Living La Vida Low Carb

Wow! I'm so happy to find that my blog is mentioned at one of the biggest Low carb sites in the world! Really cool!

http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/50-paleo-low-carb-health-blogs-for-july-2011-to-celebrate-independence-day/11211

Now it's time to stop slacking off with my recipes, and update more frequently. I actually have a LOT of recipes to upload from the previous weeks.

Stay tuned...

Back on track!

I'm back from my holiday in Sweden, and ready to produce some yummy and healthy LCHF recipes.

Long live the butter!

Btw, I have some interesting stories, and 'health tips' that I got while in Sweden, that I will tell you about as we go along. But I can say that not all 'camps' are as progressed and understanding when it comes to choosing low carb and high fat instead of the old style high carb and no fat!

One of my best friends...

...is my SodaStreamer, what an excellent invention! I love sparkling water, and I think it's the next best thing to have with dinner,taste wise, red wine comes first of course :)

I usually make a big bottles, and over carbonate it so that it is super bubbly, then take some frozen berries from the freezer and add a dash of lemon juice -Yum!

Very often we forget how unhealthy the drinks we have can be, and only look to what we eat. Juice for example, has an undeserved reputation of being super healthy and full of vitamins, which is not true at all. Well, it might be full of vitamins, but no vitamins that you won't get from eating meat, eggs, fish and vegetables, and it is definitely not healthy when you see how much sugar it contains.

Just to give you an idea of how much sugar some drinks contain, see below:

Orange juice, 10,6 g gcarbohydrates/dl - Usually you'd drink a lot more than 1 dl
Coca cola:  36,4 g carbohydrates/33 cl can
Full fat milk 3%  4,8 g carbohydrates/dl
Red wine 0,8 g carbohydrates/dl
Water 0 g carbs :)



Not as shocking as this though:


Frosties cereal 87,5 g carbs per 100 g - almost only sugar!!

Benefits of LCHF

I know that many people are in doubt, thinking that LCHF probably is some sort of fashion extreme diet. Hopefully more and more people will give it a proper shot and realise the benefits of eating this way, and thining of it more as a way of life, than a weightloss diet.

I first tried LCHF because of my very bad migraines that I had at least once a month, in attacks of three days. It started as an experiment to see if this type of diet could really affect something that I had been suffering from my whole life.
And guess what? It definitely did. So much that I will never go back to eating the way I did before. Before I used to consume at least one box of Imigran of 6 tables/month. In the last year I have consumed two of those boxes.

In addition to this I have not had a cold, or any other illnesses, in almost two years, compared to at least a cold twice a year in the past, and I never, ever have any problems with my stomache, I sleep much better and have no problems waking up in the morning and I have no cravings.

At least to me it is very simple, this is the way we are supposed to eat -fresh, natural food such as fish, meat and eggs, and some vegetables and natual fat, all with as little as possible un-natural stuff added to it, and with nothing taken away from it!

Sweden goes LCHF

More than any other country in the world at least. Interesting facts on how nearly one fourth of the Swedish population are eating less carbs and more fat.

Jimmy Moore's Livin La Vida Low Carb

Rest of the world: Read and catch on! :)

Have you tried?

Have you tried any of my recipes? Or have you maybe tried changing your diet to more fat and less carbs? If you have, please post a comment. I would love to know if anyone has tried my recipes and what you thought about them.

Well oh well,  off to cooking dinner!

Me very happy! Kostdoktorn in English!

Finally! Kostdoktorn, the man behind the book I wrote about before, Matrevolutionen, has finally launched his site in English!

I advise everyone to read it, take the information in and to be brave enough to try it out, despite what you have been brainwashed into believing in the past.

As a reward you will feel a lot better, probably lose a lot of weight, never have to go hungry again and not suffer the high risks of diabetes and other illnesses as you do today.

And women, you will feel a lot better about yourselves and your bodies, because you will only eat until you are full, and you will not have to 'make yourself' stop eating anymore, you will not feel bad about what you have eaten during the day etc.
Believe you me, I have had some anxiety over food in my life, but I don't any more, and it is much thanks to discovering LCHF.

Take a couple of minutes to read this:

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

Turkey curry Freckles style

I like curry of most sorts, but especially Indian and Thai type ones, and I often make very simplified versions of them myself.
I know I'm not even near making a real Indian curry, but my turkey curry tastes really good, is healthily high in fat and low in carbs, and most importantly; Yummy for the tummy!

Some good tips for making a think, filling curry is to chop the onions into tiny little pieces and let it cook in the sauce for a long time, it then serves as a thickener and makes the whole thing really creamy and thick. Also, I used some mixed lentils in mine, which makes it even thicker.

 

My attempt to plate it really nicely didn't really work out, but once again; it tasted good :)

So, how is it done?

 

Start off with getting yourself some turkey breast, greek yoghurt, cream, tomatoes, onions, butter, and whatever you are planning to use as a side. I made 'rice' from cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli fried in butter.

 

Chop the turkey and the onion into cubes.

 

And fry in a pan with a big chunk of butter. Oh yeah, two garlic cloves finely chopped were thrown in there as well.

When the meat is a bit browned, it's time to add some spices! Don't be shy on the spices here, it is supposed to be spicey!

A selection of the spices I use when making 'Indian' inspired curries. This paticular time I went with a couple of teaspoons of Tandoori, a few pinches of Paprika, and some Medium yellow curry powder.

And salt of course.

 

Add spices, a can of crushed tomatoes and lentils, and let it simmer. TASTE, TASTE, TASTE and make changes accordingly, it is the only way to make good food!

 

Add you new best friend: Cream! 2-3 dl will do here :)

while

 

While the curry was simmering, I grated cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage using a normal cheese grater, and slowly fried in a pan with some salt and butter.

Just before serving, add a dl of greek full fat yoghurt to 'cream it up' even more.

I used a small bowl/cup to shape my vegetable mix on the plate. Yes, I admit, it was only for the picture :)

And Enjoy!

Remember to not take/serve too big portions of this, as it is extremely filling. I couldn't even finish the above.

LCHF - diet or lifestyle?

I say definitely lifestyle! Sure, for people that want to loose a lot of weight it is the perfect diet because you will loose it quick and it will be fairly easy since you will never have to go hungry, but the biggest difference between this and any other weightloss diet is that most people, after loosing the excess weight, will choose to stick to this way of eating, and will never consider going back to their fat frightened life of light products and cravings that they had before.

Why would they really? When you can eat good, tasty, real food, loose weight, and never be hungry again.

The examples are countless, examples of people that have struggled for their whole life with their weight, trying all sorts of diets, shakes, bars, pineapple diets, egg diets, eating nothing at all diets and variatons of eating basically a little as possible, and as little fat as possible, but quite often generously with carbs.

Most of these people would be women, because we are obsessed with being slim and stupid enough to try almost anything to get there. And we have been programmed to believe that being healthy should be an absolute struggle.

But does it really make sense that it should be impossible to get there without almost dying? I don't think so.

Most women, yes, but not all. Like this man, he has a very inspiring story. He was at 138 kilos in a very bad state and place in life, and had tried to follow all the official dietry advise he was given by different institutions, but only gotten bigger and sicker.

Finally he decided to give up completely, since nothing worked he figured he might as well eat himself to death. So he did the complete opposite of what doctors and society had always told him and started eating 'only the good stuff' like steak with creamy sauces, bacon and eggs, cheeses etc, and scrapped the fillers such as pasta, potatoes and bread. And, as a result of this change of diet, he lost 65 kilos and is now completely healthy, and also one of Swedens biggest advocates for LCHF.

Another example is Monique, an extremely inspiring woman who used to be the text book example of a yo-yo dieter, but has changed her life completely, lost 40 kgs and is now working as an aerobic intructor and health coach spreading the word of LCHF. Her blog comes in English as well.

She was recently on TV in the Swedish version of 'Come dine with me', and hopefully inspired a lot of people with her cooking and way of life.

But weight loss in only one part of it. Other benefits are not to be forgotten, like decreased migraines, never having cravings again, stable blood sugar, almost impossible to overeat (a big, very important part if you, as me, have suffered from eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia in your life), improvements to most types of stomache problems etc. The list can be made very long.

Sweden has come very far when it comes to realising what is actually healthy to eat, and that the dietry advised of the 1980's are not necessary what is true. That sugar and flour is what is bad for us and makes us sick and overweight, not fat.

I just hope that other countries 'catch on' soon.

King Prawns and Mussles in white wine

Today we went to a fishing village called Marsaxlokk, known for it's fish and seafood restaurants as well as it's market.
Amongst other things they sell a lot of fresh fish at this market, and we came home with a kilo of king prawns and a kilo of mussels, for only €16!

Well, this is what I cooked from it. Considering it's my first time cooking both king prawns and mussels, I'm very happy, and so was my other half, so I'll definitely do this again!

I made a broth of the following:

1 onion,
2 cloves of garlic,
4 dl of white wine,
Some lemon,
3 dl of water,
 Mixed herbs,
2 fish cubes
4 dl of fresh cream

I let it cook for half an hour before I put the seafood in, then I let it cook for 15-20 mintes. We ate it with suger snaps and tomatoes, and a glass of white wine. Yum!

Thai flavoured chicken patties with creamed vegetables

Another yummy dish rich in flavour! As you might have noticed, I use a lot of spices, and this dish contains several of my favourite ones.

The burgers/patties/balls/whatever you want to call them are seasoned with a lot of garlic, fish sauce, chili, ginger and coriander, and the vegetables are creamed in a bit of cononut milk and philadelphia cheese, and a hint of green curry. It all tastes very thai!

 

 The finished product

 

Take minced chicken breast

 

Chop One carrot, one leek and some garlic into small, small cubes.

 

Mix the vegetables and the chicken with two eggs, 2 table spoons of fish sauce, chili, ginger powder and a lot of coriander powder, maybe a table spoon.

 

You can use any veg you like for this 'stew', I used red cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. It does not only taste good, it looks really nice with the colours together as well.

 

Shape the chicken mix into semi small patties and fry in a pan with a lot of butter. If you have used enough fish sauce in the mix, there is no need for salt.

 

I mixed some coconut milk and green currynpaste to put in the veg mix to avoid the currypaste getting lumpy and not mixing with the veg. I used maybe 2 teaspoons of curry paste.

 

Mix the curry/coconut into the vegetables together with half a pack of Philadelphia and add another deciliter of coconut milk. Then just let it simmer until the patties are done.

A fishy soup

I love soups of all sorts, and it's easy to make big batches of so that you can bring lunch boxes to work! This fish soup is very rich in flavour and has a creamy touch, yet a bit of sourness to the taste. In a good way that is, not that something that has gone sour. :)

 

For 4-5 portions you need:

Butter

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 cans of crushed tomatoes

2-3 dl of cream

1 dl of white wine

1 fish stock cube

½ packet of white fish

½ packet of big prawns

Seasoning:

Saffron

Salt,

Pepper,

Garlic salt

Oregano,

Basil,

Mixed Italian herbs

Cayenne pepper,

Paprika powder

Fry the chopped onion, garlic and saffron in a big chunk of butter together with the fish stock. When soft, add the tomatoes, cream, wine and spices. You have tot taste a lot, and add more spices until you are happy with the taste.

Don't be shy with the herbs though, at least a teaspoon of each, and a pinch of the other spices.

When you are happy with the tastes, add the fresh or defrosted fish cut into chunks, as well as the defrosted prawns.

Cook everything for 10-15 minutes, or until you can tell that the prawns are cooked, and enjoy!

Why Low Carb High Fat?

Well, first of all, because that is how people are supposed to eat, and how we were eating for milliones of years before the 'new foods' like flour and sugar were introduced into our lives.

That by the way, was also around the same time that diabetes, dental problems, obesity and a lot of other illnesses were introduced.

Below are just a few reasons for why someone should replace all the sugar we eat with more healthy fats. By 'all the sugar' I mean bread, pasta, rice, fruits, juices, sodas and many other things.

• LCHF will normalize your weight, if you stick to it. It's the best way to loose weight and to stay there. No calorie counting ever again!
• No more cravings
• No more binging
• No more stomache problems
• Most people will sleep a lot better
• No need for snacking between meals
• Full for a long time
• Perfect if you like to train a lot!
• Increased energy
• Decreased migraines, love it!
• All in all, you will feel healthier and better, I can guarantee you that!

And on a side note, it is very good as well! :)

Migraines

Can migraines be related to what we eat and do not eat? I am convinced it is highly related, but of course not entirely based on that. But someone like me who has suffered from extremely bad migraines since child hood, cannot make it go away completely, but we can definitely help it and help ourselves to less attacks and less severe migraines.

First of all, we can stop stressing so much, cos for many migrain sufferers the attacks are related to stress, but that's a given. We shouldn't stress a lot, full stop.

But secondly, we can eat better  and more natural food, and eat less of foods that will trigger migraines. Migraines can be triggered by a lot of the hormone insuline being released in your body, and high levels of insuline are caused by too much carbohydrates, too put it simple.

I myself can truly tell the difference if I eat a lot less carbohydrates, and instead I eat fat to get full, and I now have one migraine attack every 3-4 months as opposed to 2-3 attacks a month that I used to get.

I also remember when I was a kid and we tried to figure out what caused my migraines, we at some point came to the conclusion that orange juice always triggered it.

The question is though, was it orange per se or the fact that a glass of orange juice is practically a glass of sugar?

Eat more fat!

So, what is this low carb high fat thing all about? It's about eating natural foods, foods that people, and most other animals for that matter, are supposed to eat. Food we have been eating for millions of years, before the thousands of years we have been eating and even growing grains, corn and cereal and before we could make flour and sugar etc.

I am talking about meat, fish, chicken, vegetables and natural fat like butter, cream, olive oils and coconut oil and butter. No artificial shit like margarine and light products that are stuffed with things we really should not be eating. 

I dont think you even want to know how margarine is made. I might tell you here one day, but I promise you, you won't like it.

But think about it, if you have a product that normally contains, let's say 30% fat, and it has been made into a light version with maybe 5% fat, a lot of the natural things have been taken out right? And what's even more scary, a lot of things must have been added.

In a lot of cases, what has been added is sugar and artificial flavour enhancers, and other things that are really not good for our bodies.

I believe we have been mislead for all our lives into believing that fat is what makes us unhealthly, fat and sick, when in fact in sugar and flour that are the real bad guys.

I think that if all people started eating less carbohydrates in the form of white flour and sugar, and more natural foods like animal fats, meat and fish, humans in general would become much, much healthier. We would decrease overweight, obesity,diabetes and a lot of other issues we have today, and still be able to enjoy fresh, natural, good tasting food!

How can people not see the pattern?

We have become so much unhealther and sicker since flour and sugar and other foods rich in carbohydrates were introduced to our lives, and so to the extremes since the advise of fat being bad and dangerous to eat was first introduced. Coincidence?

Creamy chili and garlic pork

This turned out very yummy. When I cook fillet of pork I like to marinate it, it makes it very tender and tastes so much more.

Marinating in a bit of chili sauce, soy sauce, ginger and garlic gave the meat and sauce a bit of an oriental flavour, which I like. 

For marinating the meat:

1 fillet of pork, trimmed and cut into medallions

2 cloves of garlic

Salt

2 table spoons of soy sauce

2 table spoons of hot chili sauce

Chili powder 

Ginger powder

For the rest:

1 onion

1 carton of cream

I put everything in a plastic bag and when for a 1,5 hours walk!

 

When you come back from your walk, heat a pan and melt a big chunk of butter in it. Then put the meat medallions in the pan. 

A this point I also chopped an onion into to tiny pieces and put in a small pot with a piece of butter to let it go soft.

When the onion is soft, put it into the pan with the meat, and then pour cream over it, as much as you like to have sauce, and let it simmer on low heat. I used maybe 4 dl. Taste and use more spices if needed, I added some more salt and ginger.

The finished product! 

Served with cauliflower and broccoli mash. Yummy!