Tag: News

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But eating low-carb is so expensive!!

I had, in all honesty, intended to write my own post on the cost of going low-carb ( Primal/ Paleo/ Banting – what ever you want to label it!!! ) but then I spotted this article from The Real Meal Revolution and decided they’ve done the job for me 🙂

https://realmealrevolution.com/real-thinking/banting-on-a-budget-is-easy-part-one

N.B. This is a South African website (hence the notion that avocados can be bought cheap!) but all the suggestions still apply in the UK.

Main points:

  • Compare shop prices – MySupermarket is a very quick, if rough, way to do this if you don’t want to go to each website individually.
  • Buy in bulk, but I would add only if you can store it properly. If you can’t store it, or better still share it, then you risk wasting food.
  • Buy from markets – having already checked your store prices (see above) you can decide if it’s cheaper, better quality or you just want to support a local business.
  • Eat eggs every day. Simples.
  • Swap out expensive cuts of meat – just check the prices, it’s a no brainer. A whole chicken is significantly cheaper than pre-cut portions, you get way more bang for your buck and really is not that hard to prepare.
  • Try eating more tinned fish. I had horrible memories of being forced to eat tinned pilchards, with the bones, on toast as a child…. but I tried again with some good quality sardine fillets in olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice, and I was converted. Think of those gorgeous tapas dishes you have on holiday. It’s the same thing!

In addition to the myth that it’s too expensive, I get a lot of comments that it must be boring and repetitive with so few options (?)  to choose from….. well we’ve been low carb for over 4 years and I can’t say that’s been the case for us.  In fact I see far more repetition in “traditional” diets e.g. Friday night is pizza, Tuesday is tacos etc.

Along with trying out the odd *new* ingredient from time to time,  or taking inspiration from restaurants, eating seasonal veggies keep things changing.  This can be confusing in the UK since we have access to pretty much everything (mostly imported) all year round, and the prices don’t change all that much either. On our recent trip to South Africa, we saw how little choice their supermarkets have compared to ours – and this is meant to be the country so much of our produce comes from!

The BBC have a good, simple guide here to help you out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/seasons

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New plates!

While editing and cropping my last batch of photos,  I noticed a lot of them look the same as I only have a couple of different types of dinner plate and I’m limited to where I can take pictures with natural light in my tiny kitchen.

So either I use a flash on my camera (which makes food look disgusting) or only cook in daylight hours and take stuff outside to shoot (not ideal when this is my actual evening meal, not a prop).

With winter approaching I needed a better solution so I’ll be investing*  in some new crockery and a homemade background board. Hopefully the results will be a bit less monotonous!

*time to visit Ikea 🙂

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Getting my mojo back……

I’ve been offline for a few months. A lot of late nights, driving around, hospital visits and emotional times. Comfort eating, drinking and grabbing convenience food. My sleep patterns and diet have got in a bit of a mess and my health is starting to suffer too. It’s a vicious cycle of eating anything you can get your hands on when you actually feel hungry, then feeling worse because of eating junk. Despite my love of good food and knowing how I react to bad food choices, I also know that in times of crisis it’s more important to eat something than be precious about the options and go hungry. Cue sleepless nights, tiredness and irritability…. pass the Merlot…..

To get my arse in gear, and get interested in food again, I’m trying out a whole week of new recipes plucked from food magazines. Reason for this is they’re all new so I have to follow the instructions and ingredients list instead of just winging it and not preparing fully, and eating snacks.

This meant shopping for a ton of fresh ingredients; in part because they’re new dishes with fresh herbs and fruit but also because I’d run down my larder and freezer supplies to next-to-nothing and was only shopping meal to meal, with a lot of snacks and wine included 🙁

My plan is to trial these new menu items, which should be interesting, and also to come up with my own plan for the next week(s) which will make use of all the expensive leftovers:)

If I can get Flickr to play ball then there will be piccies too!

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Food trend predictions for 2015

Aside from bugs (not sure why people get their knickers in a knot about them – plenty of the world’s people eat them) I’m very pleased to see ‘nduja on the “what’s hot” list for 2015 🙂
2015 Food Trends

I’m a bit in love with this stuff after I managed to get some during our wedding anniversary food marathon in London last year.
If you can get hold of it, before it becomes waaay to trendy and expensive, try it in Eggs in Purgatory – divine!

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Getting back on track

After a shoddy start to December I’ve finally pulled up my cooking socks and organised.

2 big pots of soup – Done. That’s lunch sorted for the rest of the week.
Menu for the week’s dinner – Done. Even managed to pick up sensible stuff to go with letovers for Friday night dinner, despite being very tired and work had worn down my remaining nerve. Can’t go wrong with fajitas and all the trimmings (minus the tortilla, of course).

Even managed to thoroughly clean the hutch, so feeling very virtuous as I tuck into a bowl of fresh carrot soup with pesto 🙂

Now, time to plan our Christmas Feast!

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Glutinous December

Only a week into December, and I’m already a bit sick of food. Not had any major blow outs but there has been a lot of grazing between meals, and a lot of drinkies…….
The idea of a pre-Christmas detox just sounds too depressing, but must do something or I’ll wake up hung-over with my arm in a bag of Doritos. If I wasn’t working the whole of the “festive” season then I’d make some time to prep meals and pre-empt the inevitable munchies, but really just can’t be arsed.

Step 1: Only drinking water at home
Step 2: Start making dinner earlier – a fed Chicken is a sensible Chicken

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Woo Hoo!

Yay! Shiny new WordPress platform and everything works again!

Now, I’d better crack on with the long post…….

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Happy Anniversary, Hunny Bunny

Today marks 6 years since I married my wonderful husband. It’s also 15 years this month since I met my Grok in a bar. He banged me on the head, dragged me home with him and we’ve been together ever since. It might have been the other way round…… 😉

He’s not let himself go at all 🙂 In fact he’s become a lean, mean marathon running and cross-fit machine and I’ve learned to be a number 1 fan-wife. He puts up with my duvet days, makes a top-notch cup of tea and knows better than to ask when dinner will be ready. As well as educating me in the ways of the S’African, he’s introduced me to the Paleo lifestyle and has even got me to enjoy running. Oops, and he managed my blog too!

It’s never been an easy ride, and we’ve weathered more cr*p over the years than most people, but I wouldn’t swap him for the world – but it would be nice if the next 15 years could be a little kinder to us.

You and me against the universe, B!

mwah x

P