Kale with scrambled eggs

• 4 eggs
• Kale leafs
• Half of onion
  

Chop the kale leafs and onion and sautee for few minutes in olive oil
Break the eggs into a bowl and add the egg mixture in to the pan
Push eggs toward center while tilting skillet to distribute runny
Continue this motion as the eggs continue to set, I usually lowew the heat at this point and just let them sit :) occasionally checking that the uncooked egg run underneat

 

Served with fried bacon (ensur your bacon does not have added sugar to stay WLC compliant!
and fruit salad (pear, banana and satsumas)

Minced meat burgers with sweet potato fries and jerusalem artichoke puree

Burgers

• 2 eggs
• 500-600 grams of lean minced meat (recommended to choose as quality mince as you can get, its worth the money!)
• 2 small of onions (chopped and sauteed)
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 4 chopped garlics
• Fresh parsley
• Thyme (Fresh or dried
• ½ dl Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoons of hot pepper powder
• Black and white pepper

Instructions

• Saute the onion
• In a medium sized bowl add in minced meat as well as the eggs,  olive oil, garlic and seasoning
• Once the onion has cooled down a bit, add it in too
• Ensure you mix all well but do not mix more than required as it will turn the burgers dry
• With wet hands take a portion out and shape it carefully into a form of a burger

 

Sweet potato fries

• three large sweet potatoes
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil

You can either peel the potato or leave the skin on - lately I leave it on every time. It adds nutrition and a nice chewy texture. Rinse the sweet potatoes. Cut the sweet potato in half. Then take a half of the sweet potato and cut it into large slices about 3/4 inch thick. You'll then cut the larger slices into fries. Your fries should be 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick.

Instead of of placing the fries straight to the baking tray, put them into plastic bowl, pour in little olive oil, sprinkle some salt and black pepper and shake the fries around.
Place a baking sheet onto the tray and place the fries onto it. Make sure you're scooping the salt, pepper and oil from the bottom and mixing it in. Make sure they're all evenly spaced and not touching. They'll get soggy otherwise.
Cook them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then, take them out and flip them, once flipped, put them back in the oven for 10 minutes.

Jerusalem (root) artichoke puree

Peel the Jerusalem artichokes and, as you do so, place them in the pan of cold water
Cut the peeled Jerusalem artichokes into small, even-sized chunks
Boil till fully cooked
Add butter to taste and mash, yummy!!

Almond Cod

• Cod fillets
• Almonds
• Whitepepper
• Fresh dill
• Olive Oil

Another easy dinner!

• Place the cod fillets into an oiled roasting tray and season. 
• Season the fish with salt and white pepper
• Pour some olive oil on to the fish.
• Crush some almonds and chop some dill and sprinkle over fish.
•  You can cook some tomatoes on the side of the fish

Cook in oven on 180°C for approx 22 minutes.
 

Served with spinach&avocado salad and boiled asparagus

Breakfast Veggie patties

Great use for your left over veggie mash! For Veggie mash recipe click here
Add eggs to the mash, mix well in a bowl and fry in a hot frying pan, add enough olive oil or butter to the pan before adding the mixture.

Approximately one egg per 1 dl of veggie mash. If unsure of the quantaties, try to spread the mash to the bottom of the bowl to see how large it becomes. 

This time we made just one smal pattie, 1 egg with approx 1dl of veggie mash

Served with slices of Pork Crackling Joint and fresh banana/pear slices

Cabbage/Minced meat soup

Healhty, tasty, filling, WLC food!

Cabbage/Minced meat soup

600g minced (lean) meat
3 carrots
1 white cabbage (approx 800g)
4 Cloves of garlic
1 small leek
1 Onion
2-3 Chillies (whole fresh)
Salt
Black Pepper
White Pepper
Marjoram
Paprika powder
Basil
Fresh parsley

• Chop the cabbage and start boiling. While boiling, peel and chop the carrots and leek and add in with 1 peeled whole garlic cloves and 2-3 whole chilies (depends how spicy you want it). Add Salt and Marjoram (dried). If you have dried Basil add in too. I had spare half of red pepper so added it in too :)

 

• Fry the minced meat together with onion and 3 crushed cloves of garlic,  add salt, white and black pepper and paprika powder until cook until the meat is fully cooked

• Mix the minced meat into the soup and let boil on low heat for 30mins
• Add chopped fresh parsley and pepper/salt/spices to your taste 

WLC snack - Guacamole with Pork Crackling Joint

To ensure the full use of the Pork Crackling Joint we used few slices of it (its best cold!) on this early afternoon snack

Served with guacamole.


Guacamole:

•     1 fresh chili
•     Juice of half a lemon
•     3 avocados (depends on size), ripe!
•     Small bunch of fresh coriander
•     2 cloves of garlic
•     4 spring onions (or half of a regular onion)
•     Olive oil
•     Handful of cherry tomatoes (or 2 small regular tomatoes)

Cut the avocado in half lengthwise using a sharp knife and Remove the seed.Cut the halves in a grid pattern without cutting the skin. Scoop the avocado meat into food processor (or mixing bowl if you don't have food processor)

Add the rest of the ingredients; chopped onion, coriander, chili, peeled garlic and the juice of some of    the lemon (don't put too much as you an easily over do, easier to add afterwards if needed) and put into Add good drizzle of olive oil. 

Mix up with the food processor or by hand and add finely chopped tomatoes- Mix until chunky or as smooth as you want

WLC style Breakfast - Green smoothie and Pork Crackling Joint

Breakfast usually feels like the most challenging dish during WLC especially when eggs and smoothies are the easy way out but gets a bit boring after awhile :) Its also important to remember to use eggs with moderation (At least cut the usage of yolk to reduce the intake of cholesterol/fat)

Today we tried a green smoothie and it actually turned out real nice.

A pork crackling joint is also an option during WLC. The crackling brings flavour to the actual meat but we always remove it after cooking as its fairly fatty but that is all up to you!

Pork Crackling Joint

Place the joint into a roasting tin. Cook in pre-heated oven 180C/350F. (Cooking time is 30 minutes per 500g plus en extra 30 minutes). Allow joint to rest in a warm place for 10 minutes before serving

 

Green Smoothie

This serves one person so double the ingredients if for two persons

• 1 dl of fresh spinach
• 1 dl of Cucumber ( I peeled mine but not necessary..)
• Celery - approx a piece of 4cm
• Approx two  parsley
• Juice of half 1 lime
• Juice of half 1 lemon
• 1 sliced banana

Combine all ingredients in a blender. To get more juice out of the lime and lemon roll them against the table before cutting into half and squeezing them. Breakfast is served!

Whole Life Challenge starting this week!

Recipes (new) and some old redone will be posted during the WLC :)
Good luck everyone!

Yummy Prawn Couscous Salad

This was really tasty and quick!
The secret of making good couscous is to add fresh herbs to it and chop whatever is added to it into very fine pieces.

This dish was combined from different pieces, the prawns, couscous and salad

Couscous
Pour boiling water over the couscous and set aside for 10 minutes (4dl couscous and 6dl water)

Peel and thinly slice half red onion
Chop a small bag of parsley and coriander
Chop 2 tomatoes to fine slices

Add all into the couscous. Season with olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Do not add too much oil or lemon in one go, try first and add more if needed :)

Prawns
We bought some ready cooked prawns and just briefly heated up on a frying pan

Salad
The couscous was served with rocket/spinach/radish/capers salad and some fresh avocado, however if you do not have all those ingredients just add some lettuce for example.

Back from break and recipe posting continues!

Back from Xmas break and time to start new year with new (and old) recipes :) Not fully paleo or WLC but very minimized use of dairy, wheat ...

here is a quick workday dinner

Trout with Sweetpotato/Carrot mash

• 2x Ready Fresh trout fillets (trout is much cheaper than salmon but as good!)
• Pack of Waitrose frozen herbs (you can do this yourself too, just chop garlic, lemongrass, ginger, garlic and chili) but with this ready chopped pack saves so much time! )

• Season the fillets with sea salt (I also tend to wash the fillets quickly under cold water)
• Put the fillets (skin down) to a frying pan (that is on high heat) and then place the herbs on top of the fillets (tap on to fillet gently)
• Let fry for few minutes on high heat and then low the heat. This is to save you from turning the fish (as the herbs would burn and get all over the pan and you want to keep them on your fillets! Let the trout cook and once its almost ready, turn it carefully so the herbs are on the bottom.
• Place a folio on top of the pan and let sit for 5minutes. Take the fillet from the pan and turn carefully not to loose the herbs

Veggie mash
Boil peeled carrots and sweetpotatoes, chop into smaller pieces so you save time on boiling
Once boiled pour the water away, add a knob of butter and mash

 Served with beetroot/goat cheese (beetroot was boiled on the day before and today I just sliced it and cooked in oiled tray for 15minutes. Once out out oven crumbled a little of bit of goat cheese onto to it

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