Breakfast-Dinner-Cookies

I felt like an update was in order so here we go. Some good recent eats and things:

The garden I was inspired to grow after having access to one of epic proportions in NZL now kicks ass. This is the progress from around 4-5 weeks.  From left to right: Rosemary (cutoff), Carrots/Thyme, Kale, Cabbage, Cucumber (and lots of Mint in pots and behind). I ate the carrots already and planted Basil, Summer Squash, and Tomatoes!

Lemon Pepper Kale Omelette

A breakfast with little carbs, but incredible tasty. Cook 3 egg whites in a pan with some Kale and mini sweet red peppers on top, fold after a while and cook some more with some lemon. Plate and top with the yolks, avocado on the side, and Sea Salt and Cayenne Pepper over everything. More lemon if desired. Yolks are healthier and tastier raw. Whites are healthier and tastier cooked. Nuff said.

A winner. Cayenne Pepper is a lot better for you than black.

Not as pretty, but almost as good. The left is the Brassica Special (class of veggies) and the right is GF Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Some baked chicken breast w/ random herbs/spices sliced on top of the key players: mashed cauliflower, asparagus, and bok choy. All steamed and topped with a little butter and balsamic. 

For the mashed cauliflower: Cauliflower steamed w/ 3-5 Garlic Cloves, then Food processor-ed for a while with Rosemary, Oregano, Butter, Raw Milk, Sea Salt, Cayenne Pepper. Watch the pepper and garlic amounts, they are strong!

For the cookies (3): 1 egg, 2T butter, 1/8c Milk, 1/8t Baking soda, 3/4c Almond Flour, 1/4c Coconut Flour, 1 small packet Xylitol (maybe 1t), Handful Dark Chocolate Chips 73%, pinch Sea Salt, 1t Vanilla

Add more milk or more almond flour if you need to achieve better dough consistency. Bake until browned (for me toaster oven 350º ~15 minutes).

I realized that the key players in the dough for the cookies are simply almond flour and coconut flour in your desired ratio (more almond=more chewy/dense more coconut=more light airy),  milk (raw of course), vanilla, sea salt and sweetener. So if you just feel like making some dough to eat mix up w/ some Xylitol or Honey and go at it, adding chocolate chips, crystalized ginger, nuts, dried fruit etc for a splurging snack/dessert.

I liked this.

Proper Fueling with Many Feasts

My family friend wanted to cook a feast together.

My Plate Clockwise from Bottom Left: Chicken Tagine, Leeks from Tagine, Sweet Potato Turnip Bake, Persimmon Salad, Kale Salad

I mainly made this Persimmon Salad and my chicken tagine, but using the actual recipe with 1.5 chickens!  The salad wasn't really my style, heavy on the fruit, but fairly tasty nonetheless. The leek mixture from the chicken was probably my favorite, along with the Sweet Potato-Turnip combo from the same recipe as the chicken. Could of eaten it for days!

 Owen cutting Shallots for the Sweet Potatoes

 Tagine Check

The Crew

Then I prepared another feast for my friends.

The buffet line up (close to far): Baked Turnips, Baked Sweet Potatoes/Yam, Roasted Bacon Brussels, Sous Vide Grass Fed Steak

I baked the potatoes and turnips the same as for the first feast because they are too good. A tad spicy a tad herby and a tad sweet.

My Plate

 I also made a Balsamic Reduction with simple Balsamic Vinegar and Ghee (2 cups and 1.5T ea.) which I am stoked to have leftovers on. It's sweet and delicious on everything and easy to make, just boil down to reduce by half, mix and serve.

 First time making Bacon Brussel Sprouts (of course I've tasted and loved them many times), and was very pleased (along with everyone else).  I used Bacon Trimmings which were cheaper from El Salchichero (coming from Devil's Gulch where I ride road to in Nicasio), and just sliced/cooked some up in a pan, poured the grease into a baking tray, put the prepared Sprouts on, and then scattered the bacon pieces throughout and baked with the other dishes at 400º F for 30 minutes or so until soft all the way through.

For the steak I used some Herbs mainly Rosemary with the Sous Vide, cooked to perfect medium rare and then seared the outside afterwards in a tiny bit of the Balsamic Sauce. So tender!

Now onto some more elementary feasting...Post long ride base training! I've been putting in a lot of 4-5 hour rides and it's hard to eat enough carbs afterwards. I need to hit 500 per day which means if there's no lunch involved because of my ride i've got a small window afterwards to cram. It's kind of fun.

 I've been having something along the lines of 2 servings of Gu Recovery Brew Strawberry Watermelon (50g ea.), a sweet potato or yam, a persimmon or plantain or blueberries, and for yesterday a few dates/dried cranberries as well. And an extra scoop of whey protein. Then an hour later I'll eat my meal which has another sweet potato/kabocha squash/chestnuts and some nice meat. Massive.

 These 'ice cream' bowls have been awesome.

• 2 out of the 6 scoops of Gu Recovery Mix
• 150g Blueberries (frozen)
• 12g Whey Protein (1 scoop)
• Vanilla Extract and Cinnamon
• Dates/Cranberries/Yam Optional

I hit 4 out of the 6 scoops of Gu Recovery first to get the speedy fiberless absorption before the even more delicious fruit/vegetable concoction (I should take the skin off for even less fiber but it's too delicious).

While on the topic of eating lots of carbs I tried using fit day and it's pretty cool. Here's how it came out:

I was trying to eat less fiber because without grains it's easy to get too much.

Increasing my carb intake at the right times (pre-post-during) has really helped my training and haven't gained an ounce of weight!

Health Potion: Turkey Stock

This may not be a post about No Bake Christmas Treats, but I'm into it and people still eat whole chickens and turkeys on Xmas so this is what you get! Plus, I've decided everyone should be buying bone in meat/whole chickens all the time anyways. It's cheaper, more resourceful, and you get to make the following nectar of life!

These photos are from Thanksgiving (I know it's been a while, but I've been down under in Aus and a bit off the grid from the intrawebs).  I did this twice during November (two feasts) and it seriously yields so much more meat. This is me scavenging all the extra meat halfway through making the stock. You just simply can't get it all by conventional carving. Think a couple extra pounds of turkey. Win #1.

In my pot was just the carcass, water, apple cider vinegar, and various herbs (bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, garlic).

All the meat taken off to the best of my ability, then it's back in for the bones! 

I got 3 delicious jars of Turkey stock out of one massive heritage bird carcass. I'm known to slurp a whole  jar after it 'gels' in the fridge (minimal calories, just a little protein/water/nutrients) and becomes delicious turkey jelly! It's also good for cooking veggies, or for soup and other things. Win #2 and #3.

I took some of it and made a grain free gravy simply by boiling (reducing) it down until it was as thick as gravy and it was delicious.

That's a lot of extra turkey! And it's oozing with way more flavor and delicious dark meat. (Don't be afraid of the fat if it's free range, then it's got vitamins not chemicals!)

Now onto the health benefits and the process:

Health: Bones in animals are considered organs believe it or not, putting them in the same category as the REAL superfoods (no not kale/goji berries which we can't even digest and absorb that well) like free range super nutrient dense animal organs like liver, heart, and nutrient dense free range fat (lard/tallow).  Kale may go right through you, but the fat soluble vitamins in animal fat get absorbed quite easily.

Inedible bones and connective tissue contain lots of goodies like collagen, glucosamine chondroitin (yes you don't need to pay $30 a month for the supplement to fix your achy joints), and other minerals.  Win #4 You just have to cook the crap out of them to extract them. Thus, we have soup stock.

The bone marrow (my favorite) is also fatty and delicious and nutrient dense along with the stock, which is actually very low calorie since after chilling all the fat floats to the top.  If your animal was free range, slurp it up or spread it on some sweet potatoes and roast veggies, but if not I'd throw it away because that's where the animals most likely store all those gross antibiotics and chemicals.  

Process: DON'T follow the conventional stock recipes/process! They do not recommend cooking times long enough for excellent nutrient extraction, just enough for good enough flavor.

Simply take your bones or carcass (best flavor after being roasted normally for the meat, but either works) and cover with enough water in a pot/dutch oven/slow cooker (maybe some wine if you have some, I always use mine once it's been open for a few days). Bring to a boil and then simmer for the appropriate time (fish bones 30min+, poultry 3-4 hours+, ruminants like beef 8 hours+). You can go almost as long as you want, just not long enough to make the bones soggy/break up and hard to deal with. These resources are the best.  Strain when finished and store in glass jars.  The fat layer on top will prevent bacterial growth and eating is optional.

Mark's Daily Apple

Balanced Bites

You can use this same idea to braise meat, I.E. with lamb shanks or short ribs that require long slow cooking. Just cook long enough for the meat, remove and put the bones back in for the time required to make stock, and then optionally boil it down to a sauce for the meat, adding in veggies/herbs/tomato sauce/lime juice at the end for even more flavor. Works especially well with Ham Hocks.

And yes this is different from what you buy in the store, with little to no sodium, and you can freeze it for later use as well!

Also worth mentioning, I came across the Four Pillar of Healthy World Cuisine, one of which is simply eating meat cooked with the bone in! So stop paying a premium for less healthy boneless skinless breasts that lack the nutrients the bone provides and the skin contains!

To Eat More Meat

Ok it's been a while again but I've been working heaps on some exciting new team sponsorship for next year so stay tuned for awesome news on that front...

I've been eating MEAT. Thank you El Salchichero for providing super local pasture raised and grass fed beef/pork/poultry and amazing sausages and cured meats.

Of course you pay a price for the best meat ever, but I will only eat non-conventional beef/pork (and prefer it to lean chicken/fish when it is). 

Basically the way I see it animals store everything as fat, so corn+steroids turn into fat in conventional animals, and tons of grass/bugs/plants turn into delicious nutrient dense fat (even more dense than veggies) in the pasture raised. 

Thus, for conventional meats, lean cuts are best something like this order: chicken/turkey, fish, pork, lamb, beef. With wild/normally raised animals, the order is the exact opposite.

 I save a lot of $$$ going with the cheaper thrifty cuts. Like these Beef Shanks.

I browned them in some Coconut Oil before simmering for 3 hours in 2 parts White Wine, 2 parts Chicken Broth, and 1 Part Water just to submerge, with some random Herbs and Carrots.

The meat was tasty, tender and unchewy. Falling apart and melting in your mouth. The carrots became mashed under steamed veggies/Raw Sauerkraut which tastes like the delicious broth and 100x better than mashed white potatoes.

Best of all were the super fast and easy sweet potato wedges (fries) dipped into the bone marrow fat. Like Dutch fries and 'Mayo', only 100x more nutritious. At $5/lb, these grass fed beef shanks provide so much goodness between the nutrient dense fat and abundant protein. Although I probably upped the cost quite a bit when I used the rest of one of my nice white wines for the broth...

I enjoyed the second one for dinner with a Kale and Rosemary salad, from the garden = so good.

For dressing I used the broth supplemented with Balsamic Vineger. Easy and Bomb.

Once again, the tallow from the bone marrow kicks ass used instead of coconut butter on my Yam.  More tasty, cheaper and much more nutritious.


More delicious meats to come. Sausage and Buffalo Bison (more on that) included.

Canada To Cali

A few quick inclusions from the trip from Canada to Cali:

A pretty dialed meal as far as eating while driving goes. Well balanced bursting with flavor and super healthy.

 I am obsessed with these Bombay Curry Kale Chips! They are extra tasty with a bit of spice and all good ingredients. Some yummy big clusters and they remind me a little bit of childhood BBQ Lays.

The Grass Fed-Teriyaki Jerky was pretty good too.

More of the Standing Stone Brewery! I wish I could eat here so many more times to try everything on the menu!

I had to try their in-house kimchee, and it was delicious. Lots of ginger and they use real chile flakes to avoid the preservatives in other kimchee seasonings/peppers. Different (the ginger factor) but quite good. And they let me sub it for the salmon's pub mashers!

Wild Alaskan Salmon Fillet

 So goooood! A quality fish but the highlight was the sauce on top, lemony with a hint of curry/cumin, definitely Thai-influenced. Served over a delicious mix of sautéed veggies.

I can't wait for the Ashland Mountain Challenge in 2012 so I can go here again!

Keeping It Grass Fed and Japanese

I just moved back to Norcal from Canada so apologize for the lack of blogging but will be posting all the last Canadia eats in this post + one more! And a blog update over at maxhoutzager.com with tons of riding and traveling photos soon as well.

Who said eggs, potatoes and breakfast sausage couldn't be sweet potato, free range eggs, ground grass-fed buffalo, and cooked in coconut oil?

Wins all around. The coconut oil for the eggs (and last sweet potato wedges thrown in) makes such a difference in the taste.

I truly enjoyed the sausage, first one i've eaten in a looong time. I used some pine-nut/sunflower seed 'hummus' I made on the sweet potato and then some fresh greens with a Red Miso and Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing.

 I recently got into some giant tender creamy garlicy scallops, and am not quite over my epic flavor combo of Ginger-Miso-Garlic-Temari-and Nutritional Yeast for miso soup (with kale), so enjoyed this nice big bowl accompanied by also recent favorite kabocha squash!

The more orange skinned kabochas are definitely much sweeter (i've heard the best tasting squashes are the uglier ones)! I decided to include an up and personal photo of the epic melty coconut oil and cinnamon combo on already delicious sweet mushy squash.

 Some more Farmer's Market Local BC Grass-Fed Rib Eye Steak. This time stove top broiled and topped with a White Wine and Miso Sauce.

 Boy am I loving it rare! Probably because of my addiction to sushi.

Sauté in coconut oil on medium-high heat for just ~2 minutes per side.

I also roasted garlic in the oven for the first time thanks to Oh She Glows. Combine that with a sauce that beats A1 by about 1000x and you have the tastiest steak dinner ever. Plus a yummy sweet potato and massaged kale salad with more Red Miso and Cider Vinegar Dressing. Definitely repeating this in the future!

Please comment if your keen to find out the 'recipes' (was a while ago so wasn't eager to try and remember the details).

The Experimental Whistler Kitchen

I am definitely going to be going out of my way in the future to get my hands on grass fed meat.

I enjoyed this local grass fed rib eye steak for lunch (below) and (here) dinner with my first time making a massaged kale salad. Stoked on both!

I went for Japanese theme with some Baked Kabocha Squash (one with less green/more orangey skin, so much sweeter?) topped with coconut oil and cinnamon of course (INSANE TASTING), and then included mozuku and nori seaweed in the salad with a Kimchee Juice, Flax Oil, Yuzu (Citron Juice), and splash of Temari dressing.

 I was skeptical about the raw kale but it was delicious and digested fine. Kelp noodles, Lemon Cucumber and Basil in there as well. The kelp and mozuku made it extra slimy and delicious. Not cooking the kale seems to give you so much more bang for your buck! I think i'll be on a new kick...

I simply broiled ~5 minutes on each side after patting dry and doing a little Cumin, S&P on each side w/ olive oil.

For lunch I paired it up with some delicious roasted sweet potato wedges I discovered (see below) and topped with cumin/turmeric, and then a traditional Balsamic Salad jazzed with Cashews and Seaweed (greens, flax oil, cider/balsamic vinegar, basil, cucumber. It goes with steak perfectly! I think I like the bison I tried out before a little more, but definitely don't mind this to change it up at all!

These sweet potato wedges are super convenient (as if throwing a potato in the even isn't easy enough). A bit faster though and more roasty than the baked version. Plus topping with spices is easy + delicious (Rosemary and Sea Salt to come...).

Nice short ingredient list: sweet potato. 

I could have bought the fries cut but they had more ingredients I didn't want.

I've been baking/experimenting a lot to use up the ingredients I have laying around and see what happens.  These cookies were a hit with the flat mates and I discovered the effects of whey protein powder+baking soda!

They puffed up quite a bit, turning into muffin top cookies. Good depending on what your going for, but the flavor was dialed.

 

I used carob chips and they were delicious. Gluten free with nut and oat flours. Not quite recipe share worthy, but they were largely based off this, which is.

No more oats and nuts, onto the quinoa and brown rice flour. The rest of the carob chips (some of which were melted into a clump, so I melted it and mixed it into the batter) + some dark chocolate chunks.

These were quite grainy from the quinoa flour, which might not be the best for chocolate chip cookies. They were chewier and mushier which I liked, thanks to reducing the baking powder. More to come!