Primal Experiment: Wacky Flaxseed and Coconut porridge

The Beach

Yesterday was a great day; we finally got approved for a lovely little one bedroom  place. It’s small but newly built and very nice. It’s a bit far from my uni, but that’s okay. I’m sure I can cope/find a way around.

We also went to the beach yesterday. It was beautiful. Big blue sky and big rolling sea. We had a walk along the shore and I wished I had brought my swimmers. The air smelt fresh and there was a cool breeze out too. It was quiet too, hardly anyone there and I found a couple of amazing shells.

I also decided to play scientist and invent my own primal porridge! It turned out to be quite yummy and filling, here’s the recipe below:

LSA Meal and Shredded Coconut Porridge

The finished product. Yum!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of LSA meal
2 tbsp of shredded/dessicated coconut
1 tbsp of flaxseed meal
3 tbsp of coconut milk
1/3 cup of almond milk
1 ripe banana
1 tsp of stevia
Berries of choice (I like chopped up strawberries and blueberries)
Slivered almonds (optional – makes porridge have a nice crunch too)
Pine nuts (again optional – I love my pine nuts)

Method:

1. Mix up the LSA meal, shredded coconut, flaxseed meal, coconut milk, almond milk, banana and stevia together. Put in microwave on high for 2 minutes. Or if you are using the stove top, heat the mix till very warm to hot, but not boiling.
2. Mix in slivered almonds and pine nuts. Top porridge with berries of choice. Enjoy 🙂

Well, that’s all for today. I’ll be enjoying aikido again today, hopefully lure the bf to the beach again sometime this week (him and the sun are arch-enemies apparently) and getting that rising pile of dishes under control 😛

Eating Primally Part 2 – A Most Excellent Breakfast

Well this was my breakfast this morning. Banana pancakes with strawberries and blueberries with a splash of coconut milk and a bit of honey. So yummy! I also had a light dusting of cinnamon on top too. It was very good. But could probably have done with a bit more. I got fairly hungry within 2 hours.

This was my dinner. Sliced turkey with tarragon and lemon, the compulsory pesto (of course!) with a mix of veges (snow peas, zucchini, carrots and onion). Very yummy and have enough for my breakfast tomorrow 😀

Cooking and eating like this isn’t cheap but it’s very filling and satisfying – both mentally and physically. But I do feel it is dollars well spent. Also I’ve learnt the delight of buying just that one carrot, that one zucchini for one or two meals. One carrot is 16 cents!! So now I have enough veges for 2-3 dinners without them spoiling on me and wasting my money. There’s a lot more trips to the shopping centre but I am very lucky to live near one.

Haven’t done much in the way of exercise for the past few days. Tomorrow I will go to aikido and might go for a walk afterwards. Quick tip: Banana Boat sunscreen for babies (comes in a pink bottle) is quite nice; not too greasy, leaves my skin soft and protected. I do like. I am also going to test out another sunscreen called ‘Invisible Zinc’ and see how I go with that one.

A quick update on my house-hunting – bane of my life – no, nothing so far 😦 Renting sucks – I look forward to the day I can own/build my own home.

 

Eating Primally – Best Dinner Ever!

Well that was my dinner — don’t worry, I didn’t have that small of a serving! I had squid in sweet chilli lime with pesto and a side of mushrooms and tomatoes. Om nom nom. I’m so used to having rice as a side in my meals, that I decided to see if I could make a meal that was filling without a big ol’ dollop of rice. Turns out you can just have heaps more veges and/or meat. Yes, I know pretty obvious in retrospect but as someone who comes from a big rice-eating family, it was not so obvious. It was pretty much a staple in my family, even more than bread and it’s weird… but I feel like I’m shunning another family member when I cut back on my rice intake.

Today I also went to see my friend to continue working on our project (which is a digital magazine) today. We laid out themes for our magazine, looked at other magazines that we considered good reference material and discussed a lot of ideas. It was a fun afternoon. It’s rare I get a chance to real have a dig at ideas with someone else.

Besides a primal dinner, I had banana pancakes. They were very good! Just like the old ones I made with flour. Finally, I had a hot chocolate made out of coconut milk watered down with pure unsweetened cocoa. I added a dash of stevia to sweeten it up a bit. Good stuff to drink whilst typing out this entry.

I enjoyed eating today. Trying out new things, but also re-creating old favourites but in a new, grain-free fashion. It tells me I can eat like this for the rest of my life without feeling deprived. Eating less grain stuff has an interesting side effect for my teeth – they’re less furry at the end of the day! I may have already mentioned that but they are. They look cleaner in general too. Perhaps grain-based is like food heaven to bacteria?

I’ve also been researching ways of handling social situations where I’m with people who don’t eat like me. The main points that stuck out to me were either:

• say you have a condition, eg: gluten intolerant
• don’t make a big fuss about it and the other party won’t either
• just don’t eat and wait till you get home – yes another Captain Obvious moment for me, but there you go

My bf told me also that if people mock you for your eating habits (it does happen now and then), it’s because they’re jealous, feel threatened or honestly don’t get the point. Of course, why someone would get up in arms about the eating habits of a relative stranger is a bit bizarre… but anyway.

Eating primally has also made me re-think again the way I spend money. With the exception of meat (which is usually quite expensive in my part of town)… it is fairly viable to go out every few days and spend a few dollars refreshing veges and buying a little bit of this and that — but as long as you know where to shop to make your dollar stretch. It also goes back to the point that even if eating like this is expensive, it’s probably worth the money to protect your health and pays off in the long-run. Plus it’s nice to eat different and new meals every few days and taste things I’ve never tasted or used to just wonder about.

Well that’s all for tonight. Hope you guys had a good day 🙂

 

Fell off the boat today…

Just a shortish entry. Had a bit of bread and some sugary chocolate today. I’m a bit annoyed by this, but I know I can do better tomorrow. Just one day at a time. I have such a sweet tooth 😛

PROFIT!! $$$
Or just happy tastebuds.

As for what lead me into dipping into some chocolate was because I was making chocolate mousse for a friend’s dinner tomorrow. Although the nomming on the chocolate mousse (hey had to make sure it was edible!) was enjoyable, what was more enjoyable was the actually process of making chocolate mousse from scratch. Yes, whipping the cream and eggs with my not-so good electric blender. I’m pretty sure it took me almost 20 minutes to get the egg whites to that point-of-rightness. But anyway, I digress.

Even just recently, I disliked and didn’t know how to cook. However, for a number of reasons, mainly to keep things cheap but also to have the ability to cook healthy meals for myself (and occasionally the bread-loving boyfriend lol)… I bucked up and taught myself how to cook. So far, I’ve been going surprisingly well and even enjoying myself. The mousse made me a bit nervous because it does need that light, fluffy quality about it and I hoped I could pick it when it happened.

But all went well and after setting a small sample in the fridge for a taste test, out it came and it was delicious! Relief. The boyfriend enjoyed it too. It was a bit rich but still a good success in my eyes. I’m feeling that bit more confident now about my little cooking skillset 🙂

I should probably apply this lesson on any future failures in changing my eating and exercise habits. Instead of worrying and getting down about my mistakes, I will look at the big picture and see if I’m really going all that wrong/is it really that bad? As long I don’t make a habit of making certain mistakes repetitively, it’s going to be okay.

The other thing I’ve learnt was actually watching the cream and eggs get whipped. Because they take so long, it’s frustrating and I start to panic I’ve failed and wasted a carton of cream, etc. I remember the first time I got whipped cream. It was taking foooorever. I started to panic. Blame myself. I know, pretty neurotic about a meal, but that’s me! I was about to give up, destined to make only watery, bubbly cream forever… and then it happened. The whipped cream happened and I was ecstatic. Haha. Dancing around like a fool. I remembered then, the saying that success often comes at your lowest point, the point of giving up and you just have to hold on that bit longer to reach whipped cream utopia.

One last lesson… time to buy a new electric blender. Cream shouldn’t take 15 minutes to whip, and my birthday is coming up soon. Hmmm…