Surf & Turf Diabolique

Shoppinglist :  big shrimps, irish beef, garlic, tomatoes, onions, chilli powder, pili-pili, coriandre, cream, chicken stock.

Start with cutting the tomatoes into cubes, crush the garlic, cut the onions and put everything in a pot, low fire. After some time, add some chicken stock & the cream and season it to your liking with salt, pepper, chilli and pili-pili. Leave it boiling for some time.

In meantime season the big shrimps with rocksalt & pepper and fry them with a frying pan (don't use anything like butter or olive oil, just burn them shrimps!) Usually when they are almost not sticking anymore you can turn them easily without having to scratch them of the pan. Don't try to rotate them constantly, just 1 turn burning both sides is enough.

Add them to the sauce + some coriandre leaves.

Now take some butter (the real stuff, not the synthetic margarine or light stuff), put some into the frying pan, when the butter slightly gets browner, put the steak on the frying pan. Same goes as with the shrimps, don't turn around the steak constantly, If you want those typical burnt squares on your meat, 4 times turning around does the trick (and rotating 90° while you turn).

Now it's time to eat, for presentation, put the steak on a plate, place scampi's + sauce and put some fresh coriandre leaves on top of it. 

Bon Appetit !

Progress today

So we got ourselves a lower BMI !

weight: 92,4kg
bodyfat : 28%
Body water : 54%
Muscle mass : 37%
BMI : 31
BMR : 1961 Kcal

Chicken creamy provençale & best mashed eggs ever

Sunday lazy times so I went out to something I could reuse for midday & evening dinner.


Shopping list:  roasted chicken, red paprika, sliced tomato cubes in can, garlic, onions, mushrooms, cream, eggs, mackerel (canned in olive oil)


So for the midday lunch : Roasted chicken (allready prepared, only heat it up in the microwave) + creamy sauce provençale. So basically you only have to prepare the sauce.

So clean & slice the mushrooms, bake them in butter together with the sliced onions, sliced paprikas and mashed garlic. When the mushrooms are squeeshy & nicely brown, add the tomato cubes, when slightly boiling, add the cream. Now spice it up with som rock salt, lots of black pepper, oregano and a touch of basilicum. Done. (make enough of this, the leftovers will be used tonight)

That's it for midday !  Bon Appetit !


Now for the evening dinner:  break some eggs in a pan, slowly stir them. While stirring, add the mackerel. A bit later add the leftover from this afternoon.

That's it for evening dinner ! Bon Appetit !

Progress

today we're at

weight: 93,3kg
body fat: 28%
body water: 53.9%
muscle mass: 37%
BMI: 32
BMR: 1973kcal

for those who wonder what that bmr is, it's the amount of calories per day your body burns when doing nothing.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day !

...And I'm feeeeling good...


weight: 93,8kg
bodyfat: 28%
bodywater: 54%
musclemass:36,7%
BMI: 32
BMR: 1980kcal

So all goes well, weight is dropping, body fat dropped, muscle increase.
This afternoon I'm going for second fysiotherapy session, and I'm getting my blood results. More to follow...

Simple, fast & tastefull

Here's an easy, fast and tastefull recipe, you should be done cooking within 10 minutes, dishes included.

Shoppinglist: a nice piece of ribeye, real butter, green asperagus.

Start with rinsing the asperagus under running water, getting the dirt a bit off.
Then put a kettle on with water and a fair amount of rocksalt. When boiling, put the asperagus in it for about 5 minutes (less or more, depending on the thickness of them, you want them "al dente" not too soft, not too hard.) Now remove the water, leave the asperagus in there and add a lump of butter to fry them a little, if you got a grillpan, you can grill them as well.

In meantime put another pan on the fire, heat it up really well, throw in a large lump of butter, when the butter is melted, throw in the ribeye and burn it. Season it well with rocksalt & sechuan pepper.

A little trick to know how to perfectly cook a steak the way you prefer is don't switch sides too much and watch the sides change colour. I prefer my steaks on the raw side so for me it's usually very hot pan, burn, turn, burn and done.

Now present the steak on a plate, asperagus on top and bon appetit.
Pure tastes with no compromises I'd say. Do use quality products doh.


Just for the fun of it, when you have guests, here's a way of showcooking a steak (preferably as thick as possible): First season it well, then blowtorch (yup, the one you can buy in a hardware store, very manly !) the steak untill the outside is burnt and closed, then put the steak in the oven at 60° C covered in alluminium foil for about an hour. (forget about the title above :))  
The torching makes the fluids stay inside when you're heating the meat in the oven and the burned flavour is a bbq alike bonus !

So let's go out !

An issue I had with previous diets is what do you eat when you're out in a restaurant ?

I'm a diehard foodie and I love good food. So it's really frustrating to look at that menu full of rich & colourfull flavours and have to decide to just go for the, eeuhm, you got anything light on that menu ?
And It's not like you can ask a chef to prepare your shake and it would be a shame to only eat half of a plate so in the end you're back home sitting in front of the tv nibbling your extra light full fiber powerbar.

So now with a little adaption you have a much broader choice. Skip the breadbums before dinner, ask to change french fries or potatoes / pasta into extra vegetables. I cant imagine a restaurant where they would refuse this and even then, with all respect to the chef, I wouldnt make a point out of it and just leave it on the plate.

Then asking for information is the second rule. A lot of restaurants/bistros are using premade sauces, these premade sauces may taste great but they're also full of additives, including lots of carbs. (Usually you can tell if it's from a can by the consistency and texture of the sauce).

Just ask the waiter for some information on what you're about to eat, wether everything is homemade or if they use premade components. And in return tell the waiter a little bit about your diet and restrictions.

Now this counts for the higher profile restaurants. (I do love some stars on occasion :))

Now when you go to bistros or smaller restaurants, usually they don't have as much time or willingness to listen to your story. So keep it brief and pollite and order something as close to what you can eat and ask to just remove some parts and if it's possible ask them to change it into vegetables.


So over the past days here's what I've been eating on restaurant
(I'll add more on the list when I visit more restaurants)



Japanese:
- Sashimi deluxe (about 24 pieces of delightfull raw fish)


Fusion kitchen:
- Assortiment of charcuterie ranging from quality salamis & ham
- Deerstew with a mousseline of carrots/pumpkin and grilled aubergines
- Cheese plate as dessert

Bistro:
- salad with smoked salmon, grey shrimps, dried ham, boiled eggs, grilled pine nuts, duck filet and a vinegraitte sauce.