The McD's do... Ramsgate Organic Foodie Markets

We love going to the Ramsgate Organic Foodie Markets, it is one of our absolute favourite things to do on a Saturday. Held in the grounds of Ramsgate Public School, it has all the elements of a perfect day – delicious food to eat, beautiful fresh produce and ingredients to take home to cook with, gorgeous things to admire (and sometimes buy), live music, and a bouncy castle with a well-managed queue. Everyone wins!

The Stuntman having a go at hopscotch at the Ramsgate Organic Foodie Markets

 I especially love it as the market stalls have a real focus on wholefoods, and there are loads of things that I can eat! Sometimes when we go out there is absolutely nothing the Stuntman and I can eat (needing dairy and soy free as a minimum), and it is so frustrating!

What the hell is the ‘Paleo’ diet, anyway?

Regular readers of this blog will know that I spent January following the Paleo lifestyle, with the goal of giving my system a ‘re-set’ and I guess a bit of a cleanse, whatever that means. It was a New Year’s resolution for someone who doesn’t do New Year’s resolutions…

Asparagus wrapped in proscuitto - yum :)

First up, I have to say I am totally surprised at how easy I found it this time around. I’d done a Paleo month previously (which involved me going hard core for a fortnight, then slowly falling off the wagon over the next fortnight), and I found it really hard! I don’t know why it worked this time – I think everything aligned, and I knew I had to put in the prep to make it work for me. I also felt amazing after just one week (and lost 2kg), so that helped to keep me on track.

Butt-Ugly Paleo Breakfast Bites

Butt Ugly Paleo Breakfast Bites

I definitely find breakfast the trickiest part of following the Paleo lifestyle. I’m used to just popping a slice of bread into the toaster and eating it as I run around the house getting everyone ready, so it’s been difficult to break the habit of relying on toast or crumpets each morning.

Savoury Paleo Waffles

Savoury Paleo Waffles

This recipe is based on the Grain-Free Waffles recipe on the Against All Grain website, which are beautifully sweet waffles.

I was really craving a savoury waffle to have in place of a piece of toast under an egg, so I came up with this recipe. I use Boris the Bellini to make these, but you could use any high powered blender or food processor.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened Almond milk
• 3 tbsp oil - macadamia or olive (coconut oil is too sweet for this recipe)
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 3 tbsp coconut flour
• 3/4 tspn bicarb soda
• 1/2 tspn onion flakes
• 1/2 tspn garlic powder
• 2 tspn savoury yeast flakes
• 1/2 tspn salt 
• 1 tspn white chia seeds
• 1 tspn psyllium husk

Method
Pre-heat your waffle iron.

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor, process on Speed 6 (medium) for 30 seconds, moving up to Speed 9 (high) for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides with a spatula, and repeat for another 30 seconds on Speed 9 (high).

Spoon mixture onto your hot waffle iron, and cook until golden brown (watch for the steam - once that stops, you're pretty close).

Serve warm with poached eggs, ham, and some sauteed spinach and mushrooms.

These freeze really well - just place in individual ziplock bags in the freezer. When I want one from the freezer I let it sit on the bench for about 20 minutes to defrost, then pop it in the toaster to warm it up, which makes them go a bit crispy on the edges. Just watch they don't burn in the toaster!

Paleo Challenge – Week 4 (final week)

Week 3 of this Paleo challenge threw a few more obstacles in my path, but I feel like I’ve kept on track relatively well, despite illness, work stresses and the Australia Day long weekend.

In celebration of Australia Day I made some awesome little raw ‘lamington truffle balls’ from a recipe on the Skinnymixers website. They are so delicious! And so cute! Hard to just stop at one! Free from gluten, grains, dairy, refined sugar… basically Paleo… totally YUM!!

Skinnymixers' Raw Lamington Truffle Balls

I decided to relax a bit over the long weekend and have a few drinks, but I still kept my diet pretty well in check. No gluten or dairy anyway!

In 3 weeks I’ve lost 4kg and am feeling pretty awesome, getting lots of compliments from family, friends and even random people on the street. It’s very encouraging!

So there’s only one more week of the actual challenge, but I plan to continue on with the lifestyle as much as I can, although I may relax the legume rule a little (I really MISS proper hummus!!). I’ll slowly introduce a few different things and see how they affect me, and just take it slowly. I definitely feel that gluten has been a major irritant for me, so hopefully I can steer clear of it from now on.

This week Monday is a public holiday, and we’ll be having BBQ for lunch and dinner (possibly breakfast too – it is Australia Day after all). For the rest of the week I’m mainly going to be repeating meals that we’ve really enjoyed along the way.

• Tuesday – Prawn and chilli pasta sauce with zoodles
• Wednesday – Singapore Noodles with Kelp noodles
• Thursday - Beef madras curry with cauli rice
• Friday - Vietnamese Chicken Meatza
• Saturday – Steak with sweet potato chips and slaw
• Sunday – Lamb roast with pumpkin, parsnips, carrots and greens

I hope everyone's January has gone to plan, and that you're feeling confident and proud of your achievements!

I've linked this post to I'm an Organizing Junkie's Meal Plan Monday.

Paleo Challenge - Week 3

After two weeks following the Paleo lifestyle I’m feeling pretty great. The Keratosis Pilaris  (chicken skin) on my arms is clearing up, my IBS has calmed down completely, and I feel really energised.

Kombucha, Coconut Oil, Cacao Nibs and Kelp Noodles - Paleo staples

Last week we had a few unforeseen things come up which meant we went “off plan” for a few meals, but I still managed to keep within the Paleo guidelines. I did have a couple of glasses of wine out to dinner with a friend one night, but I’m OK with that! That was my only slip up, so I’m pretty happy with myself. I think the main reasons the Paleo lifestyle is working for me is that I can eat until I feel satisfied (i.e. I'm not hungry!), I’m not counting calories or weighing portions, and I can fit it into my real life.With a bit of prep and planning it's really pretty easy.

I’ve become a little bit obsessed with making Paleo waffles (using this Against All Grain recipe). I make them on the weekend and then freeze some for a quick breakfast during the week – they’ve been satisfying any lingering cravings I have for a piece of toast in the mornings. I might try them without the honey and make savoury ones… with bacon?  Mmmmm…. Bacon….

Week 3’s meal plan is below.

Paleo Challenge Week 3 meal plan

This week I’m using the Quirky Cooking cookbook and the Skinnymixers website for inspiration. They're all Thermomix recipes, which work perfectly in Boris the Bellini. These recipes are available freely online:

Beef Madras - I serve this with cauliflower rice, and it is AMAZING!

Vietnamese Fish Curry - I might do this with a broc-cauli rice combo, for a splash of colour.

Singapore Noodles - I’ll replace the soy with coconut aminos, and the vermicelli noodles with kelp noodles.

Mexican Pulled Pork - I'm serving this with some sauteed onion and capsicum, and a spicy guacamole, in butter lettuce cups.

Chicken Tikka Masala - also with cauli rice, and I might make some Paleo naan bread if I’m feeling decadent.

I’ve only managed to fit in two cross-trainer sessions this week, but have just tried to be a lot more active in general. Yesterday I walked about 30 minutes carrying Little Miss in the Manduca (baby carrier), which was quite a workout. At 16kg she’s pretty much at the max weight limit for babywearing, but it was actually quite nice to have her so up close and personal for our walk, we had some lovely little chats along the way. I won’t be doing it again anytime soon though, my shoulders are still killing me!

The main thing I’ve been missing is some kind of salty, crunchy snack, so I’m on the hunt for a tasty Paleo savoury snack recipe this week.

How is your January going? Are you still working on your New Year's goals and resolutions?

I've linked this post to I'm an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday

Paleo Challenge - Week 2

Well week 1 of this Paleo challenge was a breeze! I really only felt hungry on the first day, and after that have been feeling pretty darn good. No real cravings for anything, except for pizza on Saturday night, which was satisfied by Pete Evans’ Meatzza! That will definitely be going on the meal rotation – so many possibilities of different flavour combinations. I’m going to experiment with a Vietnamese chicken Meatzza next weekend, based on our favourite pizza from Crust.

My version of the Meatzza

I haven’t yet managed to fit in any exercise, and I’m struggling to figure out when I can actually do any. The kids are awake by 6am (I say ‘by’ because sometimes it is much, much earlier) so I can’t sneak in a quick workout before they get up, and then by the time we get them into bed of an evening, then cook and eat our dinner, it’s nudging 9:30pm and all I’ve got left in me is to stare at the TV for an hour before falling into bed. Little Miss has also now dropped her day sleep, so I’ve even lost that blessed midday break that I’d become so accustomed to.

Paleo Challenge - Week 1

I've decided to make January a ‘reset’ month, where I focus on improving my health, fitness and general wellbeing. D's along for the ride (whether he likes it or not) because I do all the cooking! I'm going to follow the Paleo lifestyle for the rest of the month, use the Cross-trainer that’s been hiding in our laundry every couple of days, and avoid alcohol (apart from Australia Day ;). Easy!

My meal planning inspiration

After a heavy couple of months of eating, drinking and being very merry, I’m actually looking forward to getting things back on track.

Fail to plan, plan to fail - Welcome 2015 :)

I hate the idea of New Year’s resolutions, simply because there is an expectation that they won’t be kept. Lose 10kgs? Quit smoking? Learn French? Climb Mount Kilimanjaro??? If I were to make a resolution on New Year’s Eve, I guarantee that it'd be broken within a month.

Welcome 2015

However, I love setting goals. Goals can be set at any time of year, can be short or long term, and can have a sliding scale of success. Goals are forgiving, are fluid, and can be reassessed to accommodate changes in your situation. If you’re not on track to reach one of your goals, you can just change things slightly so you’re still heading in the right direction, albeit on a slower trajectory. Resolutions are finite – once broken, that’s it, you’re likely to drop everything and revert to your old behaviour. But goals… goals are golden.

So with that in mind, here are my 2015 goals ( I aimed for 10 and got 11 - exceeding my goals already!). In no order of importance...