Tomato fish curry

I was actually planning to make a lemon fish curry, but then I figured I'd better use some of my tomatoes and ended up making this tomato fish curry. I really liked it.
Luckily this virus hasn't killed my appetite or taste buds yet!
And, because of the huge amount of lycopene found in tomatoes, this dish is chock full of anti-oxidants.  That's always good to know.


Tomato fish curry (serves 2)
- 2 spring onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped

- 5 medium tomatoes, chopped

- 1 small can of concentrated tomato puree (70g)

- 1/2 tsp ground cumin

- 1/2 tsp ground coriander

- 1 cup coconut milk
- 350g tilapia fillets, diced
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 2 tsp coconut oil


1. Heat coconut oil in a frying pan and fry garlic and spring onions until soft.
2. Add tomatoes, tomato puree, cumin and coriander, and stir in the coconut milk. Bring to a boil.
3. Carefully drop in the diced fish and reduce heat to low. Simmer for approx. 10 minutes until the mixture has thickened and the fish is cooked.
4. Stir in the parsley at the last moment, serve hot and enjoy!

Vindaloo Salmon

What a nice, relaxing day today. To be honest, I didn't even get my ass out of the house today and I probably won't for the rest of the day either. Yes, I'm being Lazy today..
I did do some studying however, so that makes up for it, right?


Plus I've been watching a few movies so far, did some holiday research, and.. some cooking. I didn't exactly make anything really special today. I planned to roast a chicken but then decided I would make this vindaloo salmon instead, because I had been browsing through my fridge and kitchen cabinets to check what wouldn't be allowed on my Whole 30 that I'm going to start next week.
The vindaloo curry paste had cornstarch in it (probably just very little, but still..), so I decided to use some of it today because I'm not sure if it'll keep for a month. And I might not want it anymore after my Whole 30.
My other 2 curry pastes passed the paleo test and were classified 'for occasional use' because of the added salt. (probably a lot more than when I'd add salt myself)
I also checked the meat in my freezer and the lamb sausages do contain a few additives. Will be eating those in the upcoming week.

So all in all, that's not too bad, is it?
As for the vindaloo, if you are able to find paleo vindaloo curry paste, please let me know! I love vindaloo..
I served it with some stir-fried cabbage, with curry powder, caraway seeds and lemon juice. Quite good!
The shii-takes in the vindaloo make a huge difference and add lots of flavour, be sure not to leave them out. Some raisins would be tasty in it as well, those take the edge off of the spiciness.

Cajun mackerel

I took the mackerel I bought at the market last week from the freezer because I felt like yesterday was the perfect day to prepare it. It was a national holiday, I got the day off, so plenty of time to do some cooking.
All in all my whole meal was done in under 30 minutes but I guess it felt like it would take more time when I was making up ideas on how to cook it. (I probably spent over 30 minutes on that..)


I served my mackerel with a fried egg (with runny yolk, yum), and a simple cucumber-tomato salad; 1 tomato, a piece of cucumber (both chopped up), some olive oil, lemon pepper, fresh thyme and basil.
Afterwards I wasn't that full yet so I had some lemon avocado mousse for dessert.

So it's weekend again, and I'm going to enjoy it! It's only a short weekend this time, due to an internship I'm having on Monday. I'm thinking about going for a run tomorrow morning, then I'm heading to the train to see my parents (we're going to have a BBQ!!) and in the afternoon we're going to the beach and walk through the dunes. It's been such a long time since I've been to the beach and dunes, so I can't wait to go!
I'm spending the night at my parents and will be back home on Sunday.

Oven baked trevally in tomato sauce

This is the dish my mom and me made together. We never had trevally before, and we both don't have a lot of experience with fish that still has bones in it. We don't like the bones.. Or any bloody parts for that matter.
This fish had bones and was a little bloody. Luckily my mom remembered watching Jamie Oliver cooking a dish with a similar fish, he basically dumped all his ingredients in an oven dish, baked it and it turned out delicious. (or at least it looked that way)
We decided to do the same. My mom let me handle the fish; I rinsed it first, to get all the blood out, then dumped it into the oven dish. We topped it with some other ingredients we thought would make a good combination, and popped it in the oven. How easy!
Then we chopped op a butternut squash to make fries.

We took the fish out after about half an hour. Our next challenge; getting the meat off the bones. It turned out to be really easy, because I could almost lift off the top fillet, while the bones stayed in place. Then I took out the bones and my second fillet was ready. I still had to hand-pick a few bones out of the fillets, but in the end we still found a couple while eating. My mom had carefully 'inspected' her fillet, which went something like this 'you should take this out too, it looks like it has bones' 'no, that's not bones, that's meat, you can eat it' 'and what about this part? it still looks bloody'. If anyone had been watching, it would've been really funny!

The fish turned out to taste great! We both loved it, although we felt like something was missing in the sauce. We both decided that this dish would be so much better if it had some olives or capers in it. That's why the recipe below calls for the use of olives while you can't see any in the pictures.

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)

Salmon celery patties

Planning my roadtrip is still going well so far. People are giving me lots and lots of travel tips and ideas; where to go, where to work out, where to eat, and much more. I love discovering new things! If only my debit card would arrive soon.. Then I could start making reservations..

I made some salmon patties last night, and well, they were absolutely delicious! I often make the mistake of adding too much coconut flour and they end up dry, but these were still nice and moist and the celery gives them a huge flavour boost. This recipe definitely is a keeper and I will be making these much more often!

I served it with some stir-fried bok choy, keeping it really simple just by adding some creamed coconut and black pepper, and.. arrowroot! Thanks to Elana's recipe for Ginger Bok Choy! She uses arrowroot in her recipe to thicken the sauce and it works so well. I only needed 1/2 tbsp for a huge bok choy, and it thickened right away. Normally, lots of flavour stays behind in the fluids from the bok choy when stir-frying, but this way it tastes much better. Besides, I hate it when those fluids run all across my plate, soaking everything along the way, and that didn't happen either!

Creamy spiced cabbage with pan-grilled plaice

My favourite kind of fish is plaice. I simply adore it.. But I hardly ever eat it anymore because it's rather expensive. This weekend however, my parents brought me a huge load of beef and chicken, and.. a package of plaice!! Thanks mom and dad :-D
They also got me a large assortment of tea (herbal tea and green tea) with all flavours I love. They really spoiled me once again!

So of course I had to prepare my plaice today. I like it best when it's pan-grilled and by using some simple spices. So I just heated some coconut oil in my pan, grilled the fillets until browned on both sides and then spiced them with some fish spices.
Along with this creamy spiced cabbage, they made a really good lunch!

Homemade olive basil tapenade

Just a quick post today.. Yesterday I've been busy planning my trip to the USA almost all afternoon and evening and it's not going as I want it to. I have way too many things I want to see, and too little time to do so. What a shame..
So now I've been thinking what places I should let go for now and what I want to see most of all. (which is pretty much everything I planned, but that's not going to work) I didn't even sleep that well because of it!
Anyway, I went for a run this morning (I woke up early..) which went just great and made me realise I've still got plenty of time to figure all of this out.
Maybe I should skip Colorado? I really don't want to though..

Anyway, I made some olive and basil tapenade this weekend. My first attempt on something like this. For serving, I chopped up a large tomato and a yellow pepper, but a generous amount (approx. 2 tbsp) of tapenade on top and mixed well. Along with some grilled salmon, it made a nice dinner.

Cajun grilled salmon

My first day off out of 5, and I made the most of it! Went to the gym this morning and had a good workout, I still don't really succeed in doing my bench presses, but at least I tried and it seems to get slightly easier every time.
In the afternoon, I went for a run, 35 minutes. I got a little tired halfway, but in the end I could pick up my pace again and it felt so easy. Hopefully that pace will set in right from the start during my race next week!

I just got back from the cinema, watched Fast Five, and loved it! Somehow I love movies that involve fast cars and action scenes. Not sure why..
Anyway, I made myself a tasty dinner out of some oven roasted broccoli and this cajun grilled salmon! Yum!

Mackerel patties

Here's my second attempt on these mackerel patties. Last time they fell apart when I tried to flip them because they were too wet and just didn't hold together. So this morning I made them again and used an extra egg, a little more coconut flour and some more mackerel too. Worked out really well! I loved them :)
My recipe below calls for peppered smoked mackerel. However, if you can't find any, you could also use plain smoked mackerel and add crushed peppercorns yourself. I'd suggest using approx. 1 tsp.
I served my patties with a quick salad that I made out of tomato, raw cauliflower and carrot, so all in all it made a good breakfast.
I'm not sure what I'll be up to during the rest of the day but I'm certainly going to go outside and enjoy the sun. And do some more cooking, of course..

Salmon parsley patties

For a while now, I've been thinking about making myself some fish cakes. I finally did so yesterday and ended up making these salmon patties with lemon and parsley.
I served them with some stir-fried leeks with coconut milk, curry powder and lemon juice.

I think I'm going to start packing my suitcase tonight, I keep thinking of things I need to bring anyhow so I might as well start putting things in my suitcase..
Just 3 more days to go and I'll be on my way to the airport! (sorry if I'm actually annoying people by telling how much I'm looking forward to my trip, I just can't help myself.. but at least I'll have lots of (food) stories to tell when I get back!)

Smoked salmon zucchini salad

These days I don't seem to be able to listen to some of my favourite songs from back in high school too often. There's Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182, Goo Goo Dolls, System of a Down, Weezer, KoRn, Metallica, and many many more. I especially can't get enough of this song: Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag.
I loved that song!! And still do, I have to admit..
I must have driven my parents very close to crazy during high school. Not that my taste in music has changed that much, the volume just went way up!

I'm about to go and get myself some US Dollars now, but I just had to share today's lunch with you all; smoked salmon zucchini salad.
This morning I found some smoked salmon at the supermarket (I was daydreaming in front of the fish section until this caught my eye) and decided to combine it with the zucchini I still had at home. Really good!

Salmon with kohlrabi leaves and parsnip

Today I used a rather unusual vegetable to cook with: kohlrabi leaves!
They had beautiful kohlrabis at the market, with all the leaves still in tact. Normally, I'd just pull those off and throw them away, but I figured those might actually be edible.. After some googling I found out you can use them as you would use any other leafy green vegetable, so I used them in a stir-fry with salmon and parsnip. Tastes really good!
I'm not quite sure what you could compare the taste of the kohlrabi leaves with as they don't have a specific taste. They just make a good addition to pretty much any dish.
I served mine with zucchini fritters, although judging from the picture (and the amount of fritters) you could also say I served my fritters with the salmon stir-fry. Made a tasty meal either way!

Yellowfin Sole in Tikka tomato sauce

Finally, some time to cook myself a decent meal again!
I still wanted to make it a quick meal, because I was planning to go for a good CrossFit workout afterwards. After I got ill last week, I haven't exactly done any exercise anymore and I miss it. Luckily I feel all better, and even the fact that I was looking forward to go for a workout is a good sign.
The workout itself was a little less easy, I could definitely feel that I'd been ill, but it felt good to be there again!

Purslane lemon mash

Another purslane recipe today! I have a whole bag full of it, so I thought I'd better use it, before it goes bad.
I also had half of a celeriac left, and together with garlic it made a great puree in my last recipe, so I decided to experiment with it some more. With some lemon and purslane, it worked out very well.
I topped it with some sardine fillets, but any other fatty fish or even grilled chicken fillet would work great as well.

Roast beets, and more yummy things

We've had another beautiful, sunny day today. Feels like Spring is finally arriving! I really enjoy days like these.
I also got some good news; my practical assignments have been approved of so that means I can start with my 2nd year of my study to become a respiratory technologist. Yay!



Foodwise, today was a bit of a strange day. I had to attend a class on the other side of the country, which meant I had to leave home before 11 am, I wasn't back home until 7 pm. The class itself lasted only 1h and 45 minutes by the way..

Colourful salmon stir-fry

And here's my second recipe for today. The savoy cabbage I'd bought didn't look good enough to keep too long in my fridge, and I had some leftover purple cabbage that still needed to be used. Add to that an onion, salmon fillets and some curry pasta and you've got yourself a tasty meal. So as you probably understand, making this dish was pretty easy!
I love how simple it is to make a curry, and how tasty the result can be!

Asian mackerel and cabbage salad

Today I found some wonderful organic, smoked pepper mackerel fillet at my local supermarket. It wasn't all that expensive (about the same price as canned mackerel) and it had been a while since I had good mackerel, so I figured I should make a nice dish with it today.
I came up with an Asian salad, which I just had for lunch, and loved it. I'm sure it'll keep me full all afternoon.

Tilapia stir-fry with prunes

Here's an easy recipe, it looks a little like my Chicken and parsnip stir-fry but I used different spices. Both versions are different, but taste equally well.
I've been doing a lot of reading about Paleo and primal diets this morning and I've learnt a lot. I figured out what I'm doing wrong so far: I haven't only gained weight, I've also gained a carb addiction, again..
So I should eat less carbs and I need some more protein as well.
Where am I loading up on carbs, I asked myself. For breakfast, I usually include a banana and an apple, those are pretty high in carbs. Some berries would be better. Or just save the fruit for another meal. Because when my breakfast is more or less digested, halfway through the morning (I hardly ever make it through to lunch), I tend to crave carbs, and eat an apple or something like that. The same thing happens in the afternoon, I get tired and get myself a piece of fruit.

Omega beet salad

Because I didn't have a clue what I was going to eat tonight, I didn't put anything out of the freezer this morning. When I got home I still didn't know, but then I saw the beets in my fridge and figured I'd eat those. Grating them pretty much took care of a pink/purplish paintjob in my kitchen (luckily I got it off everything, except for my hands).
I also remembered having some canned fish in my pantry so that made an easy source of protein and healthy omega fats as well, the coconut oil I used also adds a little to the omega fat content of this dish.