My food rules!

As I’ve said before, I am not a nutritionist. I have no training in this topic. I am simply interested in food and how what we eat can impact on our lives. Since I’ve started eating less sugar, I’ve also started thinking a little more about what me and my very small family eat. With this in mind, these are some simple guidelines I use when setting our menus.

1.  Eat full fat foods!
   I reckon that low-fat or diet foods register in your subconscious as you depriving yourself of something and so somewhere in there, your brain is going “feeeeeed meeeeeee” and you will not feel satisfied. Fat fills you up – or it makes you feel full – so eat that full fat yogurt! Add a bit of avocado to your salad! You will feel fuller for longer.
2. Eat full fat foods; part 2.
   When manufactures remove the fat, they replace it with sugar (amongst other things). Sugar is fat free, but rich in nutrient-free calories.
3. Find ways to cut calories when you are cooking.
   For example, if your recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of oil, use one tablespoon and see how it goes.
4. Try new things.
   Quinoa? Meh. Wheat germ? Yes! Almond paste? MMMmmmm. Lentils? Yum! I used to think that only tree huggers ate these foods. Now I eat them regularly, and I’m not a hippy. Soon-to-be-tried foods include pomegranate molasses and kale. Although I’m not looking forward to this last one.
5. Processed food.
   I don’t eat processed food (well, not at home anyway; I (naively) trust that cafes and restaurants prepare or cook the food they serve their paying customers). My main reason is for not eating processed food is that manufacturers tend to use a lot of salt and sugar, as well as additives. And I am a bit of a control freak. I like knowing what goes into my food. If I cook it myself, I have a much better idea of what I’m eating. I’m lucky in that I love cooking, so it’s not a chore to cook after coming home from a hard day in the office. I do the tried-n-tested quick stuff during the week and I leave the experimenting to the weekends. That saying, we get take outs the odd time, and sometimes we go to McD’s, although after every McD, we resolve never to go again.
6. Cutting out sugar.
   You can read about what I’ve been up to here and here. My main reason for cutting out sugar however is that I don’t want to develop diabetes or heart disease in the future. And unfortunately, the over-consumption of sugar is liked to these.
7. Bread.
   I’m not a big bread fan, never was and I doubt I ever will be, particularly of the bought stuff. I can’t remember the last time I had a sandwich for lunch. When I do eat it – usually at home – I eat brown bread (or as brown as I can get in Belgium; my success with making brown bread here is limited, and I have to go very much out of my way to get to Jack O’Shea’s butchers for theirs). I eat other types of bread happily and fairly regularly though, but I make them from scratch: pizza, flammkuchen, or these chicken gyros I made this weekend.
8. Which leads me on to other carbohydrates.I don’t like pasta. There. I’ve said it. If it’s cooked for me and put in front of me, I’ll eat it, but I don’t cook it at home, and I’d rarely order it if I were eating out (lasagne is the exception). I eat rice, potatoes, couscous, quinoa (although I haven’t replaced the box I used up a few months ago, so I maybe I don’t eat this as regularly as I’m alluding I do), oats and Weetabix. And Wasa crackers.
9. Fruit n veg!
   Yay! I try to eat two portions of fruit a day, usually at breakfast time, and then veg for the rest of the day, usually in a soup or salad at lunchtime and veggies with dinner. I try to vary the types of vegetables we eat, and try new ways of cooking them, but I don’t get hung up on counting what we eat daily. And I don’t drink fruit juice.
10. Meat and dairy.I’m going to quote Domini Kemp, from the Irish Times this weekend: “I love cheese. Along with bacon, it’s the big reason I’m not vegan.” 

Weight* a minute! Is that the end of the food rules? Yes, kinda. Have I noticed a difference in myself? Well, my skin is fine, and my hair is healthy, my nails grow like weeds. I been sick once this year; I think I took 3-4 sick days in each of the last two years (2012-13), and I feel good. So that’s all good, right?

Butt*, you’re all reading this far to see if I’ve lost any weight, right? Well, after nearly five weeks off sugar, the short answer is no. The longer answer is still no. I am eating more nuts than I used to, which are quite high in fats – good fats, but still fats nonetheless – so therein probably lies the answer.

* omg! D’y see what I did there??? I’m so funny! Lolz.

Sausage casserole

I made this a couple of evenings ago when it was a bit chilly. I used four giant sausages from Jack O’Shea’s, and they worked brilliantly. This is based on a BBC Good Food Hairy Bikers recipe.

Sausage and beans

For four people, you’ll need:

A little oil

4 of Jack O’Shea’s large sausages, or two or three normal sized ones per person (depending on how hungry or greedy you are)

1 medium sized onion, sliced into eighths.

A few garlic cloves, crushed

Some chilli or smoked paprika

A tin of tomatoes

A small tin of tomato puree

200ml of chicken stock

1 tablespoon of Worchester sauce

a little thyme

salt and pepper

A teaspoon of brown sugar

a tin of beans like cannellini or white beans, or if you’ve none of these, a tin of lentils

To serve: crusty bread or some mashed potatoes

In a heavy casserole dish, heat enough oil to coat the base. Your sausages will release some fat as they cook, so you only need enough to prevent them from sticking in the initial cooking. Cook your sausages for a few minutes on each side to colour them.

Take the sausages out and add a little more oil to the dish. Cook the onions over a medium heat for about 4-5 minutes until they soften slightly.  Add the crushed garlic and cook that off too.

Pop the sausages back in, along with a sprinkle of chilli or paprika, the tomatoes and the chicken stock.

Add in all the herbs and seasoning, stir well and cover. Leave it to simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your sausages. Add the drained beans in about 10 minutes before the end of the cooking. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning, adding a stock cube, some chopped anchovies or more salt and pepper if you need to. If it is very thick, add a little more water.

Serve it with some mashed potatoes or bread.

If you’re uber hungry, you could also add a packet of lardons with the tomatoes.

Veggie-heavy easy dinner for Saturday

We had the in-laws over on Saturday night, and I wanted something easy and low-ish fat (ie: lots of vegetables), satisfying and simple to do.

I’d spotted this recipe for Turkish bulgur and red lentil soup a couple of weeks ago in The Guardian. This is my version.

One 400g tin of red lentils (the original recipe has 100g, but seriously, what you are going to do with the leftovers?)

A large onion (white or red, doesn’t matter)

Some dried thyme

Salt and pepper

3 cloves of garlic

A good teaspoon of smoked paprika

1.5 litres of stock (water and stock cubes are fine)

50g bulgur wheat (I got this as a gift; if anyone knows where to find this, let me know!)

One small pot of tomato puree

50g Greek yogurt

The original recipe has a flavoured oil to add to the finished soup, but I was saving a few calories so I didn’t make this.

Drain the lentils and add them and everything else except the yogurt to a pot and cook for about 20-25 minutes, until the onions are cooked. Blend until smooth either with a stick blender or in a blender and stir through the yogurt just before serving.

This soup was really, really delicious, with a smooth flavour and quite satisfying. It will definitely be made again, if I can find the bulgur wheat!

For the main course, I made a meaty variation of a vegetarian filo pastry tart from Delicious magazine. To make it veggie, leave out the lardons and add some extra spinach.

5 filo pastry sheets

50g melted butter

2 peppers

200g lardons

2 cloves of crushed garlic

250g ricotta

2 eggs

250g frozen spinach (defrosted and drained)

200g feta cheese

Grease and line a 20cm dish – I used a cake tin!

Cut the filo sheets in two and line the inside of the tin, overlapping the sheets over each other and leaving about half the sheet hanging over the edge of the dish – you’ll be using this to ‘close’ the tart when it’s filled.

Half and de-seed the peppers and then grill them until a hot grill for about 5 minutes on each side. If you are so inclined, peel them.

Fry the lardons and garlic for a few minutes.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta, eggs, some black pepper, the prepared spinach and the crumbled feta. Add the cooked lardons and garlic, and the peppers. Pour this mixture into the filo case. Fold the hanging pastry over the top, brushing each sheet with the melted butter before placing the next one. Brush the whole top with the melted butter.

Cook in a hot oven at 200° for 30 minutes, until golden on top.

We served this with salads and crusty bread.