Creative with courgette

Cornell and I often inspire each other in the search for new recipes.
Up till now I mainly stir fried my food, but when Cornell visited me last week I thought I'd branch out into new ways of preparing good, healthy and tasty food...
So I thought I'd use the oven.
I made grilled courgette: I cut two courgettes in quarts, roughed up the surface by making little cuts in them, so the seasoning and olive oil would stick.
I put a olivespread on the courgette, seasoned with pepper and sprinkled olive oil on it. I then put the courgette in the oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.
I baked some fish to go with it, and stir fried vegetables with oystersauce. It was very good!
The courgette was juicy and tasty.
If I'm not deceived, Cornell has some pictures of our meal, so hopefully he'll put them up soon...

Johan

Spicy cabbage...

In my quest to find new tastes and new culinary inspiration, to go where no paleolithic eater has gone before, I returned to the red cabbage I had with mango and sweet gingerjuice before but from a different angle: what if the cabbage weren't sweet but spicy?
So I spent half an hour cutting my vegetables (note to self: buy a kitchen machine that cuts your vegatables for you). I had one red cabbage, cut up, two leeks, cut in rings, 150 grams of small mushrooms, cut in half, two red paprika's, cut in pieces, and approximately 250 grams of chicken in little slices. So I stir fried the chicken, added the mushrooms, added the cabbage until it got softer and added the leeks and the paprika's. Finally I added approximately two and a half teaspoon of sambal (grind red peppers) and some sweet chilisauce, and a drip of japanese soy sauce.
This was enough for three meals, but I had already bought dinner for wednesday, so I had two large portions and kept the rest for today.
The hot, spicy sambal went well with the red cabbage, I thought.

Insuline and fatty livers

Why do we go to the trouble of avoiding foods with high glycemic indices and loads? Well, this exerpt from a recent study explains it nicely:

On the high-glycemic index diet, mice ate a type of cornstarch that is digested quickly whereas on the low-glycemic index diet, mice ate a type of cornstarch that is digested slowly. The diets had equal amounts of total calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrate, and the mice were otherwise treated identically.

After six months, the mice weighed the same. However, mice on the low-glycemic index diet were lean, with normal amounts of fat in throughout their bodies. Mice on the high-glycemic index diet had twice the normal amount of fat in their bodies, blood and livers.

When sugar melts out of high-glycemic index food, Ludwig explains, it drives up production of insulin, which tells the body to make and store fat. Nowhere is this message felt more strongly than in the liver, because the pancreas, which makes insulin, dumps the hormone directly into the liver, where concentrations can be many times higher than in the rest of the body. Fat buildup in the liver, or fatty liver, is usually symptomless, but it increases the risk for liver inflammation, which can progress to hepatitis and, in some cases, liver failure.

Read the full article here.


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This is too easy

1 Chicken and salami (which is not entirely paleo-proof) with courgette, red onion, leaks and tomato paste and lots of pepper and chili.
2 Chicken, leaks, courgette, red cabbage and broccoli.
3 Self-explanatory.
4 Shrimp, red onion and Brussels sprouts. So easy...
5 Eggs and raw ham with black pepper and tomatoes.

1 Smoked salmon and rainbow trout with white cabbage.
2 Chicken with curry and pepper.
3 Lambchop with Brussels sprouts, red onion and garlic.
4 Sardines in tomato sauce.
5 Herring in tomato sauce.

Red Hot Chicken

1 Chicken with chili, curry, pepper and cinnamon.
2 Scrambled egg with yaki nori.
3 Chicken with garlic and pepper.

Sweet delight...

My meal yesterday evening was one of the best meals I've made for myself in some time.
It was a variation on something I made before, but this meal was even better, in my humble opinion.
I took pieces of chicken (300 grams), a pointy cabbage (spitskool), 250 grams of chestnut mushrooms, a yellow bellpepper (paprika) and two banana's. All cut to pieces of course.
I first stir fried the chicken and seasoned it with paprica powder, curry powder en some pepper, then added the mushrooms, follewed by the cabbage and the bellpepper. When the cabbage had shrunk in a bit I added some soy sauce and ginger extract to the sauce, then for the last two minutes or so I added the two banana's in slices.
I had half of this for my dinner, and it was excellent: nice, tasty, sweet. It warmed me inside, which is good as it is getting colder outside. Tonight I will have the other half.

I've decided to add some fish to my breakfasts more often. So this morning I had some smoked salmon with carrots, a kiwi and a peach (and a handfull of nuts). And for tomorrow and the day after I have canned tunafish with vegetables to go with the vegs and fruits.

Another combination I made some time ago, was with extra lean minced meat (extra mager rundergehakt), mushrooms, broccoli, sweet pointed bellpeppers and a can of green beans (sperziebonen) (as this is mostly the pods and not just the beans I think this is allowed for a paleolithic diet). This combination was allright, but not as outstanding as the sweet delight I had yesterday. But don't worry, we'll keep on experimenting with new tasts and new combinations. To boldly go where no one has gone before...

Koolrabi

1 Chicken with garlic, chili, paprika powder, green beans, red cabbage and "koolrabi". I really don't know the english word for it, but here's a wikipedia page that has pictures of it. Apparently a hybrid of wild cabbage and wild white beets.
2 Salted herring!
3 Bacon, eggs, tomatoes and shrimp. Very satisfying.
4 Bacon and fresh spinach, my new comfort food.

Cornell's Spicy Chicken

1 Chicken, broccoli and red cabbage with some more of the fruit from the previous post.
2 Pork, mango and salted herring.
3 A lamb chop and roast beef marinated in allium (or at least I hope that's what "look" (dutch) is called). The white bits are horse raddish and that's balsamic vinegar on the iceberg lettuce.
4 Very spicy chicken (chili powder, dried chili peppers, garlic, paprika powder, onion powder, red onion, mustard powder and tomato paste) on a bed of fresh spinach and lettuce with balsamico vinegar and olive oil. Very, very tasty. And very hot. And very tasty, And very hot.

Fruit extravaganza

1 Porkchop breakfast, why not?
2 Roast duck. I ate at a chinese restaurant with a friend and we couldn't finish the duck, so here it is!
3 That's an avocado if you're wondering...
4 A porkchop with red cabbage, chinese cabbage and horse raddish.
5 A delicious fruit salad of mango, very sweet grapefruit, nectarine, plums, melon and fresh pineapple. Highly recommended!

Another great combination

Do they never end?
Not that I'm aware of. And I think Cornell would agree, seeing how he never seems to repeat himself... Or do you?
So yesterday I took a large broccoli (sadly parts of the stem were no good anymore), and cut it up. I stir fried it with 250 grams of chestnutmushrooms in quarts, 300 grams of extra lean minced meat and 5 tomatoes (cut up). The tomatoes finally fell apart and together with just a bit of soy sauce and sweet chili sauce made a tasty sauce. I combined half of this with half a can of sliced red beets (a good salad that).
This evening the other half for dinner!
I had the same yummie breakfast as yesterdag, by the way. Egg is really good to keep a full feeling from 7.30 to 12.00 am. So I'll do that more often. And boy, do I like melon, it's sweet, it's juicy, it's just great...

Johan

Creative with cabbage...

Last week I made two delicious dishes with cabbage.

For the first one I took one red cabbage (cut it in half and marvel at the beautifull pattern of bright white and dark red. Just like brains... hmmm... brains). I cut it up. Then I stir fried approximately 300 grams of extra lean minced meat, with two sweet pointed paprika's (bellpeppers) and here's the clincher: 400 grams of mango in pieces. (For red cabbage is sometimes eaten with apples, so I figured a combination with fruit would go well). I seasoned it with some gingerjuice and some soysauce. I must say this was a success in my opinion, though it took relatively long to stir fry enough.
I ate two times from this huge amount of food. A cabbage is really economically packaged vegetable. No air left between the leaves...

In between I made ratatouille for my brother and I to honor the new movie. It's great by the way. And it's about cooking...

Then last friday I had three guests, and I offered them the paleolithic dinner.
I took a green cabbage and sliced it up. I stir fried this with extra lean minced meat again (again approx. 300 grams), 250 grams of mushrooms (in quarts), two yellow bellpeppers (paprika's) and two banana's (in slices). Again I added some ginger juice and some soysauce. This was really, really good. The banana went well with the cabbage, added a nice sweet touch. One of my favorites. I think I have to make a book with recipe's (well, that's what this blog is all about, isn't it).
I also made a sallad with mixed salad, cherry tomatoes, some maize (yes, not paleolithic, I know), and some 'huttenkäse', really young cheese, not even hardened out, but also very low in calories. I also added some pineconeseeds and dressing. This salad was really good too!
We had some fruit for desert.

This weekend I also enjoyed the taste of different kinds of melon.
And I added egg to my breakfasts. It's good too, and gives more of a full feeling than just fruit and nuts. mmmm...
This morning my breakfast existed from half a melon, lots of strawberries, and a baked egg with some bacon. Yummie...

Shrimp Omelet

1 Tenderloin with mango, paprika, carrot, white cabbage and chinese cabbage
2 Smoked bokking. Johan will have to figure out the correct translation.
If anyone knows of a good online dutch-english dictionary specialising in culinary idiom, we wood appreciate it.
3 Omelet with shrimp, paprika and red onion

Nameless Fish

1 Souflaki with paksoi (chinese cabbage?) and apple
3 Smoked schar (I'll leave it up to our fish expert Johan to figure out the english name) with mango and daikon (I think).

More vegetables...

Okay...

Last week I again tried something new.
I had a large broccoli in pieces, 250 grams of 'snijboontjes' (a kind of beanpods, not really 'paleo-approved', but the actual beans are a small part of the pods.), mushrooms in quarters, a paprika (red) in bits and 200 grams of chicken, all stir fried with sweet chilisauce, my ingredient of choice... MMMMMM.... I had two dinners with this this week.
For breakfast this week I had a quarter of a melon (great stuff), half a cucumber, a banana, a nectarine (kind of peach), and some nuts. Also a great breakfast, but I will leave the banana next time because of the sugars in it.

Johan

We're not alone!

Yay! We have a reader! Thanks for your enthusiastic praise Jason, it's nice to know someone has actually found our blog.
Here are my latest meals:
1 A light breakfast
2 Steak tartare with stir fried green beans and broccoli and fresh spinach
3 Smoked mackerel with fried white cabbage and celery stalk
4 Mackerel, plums and Schwarzwalder Schinken
5 Pork chop with broccoli, white cabbage, paprika and ginger

Hellooooooooo...

Is there anybody out there? If you've found our blog and enjoy it, please leave a comment and let us know we're not alone out here... what's the use of uploading all these pictures if nobody's watching?

Sc... Sh... Sch...

1 Scrambled shrimp
2 Steak tartar and Schwarzwalder Schinken (a kind of ham)
3 Shrimp, nuts and broccoli

Lamb & Clam

1 Salmon with thyme
2 Marinated lambchop with courgette, aubergine and onion
3 Horse steak on a bed of fresh spinach
4 Mussels!
5 The battlefield

Salad Surprise

1 This salad was fabulous. The tastes and textures were as varied as the colours.
2 Fresh mackerel with courgette and white cabbage.
3 Quite obvious.
4 Salmon with thyme.