Grilled salmon and veggie mash

 Grilled salmon and veggie mash

When you buy a 1kg salmon side, instead of cooking it in the oven, slice the salmon into 4 slides, season with sea salt and pepper and grill on very hot pan.

Veggie mash
Boil peeled carrots and turnips
Once boiled pour the water away, add a knob of butter and mash



Onion/mushroom sautee
Add Olive oil into a large skillet that's on medium-high heat.
Saute chopped onions in olive oil for few minutes. Tip! Do not chop the onions into very small pieces, instead do slices, tastes and looks better!

Then add chopped mushrooms and saute for 5-10 minutes or until tender.
Season with salt, black/white pepper, and any fresh herbs (if you have any..) and little sesame seed oil


Served with boiled asparagus and watercress

Life after Whole Life Challenge - Roasted duck

Our diet has hardly included any dairy and wheat products. And I am still using almond milk (ready bought) and using it on my morning coffee! I do however use milk on my Latte if I take coffee outside home. But no sandwiches, cheese (other than proper gourmet ones last Saturday), so the impact of whole life challenge really had a permanent impact :)

Roasted duck

I recommend to get one that is cleaned and ready to go, it is so easy, just ensure you have enough time as it will be in the oven at least 2 hours (but its so worth it!)

With small knife made cuts between the skin(fat) and flesh all over
Season with Salt and black pepper and rub olive oil onto the skin

If you have leftovers from the duck next day, you can fry it with some red onion

Left over duck roast with fried red onion, boiled broccoli and sweet potato/turnip mash

Pork chops - easy!

This is so easy dish!
Usually I do this with in traditional Scandinavian way, worth of trying as that is yummy!In a small bowl, beat 2 eggs. In a separate small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, chili,paprika powder, parsley. Dip each pork chop into the egg mixture, then into the bread crumb mixture, coating evenly. Place coated pork chops in the hot oiled skillet, and brown abut 5 minutes on each side.).

but this time, as trying to avoid wheat,I just seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika powder, cajun seasoning mix, parsley and fried on a skillet

Whole life challenge finished!!

Friday was the last day of whole life challenge but this journey raised our awareness of food can really do to your body. And the effects can really be seen in only two months. Yes, we craved several foods and the cooking felt so limited or an extra effort. On Saturday we went for a night out and treated ourselves for ribs, wine and some drinks. And next day, as you might guess, not a good feeling. And today we were looking forward for home cooking :)
For sure we will continue cutting down sugars and wheat, although we will keep rye bread and occasional organic bread on our menu. I still have mixed feelings for dairy products, to have or not. And I am an ex-milk/yogurth daily consumer!
All dairy products raise the risk for example for cancer, i.e. It increases the insulin-like I factor that then increases cancer cells. Also, the galactose that is the milk sugar lactose, lowers the activated d-vitamin in the blood stream. Yes, it has calcium but too high levels of it increase especially chance if prostate cancer. CHECK THIS LINK. Alternatives to get calcium? Almonds, kale, broccoli,...So far we have not considered re-starting to use dairy, only exception will be good quality cheese(heading to Borough market next weekend)


Evenings meal was grilled salmon with green salad, sauteed mushrooms and veggie mash

Onion/mushroom sautee
Add Olive oil into a large skillet that's on medium-high heat.
Saute garlic and onions in olive oil for few minutes. Then add chopped mushrooms (if you have, with almond milk) and saute for 5-10 minutes or until tender.
Season with salt, black/white pepper, paprika powder and any fresh herbs (if you have any..)

Tips for a good stir-fry

What makes a good stir fry?

• Use carry paste to bring flavour
• Add coconut milk but don't over do with it!
• Always have a bottle of sesame seed oil in your cupboard (it will last for a good awhile)
• Add fresh ginger

King prawn Stir fry

 Stir fry veggie mix (any, i.e. from Tesco), we usually use the one with mushrooms/beansprouts
 King prawns
 4 cloves of garlic
 1 Onion
 Sesame Oil
 Curry paste (Whole Life Challenge compliant can be found from Waitrose)
 Spinach leafs (if you have any leftovers)
 Salt
 Black pepper
 Paprika Powder
 2dlMilk
 4cm of fresh ginger
 Fresh coriander (not mandatory)

• Start by chopping the garlic and ginger (as finely chopped as you can)
• Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add garlic, ginger and curry paste (the amount of carry paste depends on how spicy your paste is, if doubts do first stir fry with 1½ teaspoon and if you need more hotness then add just regular hot paprika powder. And on next time use more curry paste
• Stir-fry for just few minutes
• Start adding other ingredients, if you have pre-cooked prawns you can at those last, if not add those now
• Add onion (don't chop it into too small), fry for a minute or two and add the stir-fry veggie mix. Season with salt, pepper, paprika powder
• When its is about two-thirds done, add your 2dl of coconut milk and 2 teaspoons of sesame seed oil
• Let it cook on low heat under a cover and until fully cooked

 
Served with avocado/spinach salad and boiled broccoli/cauliflower

Almond Flour Banana Carrot Muffins - (Gluten and Sugar-Free)

This is the best set of muffins! Highly recommended!

Makes 6 large muffins

    3 dl of almond flour
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
    Juice of 1/4 lemon
    4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    3 teaspoon raisins
    2 teaspoon grated Cardamom (this is a must have ingredient!)
    2 eggs, beaten
    3 tablespoons olive oil
    8 tablespoons coconut milk
    2 dl grated carrot
    2 mashed bananas

• Preheat the oven to 170°C
• In a bowl place the almond flour, baking soda, raisins, cinnamon, cardamom and stir to combine
• In a separate bowl put the eggs, oil, lemon and coconut milk and whisk together. Add to the dry ingredients and fold through
• Squeeze the excess water out of the carrots (if watery, mine has never been), mix with 2 mashed bananas
• Add with the rest of the ingredients 
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin or cups and bake for 45 minutes, or until the cake springs back when pressed in the centre. 

Just before going to oven

Out from the oven :)

Meatballs

• 500g minced meat
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• salt
• black pepper
• hot paprika powder
• Dried herb mix *not mandatory
• 1/4 dl olive oil
• 2 eggs

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl

Use your washed bare hands to roll meatballs to about the size of a golf ball
Place onto a baking tray and cook in the oven for 30/40mins in 200C

Served with the usual veggie bash and spinach/avocado salad

Sea bass with Veggie Mash and mushrooms

• Sea bass fillets
• Sweet potatoes/Turnips
• Mushrooms
• Red Onion
• Fresh Dill
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Lemon

Fry the seasoned sea bass on olive oil from both sides starting from the skin side.
I a separate pan Saute red onion and mushrooms in olive oil until cooked.



Veggies mash

• Boil peeled sweet potatoes and (turnips)
• Once boiled pour the water away, add a knob of butter and mash

Happy Halloween! Carrot /Beetroot balls

Carrot/Beetroot balls and asparagus

• 4 Carrots
• 1 Turnip
• 1 beetroot
• 4 cloves of garlic
•  Onion
• Olive Oil
• 2 Eggs

Grate all the veggies (Food processor comes handy if you have one)
Add in chopped garlic and onion and mix together
Add egg and 2tbs of Olive Oil and season with salt, black pepper, chilli powder and basil (dry or fresh)
Stir well.
Wet your hands and from the mix shape small balls and place onto a baking tray
Cook in the oven for approx 30-40minutes in 180C

Ready to go to the oven!

Served with boiled asparagus and tomato/rocket salad

And a little bit of Halloween!

Kingprawn stirfy

Kingprawn stirfy
Sautee garlic x 4, onion and ginger (3cm) currypaste in olive oil. Ensure curry paste is WLC allowed, We got ours from Waitrose
Add stirfry veggie mix and kingprawns. Season with salt, blackpepper.
Cook until prawns are cooked

Served with boiled cauliflower and veggie mash.

Veggies mash

• Boil peeled sweetpotatoes and carrots
• Once boiled pour the water away, add a knob of butter and mash

Breakfast Whole Life Challenge Style

Smoked Salmon-Avocado Rolls

Smoked salmon (Check no added sugar! Tesco Organic Smoked Salmon is a good choice)
Avocado
Fresh Dill

Slice the salmon (approx 2cm x 6cm) and avocado (as fine slices as possible) and chop some dill (Use the dill on the next day for a fish dish or freeze it chopped in a freezer bag)

Sprinkle some dill onto the salmon slices and roll avocado slices into the salmon rolls
Easy!
 

Breakkie smoothie with Raisins and Chia seeds
Pineapple
Pear
Banana

We could not survive without our food processor, we use it every single morning to prep a fresh fruit smoothie.
This time made a bigger portion as we had ran out of meat/eggs so served a larger portion of smoothie with the salmon slides.


Did you know chia seeds are super food?
'Chia absorbs up to 12 times its own weight and expands to curb your appetite, so adding just an ounce or so of chia seeds to your diet can reduce caloric intake and help lower the energy density (or calories) of foods, plus double the amount of fiber you receive.'

'Chia seeds have more omega-3 fatty acids than salmon! Chia is one of the most concentrated sources of omega-3 in any food. It also contains high amounts of omega-6. Everyone needs to consume high amounts of these essential fatty acids in their diet'

'Chia also contains calcium; in fact, it delivers 18% of your daily value per ounce, which is three times more than skim milk.'

Mackerel with Veggie Mash

Mackerel with veggies mash 

• 2 small whole mackerels
• I suggest you ask the mackerel to be gutted and head removed, but if you forgot (like we did), it is not difficult to gut  a mackerel. Check instruction videos from Internet
• Once gutted and head removed, season with salt and black pepper and place few lemon slices inside the fish. We had some extra basil leafs so put few in too.
• Rub a little olive oil onto the skin and cook in the oven for approx 30minues

Served with boiled asparagus, veggie mash (sweet potato and carrots) and tomato/rocket salad

Veggies mash

• Boil peeled chopped carrots, sweetpotatoes and (turnips)
• Once boiled pour the water away, add a knob of butter and mash

Easy dinner - Turkey breast fillets

Healthy, quick and easy weekday meal!

Turkey breast fillets (got from Tesco, two packs)
Season with salt, pepper, paprika powder and cajun seasoning mix
Pan grill few minutes from both sides

Served with boiled broccoli, tomato/rocket salad and avocado

Smoked haddock, Hummus and Veggies

Super easy week day dinner!

Fillets of smoked haddock (got from tesco)

• Place on a oven try and cook for 30mins

Served with hummus, boiled broccoli and tomato/basil/rocket salad

   Hummus

•  2 cloves garlic
•  2 cans of organic chickpeas
•  1/4 liquid from one can of chickpeas
•  3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (taste before adding full 5 spoonfuls!)
•  2-3 tablespoons tahini (Needs to be organic to be WLC compliant! 
•  Tahini*You can get it from Waitrose. You can store in in fridge and it will stay good for several weeks. Alternatively you can make a larger portion of hummus and freeze it in small portions using freezer bags)
•  1 teaspoon salt
•  black pepper to taste
•  2 tablespoons olive oil

Place everything into a bowl (garlic chopped) and with a hand blender mix till smooth paste. That's it! Who said hummus is difficult to make!?

Tomato Soup - dairy/wheat free

This soup turned out really nicely! I'd recommend to double the ingredients to make bigger soup

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
a handful of fresh basil leaves picked
olive oil
1kg of tomatoes (as ripe as possible)

• Put your onion, garlic and basil into a large pot with a couple of lugs of olive oil
• Cover the pan, and simmer gently without colouring for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. 
• While the veg are simmering, drop the tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds, then remove the skin. 

Add these to the veg and let simmer for a further 20 minutes with the lid on, press the tomatoes gently so they break. 

Purée the soup using a food processor, but be careful as it is very hot

 Once you've puréed the soup, put it back into the pan, bring it back to a simmer, and season very carefully with chopped basil leave, salt and black pepper.

Chestnut and Mushroom burgers

2 garlic cloves
1 large onion
butter
200g mushrooms
200g cooked/peeled whole chestnuts (available in Waitrose, Porter Foods Organic whole chestnuts)
fresh thyme
salt and pepper

• Melt the butter and add onion and cook until lightly brown
• Add garlic and thyme and simmer for 5mins
• Chop the mushrooms and half of the chestnuts  - safe the other half

• Add to the pan, simmer till the mushrooms are cooked, season to taste
• Place half of the mixture from pan into a bowl
• Spoon the remaining into a food processor and add the rest of the chestnuts and one egg
• Mix to make a stiff paste (can have small bits in it)
• Combine both of the mixtures and with washed wet hands shape into approx 10 flat burgers
• Grill on medium heat for 10minutes 

Served with veggie mash, boiled mini carrots and rocket

Salmon Side

When you buy a 1kg salmon side, instead of cooking it in the oven, you can split it into two and grill it.
Just slice the other side in to 4 slides, season with sea salt and pepper and grill on very hot pan
You could grill all of the slides (whole 1kg) in one go but that takes more time and it tastes much better when done just before eating.

Served with boiled broccoli/cauliflower and saute green peas/onion seasoned with pepper and oil

Served with veggie mash (sweet potato/turnip) and tomato/capers/avocado salad

Roasted Chicken

Super easy, just ensure you put it into the oven when you get home as it will take around 2hrs to be ready.
Buy a chicken that's already been cleaned and tied, again saves time.

Season the inner cavity of the chicken with 6 peeled garlics and 4 chillies, if you have herbs like thyme or basil, chop them a little and add in too.

• Season the chicken with salt, black pepper, white pepper and paprika powder.
• Rub olive oil onto the chicken skin.
• Season again with salt

Placed in in a roasting pan ( I tend to cover the pan with mixture baking paper/foil, to save time on washing it)

190C for 45mins per kilo and additional 30minutes

Lamb chops

Easy Sunday night dinner - and soooo good!

    2 large garlic cloves, crushed
    Coarse sea salt
    Black Pepper
    extra-virgin olive oil
    Lamb chops, about 3/4-inch thick

We prepared a garlic oil separately and kept it separate, it was place onto the table in a small bowl, it's magic liquid, so yummy with lamb chops, but when adding it as a table seasoning don't over do it, you don't need to add much into your chop.

1. Chopped garlic and olive oil -- mix! that's it! Ensure you have enough oil so its' not just pure garlic.
2. Take the chops out of the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking
3. Heat a grill pan over high heat until almost smoking, add the chops, season with salt and black pepper. Flip the chops over  and season from the other side. Continue cooking for another 4 minutes for medium-rare and 5minutes for medium.

The grill pan we bought few months ago has been absolutely amazing, it is quite wide but once you get it heated you can cook large items like fish fillets on it or several chops like we just did. Buy one that is non-stick and fairly light to handle.

 Served with veggie mash (turnips/sweetpotato) and some saute onion/mushrooms seasoned with salt/pepper

Kale frittata -a good whole life challenge breakfast

Kale frittata, good alternative breakfast
Did again frittata from kale and eggs, no other seasoning that salt.
Recipe here: 
Kale is s a form of cabbage and its considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms.

Served with yummy, mango/strawberry/banana smoothie, other one topped with raisins/chia seeds and other with raisins/chia seeds/pumpkin seeds/almonds

Roasted pork joint lasts for several days when served as breakfast. As it is eaten in small quantities its so worth of investing on a good quality joint!

Pan-Fried Hake fillets, squid and veggies

Easy Friday meal

Pan-Fried Hake fillets
Salt/Pepper/Dill and Olive Oil
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the seasoned hake fillets, skin side down.
Fry the hakes for five minutes on each side, or until golden brown and cooked through. A
Sprinkle some fresh dill to garnish
(Tip: As you don't use these kind of herbs every day, buy a bigger bunch, chop it and froze it in a freezer bag on the day of the purchase. You can then add the herb to your dishes. As its chopped you don't need to defrost if you will add it too cooking. If you want to add it to ready meals like this time just take it out from the freezer at the beginning of the cooking and its defrosted when you're about to serve the meal)

Squid with garlic and onions
This is the simplest way to serve squid. It’s great as a starter but it can be served as a small side dish too (like we did)

• 300 gms squid cleaned (you can ask your squid to be cut into rings already too)
• 3 chopped garlic
• Small bunch of Fresh coriander (we did not have this time so used parsley)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sautee garlic and onion, add seasoned squid rings a until fully cooked


Served with greens and boiled cauliflower and tomato/rocket salad

Rib Eye Steak with Veggie Mash

Another go with the rib eye steak, check another try here- link :)
Veggie mash (the usual recipe here)
Some fried onions and rib eye steak (just salt and blackpepper)
Boiled green beans and that's it!
Served with some yummy guacamole (it really goes with any meat)

Yummy (but easy) Saturday night dinner

We invested on some good quality sea-bass fillets and it was so worth it!
Wash the fillets quickly under water, season with black/whitepepper and salt and fry on both sides( Start with skin side down)

Served with boiled broccoli and spinach/mushroom sautee
Spinach/mushroom sautee
Add Olive oil into a large skillet that's on medium-high heat.
Saute garlic and chopped mushrooms and saute with almond milk for 5 minutes or until tender (if you don't have almond milk olive oil is enough, however almond milk brings more taste)
Add spinach, and stir to coat with mushroom mixture. Add olive oil if gets too dry

Breakfast Veggie Patties - Whole life challenge recipe

Great use for your left over veggie mash! Veggie mash recipe click here
Just add two eggs to the mash, mix well and fry either as a whole or in small patties.

Served with apple/plum smoothie (really good combination!) and roasted pork slices (Even a small roasted pork lasts for quite many days :)

Trout with Veggie Mash

Waitrose has these great oven bags, so I decided to try it out. You could also by your own oven bag, season the fish and that's it. When choosing your fish ensure to ask it to be scaled, guts removed and de-boned. After that you can salt the fish, add lemon or herbs inside the fish and either grill or roast in oven, simple!
When selecting the fish, it should look moist, shiny, well-rounded and not dry or dull looking. A general rule is to cook a fish 10 minutes for each inch of thickness.

Veggie mash
Boil peeled carrots, sweetpotatoes and turnips, once boiled pour the water away, add a knob of butter and mash

Served with broccoli and re-take of CurryCoconut Veggies

'Re-take' CurryCoconut Veggies

• Baby spinach leafs
• Beansprouts
• Half Onion
• Garlic
• Tomato puree (needs to be organic, check that its pure tomato, nothing added in!)
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Curry powder
• Sesame seed oil (not mandatory but will bring a very nice flavor!)
• Cherry Tomatoes (not mandatory)

1. Chop onion, garlic and sautee briefly in olive oil/2 teaspoons tomato puree
2. Add chopped spinach, beansprouts, sesame oil (approx 1 teaspoon) add olive oil if gets too dry. Season with curry, salt, pepper. 
3. Add cherry tomatoes if you have
4. 
   

Roasted chicken with CurryCoconut Veggies

Getting used to cook according to Whole Life Challenge, not as hard as first, especially in the grocery store, amazing how many isles I can skip  :)

Ingredients might seem expensive but if you plan what you're cooking you can save money when using left overs.
The coconut milk was used for muffins and also hubby used for breakfast (he likes mixing raising, pumpkin seeds, Chia seeds (high in protein), banana and pour in just a little bit of coconut milk

I have the sesame seed oil stored, its a great addition to dull salad or veggies, but don't overdo with it!
I buy different nuts in one shopping, then just ensure those are packed to avoid getting moist. Buy unsalted nuts (whatever nuts you buy), as otherwise you will adapt into unhealthy eating/snacking. Also plan from where you're buying the nuts, and buy bigger packs and then divide into smaller bags- again, saving money! Found a nice little organic/whole food store just next to Spitalfields market that have good selection of organic nuts and dried fruits

Roasted chicken with CurryCoconut Veggies
Roasted chicken from waitrose (needs to be the plain one!

CurryCoconut Veggies

• Baby spinach leafs
• Beansprouts
• Bamboo shoots
• 1 fresh chili
• Onion
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Tomato puree (needs to be organic, check that its pure tomato, nothing added in!)
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Curry powder
• Coconut milk (left overs from baking)
• Sesame seed oil (not mandatory but will bring a very nice flavor!)
• Cashew nuts ((not mandatory)

1. Chop onion, garlic, chili, ginger, 2 teaspoons tomato puree and sautee briefly
2. Add chopped spinach, bamboo shoots and beansprouts, sesame oil (approx 1 teaspoon) add olive oil if gets too dry. Season with curry, salt, pepper. 
3. Add coconut milk and keep cooking on low heat for 15minutes
4. If you add cashew nuts, roast them on a separate dry pan before adding in

Served with roasted plain chicken

RIb Eye Steak with Veggie Mash

Rib Eye Steak with Veggie Mash

Take the meat out of fridge well before cooking to ensure its room temperature
Add salted and peppered steak and cook, flipping every 15 to 30 seconds until the desired internal temperature is almost reached.

 Veggie Mash
Boil peeled and chopped carrots and sweet potatoes until fully cooked. Pour away the water and mash and add a knob of butter - ready to be served!