Italian Pork Frittata with Balsamic Glaze

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Plate with Italian style pork frittata

I’ve been wanting to share this recipe for about a week now (seriously where does the time go?!) but I was having problems with the software I use for my photos so I had to wait until that was all sorted. Luckily it looks like it’s been fixed now, which means I get to share this with you… YAAAYYYY!!!

Before I tell you about this recipe though I wanted to share something really cute that Joe said to me last night (and sorry if you’re reading this love but I just HAD to share!). So last night we were supposed to go down to the supermarket to pick up a few things and Joe needed some shaving cream, but I wasn’t feeling the best and just wanted to eat and relax after dinner so I suggested for him to use some of my coconut oil to shave. He isn’t a fan of the smell of coconut oil but I convinced him to give it a go. Well turns out he liked it and was happy with how it worked and the cute part… after he was done he came to me and said something along the lines of “there’s so many strange looking ingredients in my regular shaving cream.” Seriously I thought that was so cute and so observant of him :). This morning I asked him if he wanted me to go get him some shaving cream today and he said no I’m happy to use the coconut oil. GO JOE!!! [Read more…]

Paleo Carrot Pancakes with Coconut Butter

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Paleo carrot pancakes with coconut butter

Here’s the GOOD news… we’ve found a new place to move into! BUT we can’t move in until early September so we’ll still be in this place for a bit longer but I we seriously can’t wait to move out of here! The new place is bigger, in a better location AND it’s not in an apartment block, it’s in a gated community with the houses attached to each other which means no more having to deal with people above us making noises all night! AND my FAVOURITE part of all is we will be living LITERALLY across the road from a castle! How cool is that! 🙂

I’m looking forward to seeing how the new kitchen works out… it’s always an adjustment when you move into a new place! By the way this will be our 6th move (including moving from Australia to America, then America to here) in 3 years so yes you can call me ‘The Moving Queen’ 😉

Anyway so this recipe I’m about to share with you is not very sweet at all, in fact the only thing that gives it some sweetness is the homemade coconut butter on top… don’t worry coconut butter is EASY to make! It could be sweeter depending on if you add sweetener to it which I didn’t, but other than that there’s no sweetener in these paleo carrot pancakes. [Read more…]

Grass-Fed Meat & Vegetable Muffins

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Grass-ffd meat and vegetable muffins

Remember how I said I was ready to get back into teaching, well I’m booked in to visit with a teaching agency next week so they can help me look for work and place me in schools around our area. I’m nervous/excited/anxious about the whole thing! It’s been a while since I’ve been in an actual classroom, let alone in a new country so fingers crossed it all goes well. And hopefully I can start picking up some work soon.

I feel like the longer I’m out of the classroom the harder it will be to get back into things and I don’t want that to happen. I’m hoping for a full-time job but for the start I think doing substitute/supply teaching might be the way to go just so I can get back into the swing of things. Well I’ll let you know how I get on at the teaching agency interview next week!

In other news I recently discovered a UK based website that sells grass-fed/pastured meats and raw milk. Actually they started following me on Twitter and then I jumped onto their website and was like OMG! Seriously that stuff makes me more excited than a new pair of shoes (I’m so not a girly girl)! Anyway I ended up ordering a few things from them, some marrow bones, some beef liver and raw milk… I didn’t order any other meat though since our freezer is already packed full but decided to get some marrow and liver since these are often bits of the animal that people bypass but they are some of the healthiest part of an animal, plus they are usually cheaper than the prime cuts because of the fact that people bypass them. [Read more…]

Paleo Coconut Berry Pancakes

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Paleo coconut and berry pancakes

I’m a BIG breakfast person, I need to sit down, eat and take my time doing so even if it means I have to get up an hour early before having to be somewhere. Joe on the other hand is a rusher, he rushes he never sits down in the mornings to have his breakfast and is out the door in a flash.

I don’t know maybe things will change in the future, I’m working on getting my documentation together to start looking for full-time teaching work here and fingers crossed I’ll find something soon! Well it all depends on when my documents come through but even back in Australia when I was teaching full-time I still made sure to get up early enough so that I could sit down to eat breakfast, most days anyway!

Here’s the breakfast I whipped up this morning. I wasn’t sure about putting it up as a recipe on here since it just came together really quickly but after eating it I felt the need to share it with all of you. It was delicious!

Paleo Coconut Berry Pancakes

Paleo coconut and berry pancakes

Ingredients:
  • 1 banana (ripe but it doesn’t have to be overly ripe).
  • 2 eggs.
  • 2 Tbsp coconut cream from a can of full-fat coconut milk (the thick part of the coconut milk that sits on top of the can).
  • 1 tsp cinnamon.
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg.
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom powder.
  • Pinch of sea salt.
  • Berries of your choice (I used strawberries, blueberries and blackberries).
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil.
  • Optional toppings: raw honey for extra sweetness, nuts for crunch or some nut butter for some creaminess.
Method:

In a food processor or high speed blender add in your banana, eggs, coconut cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and salt. Blend to combine.

Heat a large skillet on medium and add in your coconut oil. Once heated pour in your batter and allow to cook on one side for a few minutes before flipping over to cook the other side. It is easier to cut the pancake up into quarters before flipping over, unless of course you can flip the whole thing over without breaking it… in that case kudos to you!

Once cooked on both sides, transfer to a plate and if you want spread some nut butter (almond, cashew etc) on other or leave it plain as I did.

Top with berries of your choice and add nuts if you want some crunch (I didn’t have any nuts on hand) and drizzle with some raw honey if you want extra sweetness, I found the berries to be sweet enough so didn’t add any honey.

Eat up and enjoy!

In other news our apartment is slowly taking shape, Joe stayed home yesterday so we could clean up the second bedroom/study area and do a bit of shopping for a few things we needed. Today I plan on finishing things up and dealing with those last minute bits and pieces and tonight we’re probably going to sit down and advertise the sofa and coffee table that wouldn’t fit in the apartment! Fingers crossed people will bid on them!

I’m thinking that we are most likely going to have to sell our dining table as well, it is big for the space we’re in now and most likely if we end up moving to another place (we have 6 months minimum stay here and can move after 6 months if we want) we will still probably need a smaller dining table as homes/apartments here are much smaller. Other than updating our furniture we also need some extra storage space for our kitchen so we are most likely going to head to Ikea sometime in the near future and pick up a few things… I just think back and wish that we had just sold everything back in America so we wouldn’t have to deal with this now! Oh well, hopefully soon enough everything will come together 🙂

Anyway I’ve been procrastinating and putting off doing stuff that needs to be done around here… I spent this morning researching different websites for organic fruit and veg delivery boxes. There are so many options here, I think because there are lots of farms around! We used to get a weekly box delivered in Michigan as well but I only found the one option over there and there weren’t really any farms close enough to drive to.

I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of choices and will decide on one shortly, we’ve been buying our produce from the supermarket near by but it’s not very cost effective. Plus the box is so much easier, we don’t have to worry about produce shopping and I like that each week they send you something different. I’m also thinking of possibly signing up for a meat box, again there are SO many options of getting good quality meat online here. You can get weekly/monthly boxes that range in size from small to large or you can get a share in a whole animal (cow, pig or lamb) and choose the cuts of meat you want from each animal.

Picture of cuts of beef

There is a butcher that is very close to us, which we haven’t had a chance to visit yet so we’ll probably go there first and check out the prices to see if it’s worth doing a shop online, also as I mentioned in a previous post the meat quality in general is great here compared to the U.S. Even in regular supermarkets they carry things like outdoor reared pork, grassfed beef, free range chicken etc so it’s not much of an issue.

I’m also eager to order some raw milk online, I’ve been wanting to try raw milk for a while now and again could not get any in Michigan. There is a farm here that sells their raw milk online and I’m tempted to order once from them to see how I like the milk, I’ve heard and read great things about raw milk so I feel like it’s worth a try at least.

Well, I’ll have to do a bit more research on all of this and will update you with what I decide to do.

Do you order your fruit/veg online? How about your meat? Have you tried raw milk and if so what are your thoughts on it?

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