Yesterday I was perusing the Daily Apple Forums (Fora, er, whatever...), when I found a thread about people's preferred comfort foods. Bacon and eggs were a common theme, along with dark chocolate. One that caught my eye was "Cold Cut Nachos", which has simply cold meat, topped with cheese, and microwaved until the cheese melted.
Well, that got me thinking, because Nachos have long been a favourite, easy to make snack food of mine. Of course, not eating grains means that corn chips are out of the question, so no Nachos for me any more. Up until yesterday, I hadn't really been missing them, but the "cold cut nachos" got me thinking about a primal alternative.
So, what's a good primal alternative to corn chips? Why not try some crispy fried bacon, I thought. What else can I throw on top of the bacon besides cheese? Well, there's always capsicum, avocado, tomato and chillies. Oh, and why not throw in an egg for good measure, too?
So, the end result is Bacon Nachos, a nice easy to prepare meal, which is tasty and healthy to boot. Tried them out last night, and they were magnificent. Unfortunatley, I have no pictures of them, because we'd finished them before we realised that we forgot to take a picture. Whoops, well, I guess there's always next time...
Here's how to make them:
Bacon Nachos:
Ingredients:
6 (or so) Rasher of Bacon (allow 2 or 3 rashers per person being fed)
1 Egg per person
2 Tomatoes (allow an extra tomato if feeding more than 4 people)
1 Avocado
1/2 Capsicum
Chillies to taste
Grated Cheese
- Pre-heat the oven to 180° C.
- Fry the bacon until it is just starting to go crispy, and place in a baking tray or casserole dish
- Chop the tomato, avocado, capsicum and chillies finely, mix together and place on top of the bacon
- Crack the eggs over the top of the tomato etc.
- Top with grated cheese
- Place in the oven, and bake until the cheese is golden brown.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Fitness, Fun and Sore Muscles
Wow, what a weekend. It's been an eye opener for sure. Yesterday started with complaining muscles, after Friday's Lift Heavy Things session. Thankfully I've got the weekend to recover from that one. It's quite surprising the number of different muscles that have made their presence felt this weekend, which makes me confident that the 5 Essential Movements workout is working out just about every bit of my body.
Yesterday was pretty much a rest day. A short 45-50 minute walk in the morning, followed by some fishing in the afternoon. Today, I wanted to experiment with something different. I've invested in a Frisbee recently (Only I haven't, seeing as what I always called a Frisbee as a kid is actually a trade mark. Apparently what I did in fact buy was a Flying Disc, which in no way, shape or form sounds as cool as a Frisbee...). Today's exercise came in the form of throwing a Flying Disc (god, that sounds lame...) between myself and The Cat's Mother.
As it turns out, this was pretty much the best thing we could have done, as we were both looking forward to it, despite the continuing aches and pains. Not only that, it was so much fun, that we didn't want to stop. We'd spent 40 minutes happily throwing the Flying Thing, and it seemed like hardly any time at all. The best thing is that we can't wait to do it again, as it's made exercising fun.
Yesterday was pretty much a rest day. A short 45-50 minute walk in the morning, followed by some fishing in the afternoon. Today, I wanted to experiment with something different. I've invested in a Frisbee recently (Only I haven't, seeing as what I always called a Frisbee as a kid is actually a trade mark. Apparently what I did in fact buy was a Flying Disc, which in no way, shape or form sounds as cool as a Frisbee...). Today's exercise came in the form of throwing a Flying Disc (god, that sounds lame...) between myself and The Cat's Mother.
As it turns out, this was pretty much the best thing we could have done, as we were both looking forward to it, despite the continuing aches and pains. Not only that, it was so much fun, that we didn't want to stop. We'd spent 40 minutes happily throwing the Flying Thing, and it seemed like hardly any time at all. The best thing is that we can't wait to do it again, as it's made exercising fun.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Primal Blueprint Fitness
Last week saw the release of the Primal Blueprint Fitness eBook. Seeing as I had been seriously lacking in the fitness department, I made sure to download it. The book expands upon the three basics of primal fitness, move frequently at a slow pace, lift heavy things and sprint once in a while.
I didn't jump in straight away, even though I was dying to. I decided I would at the very least read the whole book first. Fortunately, that didn't take long. Even so, I still waited a bit longer, and went back over a few sections in detail first.
This week was the chosen week to begin the fitness plan. Wednesday is my designated day 1 for the 7 day cycle, and it began with sprints. Now, while I'd love to actually do some running sprints, common sense told me that it wouldn't be a good idea to go and bust out a few sprints with no build up.
Instead, I put my bike onto the trainer, and did some sprints on that. I didn't go as hard as I possibly could, due to the alarming creaking noise the trainer started making as I started pedalling as fast as I could. Looks like I might need to find an alternative sprint exercise.
Fortunately, this week I also signed up to the Mark's Daily Apple Forum. I put the question to the forum members, as to what sort of low impact sprint-like workout I could do instead. I got a number of suggestions back, which included walking/jogging up a hill, to simply just jogging as the sprint, and walking to recover. Both of these ideas sound like a good way to ease into running, and definitely sound like a lot more fun that grinding away on the bike trainer. Of course, once it becomes light enough of an evening to go riding, I'll be able to put in some sprints on the bike, as well.
Yesterday was spent taking it easy, as tonight was the first of the lift heavy things workouts. The eBook outlines what are called the 5 essential movements, and a lift heavy things workout utilises all five of them. Now, I'd imagined that while I wasn't exactly fit, I could at least do a few pushups, and maybe a pull-up or two.
Well, I was in for a bit of a shock, as I couldn't do anywhere near as many pushups as I used to be able to, and I couldn't even manage a single pull-up. Still, my squats were good, which is something. I guess all the distance on the mountain bike has paid off.
Tonight's workout was something of an eye opener. Having done the preliminary test to determine what level of exercise I should start at, I had a fairly optimistic view of how I would perform. Suffice to say, I was rather humbled by my performance. Still, I have to start somewhere, and I've definitely left room to improve.
I didn't jump in straight away, even though I was dying to. I decided I would at the very least read the whole book first. Fortunately, that didn't take long. Even so, I still waited a bit longer, and went back over a few sections in detail first.
This week was the chosen week to begin the fitness plan. Wednesday is my designated day 1 for the 7 day cycle, and it began with sprints. Now, while I'd love to actually do some running sprints, common sense told me that it wouldn't be a good idea to go and bust out a few sprints with no build up.
Instead, I put my bike onto the trainer, and did some sprints on that. I didn't go as hard as I possibly could, due to the alarming creaking noise the trainer started making as I started pedalling as fast as I could. Looks like I might need to find an alternative sprint exercise.
Fortunately, this week I also signed up to the Mark's Daily Apple Forum. I put the question to the forum members, as to what sort of low impact sprint-like workout I could do instead. I got a number of suggestions back, which included walking/jogging up a hill, to simply just jogging as the sprint, and walking to recover. Both of these ideas sound like a good way to ease into running, and definitely sound like a lot more fun that grinding away on the bike trainer. Of course, once it becomes light enough of an evening to go riding, I'll be able to put in some sprints on the bike, as well.
Yesterday was spent taking it easy, as tonight was the first of the lift heavy things workouts. The eBook outlines what are called the 5 essential movements, and a lift heavy things workout utilises all five of them. Now, I'd imagined that while I wasn't exactly fit, I could at least do a few pushups, and maybe a pull-up or two.
Well, I was in for a bit of a shock, as I couldn't do anywhere near as many pushups as I used to be able to, and I couldn't even manage a single pull-up. Still, my squats were good, which is something. I guess all the distance on the mountain bike has paid off.
Tonight's workout was something of an eye opener. Having done the preliminary test to determine what level of exercise I should start at, I had a fairly optimistic view of how I would perform. Suffice to say, I was rather humbled by my performance. Still, I have to start somewhere, and I've definitely left room to improve.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Primal Fitness
Yesterday I jumped on Mark's Daily Apple, for my daily dose of all things Primal. Rather than the usual post, I found that the post for yesterday was announcing the Primal Blueprint Fitness (PBF) eBook. Intrigued, I checked it out. One quick signup to Mark's newsletter later, I was happily downloading the book.
Currently I'm reading my way through it, but I'm happy to say that at long last, it looks like I've found a fitness plan which will be easy to follow. The PBF builds on the three core ideas of the Primal lifestyle, Lots of moving at a slow pace, some lifting of heavy things and a bit of sprinting for good measure. The one thing that I was very happy about was how easily I'm going to be able to fit the exercise plan into my lifestyle.
The suggested plan splits the different areas over 7 days. One thing I was apprehensive about is how I'll be able to fit mountain bike racing into the scheme of things. As it turns out, if I assume that the race takes the place of the sprint workout once the racing season resumes, then everything else just fits nicely around that.
Although I'd dearly like to, I'm not going to jump straight into the PBF workouts. I'd like to give the whole book a read first, so that I can get a better idea of how everything will work. At this stage, I'll be starting the workout plan in one weeks time, as that will give me time to learn more about the workouts involved. It will also give me a chance to see how this will work in my increasingly busy schedule...
Currently I'm reading my way through it, but I'm happy to say that at long last, it looks like I've found a fitness plan which will be easy to follow. The PBF builds on the three core ideas of the Primal lifestyle, Lots of moving at a slow pace, some lifting of heavy things and a bit of sprinting for good measure. The one thing that I was very happy about was how easily I'm going to be able to fit the exercise plan into my lifestyle.
The suggested plan splits the different areas over 7 days. One thing I was apprehensive about is how I'll be able to fit mountain bike racing into the scheme of things. As it turns out, if I assume that the race takes the place of the sprint workout once the racing season resumes, then everything else just fits nicely around that.
Although I'd dearly like to, I'm not going to jump straight into the PBF workouts. I'd like to give the whole book a read first, so that I can get a better idea of how everything will work. At this stage, I'll be starting the workout plan in one weeks time, as that will give me time to learn more about the workouts involved. It will also give me a chance to see how this will work in my increasingly busy schedule...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Healthy Pizza is not an Oxymoron...
This week's experiment has been making a Primal pizza. After the success of the almond and flax meal bread, I've been looking out for other uses for Almond meal. I found a recipe over at Mark's Daily Apple, submitted by Son of Grok, for a pizza base made from almond meal.
The recipe looked pretty simple to make, and didn't require any special ingredients, so I decided to give it a go. Now, this was my first attempt at making a pizza from scratch, as I've always been a bit lazy, and normally would just use a pre-made pizza base from the supermarket. Fortunately, this recipe is dead easy to make.
The actual pizza wasn't completely primal, as I cheated a bit, and used barbecue sauce, rather than tomato paste, but I figured that two or three spoonfuls of barbecue sauce wasn't going to be too bad for me. Rather than simmering the sauce, I simply watered down the barbecue sauce until it was at a nice consistency, and then mixed in some Italian Herb mix. Two or three dessert spoonfuls of the sauce covered the pizza quite well.
On top of the sauce I added a thin layer of cheese, followed by pepperoni (another non-primal ring-in that I couldn't resist), ham, crispy bacon, mushrooms capsicum and another thin layer of cheese. I think that in future, to make the pizza truly primal, I'll stick to a tomato sauce, and leave of the pepperoni, but I'll have to add some chillies, and some other spices to the sauce to add some zing.
Having topped the pizza, it went back into the oven until the cheese started to brown nicely. The end result looked fantastic, and smelled amazing. The taste was as good as it looked and smelled.
The recipe is supposed to feed four, and I have to admit, I didn't think it would. The plan was to have half of the pizza tonight, and save the other half for tomorrow's lunch. Sadly, the pizza didn't survive tea tonight, so I was forced to make a second one for lunch tomorrow (it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it).
The recipe looked pretty simple to make, and didn't require any special ingredients, so I decided to give it a go. Now, this was my first attempt at making a pizza from scratch, as I've always been a bit lazy, and normally would just use a pre-made pizza base from the supermarket. Fortunately, this recipe is dead easy to make.
The actual pizza wasn't completely primal, as I cheated a bit, and used barbecue sauce, rather than tomato paste, but I figured that two or three spoonfuls of barbecue sauce wasn't going to be too bad for me. Rather than simmering the sauce, I simply watered down the barbecue sauce until it was at a nice consistency, and then mixed in some Italian Herb mix. Two or three dessert spoonfuls of the sauce covered the pizza quite well.
On top of the sauce I added a thin layer of cheese, followed by pepperoni (another non-primal ring-in that I couldn't resist), ham, crispy bacon, mushrooms capsicum and another thin layer of cheese. I think that in future, to make the pizza truly primal, I'll stick to a tomato sauce, and leave of the pepperoni, but I'll have to add some chillies, and some other spices to the sauce to add some zing.
Having topped the pizza, it went back into the oven until the cheese started to brown nicely. The end result looked fantastic, and smelled amazing. The taste was as good as it looked and smelled.
The recipe is supposed to feed four, and I have to admit, I didn't think it would. The plan was to have half of the pizza tonight, and save the other half for tomorrow's lunch. Sadly, the pizza didn't survive tea tonight, so I was forced to make a second one for lunch tomorrow (it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it).
Monday, August 2, 2010
Bread Heaven
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been struggling recently with cutting certain foods out of my diet. The main one has been bread. I don't know what it is, but it just doesn't seem right, not eating bread at all.
Early on, when we first started eating primal, we attempted to make a primal alternative, a carrot and walnut bread. This attempt was not successful. After that, I gave it up as a bad joke, and didn't bother again.
Maybe I should have persevered, because on the same page that I found the recipe for the walnut bread on, was a link to a gluten free bread recipe at Elana's Pantry. Having decided that I really needed a good alternative to bread, I decided to give this recipe a go. Finding some of the ingredients was interesting, after all, I'd never even heard of arrowroot powder and agave nectar. Still, after a visit to the local health food store, I had all the ingredients, and I was ready to bake some bread.
The bread is very easy to make, certainly nowhere near as much hassle as the bread I'd made in high school cooking classes. As it was cooking, the smell coming from the oven was just amazing. Although I'd intended to have the bread for breakfast, I just couldn't resist trying some last night after it had cooled off.
As for the taste, I can't even begin to describe it. It's got so much flavour, making ordinary bread seem rather bland and boring by comparison. I tried toasting it under the grill this morning, which worked okay, but really, toasting it is unnecessary. I can see this one being made regularly from now on...
Early on, when we first started eating primal, we attempted to make a primal alternative, a carrot and walnut bread. This attempt was not successful. After that, I gave it up as a bad joke, and didn't bother again.
Maybe I should have persevered, because on the same page that I found the recipe for the walnut bread on, was a link to a gluten free bread recipe at Elana's Pantry. Having decided that I really needed a good alternative to bread, I decided to give this recipe a go. Finding some of the ingredients was interesting, after all, I'd never even heard of arrowroot powder and agave nectar. Still, after a visit to the local health food store, I had all the ingredients, and I was ready to bake some bread.
The bread is very easy to make, certainly nowhere near as much hassle as the bread I'd made in high school cooking classes. As it was cooking, the smell coming from the oven was just amazing. Although I'd intended to have the bread for breakfast, I just couldn't resist trying some last night after it had cooled off.
As for the taste, I can't even begin to describe it. It's got so much flavour, making ordinary bread seem rather bland and boring by comparison. I tried toasting it under the grill this morning, which worked okay, but really, toasting it is unnecessary. I can see this one being made regularly from now on...
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Savoury Bacon, Onion and Tomato Pancakes
Two posts in one day, what is the world coming to? Quite simply, I can't wait to post this recipe up. First a bit of background, though.
I can't claim all the credit for this recipe. It's originally based on the Savoury Vegetable Pancakes over at Joyful Abode. My girlfriend and I made these for tea one night during the week, and absolutely fell in love with them. We were talking about how we could use them, and the suggestion was made to have them with bacon for breakfast. My girlfriend than suggested we could replace the carrot with bacon and onion, and I suggested some tomato as well. Thus the Bacon, Onion and Tomato Pancakes were born.
I've just made our first batch, and they are simply amazing. There are a few difference from the Joyful Abode recipe, namely the substitution of Almond Meal for Coconut Flour, simply because I've been unable to find anywhere that actually sells coconut meal. Research on the 'Net indicated that when Coconut Flour is used, only 1/3 of the amount is required, because it absorbs a lot of moisture.
With that in mind, I've been experimenting with the amount of Almond meal required. As a result, the amount in the recipe is necessarily vague, because I've been making it up as I go along. Anyway, enough talking, here's the recipe:
Savoury Bacon, Onion and Tomato Pancakes
I can't claim all the credit for this recipe. It's originally based on the Savoury Vegetable Pancakes over at Joyful Abode. My girlfriend and I made these for tea one night during the week, and absolutely fell in love with them. We were talking about how we could use them, and the suggestion was made to have them with bacon for breakfast. My girlfriend than suggested we could replace the carrot with bacon and onion, and I suggested some tomato as well. Thus the Bacon, Onion and Tomato Pancakes were born.
I've just made our first batch, and they are simply amazing. There are a few difference from the Joyful Abode recipe, namely the substitution of Almond Meal for Coconut Flour, simply because I've been unable to find anywhere that actually sells coconut meal. Research on the 'Net indicated that when Coconut Flour is used, only 1/3 of the amount is required, because it absorbs a lot of moisture.
With that in mind, I've been experimenting with the amount of Almond meal required. As a result, the amount in the recipe is necessarily vague, because I've been making it up as I go along. Anyway, enough talking, here's the recipe:
Savoury Bacon, Onion and Tomato Pancakes
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
3 eggs
3 tablespoons of milk
1/2 - 2/3 cup almond meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 rashers of bacon
1 medium brown onion
2 shallots
2 tomatoes
Mix the oil, eggs, milk, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the almond meal slowly and mix until a smooth batter is formed. The batter will thicken slightly when it is left to stand. Add more almond meal if the batter is too thin.
Chop the bacon into small pieces, and fry in a little coconut oil until it is crispy. Transfer the bacon into the batter (but do not tip the coconut oil and bacon grease in). Discard the bacon grease, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the frying pan.
Chop the onion, shallots and tomato, and fry them until the onion is golden brown. Mix the onion and tomato into the batter.
Heat butter in a frying pan, and spoon lumps of batter into the pan, cooking for a minute or two on each side.
Here's a shot of the final product:
Staying Positive
It's amazing how much of an effect your state of mind plays in achieving goals. I haven't been doing much posting lately, simply because I've not felt like it. I haven't been able to achieve my next weight loss goal, and have simply been hovering around the same weight. I've also been finding it extremely hard to eat properly, and I've found non-primal food sneaking into my diet once again.
So, it's time for a change of tactics. I've decided to discontinue keeping track of my weight and body fat percentage. I'll still keep an eye on things, via WiiFit, but I'll only be checking for weight loss, I won't be keeping tabs on my exact weight. The theory is that it'll be one less thing to worry about, making it easier to stay on track.
I'm also going to be focussing more on all the great food I can eat, rather than the food I can't eat. This last week has been something of an eye opener in that regard. I'd been craving simple things like bread over the last couple of weeks, and it eventually became too much, so I decided to look for primal alternatives.
It's amazing the number of primal recipes out there on the Internet. I've managed to find what I hope will be a good Primal bread, and my girlfriend has been finding the most amazing recipes as well. This week we started to sample them, and it's simply amazing how good some of these recipes are.
As a result, I've decided that I need to blog more about what it is that we're eating. This gives me a good excuse to try new recipes, so that I've got something new to write about. Also, I hope it will mean that I'll not struggle with trying to eat the right things, as there will always be something new to try.
In hindsight, I think that's been part of my problem lately. We found some nice recipes, and they became favourites. Unfortunately, even the nicest meal will tend to lose its appeal when you're eating it for the third or fourth week in a row. Here's to variety, the spice of life...
So, it's time for a change of tactics. I've decided to discontinue keeping track of my weight and body fat percentage. I'll still keep an eye on things, via WiiFit, but I'll only be checking for weight loss, I won't be keeping tabs on my exact weight. The theory is that it'll be one less thing to worry about, making it easier to stay on track.
I'm also going to be focussing more on all the great food I can eat, rather than the food I can't eat. This last week has been something of an eye opener in that regard. I'd been craving simple things like bread over the last couple of weeks, and it eventually became too much, so I decided to look for primal alternatives.
It's amazing the number of primal recipes out there on the Internet. I've managed to find what I hope will be a good Primal bread, and my girlfriend has been finding the most amazing recipes as well. This week we started to sample them, and it's simply amazing how good some of these recipes are.
As a result, I've decided that I need to blog more about what it is that we're eating. This gives me a good excuse to try new recipes, so that I've got something new to write about. Also, I hope it will mean that I'll not struggle with trying to eat the right things, as there will always be something new to try.
In hindsight, I think that's been part of my problem lately. We found some nice recipes, and they became favourites. Unfortunately, even the nicest meal will tend to lose its appeal when you're eating it for the third or fourth week in a row. Here's to variety, the spice of life...
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