Kinda, sorta, back to normal!

Hi all!

Thank you all so much for being patient with me while I try and focus on my studies. Today I've decided to take a little break and write about the decision my husband and I have made for this week.

As many of you know my husband and I have been doing a "Slow Carb Diet" as per the book "The 4 hour Body" by Tim Ferriss. I have since slacked off a bit as I found the diet too restricting and my whole outlook on food had changed for the worst. Usually I am someone who can appreciate all different tastes and cuisines. However through this diet I found it exceedingly hard to keep cooking the same meals all the time as prescribed in the book. I saw food as being boring, tasteless and I couldn't bring myself to eat another piece of meat or chicken again. So then I had gone through a stage of not eating at all and only drinking protein shakes (very bad by the way).

I'm not sure how much weight I have lost but I have lost 10cm from the waist, which I'm very pleased with. In saying that my husband and I have decided to take a weeks break and eat as healthy as possible while adding in the smallest amount of carbs as possible.

Yesterday we had gone to the supermarket to stock up on some good carbs:

I knew that I wanted to get mountain bread as it is one of the most thinnest pieces of bread you will find.

Lamb Shawirma can be classified as street food. Others may call them Kebabs. I sliced a large onion sweated them off with some olive oil. I added 1/2 kg of stir fry lamb with some spices (Shawirma spices).

I spread some Aioli on the break and placed the meat and onion inside, wrapped them up and placed them in a sandwich press to seal. SOOOO YUMMM!

I hope you enjoyed this quick unexpected recipe!

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Happy new year!

Hello one and all!

Happy new year! I know that my greeting is very late, but it is better late than never!
I'm sorry that I have not posted anything for quite sometime now, it is that time of the year again where my uni work is started to pile up and finals are knocking at my door, which of course require all my attention.

Of course during this time I have made quite a few new dishes that I can't wait to share with you all once this study period ends!

So for now here is a little taste of what I've been up too!

ENJOY!

Red hot steak

I sometimes feel as though a lot of the food that I put together isn't worth me uploading and are a bit embarrassingly simple. But if the title hasn't been taken yet, I'd like to dub myself the lazy home cook.

If there is an easy way out, I'm there, right at the front!

As most of you have realised I am still catering for the slow carb diet. But as I've mentioned before, a side of rice, pasta, or bread can be added to any of my dishes to cater to those lucky enough to be eating them :-D

Steak has been big in our diet since starting the slow carb regime. I don't think I've eaten this much steak in my life...not complaining, as there is so many things you can do with steak.

This recipe calls for 5 ingredients:

Steak (any cut and size)
2-4 tbs Tomato paste
A few dashes of Tabasco
2-3 tbsp Soy sauce
A good dash of garlic powder

Method:

1) Heat a big fry pan with oil, butter or ghee ( all are optional)
2) Rub each side of the steak with garlic powder and tomato paste
3) place into the fry pan and add soy sauce
4) Keep turning the steak until there is even caramelisation on either side of the steak.
5) Take off from the heat and allow to stand for 5-10 mins.

If you wanted to add the veggies just add them to the pan with all the steak juices and sauce add some Tabasco sauce and you've got yourself one hot steak with veg!

Chicken and egg

Here is another very simple yet very tasty chicken dish. You could easily add bread, rice or pasta to it to make it even more scrumptious.

But for those health nuts wrapping the chicken up in lettuce leaves is the next best thing!

What you'll need:

500g chicken breast
1 tbs All purpose spice
1egg
Olive oil

Method:

1) Dice chicken into approx. 2 cm size pieces (results to faster cooking time)
2) Heat a pan with some oil.
3) Once colour changes add all purpose spice.
4) Once chicken is cooked and the spice has coated all the chicken add the egg.
5) Stir quickly so the egg is incorporated with the chicken and takes in the spice.
6) Once egg is cooked turn off heat and serve hot.

Lettuce leaves are optional.

Enjoy!

Crusted steak and veg

Heyho everyone,

Once again I have had no time to research what I wanted to cook this evening but managed to pull a few things together to make this O.M.G ultra healthy crusted steak with steamed veg.

There are many variations of a crusted lamb or steak but this here is great for people of a low carb diet.

Here is what you'll need

2 pieces 200g steak of your choosing
1 egg
1/2 cup almond meal
1tsp salt
1/2 tbs freshly ground pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1.5 tsp all purpose spice
Olive oil
Frozen veg (any type)
1 tbsp butter

1) place salt, pepper, almond meal, garlic powder and all purpose spice into a flat plate and mix until combined
2) crack egg and saturate each steak in the egg, taking care and allow excess egg to drip off.
3) coat all sides of steak with almond meal mixture.
4) add oil to a fry pan and fry on high on each side for 1-2 mins. (If you want it well done and cooked quickly reduce heat and cover for 5 mins).
5) remove from pan and allowed to rest for 10 mins.

Veggies

Bring a pot of water to the boil once veggies have gone bright in colour remove from water and rinse off in cold water. Add salt, pepper, more garlic powder to taste and butter.

Tah-dah! It's done. Quick simple and very healthy.

Broccoli and cauliflower bake

I've never actually made this before and I don't actually know why.

I made this side dish for my aunty's Christmas party she is having today. I strangely always try new recipes and ideas for people which is very risky especially since there is a very good chance of it being terrible. But funnily enough I have never had anything terrible happen while experimenting on people!

Here is what you'll need:
1 knob butter
2 heads broccoli
2 heads cauliflower
1/2 a tub of either cream cheese or mascarpone cheese softened
1-2 cups cheese blend (Cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan and Romano)
3-4 finely chopped garlic
1 cup breadcrumbs

Method:

1) chop broccoli and cauliflower into florets
2) place cauliflower into a pot and boil for 5 mins. Add broccoli to and oil for a further 2 mins or until broccoli have turned a bright green.
3) rinse off the veggies under cold water
4) place veggies into a oven safe dish and add creamed cheese and mix until all the veg is covered in cheese.
5) sprinkle with 4 cheese blend.

Breadcrumb mix.

1) heat butter in a saucepan until bubbles appear.
2) add garlic and sauté until fragrant
3) mix in breadcrumbs until all is combined and the breadcrumbs have taken in the butter.
4) sprinkle mixture on top of the veggies.
5) place under the grill/broiler until cheese is melted and the breadcrumbs have turned a deep gold.

Enjoy!

Spiced roast chicken

Hello all and welcome to my recipe-athon! I hope to overwhelm you all with tantalising creations from savoury to sweet!

Today's recipe is my own. I actually put it together on the spot as there was no time for me to sit and think and look for inspiration. So I quickly put a few things together with what I had in my pantry.

Let us begin!

Ingredients:

2kg chicken
3 bay leaves
6 bruised garlic cloves
6 sliced or roughly chopped garlic (extra)
1/3 cup sweet paprika
1/3 chicken spice (any kind)
2 heads broccoli
50 g melted butter
1 cup olive oil
1 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

Method:

1) Pre heat oven to 190 C ((fan force) add 20 C if using gas oven)
2) Cut broccoli into to florets and place into baking pan
3) Wash and dry chicken. Cut off tail and any extra fat around the cavity.
4) Rub some salt into the cavity
5) Stuff the chicken with bay leaves and 6 bruised garlics
6) Rub salt and pepper onto both sides of chicken
7) Rub the sweet paprika onto both sides of the chicken, making sure to coat between the legs and wings
8) Rub chicken spice onto the chicken on top of the sweet paprika.
9) Place chicken on top of the broccoli and sprinkle sliced or chopped garlic on top of the chicken (breasts are always facing up)
10) Brush melted butter all over the chicken
11) Cook chicken on high for the first 30 mins then turn in down to about 150-140 for an hour after that.
12) throughout the roasting time when we see the chicken become dry baste the chicken with olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture. It may seem like a lot, however you may find that you won't need it all.

In my rush and starvation I forgot to take a picture of the end product, but here is what it looked like before in went into the oven!

I hope you give it a go and please let me know how you went!