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

My best cooking friends

I have a sign in my kitchen that says:

I COOK WITH WINE, SOMETIMES I EVEN ADD IT TO THE FOOD.

And that is semi-true, I do love red wine, both in and out of food, but  it is not a necessity to make a good, healthy meal of food.

A spoon on the other hand is, you can not cook anything good without tasting it all the way! When it is so good you can't stop tasting it anymore, it is ready! :)

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.

The seafood frenzy continues

 

On our continued seafood frenzy, we this Saturday went to Marsaxlokk again, not to buy fish from the market, but to indulge some nicely cooked seafood from a local restaurant.

I went for king prawns with grilled vegetables - very yummy. However, the ones I cooked at home last weekend were better :)

Sunday brunch

Beans with spicey cheese, crunchy streaky bacon, eggs scrambled with some cream and a tomato and ruccola salad with a vinaigrette dressing.
Breakfast for a king!

"Even you BF can make it"-chicken

 

If you haven't tried roasting things in the oven using a cooking bag - do it! It is a brilliant way to oven roast things, especially if it is something big, like a whole chicken, but even if it is, like I used last time, only chicken drum sticks.

It keeps all the flavours in the bag and makes the meat really juicy, but still gives it a nice crunch!

What I did was that I gave my boyfriend instuctions to put a bunch of fresh chicken drumsticks in a cooking bag, together with an onion cut in four pieces, two garlic cloves, some soy sauce, chicken stock, olive oil and spices like chili, paprika, garlic etc.

Then I went for an hours power walk and when I came back, the chicken was good to go. Pop it in the oven and check if the juices are clear after 30 minutes in 175 degrees.

We had this yummy chicken with home made guacamole, fava beans creamed in Philadelphia cheese and a simple salad.

Loads and loads and loads

So much food to show from this weekend! Some made by me, and some devoured in restaurants. We tried two new restaurants this weekend, both serving fresh fish, and both really really good.

Anyways... let's get cookin!

Fridge Clean Out Pie

You know when you realise there is a lot of stuff in your fridge on the verge of going bad, but you dont really know what to do with them? -Make a pie! You can just throw everything in there, the more the better almost!

I know what you're thinking now though. Pie? Isn't this a LCHF blog? Pie without flour?

My answer is: Yes, of course you can make pie without flour, you get ALL the good stuff and none of the 'filler', the crust. And yes, it is very yummy!

Where I come from, pies are very much quiche-like with an egg base, and that is perfect for a carb 'free' version, because the eggs will settle and serve as a foundation for the whole thing.

What I did was the following:

 I buttered an over tray with a generous amount of butter (for a change :)). 

 

Then I used almond flour all over the tray to make a sort of 'breading' for the pie.

It gives a nice taste, and it makes the pie come out of the tray easier as well.

 

Chop up whatever you have at home that you want to 'get rid of' and throw in the tray.

 

The only thing that is really essential, is cheese. Without cheese -no pie! I had two different cheeses that I needed to finish.

Mix 4 eggs, and 2-3 dl of cream with salt and pepper, then pour over the pie.

 

Add the cheese on top, and pop it into the oven. You can tell it's ready when the eggs have settled and are not liquid anymore.

Enjoy!

Master Chef fish with sweet corn sauce!

So, as I mentoned I got inspired by the US Master Chefs and cooked this lovely fresh fish with on a sweet corn sauce. The sauce made the whole dish and I can highly recommend cooking this or something similar.
To go with it, I made a salsa style salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado, onions, and some greens, and butter fried sugar snaps.

The fish is fresh local (Maltese) white fish that I cannot remember the name of, but it will work with any white fish, of course fresh is preferred.
I did realise that I have to improve my fish filleting skills while cooking this though. Well, living in the Meditteranean and next door to a fish shop I have a feeling I will get the chance to practice a lot more :)

 

Start with the fish, cut the meat off the bones and season with a little bit of salt and pepper.

 

Take half a can of sweet corn and some water and blend it until smooth.

 

Pour the corn puree into a pot, add some salt, pepper, garlic salt and perhaps some vegetable stock into it. Then CREAM of course, to make the sauce creamy and smooth, and not to forget tasty!

 

Chop tomatoes, a little bit of onion, an avocado and mix with olive oil, herbs, vinegar and a little bit of honey in a bowl.

Now, fry the fish in a generous amount of butter, and at the same time very gently fry the sugar snaps in butter and some salt as well. You just want to warm them in the butter basically, and avoid too much heat to make them go soft, you want to keep the crunch :)
At this point, also taste the sauce, add more seasoning etc to make sure you are completely happy with the taste.

Enjoy! I promise you, you will love this dish!

Yummy for the tummy!

We had this tonight, it was really really good. I was inspired by an episode of Masterchef USA that I saw yesterday, and by the little fish shop that I found very close to our apartment, where they sell fresh local fish everyday! 

Recipie will come tomorrow, for now you have to do with only a pic :)

Red wine stew

The secret with any stew is to let it cook for a long time, but this is especially true when it comes to beef. Cook it for a few hours in herbs, tomatoes, wine, whatever works for you, and it will come out delicious, almost regardless of what meet part it is. In other words, you can buy a pretty cheap piece of beef, and still be able to make a lovely stew out of it.

We ate this yummy red wine and beef stew with a mash of broccoli, cauliflower and some fennel.

 

In my stew for 4 portions I used:

A piece of beef, see picture, trimmed and chopped

50 grams of butter for frying

1 onion

1 leek

2 garlic cloves

1 beef stock cube

Fry all the above in butter in a big pot until slighly browned.

Add:

3 dl of red wine

1 can of crushed tomatoes

2 table spoons of herbs such as basil and oregano

Salt

Pepper

Let everything cook for 1½-2 hours, or until the meet 'melts in your mouth' :)

 

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!