Tag: knife

addictive food

let’s start with cheese

Cheese is highly addictive due to the casein, salt and fat in it.
The producers of cheese products know this, they have known this for quite some time, they prepare the cheese they sell to you specially to make it as addictive as possible so you will be forced to buy and eat more and more of it

They do not care what it does to your health and your mind, except to condition you into buying and eating more cheesy things. The problem is, how do you stop eating something you like to eat which is in or on just about everything we eat?
Once you know it is addictive and is so very unhealthy, how do you stop?

Despite the fact that you believe you like it.

We’ll work on this together

I had some trouble stopping myself eating cheese, it was exactly the same trouble I had when I quit smoking. Not only is it fattening and unhealthy, it is also addictive, just like sugar and salt which are also added to just about everything we eat.

Cheese is everywhere, on your Pizza, in your sandwich, in lasagne, in your macaroni, on your spaghetti, It is really hard to think of a meal that does NOT have cheese in it when you first start out NOT eating cheese. It is also, so moreish, we all love to eat lots of it. The advertisers tell us we love it and we readily and happily agree with them.

Melting gooey sticky stringy oily yellow cheese
On everything

So it’s even harder to quit that smoking, because at least these days we are not bombarded with smoking messages saying how cool it is and great it is and good for us it is. The food marketing industry is now using the exact same strategies the tobacco industry used to make us eat more cheese, like more cheese and defend our sacred cheese.

It’s such clever brainwashing we don’t even know we are brainwashed
Just look at advertising
Or rather, don’t

We have come a long way from the delightful brie made by Mr. local farmer, or the real traditional stilton. The cheese being sold to us now is not really cheese at all, certainly not in the traditional artisan sense. What we get now is a poor reflection of the old local cheese makers varieties, so much so it’s impossible to name any but the most well known mass produced ones. Think about it, what locally produced cheese can you name, or better yet, do you eat?

If we can get ourselves to the point that we stop eating this mass produced muck and go back to occasionally treating ourselves to a local handmade speciality, we are already ahead.
Try not to eat anything with cheese on it for a few days at a time. Say ‘hold the cheese’ and find out how dishes taste without it. It worked for me, it can work for you. Try it and think about how you feel.

As you start paying attention to how you feel and what you think it will become easier to stop eating cheese altogether.
Only when you have reached this stage will you realise how prevalent cheese is in your life and your diet. You will also notice you feel a lot lighter and have less trouble with your knees.

A mixed bean salad

Vegan, oil free, gluten free, delicious.

This oil free recipe gets its creaminess from the Violife ‘white’ and the borlotti beans. red beans will also work. Carrot adds sweetness and cucumber a delicious coolness. The rucola is used as a herb as it is strong and peppery in flavour, all offsetting the slight bitterness from the chicory. Thus giving a wonderful easy to eat oil free salad containing all the nutrients needed.

For gallbladder and liver health it is also possible to add dandelion leaf finely chopped, it goes well in this dish adding it’s own flavour in-between the chicory and rucola. It is possible to forage dandelion almost anywhere, be careful to choose clean plants not near busy roads but in meadows or parks where the air is cleaner. Or like I do simply grow it in your garden as it is a healthy nutritious plant.

The lemon juice and salt bring out all the natural flavours of the fresh ingredients and with the rucola and the dandelion leaf you don’t need pepper.

red chicory, finely chopped
spring onion thinly sliced
grated carrot
dandelion leaf finely chopped
a small tin of green borlotti beans (red kidney beans are also good)
greek white ‘goats cheese’ Violife, in small chunks
rucola, very finely chopped (arugula)
red cayenne chilli very finely chopped
cucumber in small chunks
paprika, orange, sliced and chopped (bell pepper)
lemon juice to taste
salt  to taste

 

So lets go

Let’s take a good long look at how and what and when and especially why we eat.
Because we all know it’s not just about hunger and nutrition.

If you are or ever have been ‘serious’ about dieting you have this picture in your mind of what your preferred ‘thin’ is like. You have this idea that somewhere in the future you can be different. You want to change into that perfect person you think you are not.

You want to be this other person, this thin person.
You want to be this totally different being who is slim and energetic, beautiful and healthy and loved
Loved even by you yourself.
So who is this person you can see in the future? This person who is all these things you want to be and feel you are not right now?

We don’t really need to take a long look in the mirror to see what we really look like now, as we know what we look like now, and don’t like what we look like now, this is why we avoid looking at ourselves.
We carefully avoid the mirror, sometimes we won’t even have mirrors in the house and some of us wince when we catch sight of ourselves accidentally.

How bad is that as a body image? Is this how you really feel about yourself? I’ve noticed it about me, my body image is very negative. Do you never wear anything tight or fitted, do you also buy those roomy clothes that cover your body and hide all the lumps and bumps and fat bits? Are you afraid to be seen in public, in the gym? Will everyone who sees you notice all the fat bits wobbling on the fatter bits which you are so unhappy about? I never go to the beach in a bikini anymore because I’m afraid someone might see that I have fat bits.

It’s no way to live. I feel sad and I am angry and puzzled and by my own reactions to what my body looks like now. I do not have a good relationship with my body.
Instead I have a deep meaningful relationship with my fridge, my cookie jar, this bag of crisps and the bar of chocolate, specially the bar of chocolate.
And it is all funny, It’s hilarious, I laugh, we laugh we are all funny, because if it wasn’t funny we would be crying, so I’m snarky and sarky instead and that makes me angry too because it’s not really a joke, mainly because I have begun to worry about my health.
And still I eat
Specially the very things I know I should not be eating at all.

Let’s face it we are unhappy, have a terrible body image and don’t like who we are.

What we need to do is engage our brains, we need to think about this carefully, we need to use the mirror in a completely different way
We need to look at ourselves from the inside out, use our internal mirror
We need to look at our feelings instead of eating something

Avoiding  how we feel is what got us here in the first place, we need to look at ourselves inside out, honestly
It’s just us in here, so it’s safe here, as for everyone else – it’s none of their business, they can stop judging us right now – if they ever did.
We have to let the internal judge sail too and stop judging ourselves, look at ourselves dispassionately, calmly and kindly, without judgment.

Let’s get real inside our own heads, inside our own feelings first. Take look at what moves us to eat the way we eat, so we get to the point where we can do something about it for good, for the long term.
We need to take control.

It’s like finally quitting smoking, at first it’s impossible to do, we can’t even think about it so we don’t. Then it’s maybe something that might happen in the distant future, then it becomes possible to cut down, after that the idea of quitting becomes something that could happen someday, then one day it is possible and you find you can stop.
After that on the day you quit, not smoking is hard as it nails you down twenty times a day as you slog through the force of habit, but it is possible to continue quitting twenty times a day and not reach for that cigarette twenty times a day. Then you notice you can breathe deeply again, this is it’s own reward, your sense of smell returns, this has it’s own reward too. The smokers cough finally goes away and that feels really good, then movement, walking, running becomes easier, you’re not so knackered all the time and that is really great.

So bit by bit, not smoking becomes normal and easier till you cannot even imagine how you mindlessly smoked all those years.
But it was difficult to put that last one down, and it was very tricky to avoid the next one.
That takes control.
(if you never started smoking, really well done! That’s the best way, never start)

The point is that we can also do this with food. We can be in control of ourselves here too.
It becomes easier, and easier for us to do the right thing as we go along. In a years time, two years time – when you look back at yourself you will smile. You will have become the person you can only dream about now. The healthy active one.

The one you know you are.

So the exercise today is look at your body image clearly and kindly, notice the difference between the one you think you are and the one you think you want to be, that’s it, that’s all there is to it, get these images right in you mind. What are you now? What do you imagine yourself to be? How far apart are these two images, how different do they look to you? Remember though, neither of these images is real – neither of them.

Now, how do you feel?

Restaurant review L’Amandine

L’Amandine

Salon de Thé – Restaurant
chef. Myriam Cadet
host. Hugo Eenhoorn

This little place in Bussum, The Netherlands is worth a visit
If you are ever in the area  visit this a charming little tea house where lunch is as pleasant as it is in France.

Stop by if you are parched and just need a cup of tea or linger longer for lunch or dinner.

They have a sound menu where even the vegan is catered for, order a sandwich, a full hot meal or a delightful plate of grilled vegetables at any time of day.

We sampled them all and they are all delightful.
The food is of a high standard, the dishes are all cooked to order. The Chef, Myriam Cadet knows what she is doing in her little kitchen. No fast food here, just French dishes done well.

We will be returning whenever we are in Bussum. I highly recommend this little gem.

the details

L’Amandine
Salon du Thé -restaurant
Havenstraat 134 B
1404EM Bussum

http://www.lamandine.nl
+31 642133755

Getting better

Why would ‘better’ be something we have to go out and get?

Surely it should be with us all the time, but the same wording is used for ‘getting’ ill – as if it is something we shop for at the supermarket

Well

Perhaps it is something we get.

Most of us spend most of our lives living with some kind of low grade inflammation all over
This is what we consider normal and it gets worse with age
We have gotten so used to it we think it’s normal

We eat junk, we know it’s junk, we eat rubbish, we know it’s rubbish, we turn our noses up at fruit, we refuse to eat vegetables and we have phobias about eating salads.

We are all addicted to sugar, fat and refined carbs, and wonder why we feel vaguely sick all the time.

Stop messing about, you know why you feel sick all the time. You eat crap! You pay no attention whatsoever to the quality of the food you put in your mouth, half the time you don’t even know what it is!
You just shove the fastest, easiest, nearest crap into your mouth and assume all will be well, just like everybody else, till, when you are fifty you find yourself on a gurney being rushed into surgery for a bypass.

Welcome to the western world where your diet will kill you.

Having just reached a similar point myself I know where that place is, being hospitalised is scary.

Going out and ‘getting’ better is where it’s at.

Get yourself a better diet, get yourself healthy, get yourself fit, get that feel good factor into your life now – start now by eating your veggies before you die.
Get your head round it, get rid of your junk addiction and start eating real food.

I thought I had a fairly healthy diet, mostly vegan mostly plant based, I loathe meats anyway so I don’t eat them. I hate milk, I’m not keen on greasy stuff or sweet things I don’t eat sweets as such, but I slip often enough to make my diet pretty damn useless anyway, so I need to clean up my act.
Recently I was eating bars of chocolate, white buns with jam and clotted cream, tiramisu, mayonnaise, prawns and fish slathered in oils and even some meats like roast beef. I was completely off the rails.
Then came the easter celebrations and plates full of filled eggs and devilled eggs and other dishes made with eggs, french cheeses, white bread, jams and clotted cream and serious overdoses of chocolate.

I ate everything. I overate.

No wonder I ended up in hospital with stabbing pains in my guts the day after, the DAY after!

I did it all to myself,

I know what to do now. You know what to do too, you do, you have always known, but you don’t listen to it, you only listen to your food addiction and every day you make the easy wrong choice, and you know you do. Even in the face of your own addictions, your own habits, your own routines, as well as advertising, the misinformation, propaganda and the immense social pressure we are all under, change anyway.
Start anyway.
Just like me you need to change your diet before it kills you.

get better
get healthy

 

 

 

Dandelion salad with artichokes

Super simple super nice

seriously good for your gall

Why?

Well – dandelions have been famous throughout history for helping the liver and gallbladder, this little plant is also a diuretic, thus great for the kidneys and helps the immune system.

I have used the plant before in salads, it’s a bit like rucola, nice and pungent and bitter. It adds a lot of fresh flavour to salad dishes.

It is also delicious, I used the leaves chopped and the flower petals scattered over the dish.

And artichokes are scientifically proven to help the liver and gallbladder, to help with nausea and vomiting, and is also an antioxidant. I’m on firmer ground here as some of this has actually been studied. And is thus now considered proven scientific fact, which we like.

I got the artichokes out of a tin as they are not quite in season yet here, though I recommend them fresh if you can be bothered to prepare them. They are one of my favourite foods when in season.

You know you can even order artichoke on your pizza if you want, it’s all good.

Sprinkle on some lemon juice and a pinch of salt on the salad and you’re good to go.

That’s all you need.

Emergency gallstones

So I got out of hospital yesterday with my gallbladder still in me

What a treat

To get to keep all your body parts

I am pleased I managed to avoid surgery, they are all so very keen to chop you up and take bits out.

Like it’s some kind of fashion.

The problem is not the gallbladder, the problem is the gallstones, it’s the gallstones that need to go so why not leave the gallbladder which has a job to do and just remove the gallstones? That strikes me as far more logical. The surgical technique would be practically the same.

Unfortunately any and all cures for gallstones or ways of removing gallstones or in fact any other kind of treatment for gallstones except surgery is not supported in mainstream medicine, so you’re fucked before you start! You have to drop conventional medicine and go your own route if you want to keep all your insides right where they are. Which is the route I have decided to take.

Very careful menu planning, loose weight slowly and gently, drink lots of water, lots more exercise, and meditation

Specially the meditation

As, together with the searing stabbing pains from gallstones I also am extremely bad tempered lately, I mean white hot rage, temper tantrums and anger attacks for no reason.

I’ve got a gall!

It’s even in the language, it’s become part of the language. Gall!

Yes the anger, the rage, the temper are all part of gallstones and gallbladder and liver problems.

Apparently my digestive system rules.

In my research the only place I have found references to the emotional aspect of this is in chinese medicine, and partially in ayurvedic medicine nothing in western medical literature, though I’m sure if I dug a bit deeper I might find some reference to it.

So we will see what happens now.
I have an appointment with my GP to go and I have made an appointment with an ayurvedic GP as well. (Yes I wish it was Deepak Chopra as well – but he doesn’t practice here)

Of course I will be trying every fad and find and alternative AS WELL as keeping an eye on the mainstream, after all, the goal is to survive.

So now onto a good meditation hour and………..

Wish me luck – I need it.

 

‘Bami,’ noodles easy vegan style

A quick simple wok dish
Ready in no time
A clean and easy recipe if you like you can use any bits of any suitable vegetables you have left over

Of course it’s vegan!

You will need Mie.. Mie is a kind of noodle made from wheat, one rose or swirl of mie per person is enough.
You can use noodles if you wish.
Don’t overdo it, too many noodles or mie spoil it.
With this recipe you want to really taste the veggies

This makes enough for 4

Ingredients

Mie 4 nests

prepare all the vegetables in advance.

One large onion cut in half and then thinly sliced.
Garlic 3 large cloves halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
A chunk of ginger the same size as the garlic altogether, sliced to the same size as the garlic
juice of 1 lemon
sugar 1 tbsp. (or a little more to taste if the lemon is very strong)
4 tbsp Ketjap benteng manis (sweet soy sauce)
2 tbsp ketjap asin (salt soy sauce)
One paprika finely sliced, any colour
Green french beans blanched and cut in half.
Courgette, 1/3 of an average sized one. sliced lengthwise into strips
A little sunflower oil or peanut oil to start the cooking off in the wok.
salt to taste

technique

Chop all the vegetables as instructed above in advance
Blanch cool and cut the beans in advance.
Put a pan of water on to boil and cook the mie according to the instructions on the packet.

Add a little oil to the wok and quickly heat the ginger and garlic without burning them, turn them out onto a dish

Then sear the beans to get a little colour and flavour into them and turn them out onto a dish

Add the onion, paprika, mushrooms and courgette to the pan and toss turning the heat low
just as they are starting to soften.
Then add the beans, ginger and garlic back into the pan.

Add the lemon juice, the ketjap benteng manis, the ketjap asin and the sugar and stir through.

Add in the cooked and drained mie
for four people I add four mie ‘nests’
Turn it all over in the pan and mix well turning the heat right down to avoid burning.

Taste the cooking liquid,
it is important that you taste the liquid in the pan for balance

Add more sugar and/or ketjap asin to balance the lemon juice and ketjap benteng manis as needed,
taste it all again till you are satisfied with the flavour balance, adding salt only if you must.

Serve immediately

Any leftovers can be frozen and are delicious if reheated in the wok.

 

 

Summer heat

As we head towards the end of August, we wait for the heat to stop, for coolness to arrive, morning early, evening late, to at last make the hot days manageable again.

Food is not really on our minds, coolness is, a perfect time for fruit, salads, ice creams.

And lots and lots of liquids, water being the best.

Drink enough water, cool, clear, crisp, clean. Chaudfontaine, Perrier, Spa, there are so many delicious waters to try. They all taste different, try some and find out.

 

I have been eating fruit, mostly.
It’s the best,
cool, sweet, simple.

Fruit requires no more work than a quick cut of the knife.
Eat raspberry, melon, watermelon, strawberries, grapes, apples, now apples are really crisp and cool.

Try something you don’t usually eat, passionfruit, papaya, dragon fruit or cactus fruit. I have, not just as they are, but chopped up and mixed in delicious bowls of fruit salad. They need nothing else.
Delicious new flavours, wonderful sweetness without the bane of refined sugars, which like cheese we know we shouldn’t really eat.

Fruit.

Quite possibly the healthiest food on the planet.

Lazy Sundays

Out on the water, the yacht, white on blue, crystal clear water in all directions.

The wind rustling my hair and the sails bold as the boat silently cuts the water to our favourite lagoon.

It’s time to open the picnic basket and the cooler. What did we throw into it early this morning with sleepy eyes and a dormant brain before rushing off to the lakes.

Bread, fresh from the bakers, the mad dash to the shop on the way to buy warm baked rolls just out of the oven. Fresh fruit and a knife, tomatoes, cucumber and mayonnaise, lots of green stuff. It looks like I just emptied out the vegetable drawer in the fridge and threw everything in there. Now, when hunger strikes it’s time to make up something to eat, now we find out what we forgot. Now we realise we don’t really want to be this healthy and would prefer to eat something vaguely unhealthy but there is no choice.

I slice juicy melon, the scent hitting us in the heat of the day as we throw out the anchor. I fill the rolls with salad things, they have gone slightly chewy. We are in a silent bubble, the distant sounds of revellers on the beach, children jumping into the water, chugging engines seem unreal, snaches of music and the soft lap of water on the keel create a dreamy haze.

No wasps here.

We ravenously tear at chunks of bread with our teeth, slices of cucumber and tomato spill onto our hands dripping onto the deck. Did we forget napkins and tissues again? This feast washed down with bottles of icy water from the cooler. A delicate pink wine, fresh and cool or a cold beer. I can feel an afternoon headache coming on but I don’t care. The sun beats down and turns the water into a million diamonds. It’s all simple, quiet, delicious.

We ruffle the water with our sticky hands then settle down to some serious sunbathing for the rest of the afternoon saving the punnet of strawberries for later.

This is the life.