Sweet Potato Patties

by 13 Comments

Plate of sweet potato patties

Can you believe that it’s been 6 months since Joe and I moved to England?! I SERIOUSLY can’t believe it! It’s a strange feeling because when I think back it doesn’t really feel like we’ve been here for that long but I swear the days just fly by! I went back today and read over this post I wrote just before we left the States… Joe and I miss a lot of things from our life in America, I think after 2 years it was starting to feel like home there and then we decided to come here and now we are working on settling down here. I’m not sure it will be a permanent thing… us living here but for now this is where we have to be 🙂 Who knows what will happen in another year, if we’ll be on the move again or if we’ll decide to stick it out here. In any case I often feel like a modern day nomad… the suitcases that have travelled with us since 2011 from Australia are big reminders of that for me! Anyway you gotta do these things when you’re young right! 😉

Now onto more important things like FOOD hahaha! I thought it would be fun to share with you my top 5 favourite vegetables, I know when some people think of the “paleo diet” they think we all just sit there eating bacon and eggs, and well I’m not saying we don’t but we (well I hope we do) also eat a lot of veggies and fruit! I’ve read from a couple of other paleo bloggers that when they made the switch people would often ask them what they ate if they couldn’t eat bread or pasta… as if these are the only two foods on the planet! Paleo for me personally has opened the doors to a much wider variety of food and things that I may not have ever tried before. Now I enjoy picking up a different vegetable or even fruit when I’m out shopping and I have fun experimenting with different ways to cook/use these things. For e.g. I recently picked up a cassava/yuca, I’ve NEVER tasted one before let alone cooked it but I wanted to try something different so I picked it up.

Picture of a cassava

[Read more…]

Lemon Oregano Chicken

by 10 Comments

Plate of lemon oregano chicken

The other day I got to thinking about how this whole love of cooking and creating dishes came about for me. These days I love to be in the kitchen making food from scratch that I know is not only going to be tasty and delicious but also healthy and nutritious… see what I did there 😉

But it wasn’t always like this for me. In fact I hardly ever spent time in the kitchen growing up, I can remember plenty of times when my mum would ask my older sister or I to come help her in the kitchen and we would always make some sort of excuse not to go in there, we even struggled with making the salad each night because neither of us wanted to stand around chopping up a cucumber or shredding lettuce!

At that time I didn’t really care about what was going in my mouth and where it was coming from. Sure we ate most of our meals at home, cooked by my mum but there was also the trips to the fast food joints and ordering lunch or buying snacks at the canteen or vending machines from school (makes me SHUDDER at the thought!)

University was much the same, most of my meals there came from one of the Cafes on campus or from the shopping centre (mall) close by that we would drive to for lunch or just because we wanted to hang out. [Read more…]

Paleo Coconutty Berry Cereal

by 8 Comments

Bowl of paleo cereal

We’ve been having a bit of a crazy heatwave here in England, which is a welcome change to the usual cold, wet weather but when you have no aircon and no fly screens on your windows it can be a pain! This extended heat is unheard of so those things aren’t very common in houses here or so I’m told.

To make it worse both Joe and I have been sick recently. First it was me and then yesterday he was REALLY sick and spent most of the day in bed, hardly being able to eat! Luckily today he is feeling a bit better but is taking the day off today as well just to be on the safe side. Also we are having some issues with our rental property right now which is doing our heads in so we are currently in search of a new place to move into! It’s not so easy though… we’re having problems finding something that suits our needs. Fingers crossed something good comes up soon!

Anyway since it has been so hot lately, I have been struggling a bit with my usual breakfast of eggs + veggies or leftovers from dinner etc and I’ve been having a bit more fruit than usual, mainly berries just because they are so good! The other day I decided I wanted to make something different to my usual breakfast because I just really didn’t feel like eating any of my usual breakfast foods.

I would definitely call this a breakfast treat though and it’s not something I personally would have on a daily or even weekly basis, it’s probably something I’d have every now and then just to change things up. It’s super quick and easy to make and it tastes delicious!

I had a bit of a hard time coming up with a name for this recipe but since cereal is one of the first things that popped into my head that’s what I decided to go for. So here it is…

Paleo Coconutty Berry Cereal

Bowl of paleo cereal

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk*
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut.
  • 2 heaping Tbsp cashew butter/almond butter.
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon.
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
  • 3-4 Medjool dates pitted or use sweetener of your choice.
  • 1/4 cup blueberries.
  • Handful of strawberries, sliced.
  • Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt or use some Sea Salt.
  • Chopped hazelnuts for garnish.

*I always buy full-fat coconut milk and most of the time unless I am making something that specifically calls for the thick coconut cream that sits at the top of the can I pour the whole thing into a glass mason jar and shake. I then take another glass mason jar and pour half of the mixture into that one and then I fill up the rest of the jars with filtered water and give them another good shake before placing them in the fridge. I personally find it too heavy to have the coconut milk out of the can as is and this is what I did for this recipe. You can use the milk straight out of the can without diluting it though if you wanted to for this recipe.

Method:

Place the coconut milk, coconut, cashew/almond butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract, Medjool dates and Himalayan Pink Salt into a blender.

Blend until well incorporated then pour into a bowl.

Add your blueberries and strawberries on top. Sprinkle with some chopped hazelnuts for some added texture and crunch. Enjoy!

Chorizo and Sweet Potato Hash

by 7 Comments

Pan with chorizo and sweet potato

As some of you may know from reading this blog and me mentioning it on a few occasions, I’ve had ongoing issues with my digestion for a number of years now. I’ve been through numerous tests, medications, antibiotics etc but still suffer from poor digestion. Paleo has helped somewhat in terms of me becoming more aware of how my body reacts to certain foods/drinks, for e.g. things like coffee and even dark chocolate upset my stomach (the latter is harder to let go of). Gluten is another trigger for me which I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t done a 30 day elimination challenge (hello Whole30!). Also I need to REALLY focus on and chew my food properly and then give myself time to sit and digest. If I rush and chow down a plate of food without any thought and then leave the table without giving myself time to digest then I feel it and it’s not pleasant!

Paleo is NOT the answer to everything though, even if people think it is. Yes it has helped me tremendously by like as I said above helping me to become more in tune with my body but sometimes more needs to be done. So with that in mind I’m FINALLY, after a long time of indecisiveness going to see a naturopath tomorrow, I personally suspect some sort of gut bacteria issue like SIBO but I won’t know for sure until I get tested. So fingers crossed I leave the naturopath tomorrow with some answers!

Anyway lets move onto more important issues like today’s recipe (she says after talking about her digestion problems!). So most of the recipes I share with you here are things I know I want to make for the blog, I don’t plan weeks in advance but I know for example the day before cooking that I’m putting such and such meat out because I want to make something for the blog with it and so on. On some occasions though I don’t plan on using what I make on the blog until the very end, so I’ll make something and then when it’s done I’ll think hmmm this might be a good one for the blog. This is of course usually a savoury dish because dessert/treat recipes usually need to be tested more than once and need specific measurements.

This dish is one of those that I chose to put on the blog last minute. It’s super simple, like most of my recipes but has amazing flavours and definitely satisfies!

[Read more…]

Google+