So where to from here? Back to basics, back to what I know best and that is 80/20 Primal, not 50/50! I know that it works for me and it feels completely natural.  What else it means is no more trying to kid myself that I can do Moderation! It might work for you but it sure as hell doesn't work for me!

Mushroom, Bacon & Zucchini Carbonara!

Ingredients:

• 4-5 Field Mushrooms  (use button for a milder taste and use double the amount of mushrooms if using button)
• 3 strips streaky bacon
• Knob of butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4-1/2 cup cream
• Salt & Pepper
• 2-3 Tbsp's Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 2 Zucchinis (courgettes for us NZ'ers)

Instructions:

Dice up your mushrooms and bacon and fry in your pan with a knob of butter. Meanwhile prep your sauce: In a bowl add egg yolks, cream, s&p, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Put aside

Prep your zucchini: I peel mine with a tomato peeler so you are just taking off the green layer. Use your julienne peeler (see photo - mine cost $9.99NZD and came with 2 other peelers) Julienne the zucchini, here's a YouTube for instructions if you need them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1JG5rYdekU

Once the mushrooms and bacon is cooked then add in your julienned zucchini and cook for 1-2 minutes, I like mine el dente! Lower the heat on the element and add in the egg, cream and cheese mixture, ensure the pan is at a very low heat, stir constantly for about 1 minute (this prevents the eggs from scrambling). 
Take off heat and serve, add more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano if desired!
I've been having this for years and it really is really very good :)

Dijon Maple Chicken

Ingredients

• 2-4 Chicken Breasts
• 2 Tbsp's grade b maple syrup
• 3 Tbsp's Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp fresh Rosemary
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves grated

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160C (Fan Forced). In an oven proof dish stir together the mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, soy sauce, grated garlic and chopped rosemary.

Coat the chicken breasts really well and arrange in your dish so they are side by side completely covered in marinade.

Bake the chicken breast in the preheated oven until cooked (approx 45-60 minutes)