How is it possible to put weight on when you don't eat like the rest of the world, you eat pretty sensibly most of the time, and in fact your body is a temple, you know the one - The Taj Mahal......I will tell you how, having recently spent about 8.5 hours at the local hospital and been given numerous medications for one thing or another, and luckily having read the labels carefully (or so I thought) I realised which ones could be mixed with each other and which ones definitely could not, I should then have continued reading the small print as it turns out that two of the very important and daily medications necessary for a good quality of life have some very irritating side effects, BOTH CAN LEAD TO RAPID WEIGHT GAIN @@@@@@! Does this mean I will be doubly fat or normal fat, or just plain old fat, if I continue with them both will my arms
continue to move away from my body as the chest explodes in all directions, or will I have to tie my wrists to my waist in the vane hope of not looking like a muscle bound body builder......
So now I have some serious choices to make, one do I stop one or both medications, will I become skinny again, or maybe just less rotund if I drop only one, but which one will I drop. You can see my dilemma, now neither are life savers but one definitely is a marriage saver, mainly because it's anti-pain-over-night properties allowed me to sleep, which is something that has eluded me for quite a number of years now, and you have to understand that if I'm awake so is my beloved.......not only because I roll around the bed so much it makes him sea sick, but also because I have a habit of just starting a conversation in the middle of the night which god love him he feels duty bound to answer, all be it sleepily.
Noodle Doodle
Carrots and Courgettes make the best noodles, now if you don't have a spiralizer which is the best thing since sliced bread (especially as I don't eat bread), you can use a julienne peeler (lakeland sell them), but please, please, heed my warning about the dangers of this implement, I have trashed and sliced fingers and nails whilst trying to tease the damned thing down a carrot, courgettes not so bad as they are softer but that carrot resists the razor sharp edges leading to slippage and bloodshed. On the other hand the fact that you have to place your feet against the wall to wedge yourself up hard against the spiralizer when turning the handle and pushing the carrot through the blades does tend to make you look a little like a demented acrobat, but a demented acrobat with cool noodles!!!!
Now once your beautiful vegetables have been turned into noodles and they can be fat, thin or ribbons you have a choice on how to cook them. They can be microwaved to al dente, they can be dropped in boiling water and blanched, with a little salt for taste, or they can be shallow fried or even oven baked after coating with coconut oil, all are great tasting and I love them all. But one thing to remember is that if you think you have enough, you definitely do not, shrinkage is what I'm talking about, so when you think ok thats plenty do another couple of carrots or courgettes just for good measure and to stop your belly rumbling because it didn't get enough cos you were being grippy with your splicing.
Another way to cook them is in a very small amount of liquid (just enough to coat), one of my favourites is a little chicken stock with coconut milk, throw in some seven spice and some chilli flakes and you have a delicious dish nippy on the tongue and tasty on the tonsils, throw in some pre-cooked chicken and voila meat and two veg, simples........
I love living on a compound with small people, they are so good to me they leave their vehicles in the most convenient of places, and I get to use them whenever I want, like just this evening I found a pink three wheeler that I rode around and honest I swear there was glitter spraying out the back as the wheels trundled me around the compound, and then there was the red two wheeler sitting at a jaunty angle on the road just begging for me to race that baby up and down the street, doing skiddies and burning rubber. I only ever do these stunts under the cover of darkness you understand as I really don't fancy being chased by an angry child and most definitely not by an even angrier parent......
Anyway back to the food, one of my favourite dishes I put together out of a need to avoid rice was Riceless Chicken Fried Rice, a wonderful dish thrown together in the simplest of ways but so tasty it has become a regular in our house.
Riceless Chicken Fried Rice
Cooked chicken shredded and heated
one cauliflower riced, then spinkle in curry powder or spices of your choice cover with clingfilm and cook in microwave for 3-5 mins depending on size of cauliflower, fry onion in coconut oil until golden then add to microwaved cauliflower.
Take two eggs whisked add salt and pepper to taste and make into an omelette then chop into small pieces, add to the cauliflower with the omelette season to taste and enjoy......
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| To rice or not to rice |
This dish can be made with smoked fish or any other protein you fancy, let your imagination take control and your tastebuds soar.
Living in the middle east has it's moments, and previously living in Cyprus had a few moments of it's own, not least of all the fact that vegetables imported from the UK or other areas cost the equivalent of two bottles of wine in Cyprus, obviously wine is not available sadly in KSA but half the time the cauliflowers that are available make you wish they were a banned substance. So with this in mind I had to come up with another filler and quick, so the carrot bake was implemented on a whim, another success on the vegetable front and very similar to the cauliflower bake.
I happened upon a recipe for Latkas when looking for a recipe for plantains, now Latkas are a dish made with potatoes, a traditional jewish dish eaten on Hanukkah, and I decided that surely I could adapt the Latkas with carrot instead of potato and voila the carrot cake was invented, now I'm not saying it was my invention, but in my kitchen I made it with a little help from a Latka.
Carrot Bake/Sandwich Recipe
4/5 large carrots grated (depending on how much you need) for a small sandwich just one large carrot per person, for a large tray bake 4/5
egg (sufficient to bind)
salt and pepper
mix all together spread on a baking tray with baking paper and bake in oven, this dish can also be grilled and will need flipping if so, also can be pan fried as the pictures show, thus making a tasty toasted sandwich. This dish also can be frozen or refrigerated as required, or eaten straight from the oven, yummy. We regularly eat this dish as a replacement for rice when eating curry, or as a side dish to meat recipes, just slice it up as required.
I was never really fond of sandwiches back in the day when bread was on the menu, its that soggy bread on your tongue thing that turns my stomach, but the one thing I did love and would still eat if I thought the bread would not lead to joint pains is french stick, laden with cheese and raw onion, but I now have the option of making the carrot bake and adding whatever fillings I so desire and no joint pain hooraaaaah. Now some people will have a problem with eggs, I eat Paleo so for me there is no problem, but should you require or desire you can remove the yolk and just use the whites, me I've always been an all or nothing kind of girl so I will eat the whole egg thank you very much.....
So this blog is just a little plaything for a simple woman with a shed load of time on her hands. It is made up of recipes I have found, some that I have adapted and others that I have invented, some of my best inventions have been bastardisations of other recipes stuck together to make a super neat meal for my Beloved and I.
First up is one of my very favourite recipes prior to my descent into caveman eating, the simplicity is what makes it great, hot or cold, same day or from the freezer this recipe is an all rounder, can be used as a side dish, a base instead of rice, or just a plain old snack......
One Cauliflower (size depends on how many people you want to feed, or share with because trust me once you taste it you will want to keep it all for your self).
Cheese grated (again amount depends on how you like your cheese, myself I love a lot of cheese so I add more than a couple of handfuls and usually Cheddar, the stronger the better.
Eggs 1-2?
Salt and Pepper
Having recently invested in a new food processor I have moved on from hand grating my cauliflower which tends to lead to flying cauliflower and a very messy kitchen, so firstly with the processor I used the disc, unfortunately because my processor is not the expensive type I was on occasion left with big clumps of cauliflower which then needed chopping by hand. And then one day whilst reading a recipe I read that to make cauliflower rice the metal blade is the best tool to use, it was like a mini revolution in a bowl, I had cauliflower that was uniform in size, the kitchen was clean and no chopping required at the end, hallelujahhhhhh.
So here comes the simplicity of this wonderful, tasty dish which I started to make around the time I moved to Turriff, when potatoes were off the menu and I needed a filler that was both tasty and simple and loved by all children, adults alike.
Set oven to around 180-200C/350F/Gas mark 4-6, time depends on amount so I just check after 20-30 mins and when it is golden brown it is cooked.
So grate your cauliflower, and the cheese, add salt and pepper and mix together, then add your eggs, a very large head of cauliflower needs between two and three eggs to bind it together, I use my hands (cleaned previously by the way) to mix the ingredients. Take a baking tray (shallow) line with greaseproof paper and pour the mixture out, flatten down until it is the depth of a pizza base, then slam it in the oven and wait.
Once it is golden brown remove and you can let it cool or slice right away, eat as you like and when you like, I absoloutely love this dish, but now I don't eat cheese it has taken a step back to my next recipe, which once again was an adaptation from a recipe for Latkas.........
