The Tao and a Tasty Treat

"Let the world unfold without always attempting to figure it all out. Let relationships just be, for example, since everything is going to stretch out in divine order. Don't try so hard to make something work...simply allow. don't always toil at trying to understand your mate, your children, your parents, your boss, or anyone else, because the TAO is working at all times.When expectations are shattered, practice alowing that to be the way it is. RELAX, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world SHOULD be, rather than how it IS in that moment. Become an astute observer, judge less and listen more. Take time to open your mind to the fascinating mystery and uncertainty that we all experience."

Thank you Dr. Wayne Dyer, for the above passage. Early mornings are a good time to read. They can set the tone for your day. And sometimes, when you wake up already "stressing" about the day ahead of you, reading something that appeals to you (self help books, poetry, the bible, affirmations) will make everything "line up" a bit better for you. Try it sometime.

a tasty treat from yesterday afternoon;

Chorizo chicken sausage sauteed in butter with sliced fresh fig. Served over 2 thin slices of pao de queijo and 2 little slices of drunken goat cheese.

Truly Simple Meal

Anyone can do this. Please give it a try sometime and let me know what you thought.

In a large skillet heat up 2 slices of bacon cut up in bite size pieces. When bacon (bacon cut from the butcher works better than packaged bacon, as the pieces are a bit thicker) pieces are showing first signs of browning, add a 1/4 of yellow onion (sliced). When onion is starting to get translucent add 2 small or 1 large clove of chopped garlic. Stir together. Next add about 6-8 ounces of ground lamb. Stir well and watch closely so you don't over cook the lamb. When close to done add about 1/2 teaspoon of tomato paste. Again stir together. Next add 1 tablespoon of heavy cream. Heat for just another minute and serve.

I kept a close eye this time on how much of everything I was using so that you could try it. Again don't overcook the meat. So the last step of adding the tomato paste and heavy cream is all within about 90 seconds before taking pan off the stove.

A really satisfying dish.

I had a little side of cucumber salad with it. Drizzled with evoo, fresh ground pepper and a dash of sea salt.

 

What are some of your "truly simple meals"?

Motivation

Just a few positive notes I wanted to share today. And hopefully, it will motivate and inspire you to keep making the choices that empower and make you FEEL GOOD.

I found a large index card yesterday when I was cleaning up a bit and it read as follows;

"Realise that the hardest step in achieving anything, is making a true commitment, a true decision. Carrying out your commitment is often much easier then the decision itself. Don't labor forever over the question of HOW or IF you can do it" 

Thanks to wonderful google I found out that I copied this from a Anthony Robbins book years ago  (mid 90's I'm guessing). It's a book called Awaken the Giant Within.

I have read a lot of "self help" books over the years, and ultimately they pretty much all spell out the same thing with different angles. What ever self help/personal growth book you might be reading at the moment, I urge you to apply it to your life. We all have fallen guilty of reading to much of the same material and gathering more and more information. From what we eat, to what exercise modality, to what were supposed to think.....yet....we just intellectually masturbate with those ideas and while we're keeping our thoughts busy with those issues....very little action is taken.

Do any of you remember when I first started this blog almost 4 years ago and I tried to help one of my best friends to loose weight? I helped her to the point of cooking her daily meals for her and hand delivering them.
At that time, she was just "carrying out the commitment" to eat my way, but a "true decision" was never made. And so, it was only a matter of 1 month that she stopped her commitment and the weight she was desperately trying to loose, never came off and even worse, started accumulating even more. Well, 3 months ago she finally made a TRUE DECISION, and with the help of a very good MD, she decided it was time. She has lost 37 pounds so far, and there is no stopping her now. She is finally going to get what she has wanted so bad for so long. Because she made a "TRUE COMMITMENT".

Yesterday's post over at Zeroing In On Health had a sentence that really caught my attention

 "Consider that the average adult loses roughly 300 billion cells to old age every day and must replace them. Our bodies are literally manufactured out of the food we consume".

Read that a few times and tell me you would still want to eat that donut. If you have made yourself a true commitment, a sentence like the one above has so much meaning, that it will only reinforce what you've committed yourself to. If you haven't made that true commitment, you can, and we all have, read sentences like this all day long. They pique your interest, but you don't utilise or integrate them in your belief system.

I challenge you to make a TRUE COMMITMENT today. I promise you that if you do, you will be amazed with the change it will bring.

And.....back to some food ;-)

Lately I have been experimenting with a post workout meal. I'm not sure if you can really call it post work out, as I eat it about an hour after a morning workout. I used to fast till about 1-2 pmn after a 7 am work out, but for the past 2 weeks, I have been eating about 1/2 cup of full fat greek yogurt. I add a heaping tablespoon of turmeric to it.  (I also add some scallion, fresh ground pepper and sea salt)
Turmeric is one of nature's inflammation fighters.
I've notice 2 things from this little "n=1 thinkering" (hat tip to BRENT).
I seem to have a bit more "volume" in my muscles and my next meal of the day is very "energizing". I have a feeling the "carbs" in the yogurt swell my muscles a bit and the probiotics in the yogurt must have some effect on that next meal. Don't know how much longer I will continue this, as I like to keep it random, but wanted to share my experience.

A little plug for my beautiful town....
Just in case you're curious (our area has been economically hard hit because of  perceptions and a continuous media onslaught) our beaches and Gulf waters are free and clear of any oil or tar balls.

Make it a great day and remember to smile!

Tomato Soup and Beef Jello

A few weeks ago I made a big batch of bone broth. My preferred way is to use the crockpot. I let this batch simmer for 48 hours. After putting it in the fridge and letting it cool, I skimmed the fat (saved for later use) and made a bunch of individual portions and stuck them in the freezer. My kids call bone broth "beef jello". They love watching and helping me skim off the fat, and then putting the "beef jello" in ziplock bags. When your bone broth looks like "beef jello", you've been succesful in making a super nutritious broth.

Last night I made a quick tomato soup. In a saucepan bring your "beef jello" to a boil and reduce down a bit to intensify the flavor. (2.5-3 cups of broth reduced down to 2 cups, recipe for two people) Now add 4 diced roma tomatoes or 2 large tomatoes, 1/4 of a red onion and 2 cloves og garlic. Fresh ground pepper and sea salt to taste. Bring to a boil.

Next I transferred the soup to the food processor and pureed it.

Toss back in the pan and add a shot of heavy cream. (just add a little first, you can always add more)

It looks like the soup is very light from the cream, but it is the poor lighting for the picture that makes it look like that. Instead of the more traditional creme fraiche, I added a small dollop of greek yogurt.

I ate 2 nice bowls of it. If you are a person that doesn't sleep well if you eat late, see if soup has a different result. I didn't get to eat till about 9pm, which is usually on the late side to eat for me. But soup doesn't have the same effect as a meal does. Warms the body nicely for sleep mode ;-)

What do you like to make with your bone broth?

Sashimi II

When you have the right ingredients, you can really make yourself  "restaurant" food at home.

I made some more sashimi for lunch today. A quick visit to the Asian market to pick up a few supplies and I was ready. Since I'm mentioning the Asian market, go find yours where you live, you will enjoy it. They are very affordable and once you've shown up there a few times, the shop keepers won't ignore you anymore ;-) It is also a great place to buy unique and cheap produce. I picked up a very large Daikon, scallions and some small fiery fresh peppers.The Daikon has a much better and stronger flavor then the ones I get at the supermarket. Also picked up some good wasabi. One word of caution, asian products liberally use MSG, food coloring, HFCS, and other ingredients you might want to avoid, but they also carry products that DON'T have them, so shop carefully and read labels.

Here some more ankimo. I grated daikon and tossed a few scallions on it. Laid the slices of monk fish liver on top and drizzled with some ponzu sauce and a few more scallions.
The daikon with the ponzu sauce is a tremendous pairing.

I used to eat this little dish below at a very special japanese restaurant in New York. It was a true authentic sushi restaurant where no cooked food was served. It had authentic Japanese protocol, they did not take reservations and they were known for turning customers away when there were many open tables available. They would turn people away, because they had so many regular customers, that they knew for example that a certain customer would come around 7 on a Thursday night. They had no menu's and no prices. The sushi chefs were unbelievable.Many times when I sat down at the sushi bar they would serve a little dish immediately with out me asking. This was usuallly a bit of salmon, cucumber scallion and some soy sauce and sesame oil. So this is what I tried to copy today.

 

It came out well, I really enjoy the combined flavors.

And lastly, just some salmon sashimi and scallop (Hotategai in Japanese).

I'm not a huge scallop fan, but I love raw scallop. If you eat raw scallop, make sure you buy yourself the freshest you can find. Store in the fridge wrapped in paper towel. The paper towel will get all the moisture out of it and will result in getting maximum flavor.

Now what should I make for dinner?

Sashimi, Salad and a Silly Band Queen

I don't live in a big city as you know, so my sushi restaurants locally are not the greatest. Don't get me wrong, they're ok but just not fantastic. Sadly, they are all pretty expensive. So every now and then I treat myself to an order from Catalina Offshore Products.  (no compensation) They are located in San Diego, and sell some terrific products, including some of the best Uni (sea urchin roe) I have had. When you sign up as member, you will receive emails with specials. I took advantage of one of those specials and ordered some wild California King Salmon. Now the product is frozen, but let me tell you how good this is. I have a friend who is a chef and he laughed at me that I ordered frozen fish. He said "I can order you anything you want fresh". Yes folks, fresh is better then frozen, BUT.....I brought my "non believing" friend a small sample to try and I can tell you he was blown away.
Take a look at this nice fatty salmon sashimi;

This salmon is so tasty, you don't even need soy/tamari sauce and wasabi. I had some with and with out. I also put a tiny dollop of garlic chili sauce on the salmon instead of tamari and wasabi dip. Delicious.

I don't know if you have ever tried this in a sushi restaurant;

This little treat is called "Ankimo"

It's monk fish liver. It is sometimes called "foie gras of the sea"

A bit of ponzu sauce really let the flavors stand out.

A quick home made ponzu sauce you can make (and use for many other dishes) is just adding some lemon juice to your soy/tamari sauce. It makes for a nice change of flavor.

When you order this as an appetizer in a sushi restaurant, it usually costs between $9.95 and $15.95. A whole roll from Catalina costs $15.99. Ahhh affordable sushi/sashimi what could be better?

Life can't always be filled with the above delicacies, and other days we make do with the basics. Like a salad.

Just a nice lunch salad consisting of romaine lettuce, cucumber, peppers, red onion and salami.

Dressing is just some evoo and fresh ground pepper and a dash of sea salt.

And here my Silly Band Queen

Amazing isn't it? Some one decides to manufacture some plastic bracelets in all sorts of shapes and becomes a multi millionaire pretty much over night. Has this crazyness hit your area too?

"You can get everything in life you want.....if you will just help enough other people get what they want"

Meals

Smoked salmon with avocado and cucumber salad

Probiotic cucumber salad/soup

Probiotic cucumber salad/soup

Bacon and scallion. Toss on a spinach salad with some evoo and mustard

They sell this at Costco. Some of the best canned wild salmon I've tasted.

Lamb with shaved broccoli, onion, peppers and garlic.

Brazilian cheese bread  "pao de queijo"

One of my favorite home made treats off all time. Tapioca flour, butter, cheese and garlic.

You could use these to make "sandwhiches" also. Stuff them with some precooked spicy ground beef or shredded chicken.

"TRUE NOBILITY IS NOT ABOUT BEING BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE......IT IS ABOUT BEING BETTER THAN YOU USED TO BE"