Food, Glorious Food!

~ Oliver, the Musical ~ 

I cooked so much food yesterday. So much food...

I don't know what happened on what should have been a lazy Sunday afternoon, but I woke up in a egg (I cracked about 25 of those suckers) & steam daze around 20:00 last night and somehow I had lost 4 hours of my day.  Now, don't get me wrong, I've pre-cooked before, but this was on another level:  9 dished (10 if you count the tart I made earlier the morning).

Changing the way we eat has made us so much more adventurous in the kitchen, but hell it feels like we are spending half our lives in between buying groceries & cooking it. We leave for work at 6:30 / 7ish in the morning, straight to Crossfit afterwards and then probably get home at around 19:15. Add in the making & drinking of a protein shake and a much needed jump in the shower and it's 20:00. Then you have to cook, eat, clean & dish up for lunch tomorrow. On loop. Forever. 

I recently acquired the Paleo book (and no, this doesn't just apply to Paleo peeps) "Well Fed Paleo Recipes For People Who Love to Eat".  There was a wonderful section on how to prep for the week, and then using your already cooked food (be it meat or veg), put together a "hot plate" in 20 minutes. Yes please thank you! Here's a bit from the book:

"I’m not going to lie to you: At first, it was a huge annoyance.  [Yup] I was bitter. [Yup] I complained a lot. [Tripple Yup] But we both stuck to our guns, and soon it became routine. Our kitchen is now habitually stocked with healthy food, and it’s not much more work than our previous, lazy, more destructive ways. 

As the new shopping habits took hold, it became painfully evident that if we were going to take our health and longevity seriously, restaurant meals were not going to cut it. I was going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen. For the first few weeks, I did. I felt like I was on an endless loop of chop, cook, eat, wash, repeat. It was tedious. 

But then I remembered the lessons of my dad’s restaurant kitchen and came up with a plan to keep us stocked with food, without driving myself mad. Now, just one big, weekly shopping trip and one Weekly Cookup keeps us happily fed all week. 

To forage all the ingredients for that food, my husband does one giant shopping trip on Friday afternoons, and I spend about two hours [phffft] on Sunday cooking for the week. With most of our food already cooked, meal prep on an average day takes about 30 minutes total: 10 minutes to pack my food for work and 20 minutes to throw together a delicious dinner."

So last night I donned my dirtiest shirt [I am a walking mess], put Lorde & Linkin Park on shuffle & started taking out everything I would need. I had to briefly stop to re-arrange my whole kitchen so that there was enough counter space, but the washing machine made do in a pinch.  Finally I morphed into what I though was a mixture of Nigella (sans the boobs) & the cute little pucka Brit and I was off multitasking like a pro. In all honesty, I think it was a lot less sexier then I imagined it to be, covered in spilled tuna juice & goopy egg white.

Here's the list: 

• Creamy Chocolate & Coconut Pie (Avo, Cacao, Coconut, Coconut Oil, Honey, Coconut Milk) 
• Caramelized Onion, Bacon & Mushroom Frittata
• Bacon, cherry tomato, rocket & a pinch of pecorino egg cups
• Mint & Coconut Tuna cakes
• Spiced Beef Koftas
• Roasted Vegetables
• 3kg Roasted Chicken
• Sweet Potato Mash
• Breakfast Pizza (mince "sausage", tomato, onions, peppers, mushrooms, sweet potato) Frittata
• Slow cooker Honeyed Pork Shank with some beans & stuff...I started getting gatvol...

In the end it was quite a cathartic experience. I had the confidence to try out new tastes, textures & ideas even though we are now one whole pot lid short & one honey induced blister richer. Hopefully this lasts till Wednesday...

I know it's cliched as hell, but I cannot get enough of Crossfit. It makes me want to vomit a little in my mouth every time I do it but dammit I want more. Not only are you pushing yourself to your limit every time, there is this wonderful sense of camaraderie - everyone here is suffering / enjoying / hurting / laughing. And everyone is willing to help. 

Remember how easy this shit was when you were 7?

I've started practicing my bar muscle-ups (jumping from a box still) and have made that my goal for end February - 1 bar muscle up.

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