What’s been happening in my kitchen this week?
Although today is a Monday, it’s Wellington Anniversary day, so a public holiday. @sift666 has gone to visit his mum, and all is quiet and Sunday-feeling. I still had lots of work to do, however, so not much time was spent in the kitchen. But there are some recipes and tips to share.
Since I came off the water fast, I’ve been having four smallish meals a day. As it’s summer, I got back onto some raw veges and salad as soon as I could, and that’s what I have for lunch. Today I’ve got a bit of a sore gum, and can’t get excited about chewing lots of hard carrot. So I’m making spiderman salad.
Spiderman salad
This idea came from one of the late, great Leslie Kenton’s books. To get raw veges into her children, she would zizz them up and call them Spiderman salads. I must be still a kid at heart, as they’re my favourite too.
The first things to go into the mini food processor (a NutriBullet would be good for this job as well) are the hard veges. Today that was:
A small carrot, peeled and chopped
Half a small beetroot, peeled and chopped
I pulsed them a few times before I added the rest. Then I added:
A chunk of telegraph cucumber, peeled and chopped
Half a small apple, chopped
A few herbs (parsley and garlic chives) fresh from the garden
Some cos lettuce leaves, roughly chopped.
A few more pulses, and doesn’t it look pretty?
Usually I would dump it into a bowl at this point, still with some texture. But because my gum is sore, I’m going to pulse a few more times and get it finer. Maybe we could think of it almost like a raw vegetable sauce?
On top of that went about 100gm cooked chicken, and a drizzle of balsamic salad dressing. See my salad post for how to make that.
After I took the photo, I mixed it all in together, so the dressing was mixed through.
It was so tasty and easy to eat, though I still made sure to chew it, to get it digesting well.
Kitchen tip – best way to use a can of coconut milk
After a bit more work, I needed a late arvo snack, and I’ve been making “mylk”shakes with coconut milk. Trouble is, I only need a small part of a can, and I want to make sure the rest keeps for several days. So here’s what I’ve been doing.
Shake the can really well before opening it, then if needed, mix it more once opened. Pour it into an ice cube tray, and freeze it. Once the cubes are fully frozen, store them in a zip lock bag. A 270ml can of Ayam brand coconut milk makes 15 cubes, and is enough for 5 “shakes”. There, how easy is that?
Choc berry mylkshake
Ok, I’m ready to make my shake. Out of the freezer come:
3 coconut milk cubes
50gm frozen organic blueberries
They go to one side, while I mix up the non frozens:
1 cup filtered water
5 drops liquid stevia (English toffee flavour) – normally I would use a natural sweetener like honey, but I’m still off all sugars, even good ones
1 scoop bone broth protein powder (or whatever type of protein you like)
1 teaspoon natural vitamin C powder, from whole foods
1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder
1 raw (grass fed) egg yolk (did I mention I seem to be ok on eggs again now, yay?)
After a quick blitz to mix those together, in go the frozens for some serious blending and frothing.
Glass, pour, straw, drink…
If you’re wondering what I do with the egg whites, sometimes I save them for grain-free bread, like my Carrot Cashew Blender Bread or Carrot Almond bread. Last nights dinner was a Paleo cottage pie with pumpkin topping instead of cauli. The egg white got whipped into the pumpkin layer, which made it a little fluffier.
Coconut snack bar
After some more work, and a phone call with my sis about some online study she wants to do, jeepers, it’s 7.30pm! But I want to get this snack bar made, so off I go. While I’m gone, check out my previous posts about coconut snack bars – Healthy Homemade Chocolate and Fudge – Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Fruit & Nut bar.
Both the above links tell you how to prepare the creamed coconut, so I won’t cover that again.
Today I’m going to use the whole jar and make two different combos. So into the food processor go:
500ml creamed coconut, softened
100gm coconut oil (already liquid in today’s heat)
100 gm cacao butter, melted
I’m tipping it into two bowls. To the first one I’m adding:
15 drops Valencia Orange stevia
15 drops food grade essential oils (a citrus blend)
1 teaspoon dehydrated lemon rind
Into the lined tray it goes, and I’m sprinkling a few pieces of cinnamon coated coconut chips on one half.
The second one is a simple chocolate mix:
25 drops English Toffee stevia
2 heaped teaspoons raw cacao powder
Right. Into the fridge go both trays and I’ll make myself some dinner.
Dinner for one
A very simple dinner for just me.
A fresh salmon fillet, sprinkled with sea salt and baked in the oven for 10 mins
About 1/3 head of broccoli, steamed and topped with salt and lemon juice
Followed by 3 or 4 fresh strawberries from our garden
Then add some pics to this post, clean up the kitchen a bit, and it won’t be far off bedtime.
Thanks for keeping me company :-)
Check out @woman-on the-wing’s #makeithealthy project
Images by myself, @sift666 or from Pixabay, unless otherwise stated.
Follow me for more health, nutrition, food, lifestyle and recipe posts.
That Salmon looks nice, but it could use some special love. Have you tried Salmon with green tea? Sounds weird I know, but we often eat it that way and it's delish! - Check out this recipe: http://hotcooking.co.uk/recipes/70/jamie-oliver-15-minute-meals-green-tea-salmon
That does sound interesting. If I'm cooking just for me, I usually keep it very quick and easy. But will definitely try it one day when we're both home.
Love the ice cube trick. Have been doing that with fresh herbs in oil but never thought about freezing leftover coconut milk. Thanks for the tip!
We've been growing some herbs this summer, so I must try the freezing them in oil trick. Aren't freezers useful!
They sure are. Wish mine was a bit bigger though lol. Enjoy the rest of the day!
That's an awesome idea! All of it actually... Spiderman salad, frozen coconut milk... the lot!
I used to freeze veggies for our kids when they were just weaning. It was better for them than the packet 'dinners' you could get and just as convenient.
Yeah, I'm always keen on cooking in bulk and tossing some in the freezer. It's not much more work, and saves work later. As well, of course, as being healthier.
@sift666 is missing out, though I'm sure he'll be able to sample some when he gets home. Great use of the frozen coco milk! Quite ingenious! That Spider-Man salad looks so much like salsa. No wonder it gets the kids pumped! And those bars mmmmmmm those bars... Finally a set even I could make! (aka no ovens required) Thanks for sharing these, Deb! Definitely on the menu this week!
Still no oven, huh? Hard for me to get my head around, as all flats here have an oven already in them. But I'm glad to have come up with some recipes that work for you. Yes, it is very similar to a salsa, and if you used tomato, it would be even more like it. @sift666 has sampled the bars very thoroughly.
My fiancee and I have been eyeing this electric one that's quite affordable, but it only goes up to 250 C so no bueno. I've wanted to use my STEEM earnings to buy it just so I could have a STEEM-powered oven, but haven't had much luck accumulating enough. I had those bars in my mind all day!
What do you need more than 250C for? I never use more than 200, maybe 220 VERY occasionally. I use 150 to 175 for most things. A STEEM powered oven would be very cool.
Oh seriously? I've seen recipes going above 300C. Is that not usual? I didn't know 150 was the average haha! Then 250C would be enough then!
They must have been 300F, which is 150C, and is quite a cool temperature. I use that for reheating, or for things that I want to cook long and slow - xmas cake, my breads, roast meat.
Then around 350F or 175C, I would cook most things.
I might go up to 400F or 200C for something like the first half hour of cooking a roast, before turning it down low. And occasionally there is something that needs a fast, hot cook, but I don't use it much.
One thing you might want to check is the lowest temperature. If it will go down to 50-60C, you can use it instead of a dehydrator, if you wanted to make something like jerky or soaked and dehydrated nuts. You may never want to do that, so don't worry if it won't. But if it will, it gives you more flexibility for experimenting.
Oooohhhh the Farenheit-Celsius theory makes a lot of sense. I'll have to check which unit of measurement they're using. Good call, Deb!
This is an awesome post @kiwideb and I LOVE all your recipes and will definitely visit the other links you have put into the post. It's been hard getting motivated to cook and eat with the heat we've been experiencing, but your spiderman salad is easy and looks delish. Will give it a go for sure
Yes, the salad goes down much easier in the heat of the day, especially once it's blitzed. And I'm cooking ahead as much as possible, to cut down on both work, and heat from the oven!
Ah synchronicity, I have had Water Fast on my mind for a few days. I've actually lost a bit of weight and really fast, though not the healthy way, not intentionally, but it can definitely be turned into a positive because I was meaning to anyway. If I do a cleanse...plus my friend wants me to go to the gym with her--and maybe I'll get mom to come along, something for her to do aside from hanging out at my house lol.
Thanks for these awesome recipes, I'm serious, I'll just do grilled black bean strips in place of chicken and YUM, all of this looks great!
Take whatever positives you can get right now! If you go ahead with a water fast, read back through my posts from during this fast and especially back to my report from the first one we did. Hopefully it will have some good tips for you. This time I very slowly increased my calories and that's gone well.
The coconut freezing tip is a fantastic idea!
I was quite impressed with myself - a stroke of genius ;-)
Hi kiwi.. Its yumyyyyyyyy... Specially spider salad.. I already making it with carrot tomatoes onions cucumber reddish and cabbage and decorated it on salad leaves.. I dont choped it but cut it into small tiny pieces sprinkle with lemon juice salt and green chillies cut in small pieces.. And its yumyyyy. Spider salad is also looking delicious... One thing kiwi that egg yolk i think spoil smell or flavour of milk shake.. I neva drink uncooked egg in anything as i dnt like its smell so idnt knw how ll be its taste.. Thanx for yummmy recipes.. Here we make such things like snacks milk shake occassionally and ppl consider it not good for health.. We use pure fresh milk from dairy frm that milk man supply to our homes.. Tea is famous among nation and ppl take from 2 to severalcups daily.. And our normal diet is raw milk, some ppl made milk shakes with banana, apples, strawberries or mAngo but all use fresh fruits.. And ppl eat different fricassee with chapati or paratha 3 pr 2 times a day.. We daily made new fricassee either meat or vegetables or both mix.. Thanx for sharing delicious recipes dear..
Not everybody likes egg yolk in smoothies or shakes, that's true, so you don't need to add it. And I only eat raw egg yolks when I know they've come from a real free range farm, so the chickens are healthy.
A western milkshake made with pasteurised milk, ice cream and sugar laden syrups wouldn't be healthy. But as long as you tolerate milk well, a milkshake made with your good raw milk sounds great. I don't do well on even raw milk myself, so I use coconut milk or nut milks. But @sift666 makes all his smoothies with raw milk, made into homemade yoghurt.
Your salad and other meals sound very tasty too.
Yes they are tasty and we are addicted to wheat flour chapati.. But i think its the reason behind our overw8 bodies.. Ppl who eat less chapati are not much healthy or overw8 like others
Ah well, you know what to do about the weight then! Less chapatis and more fricassees!
Hahhhh.. Its really addiction kiwi.. If we dont eat it we feel we eat nothing.. Feel uncomfrtable.. But i already eat it less.. One chapati per day..
Some great uses for coconut milk here. Those coconut snack bars are calling my name. Okay, off to the shop I go :)
Though remember those snack bars are made from creamed coconut aka coconut butter, not coconut cream.
Very nice wholesome food. Not like this......
![images.duckduckgo.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmXq78eqSY2Sc9Rgqe3agQMwtKy3bPbac1pS3EDUsmaNTq/images.duckduckgo.jpg)
Haha, no, not like that. Although I can't eat gluten, if I could eat the occasional burger or pie, I would!
Have you tried the Mc Donalds drive past? - it's great ... don't drive through just drive past! ;-)
Good one.