Bacon-apple burgers

It's already been 10 (!!) days since my last post. Oops. It wasn't because of a lack of new meals, but because I had to attend some classes. Not that that's the best excuse, but still.

In the mean time, I started working out again, CrossFit! How I love that!! I knew I'd missed it, but after my first workout I was sure. I can't go without sports. It makes me feel beter physically, and it certainly improves my overall mood as well. Therefore, I see no reason why I shouldn't do sports. It's a good kind of addiction.

I also made a new, delicious meal. Bacon-apple burgers. I was inspired by a dish from my new cookbook, which I bought last week. It's called: MEAT. by Adrian Richardson. It's chock full of everything you want to know about meat; different preparation and cooking methods and techniques, and a number of tasty recipes. I actually went to the cooking supply store to get myself a mini-muffin tin, but I couldn't resist buying this book.
Something else they had at the store was a CrockPot. Something I laid my eye on over a year ago already, and hadn't bought yet. It might be a feminine trait, but as soon as I like something and want to have it, I'm prone to feel like I also need it. As you might have guessed by now, after another day of doubting whether to buy it or not, I ordered it. My CrockPot SCV1600BS. It'll be mailed to me next week, and I already can't wait.

Along with my CrockPot, I also ordered another 8kg-pack of grassfed beef. Which includes a whole lot of stew meat, perfect for my CrockPot. That's going to save me a huge amount of time, last week it took 6 hours to turn 2,5kg beef into 3 different stews.

Now, here's the burger recipe. I enjoyed it twice: once for dinner (with a carrot salad and sauteed onions and peppers), and once for breakfast (with eggs in a nest of kale, apple and onion).

Bacon-apple burgers (serves 3)

Ingredients:
- 500g ground beef
- 125g finely diced bacon
- 1 egg
- 1 apple
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp coconut oil

1. Add ground beef, bacon, egg, salt and pepper to a bowl.
2. Rinse the apple, peel it and discard the center. Coarsely grate the apple pieces and add them to the beef in the bowl.
3. Mix the contents of the bowl until well combined. Separate into 6 equal pieces and roll them into balls.
4. Flatten the meatballs into burgers of your desired thickness and put them onto a plate.
5. Heat coconut oil in a frying pan and fry the burgers for 1 minute on each side until golden brown. Then lower heat to medium and fry them for another 3 minutes on each side until cooked.
6. Serve with veggies of your choice and enjoy!

Tip: These taste great with a fried egg on top!

Pan fried red snapper with lemon sauce

Market day today, as I already mentioned. This time, I not only bought a whole lot of veggies, I also went to the fish stall. I had been buzzing around it for a couple of weeks now. Those people have probably thought to themselves 'when is she ever going to buy something??' a number of times, but today was the day.
First of all, I asked if they could clean the fish for me. No problem they said! Ok, well, then it was time to pick out some fish. I chose: 1 mackerel, 1 red snapper and 1 trevally.
The first choice was obvious; I like mackerel. And the other ones made me feel like I was on a holiday in Australia or Asia or somewhere far away.

The first thing I did back home was call my mom. Which went something like this 'Mom, I bought these fish and I don't know what to do with them..' of course I got the obvious suggestion that I should eat them. After all, their heads were chopped off and their insides removed so they wouldn't be doing any swimming over here, and the smell didn't make them suitable for decoration either.
My mom suggested pan frying the snapper and mackerel, and baking the trevally in my oven, good ideas!
So I decided to go for the red snapper today. First of all I didn't have a clue what to serve with it, but the fish looked Asian (nice colours!) so I went with carrot fries and an Asian spiced lemon sauce made with shii-take, onion, lemon, coriander, curry powder and coconut. Simple, but tasty!

When everything was prepared, carrots popped into the oven, I unpacked my fish and found out I didn't have a clue how to fillet it.. Oops..
YouTube brought me the solution in the form of a Hawaiian looking man who was talking about what to do when you've speared your fish from the ocean. How primal!!
Of course I didn't own a filleting knife whatsoever, so I just used my regular knife which worked out pretty well. I think I could've gotten more meat from the bones, but for a first time filleting job, I did a pretty good job if I may say so myself.

After pan frying my fillets (which were smaller than I had expected, so I simply ate them both) I took my first bite, and... pierced my mouth with a bone.. Ouch!
Luckily, that was just the first bite and I only found 3 bones in total. The lemon sauce combined perfectly with this flavourful white fish, and I loved it! I'm definitely going to buy my fish over there again, as it was pretty cheap as well.

In the afternoon I did some more shopping; I bought a 2,5l bucket of coconut oil. I use so much of the stuff that it really pays off to buy bigger quantities. And that's not all, I also got myself this fancy kitchen tool: a julienne peeler!
Foodwise; a great day!
So here's the recipe, and afterwards I'm going to clean up the mess in the kitchen.. Next up is running and practicing handstand pushups. (just because I want to be able to do those)

Rosemary basil chicken

Used my Dutch oven again today! It's only the second time I used it, but more ideas on using it keep popping into my head. I love it!
Tonight I made this rosemary basil chicken, with onions, butternut squash and tomatoes. Quite good! Normally, when I'd fry chicken fillets, they'd end up a little (and sometimes very) dry because I'm afraid to undercook them..
This way, they were still nice and moist on the inside, while cooked through. And the process was easy. I basically threw everything in the pan, transfered it to my oven and while the oven was doing its job I did the dishes. How's that for multitasking!

Lemon roast chicken

I did it! I roasted a chicken for the very first time! And it was soo good and delicious!
I'm definitely going to do this again.
Of course I used my new Dutch oven for it, and I'm so glad I did. Very easy to use and I could just pop it into the oven.

Over the past few days I had been looking for the perfect recipe to start with, while using my Dutch oven. I ended up using a recipe from my cookbook 'Mastering the art of French Cooking' by Julia Child, as a base, and just added whatever I thought would be good.
I was a little scared of cleaning the chicken, but I was lucky because the chicken I bought had already been cleaned properly. *big relief*
The other good thing about it was that I didn't need any kitchen string because my chicken had already been tied.

Minty mussels and leeks with celeriac pasta, and a new pan!!

I'm so happy right now, I just got a package delivered to my home containing a beautiful Le Creuset Dutch oven! Last month, I bought some Irish beef with a sticker from the Irish food board on it. You had to fill out the barcode of the beef and your address and such online in order to participate, and apparently I won!
It's cobalt blue and 24cm in diameter. So a whole chicken will easily fit in there.
I can't wait to start cooking in my new pan =)

Apple omelet recipe, and a new frying pan!

When you're not at home for breakfast and the people you're staying aren't Paleo, it sometimes is hard to make something that suits your diet. Most people have something that involves lots of grains for breakfast, and when the groceries still need to be done you have yo get creative in order to stick to your diet.
Below, there's an easy recipe to make with ingredients most people have at home, I used apples and eggs, and some cinnamon. This is an ideal breakfast recipe for people who want to get started on a Paleo diet as well. It's still sweet because of the apple, but has a lot of protein because of the eggs and by far not as much carbs as the usual sandwich, muffin or bagel.

When I got home today I found a few bags with vegetables (winter carrots, leeks and beets, yum!) in my hallway and when I went up the stairs to my living room there was a large bag from a cookware store waiting for me! Without me knowing, my parents had visited (unfortunately I wasn't home...) and left me all those things.
In the bag was some tea, trail mix and.. a brand new frying pan!! The most luxurious frying pan I've ever seen, I must say.. I totally love it!
I used to buy a new frying pan every 4 months or so, because the nonstick layer kept getting nasty, greasy spots on it. Even while I cleaned my pan right after cooking every single time! Besides, I'd heard those nonstick layers are poisonous when they're damaged and even when they're intact you might still get small amounts of it in your system. Not something I was keen on getting..
The pan is from the WOLL Induction line. It's pretty heavy and looks very, very durable. It has a titanium coating, which doesn't involve health risks. You can even remove the handle, so you can put it in the oven. How easy is that? I can't wait to start cooking with it really soon! Thank you mom and dad!!

Apple omelet (serves 1)
- 1 small apple, grated or finely chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

1. Put the chopped or grated apple in a bowl. Add the eggs and cinnamon and stir until well combined.
2. Heat the oil in a small frying pan and pour in the apple mixture.
3. Reduce heat to medium and fry the omelet for a few minutes until the top is set and the bottom is browned.
4. Flip the omelet and fry the other side for another couple of minutes until the other side has browned as well. Serve warm.