new combinations ...

As Cornell is busy preparing his new batch of delicious looking pictures (I don't know if he is busy doing that, but maybe this post will instill in him a sense of obligation, not that feeling obliged is good or making others feel obliged is very moral, so I probably shouldn't manipulate Cornell in this way. On the other hand I know Cornell is an INTP, so not easily manipulated, and I think he will take this remark the way it was intended, that is, as a joke, which by now has been thoroughly spoiled by this unnecessary explanation, which has become too lengthy by far too, though not by any fault on my part as I am only doing what a blogger is supposed to do on the world wide web, that is: describing every part of his life in detail on his little spot on the net, but because that is not what this blog is about (that is: not all details of our lives. It is about food) I will terminate this ongoing string of words before you all lose your attention and go on to the main attraction of today: the description of some new combinations of paleolithically approved meals) I will describe some combinations I tried out the past weeks.

- White cabbage
- mushrooms
- onion
- cubes of ham
(very good, I had this twice (three meals each time) and will have this again...)

- red cabbage
- mushrooms
- onion
- lean minced meat
spiced with sambal
(not very original (compared to the above one) but good none the less. Goes well with some apple compote).

- the dutch vegetable 'koolraap', which took some time to clean and cut up due to its very tough exterior.
Stir fried with some onion and some cubes of smoked bacon.
Good! The 'koolraap' gets softer and tastes quite sweet after stir frying.

These meals are cost efficient as all these vegetables are cheap in winter.
I can eat for approximately 5 euro's a day (if I don't count the luxuries I sometimes afford myself for later in the evening, like a bit of port or bailies with some cheese or somethign). 5 euro's a day. That's quite cheap to me.

Carotty sweetness

The recent resurrection of this blog and Cornells enthusiasm increased my drive to experiment a bit more with paleolithic meals.
Another reason to experiment a bit more is the cost of the meals. Eating paleolithically tends to be a little bit more expensive than eating neolithically. Vegetables and fruit is more expansive than potatoes, rice or pasta. And as I found that since starting to eat this way I spent more each month than I gained I had to reduce costs. And I found that it was quite easy to spend 4,5 euro's less each day on my food.
One good way to get a costreduction is using vegetables of the season. They are often national products (not imported), and way cheaper...
So today I chose carrots. Not the little ones you get in summer, but real, large carrots. We call them 'winter carrots' in Holland (or Winterpenen).
I had a kilogram of those for less than a euro! So I cut them in little slices.
I cut 250 grams of mushrooms in quarts and I sliced up two onions.
I fried the onions, added 280 grams of lean minced meat, and seasoned with curry powder, paprikapowder and pepper. When the meat lost its red color I added the carrots and mushrooms and stir fried those a couple of minutes. Then I added some curry powder, some sweet chili sauce and some ginger sauce.
The result was very good.
The carrots are sweet of themselves, and stir frying them until they were a bit softer really brought that taste to the front, I think thu sugars in the carrots caramelizes a bit. A good combination with the sauces.
I had enough for three portions! So I know what I will have for dinner tomorrow and the day after!

Another winter dish ...

Ah ... A new year, and new resolutions: to keep this blog up and running ...
And when Cornell posts fifteen new posts filled with pictures of delicious, inventive and tasty cave-person approved dishes, I cannot shirk my duty ...

The month december was a hard time for me to keep to the paleolithic diet. First because I was on vacation in Australia for two weeks, then the christmas and years' end festivities ... And to be honest, last weak I had bread at lunch at work... But instead of feeling guilty about all that, I will just enjoy life and eat what I like, and that is this paleolithic thing.
Also nice to find I didn't gain much weight over the festive season. That is, I didn't weigh, but my pants (size 34!) still fit, and even seem a bit wide. So that's progress ...

I've bought a digital camera a month ago, so in theory I should be able to add pictures to my posts. But I have to change the batteries, so not tonight.
But even without pictures to accompany my posts, I will inform you of the winter dish I made this evening:

I took two chopped onions and stir fried those in oil, added lean minced meat, and mushrooms, and then a package of 'zuurkool' (german: sauerkraut), a kind of fermented cabbage, and I stir fried it all. Then I added sambal to spice it up. I had half of this with half a can of apple-compote. Stir fried 'sauerkraut' tasted rather good, especially with the sambal. And the sweet apple went well with the rather salty cabbage.

Johan

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...

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

Simply outstanding!

Finally after some not very noteworthy meals (prepackaged vegetables to stir fry), today I made something to even rival Cornells most outrageously good recipes.
What I did was: I took a large broccoli (400 grams?), a package of 250 grams of a kind of mushroom they call the 'chestnut mushroom'. It's brownish rather than white and has a bit more taste to it. And then a large sweet pointed paprika (bellpepper). Yes, there are more varieties of this kind of pepper than I even thought possible. But this one is really good: it's color is dark red, it's taste is sweet and a bit pepperish at the same time. (Better than the small, yellos 'snack paprika's' I tried last weekend). I cut the broccoli in pieces, and the paprika, and I cleaned out the mushrooms (without cutting them). I stir fried some chicken (200 grams, in pieces), added the vegetables, and then added a bit of ketjap and a bit of sweet chili sauce.
Sadly I can't describe the taste of it. I was sorely tempted to eat it all, but I kept half of it for tomorrow evening. I can honestly say it was the best I have made for a long time.

Today I had two kiwifruits, one banana and three tangerines for breakfast (with some nuts) and for lunch I had the customary 300 grams of carrots and 100 grams of chicken. All in all approximately 950 kilocalories today. I'm proud of myself!

Dutch Fries

Dinner is pork tenderloin with mushrooms and red cabbage. The orange chips are fried pumpkin slices.

I made the mistake of adding a bit of salt to the pork dish (which turned out to have needed none) but none to the pumpkin. That turned out to be a bit bland, so I sprinkled just a little salt over those as well. That made all the difference. I've decided that the Netherlands gets a second national dish (the other one obviously being salted herring), in our dutch national colour, orange. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you - Dutch Fries.

a hobbitty breakfast

Today I had what has fast become my favorite weekend-breakfast since I'm eating like Cornell... what I call a 'hobbitty' breakfast. As it has nice, crispy bacon, tomatoes and that age old favorite of the little guys with the hairy feet: mushrooms. Who wouldn't make a shortcut to those? Anyway:
I took 6 small slices of bacon, three tomatoes (in slices) and 200 grams of champignons (mushrooms, also in slices. First baking the bacon, then adding the mushrooms, followed by the tomatoes. Added a bit of currypowder and pepper, and then some of my favorite ingredient: sweet chili sauce. Hmmm... With some hot coffee: delicious...
Tomorrow I'll have more.
I lunched on radishes. Hardly any calories but filling. Though I think these are better in combination with something. They have a really distinctive taste.

Yesterday I ate with my brother: lasagnette, so I didn't keep the 'rules', but at the birthdayparty I managed to say 'no' to chips and snacks and munch on the cucumber. For lunch yesterday I had half a pineapple and lots of strawberries. mmmm.... Who needs bread?

Johan

Fit for a Hobbit

I decided I could teach Jamie Oliver a thing or two about nudity. The stir fried chicken, courgette and mushrooms have no seasoning whatsoever. And the flavour could have tempted a gourmet who had just devoured a horse, as dessert.

All this was laid on a bed of my never ending pile of iceberg lettuce (now I know why they compare the thing to a mountain) and tucked in under a blanket of paprika and radish. Since I wanted to give Jamie a break in a seriously unfair fight, I squirted on some curry. Yeah, baby!

But the sheer size of that plate! It's inhumane! I worked hard but it got the better of me. In my defence, I had been snacking during the afternoon. A bit of emotional eating actually. Carrots, nuts, grapes, cherries - I had been studying hard and hit a wall, so I resorted to one of my stress-relief tactics - munching. Still, I hadn't eaten that much. Man, was that plate a pile. I'll have the rest for breakfast. Or lunch. Thank goodness I actually forgot to add the double-slam -bang ingredient - mixed nuts... wow, that could have gotten ugly.

You know, it's funny. My mom, who is a wizard in the kitchen - an exceptionally creative cook - complained that with this new starch-free eating style of mine it would be almost impossible to whip up a decent meal. I think I need to show her this blog. People somehow associate healthy with difficult. I really don't know why. It's never been so easy for me to cook good food. I don't even have to plan it. I just buy fresh ingredients and throw them all together. What's the big deal? Try ordering a Big Mac without the tomato. That can be tricky. Getting yourself a half decent frozen pizza, now that's tough. And getting it to taste good is so close to impossible you could see the pores with your eyes shut. This, this is a piece of cake (without the cake).

My friends, especially the female ones, sometimes ask me why I don't have a girl friend. It's simple. I'm old fashioned - I want a woman who can outcook me!
For marriage proposals, use the comment function below. Please include picture.

The Light Horse

Today's lunch was stir fried horse steak, broccoli, cauliflower, red onion, mushrooms and asperagus. As long as they're in season I want to enjoy them as often as I can. There's three teaspoons of ground mustard seed, two teaspoons of garlic powder and some salt in there.

Would make a fine dinner too. I didn't have any tonight, because yesterday a friend came over for evening tea and since she brought some delicious seedless white grapes, I broke my fast. So I'll keep it tonight. I did have an apple and a few strawberries.

And check out my new black plate. It's humongous and makes eating even more fun.