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..)