Jess Tries Paleo(ish)

Hey!

So, I've become a little obsessed with going to the gym recently. For instance, last week I did three 3+ hour sessions (as well as normal length sessions on the other days) and I'm trying to take strength training a little more seriously (mainly because my knee hurt too much to run, it's feeling better now so I'll see how things pan out but I'm kind of enjoying improving my strength a lot more right now). I won't post about my training because I am utterly clueless. Maybe someday, I'll post one of those amazing before and after photos with a slightly chubby version of me on the left and me with my six pack on the right, but Tom will have to stop making me cupcakes before this is achieved.

Anyway, in an attempt to start seeing real results in the gym, I have to clean up my diet. So after a lot of research, I'm going to give a paleo diet a bit of a go (sorry vegans). I don't know if I'll ever be able to do it 100% and I certainly can't afford to keep up with the organic side of it right now, but I'm going to try to cut grains from my diet as much as possible (saying goodbye to my morning porridge is going to be the hardest thing I ever do food wise, even harder than giving up chocolate for lent has been). I'm not keen on eggs, but I'm going to attempt to make them work for me. Already being gluten free will make the transition a lot easier though, as I don't eat that many carbs anyway and sweet potato is already my favourite. Also, a lot of paleo recipes use bacon. And it's a long time since I allowed myself bacon, so this could be good.

Before you do anything else, have a look at some of the recipes on these two blogs and then you will realise why I want to try this diet. http://gabbysgfree.com/recipes/ http://paleomg.com/ I want to try every recipe these guys have come up with. And maybe I will someday - pineapple stuffed chorizo burgers sound too amazing for words. But right now, I'm trying to come up with ways to replace porridge in the mornings and relatively cheap meals that don't require too much hassle because I don't have much time for cooking when I'm in the lab for hours on end and working out for the remainder of my waking hours.

My first consciously paleo meal today:

Baked Turkey with Roasted Pepper, Mushroom and Garlic Spinach

Now, when I made this, it didn't occur to me that agave nectar might not be paleo since it's vegan friendly. But apparently honey is more paleo friendly than agave. But anyway, I baked my turkey in agave and it was yummy.

Serves 2
2 turkey breasts
(optional - 2 tsp honey or agave nectar)
1 bell pepper
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup spinach

Quite simply, coat the turkey in whatever you choose (1 tsp agave nectar per turkey breast worked great for me) and bake in the oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes (until its not pink inside but do not overcook).  Cut a bell pepper (I went for orange) in half and roast for about 15 minutes, until it is softened and starting to brown slightly. Then fry the roasted pepper, mushrooms and garlic in a little  oil (use coconut if you have it, I didn't) until softened. Then add the spinach and fry until wilted, this took me just 1-2 minutes.

 I added a bit of lemon, as I do to most things

Sweet and Salty Carrot Chips

I can't take credit for these, I found them on Gabby's G Free blog http://gabbysgfree.com/2013/01/sweet-salty-carrot-chips/ and they are a great little snack or meal addition. Just take as many carrots as you want to use, cut them how you want to eat them (I went for a mixture of rounds and batons) coat in cinnamon, salt and oil (I omitted the oil and added a tablespoon of tamari instead) and bake in the oven for 10-20 minutes (depending how crispy you want them). And there you have it, sweet and salty carrot chips. I served these, with mangetout, alongside my turkey and spinach and it was amazing.

This meal came to 280 calories, with approximately 40g protein. So a great post workout meal (and yes, I have saved the other half for tomorrow night after the gym).

I can't promise to stick entirely to paleo meals, because I will just end up giving in and gorging on grains. But I am going to try to phase them out gradually, and with meals like this maybe it won't be so hard. Let me know if you have any good paleo blogs or recipes! Hopefully Tom and I will find a way to combine vegan and paleo cooking somehow...wish us luck!

Zero Calorie Food!

Well, almost.

I was recently killing time in Selfridges in the Trafford Centre and I found the health food section (oh no). And it's pretty incredible. A great gluten free selection of pasta, bread, granola (maple pecan, passionfruit pistachio, mango macadamia...heaven) packet mixes and bits and pieces, along with a sports nutrition bit with protein supplements and a diet food bit. Which is where I found ZERO CALORIE noodles, rice and pasta. That's right. You may have heard of them before, but they're fairly hard to find. The noodles are made from Glucomannan fibre and the pasta is made from Moyu. I do not know what these things are and I am too scared to find out but I haven't read anything bad about them so I am assuming that they are healthy for human consumption. Here are the websites if you want to have a little look before you spend your money on these (they are expensive, obviously) : http://www.zeronoodles.com/about.asp?sid= http://www.slimpasta.co.uk/index.html. They are suitable for all dietary requirements, including gluten free and vegan, so they are obviously a great choice for Tom and I.

Now, as I wasn't sure what they would be like, I didn't waste my time making nice recipes to go with these bizarre things. I wouldn't be happy if I wasted an evening making a nice teriyaki sauce for it to go in the bin because my noodles were gross. So I cheated and used a Blue Dragon packet teriyaki sauce (which was a teeeny bit bland but fine) with the noodles and a Lloyd Grossman sweet red pepper and tomato pasta sauce (which is really nice).

To cook both the noodles and the pasta, you open the packet and drain the fluid off. At this point, do not smell it. It smells gross. Sorry. But once you drain and rinse the pasta/noodles, its completely taste and odorless. So drain, rinse and then boil for about 3-5 minutes. Then rinse again and leave to the side whilst you prepare your sauce.

 The noodles whilst cooking. They came out with a fairly normal noodle texture and just absorbed the taste of the sauce.

 Sorry, got a little excited and ripped the packet open before I took a picture.

For the noodles, I fried some courgette, mushrooms, mangetout and green pepper in coconut oil and teriyaki sauce and added prawns. For the pasta, I went for courgette and mushrooms with olive oil, with chicken added. I added a little paprika to the sauce too.

 Teriyaki Prawn Zero Noodles

Mediterranean Vegetable and Chicken Slim Pasta

The pasta was a slightly more unusual texture than the noodles, and I think in future I would stick to the noodles as they were both nicer and cheaper. Amazingly, these were both ridiculously filling. Obviously unless you eat them completely plain there will be calories in your meal (for mine, there was 176 in the pasta meal and 180 in the noodles) but this is significantly less than normal carbs. 

The verdict on these products? I like them, but I am a student and thus they will not become part of my weekly shop. I might buy them occassionally but they are expensive (in Selfridges, £1.89 for noodles and £2.99 for the pasta). However, they were fun to try out. They are probably not a great idea if you're exercising a lot because you do actually need carbs to replenish your body afterwards, but if you're pretty sedentary and on a diet (and rich) then definitely give them a go. I also still have slim rice to try which I haven't got round to yet. And Tom has some zero noodles too so hopefully he will add a nice recipe too. 

Let us know if you have any recipes using zero cal carbs!

Walnut, Lentil and 3 Mushroom Pate

Tom here,

Sorry guys! It's been quite a hiatus over the exam period but Jess has managed to get a few recipes up, and now I have a bit more time I'm hoping to get a few more up. Got a few new recipes to upload over the next few weeks (including the dinner I made on actual christmas day at my parent's) This is a part of four different recipes I made for a wine and cheese evening we had to celebrate the new kitchen we've had installed in our university house! It's amazing, I would happily marry that oven and never look back. Sadly that's illegal. I think. Or at least frowned upon.

Obviously a wine and cheese evening presents a slight problem for veganism (and an even bigger one for gluten intolerants) but I managed to whip up a vegetarian pate, an attempt at vegan boursin and a couple of different types of truffles for something sweet.

Ingredients:

150g Walnuts
120g Oyster Mushrooms
120g Chestnut (cremini) Mushrooms
120g Shitake Mushrooms
100g Red Lentils
100g Shallots
2 cloves Garlic
1 tbsp Butter (I used sunflower, but usually prefer soya)
1 tbsp Thyme
1 1/3 tsp Sea Salt Flakes
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

This recipe is an adapted version of one I found online, I've used different mushrooms for more flavour, but each of these were purchased in sainsburys in fallowfield so they should be pretty easy to get hold of. The lentils added give a bit of a texture boost, but could be omitted easily.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius/ gas mark 4
Boil the red lentils until soft
Toast the walnuts for 5 minutes until browned and fragrant (they smell amazing!)
Leave the walnuts to cool
Dice the shallots and fry in the butter until soft
Chop the mushrooms and add to the pan
Crush the garlic and fry as well
Remove the stalks of the thyme and chop and add to the frying pan
Crush the walnuts in a pestle and mortar (may require a few batches)
Add all the ingredients to a jug and blend using a hand blender
Spoon into a bowl and refrigerate for a few hours
Stir in the soy sauce just before serving to give a nice flavour boost
Serve with crackers or use as a spread for sandwiches

This should keep in the refrigerator for about 3-4 days. This is quite a simple recipe, and can easily be adapted with more herbs, or even changed entirely if you wanted to make a different style. The mushroom types can be substituted for any really, I just happen to like these three (and they were all available) using a large amount of two or one type would be fine, but the pate would definitely loost some of it's flavour.

As always let us know any suggestions or tweaks you come up with at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

And hope you all had a nice christmas/January, will definitely not leave it so long for a new recipe this time!

As you may notice I got a bit carried away cooking and forgot to take photos. Sorry! Next time I will take some more I promise!

Fat-Free Lentil and Mushroom Burgers

Tom today!

Basically, I have a whole buttload of work I should be doing, so naturally all I can think about is new recipes to make (For some reason learning about sex steroids has given me an absolute hankering for some coconut macaroons. Don't ask me to explain. However that one will have to wait a few days). This is something of an invention, based loosely on a few recipes I have looked at and made before, but also very much making this up as I go along. We'll see how this goes.

Having read several of the Happy Herbivore's (http://happyherbivore.com/) recipes, I have a budding interest in fat-free cooking (from both a scientific curiosity and a health point of view) so this is my attempt at fat-free recipe! (I say fat free, meaning that there are no added fats in this, however there are still some fats in the ingredients used - but this is minimal) I've also used arrowroot to bind the mixture, which makes this recipe both vegan and gluten-free (as long as you use certified oats). Also I am a terrible cook who never measures anything, so these are all approximations which I think I've used, so if you're out by a bit here and there, I can't see it mattering. As I haven't made these before and am making this up as I go along I'll have to add the nutritional info afterwards.

Makes 9 small burgers, probably about 3 meals worth

Ingredients:

2 cups of Green Lentils
Pinch of Salt, Pepper, Rosemary, Cayenne Pepper and Smoked Paprika
1/2 cup of Red Lentils
1 Carrot (Grated)
1/2 an Onion
1 cup finely chopped Mushrooms
3 large cloves Garlic
5 tbsp Rolled Oats
1 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Rosemary (I used dried)
1/2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Mixed Herbs
1/2 tsp Bouillon (vegetable stock powder - if you're using stock cubes 4 tsp of Bouillon makes 1 litre of stock, so that would be a quarter of a stock cube usually - I didn't want to overpower the flavour)
Large pinch of Salt (the stock I use is pretty salty already)
Pepper to taste (I like LOTS)
1 tbsp Arrowroot (can also use cornflour or an egg)

Method:

First cook the green lentils in water, adding the salt, pepper, rosemary, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika to the water and then boiling for 10 minutes before simmering until soft (should be around half an hour). This will give the lentils a nice flavour (I always think green lentils have a slightly smokey flavour on their own which goes really nicely with these flavours and gives a meaty taste to the burgers).
Next boil the red lentils until they are soft, then drain and puree using a hand blender. These will give the burgers more substance and something to hold them together without needing flour (at least I hope so).
Now preheat your oven to 220 degrees celsius.
In a mixing bowl (as you can see in the pictures I am a poor student without such luxuries, so I am using a saucepan) combine all the ingredients and mix.
Add dashes of hot water until the mixture holds together (be careful not to go overboard! Really use little bits at a time and mix it thoroughly - I probably used about 6 tbsp). If you do go overboard, fear not! Flour or oats can easily be used to bring the mixtures back to the right consistency.
Make the mixture into small balls - I made mine into 9 which will be small burgers but you can do what you'd prefer - and place on a lightly greased baking tray.
Bake for 20-30 minutes (or until they start to look cooked and are brown on the bottom) then flip them and squash into burger shapes, bake for another 20-30 minutes until they seem cooked all the way through.
Serve - I like mine with vegan coleslaw and salad in a pitta!

This recipe can be used with different spices for a different flavour, or the carrot can be substituted for another vegetable (I'm thinking parsnips could be good?) or you can use different lentils, or a different pulse altogether! Let us know any ideas you come up with at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

NB// Here is the nutritional info for these burgers (calculated using myfitnesspal.com):

                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
          Total:     686          117       5          41           299           9
Per Serving:        76           13        1           5             33           1

One serving is one burger if made into nine burgers

Stuffed Peppers

Hi, Jess today. Unfortunately, due to starting my literature review and starting work in the lab (which I will not discuss here - my subject matter would not make for good reading in a food blog...) my cooking has been rather unimaginative of late.

However, I have had the chance to make stuffed peppers recently, so I thought I'd share a few recipes here with you. Now, there are so many different ways to make stuffed peppers with different fillings and such, I couldn't possibly talk about them all here. However, they're so easy to make and so versatile, they definitely deserve a mention.

So, I do love traditional stuffed peppers. The ones filled with beef mince. However, there are so many other things you can stuff a pepper with. Personally, I prefer to make stuffed peppers with large red bell peppers, but yellow ones work great. And also, mini stuffed peppers are fun too, made with the small sweet peppers that are popular at the moment. You can normally find a good pack of mini peppers in the Tesco Finest section. So these fillings are great whatever way you like. I would normally serve them with rice (I think brown rice works best) but pasta/potatoes/whatever your chosen carb is will work fine. Or they go great with some steamed veg or salad if you're keeping it low-carb - literally, whatever works for you!

Traditional (adapted from my Mum's recipe)
My Mum always used to make traditional stuffed peppers as an alternative to roast dinners on Sundays. They are basically bolognese in peppers, with pasta.

1pack lean beef mince (I say pack because it depends on how much you're making, 500g should be plenty for 4 people)
1 onion (red is a personal preference), chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 apple, chopped (I use braeburns)
1 pint beef stock (gluten free - I use Kallo)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
A little olive oil
Paprika, basil and oregano to season
& 4 large red peppers, deseeded

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6/200C.
Firstly, boil the peppers for about 5 minutes, so that they are starting to soften but not too much. Once boiled, they can be left on the side until later.
Heat a drizzle of oil in a pan, and fry the onion and garlic together until they start to brown. Add the mince and fry together until the mince is browned and then add the mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes until the mushrooms soften and add the chopped tomatoes and apple, followed by the stock and seasonings. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 10-15 minutes, until it looks like a bolognese should.
Place the peppers in a suitable baking dish (pyrex is good) and evenly distribute the meat sauce in the peppers until they are all full, then fill the baking dish with the remainder. Place in the middle of the oven (not the top - peppers can burn quite quickly) and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve with rice or pasta.

Tuna Stuffed Peppers
These are definitely best served with brown rice as a main meal, or salad for a lighter lunch.
For 4 people:
4 large red/yellow bell peppers, deseeded and boiled as above
2 tins drained tuna (personally I don't like tuna in oil but this is a personal preference)
1 small chilli pepper, finely chopped
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin sweetcorn
1 lemon, juiced
Paprika to season
Rocket leaves 

Fry the chilli until softened and add the mushrooms. Once mushrooms are browned, add the tuna and half the lemon juice. Fry for a couple of minutes, add the chopped tomatoes, then the sweetcorn, followed by the paprika. Cook on the hob for about five minutes. Stuff peppers with tuna and rocket evenly in a baking dish (there shouldn't be remainder this time) and bake for 10-15 minutes. When baked, squeeze the remaining lemon juice on the peppers just before serving.

When making this dish for one (*sobsob*), I use half a tin of tuna, some cherry tomatoes and a tablespoon of passata/tomato juice to replace the full tin of chopped tomatoes and reduce the other ingredients accordingly. Feel free to omit the rocket leaves, I know not everyone likes them.

Let us know how it goes and what variations you like to make! Enjoy!