How many different meals can I cram into the oven in one go?

It’s hot. Too hot to want to turn the oven on. So I want to make it count and cook four things at once. Will they fit?

First a quick word about coming off my water fast. I’ve reintroduced quite a few foods now, and am eating animal proteins, cooked veges (as soup), salads and some good fats including macadamias, coconut, olive oil and lard. I’m only eating a tiny bit of fruit so far, and I do mean tiny, like one cape gooseberry or a thin slice of apple. It looks like I’m going to need to avoid eggs, dairy and almonds for a while.

Those of you who’ve been following me for a while know that I do best on a fairly high protein Paleo style diet. @sift666 is also close to Paleo as he doesn’t do well on grains, but he can tolerate some dairy (preferably fermented), and some legumes. He needs a lot more vegetables than I do, and in the summer needs lighter proteins. So we often eat different meals.

Today I wanted to make five dishes to feed us for most of the week:

• Chicken and veges in the crockpot for me
• A huge frittata filled with roast veges to do 3 to 4 dinners for @sift666
• And to go in his salads: Spicy roasted nuts / Marinated tempeh / Baked kumera (sweet potato)

So first to get on the go is my chicken and veges. I sliced 3 red onions and lay them in the bottom of the crockpot. Then chopped 8 button mushrooms in half and mixed them in. I lay 10 chicken drumsticks on top, and set it onto Low for 6 hours. Usually I sauté the chicken drums in spices before putting them in, but I haven’t introduced spices yet, so today they are plain. The juices from the chicken fall down into the vege layer, and often I blend it all up to make soup. I usually use just onions, so the mushrooms are a bit of an experiment.

Then I set the tempeh marinating. The recipe for that is a bit further down.

In the evening, the first thing I did was get a big container of veges roasting. I did this a bit back to front, compared to a regular frittata recipe. Rather than know how many veges I needed for a specific recipe, I just looked around the supermarket for a variety of things that looked like they’d work. What went in to the roasting dish was: a piece of pumpkin, a parsnip, 3 zucchini (courgettes), 12 button mushrooms and a red onion. I tossed them in some lard (which I use because it’s a very stable, safe fat) and sea salt and into the oven for about an hour.

The tray of marinated tempeh went onto a lower shelf, and I managed to squeeze two kumera in next to the roasting pan.

Once the veges were cooked, @sift666 had a look and we decided that was the right amount of veges for 4 meals. I split them between two large glass baking dishes that I’d lined with baking paper (easier than greasing it).

I would have then used 12 eggs, but I wanted an egg white for the spicy nuts, so went with 11 eggs and an egg yolk. We didn’t have any cream, so I beat the eggs up about quarter of a cup of raw milk and some salt and pepper. This was poured over the veges, then topped with a generous amount of grated cheese. Back into the oven at 175C for 40-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I started on the nuts. I whisked together the egg white with a teaspoon of water till frothy, using an electric whisk.

Then added a teaspoon of coconut aminos (or use tamari), a teaspoon of coconut syrup (most people use maple) and two teaspoons of a Moroccan spice mix and whisked again.

I stirred in 3 cups of nuts (macadamias, walnuts and cashews) till well coated, then onto a baking tray and into the oven on the lower shelf for 20-25 minutes, stirring a couple of times along the way.

So now we have dinners for four nights, and goodies for @sift666’s salads.

Marinated tempeh recipe

When it’s hot, @sift666 doesn’t go too well on heavy meats, so we usually go for fish, eggs, dairy (homemade yoghurt and cheese) and some vegetarian proteins. For example, some chickpeas in the form of hummus go down well. He also uses soy some times, but only forms that have been fermented – like natto and tempeh. The tempeh we use is organic and non-GMO.

Here’s what it looks like out of the packet.

I cut it in half, then slice each half through the middle to make thin slices.

Then each quarter gets cut into 8 pieces.

The marinade I used today was:

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons coconut aminos (or use tamari)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• And a knob of ginger.

This all gets whizzed up in a mini food processor and mixed in with the tempeh. It needs to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably 2 or more.

Then it gets baked at 180C for 40 minutes, getting turned halfway through.

Gratitude journal

Since I’m catching up on 3 days worth, I’ll just pick one thing from each day to share.

On Saturday, I was grateful for my nephews. What with one thing and another, our garden got a bit out of control last year and was more of a wilderness. Two of my nephews came over and spent 4 hours in the heat weeding and weed eating. They’re planning to come over again in a couple of weeks and finish the job.

On Sunday, I was grateful for our new swing chair out on the deck. In the cool of the late afternoon / early evening, it was lovely to lie out with a book, and feel cool and comfortable.

Today, I won @trevor.george’s snakes and ladders game. Choice! Thanks very much, Trevor.

EDIT - I've just changed one of the tags to #makeithealthy - check out @woman-onthe-wing's Make It Healthy project here.

Thanks for reading.

Images by myself, @sift666 or from Pixabay, unless otherwise stated.

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