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Mindfulness and the Tuesday Night Fake-Out: Oriental Salmon with Crispy Spiced Kale

Posted by encylofoodia on April 24, 2012
Posted in: Dazzling Dairy Free Recipes, Dazzling Recipes for Groups, Mini Fork. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Mindfulness and the practice of, keeps popping up in media and conversation….In the 9-5, Monday to Friday world, it can be a challenge to live in the moment, to be mindful of the here and now.  Friday evening, for example, is such a symbolic switch of mindset from one extreme to the other; one thats punctuated with special attire (in my case often track pants), special rituals (putting the laptop away so that it’s hidden, or turning off the Blackberry) and special foods and drinks, (alcohol, and ‘treat’ foods).  Nonetheless being mindful and living in the here and now, not looking forward to Friday evening and not looking back to Sunday, has become very trendy.  It’s something that is reported to ease stress and anxiety, help us appreciate where we find ourselves and create a better way of living.

It is Tuesday today and while I can’t say that I am not looking forward to Friday, I’m living in the here and now so rather than thinking about that Friday Feeling, I’m going to bring some into Tuesday.

I want the weekend feeling of something special, and doing something different, but being mindful 🙂 that it’s offically midweek.

I present to you: The Fake Away!  Here in the UK, we like our Take Away food and tonight we are faking it, minus the naughty allergens and toxins that it usually contains.  I guess for my friends across the Atlantic it can be a Fake Out!

The basic components of the meal are nutritious, accessible, quick to cook and low allergy.

The resulting dishes taste and look special and dazzling.  They are as easy to cook for 2 as they are for 22.

Aromatic Oriental Salmon and  Crispy Spiced Kale (recipe for 2)

Spicy!

Ingredients

2 lightly smoked salmon fillets (the light smoke taste works well, if not, standard salmon is fine)

1 thumb of ginger, peeled and sliced into strips

1 red chilli, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

tablespoon of toasted sesame oil

200g of curly kale, stripped from the stalky stems and shredded

2 tablespoons of sugar or agave

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of chilli powder (or more if you like it hot!)

fresh coriander/cilantro

Kitchen Foil

Method:

Heat the oven to 220 degrees.   Nestle the salmon fillets in the foil, top them with the ginger, chilli and 2 of the sliced garlic cloves, pour over the sesame oil and make an airtight parcel- you want this to steam.  Put the foil parcel on a baking sheet and straight into the hot oven.  I will leave them in the oven for about 8 minutes, maybe less if they are small, and bring them out to stand while I prepare and cook the kale- the standing means that they keep cooking gently, and that they retain lots of moisture and flavour in their little steamy parcel.

Keep the oven hot, I tend to turn mine up to 240 degrees.  Pour the kale into a large mixing bowl and toss through the olive oil until it’s thoroughly mixed through all of the leaves.  Gradually sprinkle the salt, chilli powder, sugar and remaining garlic through the leaves, tossing after you have added a little of each.  You are looking to have a pretty even but light coating.   Pour the kale onto a baking sheet (it will look quite high but will reduce) and bake in the oven for 5 minutes or so, remove and stir the leaves through, making sure to mix well and get the crispy side bits in the middle before returning this to the oven (you might have to do this more than once).  You are looking for a an even crispness with some lovely crunchy darker bits (as per the picture).

Break open the parcel (being careful to avoid a salmon steam facial as you do it) and serve as you like (I like to eat with chopsticks…it takes me longer that way, oink oink) and top with some fresh coriander/cilantro.

Eat mindfully, enjoy the food and know that your body will too.

Its not a diet, its a plan

Posted by encylofoodia on March 23, 2012
Posted in: Juice looose about this hoooose. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Diets are seen as restriction, as limiting or stopping doing things that you like- it’s never going to feel good, and that makes it unsustainable.

Ask yourself what you want from your diet.  Weight loss is the most commmon answer.  It was my answer too.  Not two weeks of weight loss and wonderful motivation after slipping into my small jeans (although I love that), only to take my new fit self out with friends, probably for dinner and drinks, and see it gradually eclipsed over the coming weeks by the old self,  kick started by coffee, fuelled by standard food and relaxed by wine.   I want to be perpetually at my best.

So many of us have tried diets, and for 90% of us they don’t work- or more accurately, we don’t work.  A little tweak to the diet here, a night off there, a break at the weekend and then the final brushing under the carpet all result in diet failure.  Diets are seen as restriction, as limiting or stopping doing things that you like- it’s never going to feel good, and that makes it unsustainable.

It needs to be a plan, a plan with no end and a plan that you don’t want to end.  It needs to be a flexible plan, an interesting plan, a plan that delivers the instant smugness of feeling thinner or fitter, with the long term comfort you find in good health.

Diet is no longer a verb, you don’t ‘diet’.  Diet is now a noun, you have a diet, and its a good one.

I credit a couple of these little nuggets of wisdom (and some of my motivation) to Jason Vale (a.k.a. the Juice Master) and his book, Turbo Charge Your Life in 14 days that I am working to.   One of many food publications that I have read (recently), absorbed, enjoyed and seen benefit from- this one I think has some lessons that I’ll carry on not for the next 14 days, not even for the next 14 years, but I hope for the next 14 generations.

Juicing is oh so fashionable, and oh so now, but what it does allow is for you to squeeze a huge amount of good things into small and edible portions, i.e. glasses of juice.  I figure that if we have higher nutrition in what we do eat, then we need less of it- and less food means less of me (physically).  I’m all over it like a blonde L.A. gym-bunny on a wheatgrass shot.

What’s next:

I won’t be copying and pasting Jason’s juices, as they are his (and the recipes wont be half as amsusing as they are in his talk speak- he is a nice bloke to read) but I will be detailaing the results, and most importantly how juicing fits into my life post 14 day turbo blast thing.

P.S. I’m 5 days in, feeling good, and very hopeful- especially as it’s a Friday evening and my old friends Ms. Sauvignon and Ms. Salt and Vinegar aren’t even close to being invited.