Lovepaleolife Update

Hello! I have noticed a lot of new followers lately and I can only assume that it is because the Paleo diet has been getting very popular over the last two years that I have been AWOL from the blogging world.

It is almost two years to the day since I last posted here and a lot has happened over those two years. Probably the most significant for the purpose of this blog is that I no longer eat a Paleo diet! So if you wish to stop reading you may.. if you are interested to find out why then carry on reading 🙂

I  have always been into healthy eating and working out and paleo was just an experiment for me, something new. I loved it, it was delicious, I felt healthy and fit and strong. So yes, it is great. BUT I don’t think it is THE KEY to being healthy or losing weight. I spent years trying to find balance and for me personally cutting out things from my diet isn’t it. So yes, I now eat rice, peanut butter, oatmeal and the odd wholemeal bread. I still eat tons of healthy fats but i keep to a specific macro nutrient ratio and I feel healthy, strong and lean without eating according to ‘diet rules’. I believe there are many ways to eat and be healthy and  there is certainly no need to cut out grains.

I will start posting some of my meals and workouts for those who are interested.

Thanks for sticking around,

Amy

Flu Fighting Food

Hi everyone

I’ve been  a bit under the weather the last few days and its been driving me crazzzyyyy. Not just the fact that I’ve been feeling terrible.. but that a lot of people seem to think its ok to say things like ‘ even with all your healthy eating and exercise?” or… ‘well maybe your diet isn;t so healthy after all’

Its just so annoying and rude! Just because someone eats healthy and exercises doesn;t meant they are 100% immune to a common cold. Or that they need to eat 100% healthy ALL the time. I just thought I’d share my frustrations because maybe its something others deal with as well -when people know you live your life a certain way. Its not even just this flu issue.. if I put on a bit of weight, get a pimple, have a headache, am tired… people always feel the need to judge and comment! oohh maybe your diet isn’t so good or maybe you exercise too much…aaahh!!!

Sometimes I don’t eat 100% perfectly and sometimes I get sick. Its called being a HUMAN BEING.

And when I’m sick this is what I eat:

Breakfast:

breakfast: bone broth with grated ginger, zucchini noodles and 2 eggs + lemon, ginger, honey tea

snack: half a pomelo

lunch:

chicken cooked in coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, ginger and lemon + broccoli, yellow pepper, green chili

dinner:

beef liver, onions, mushrooms cooked in coconut oil. apple cider vinegar and coconut milk

Happy day 🙂

Amy

 

Paleo Cookies

Hey everyone!

These cookies are AMAZING!!!! I was so excited with how good they turned out because I just made up the recipe as I went along.

For the Jam Cookies:

1 c coconut flour

1 egg

2tbsp butter

6 dates

a bit of baking soda ( i didn;t measure)

Blend.. roll into ball… make a thumbprint.

Put a blob of jam ( I used apricot jam)

Bake at 180 for about 25 minutes

They are soft cake-like cookies. Let them cook and try go slow!!!

For the Chocolate Cookies:

1 ¼ c coconut flour

½ + ¼ c cocoa powder

a bit of baking soda

1 egg

6 dates

2 tbsp butter

Roll into ball and squash down with fork

bake at 180 15- 20 minutes

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!

Amy

Tehina Muffins ( Halva muffins)

The other day I was out walking my dog and got a frantic call from my roommate… also out walking her dogs.

all these guys…. ye we have a zoo in our house.

Anyways… so  my roommate is squeaking like mad on the phone about a bird who sounds like a cat and nobody will ever believe her and i must come quickly.. bird.. cat… what??!!

I had no idea what the girl was on about. So I said ok ok I am coming….

We have a beautiful green path behind our house and thats where they were. When I got there she was staring up into a tree and said sssshhhh the bird is making a noise like  a cat.

I kinda thought the exam period had gotten to her head.

And then  I heard a cat mew.

And looked up into the tree and there was this bird:

Every time it opened its mouth a mewing sound came out. My roommate was jumping around like a crazy lady saying:

‘ את קולטת כאילו????’

do you hear??? do you understand whats going on here???? The bird is making a sound like a cat???!!!!

and then it went’ rraawwrrrrrrrrrr’ like a pissed off cat.

We were laughing hysterically and she was saying thank god you are here!!! No-one would ever have believed me!!!!

And then a quick google search told us they bird is a Jay known for mimicry. I felt stupid.. with my zoology degree and all.

Best I just go eat muffins.

So these were originally meant to be cupcakes and then I ran out of time to make the icing.. and because I am a greedy girl who loves to eat I still ate them anyway 🙂

And they were super delicious so I just thought to leave the recipe as it is! With no icing.

for the muffins:

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup coconut flour

3 eggs

2 tbspoon  raw tehina

1/4 cup coconut oil

baking powder

6 dates

Blend everything together and bake at 180 for 15-20 mninutes

For the filling

Blend raw tehina with dates

Spoon out a hole in the muffin, fill it up with the tehina filling and and put the lid back on

These went down well even with non-paleo people.

🙂

ENJOY

Paleo Malva Pudding

This has to be the most AMAZING thing I have ever baked. EVER.

For a few reasons.

1. because it is Malva Pudding

2. because it is PALEO MALVA PUDDING

3. because it still tastes EXACTLY like Malva Pudding

4. because did I mention already that it is MALVA PUDDING????!!!

For those of you who are unfortunate enough to have not grown up in the beautiful rainbow nation of South Africa.. you most likely have no idea what all the fuss is about. Well I shall try explain.. and then when I have finished you probably still won’t understand so best you just go and make this straight away.

Firstly… please click this link here to see what Malva pudding looks like when its not being photographed in really bad lightening at night half way through being eaten.

Ok… basically its a traditional South African dessert that is just super soft and gooey and sweet and warm and comforting and homely. One of my fondest memories is of me and my best friend at a school biology camp when we were about 16. We went to a Jewish school and aside from the fact that it needed to be kosher food, Jewish mothers are paranoid their little darlings will starve so there was enough food to feed an army…kosher catering knows how to feed people.  Every night there was Malva pudding for dessert. Anyways… so me and my bestest friend decided to lock ourselves away in the dining room one night and put on music and dance. But not just any music… really dumb stupid music and we were dancing like idiots on purpose and thought it was hysterically funny and didn’t stop laughing the entire time. Except for the every 10 minutes we dug our spoons into the Malva pudding… carried on dancing… another spoonful of pudding… more dancing…more laughing… more pudding and so it went on until we finally decided to go to sleep. And when we went back to the cabin we found an enormous water fight going on. In the middle of the night. Teachers included.

Bio camp was awesome.

So is Malva pudding.

For the pudding:

1 cup of almond flour

1 egg

1 cup coconut milk ( try use the watery part and keep the thicker part aside for the sauce)

3 large tsp of apricot jam

1tsp baking soda ( don’t switch this for baking powder!)

1tsp apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp butter

1 cup of medjool dates

blend everything together and bake at 180 for about 40 minutes

As soon as the pudding comes out the oven prick holes all over and pour the sauce over it.

For the sauce:

heat in a pan:

3/4 cup of coconut milk ( the thicker part)

3tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

 

PLEASE for your own sake go make this now!!!!

Then maybe go do a workout 🙂

Happy day 🙂

Amy

 

Mint Cream filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Hi! I have a few cupcake recipes coming up to make up for my long absence.

We had a crazy CRAZY storm here last week… non stop rain, wind, power outages, floods… snow. Insane stuff! It was so cold I just didn;t want to move. I even skipped going to the gym and did bodyweight workouts at home.

One fun workout I did was 10 minutes of 30 seconds on 30 seconds off : 1 candlestick 1 burpee= 1 rep

My parents are here in Israel visiting from overseas so I wanted to make them yummy cupcakes!! The first batch I made went down well.. They were tehina cupcakes. AMAZING recipe.. I’ll post it in the next few days.

Yesterday I made mint chocolate cupcakes but my mom apparently doesnt like mint essence… so if you are a mint snob then this recipe if not for you.

But you should make it anyway and send them to me for inspection.

This recipe is based on my mint paleo slice and to be honest the cake of the mint slice I think was better than the cake I made this time around. But that could be me being fussy. I also used date syrup in the gananche and the cake which I think wasn’t as good as using honey. And after all this stormy weather baking I am ready for a whole30!

But in the meantime…

For the cake:

1/2 cup of cocoa

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup cilan ( date syrup)

1/8 cup coconut milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil

baking powder

1tbspoon manuka honey

Bake for 20 mins on 180-  I got about 2o small cupcakes

While these are in the oven get your mint cream going.

I had a coconut milk can in the fridge over night… so your milk looks like this:

Put all the thick cream into a blender with dates and blend

I start off with 6 medjool dates and then see if I need more according to the taste.

Once you have blended these two together, add in a drop of peppermint essence and taste… add in teeny tiny drops at a time so you don;t land up with listerine mouthwash.

When your cupcakes are cooled, dig a little hole, add in a blob of peppermint cream and then cover the hole with the cake you dug out.

Now get your chocolate ganache going

raw 100% chocolate

Mix on a low heat with the thick part of the coconut milk

Add in whatever sweetener you like.. honey/ maple/ date syrup

Enjoy 🙂

And I couldn’t have done it without my kitchen helpers

Roasted Vegetables, WODS and other odds and ends.

Just incase you all thought I was lying about the oven not working and was just too lazy to cook….

Anyways.. Thankfully that little debacle is now over and normal cooking has resumed.

I am having a little love affair with roasted vegetables lately. I can’t stop making them and adding it to salads… tonight I cooked up:

cauliflower, carrot, yellow pepper, zucchini and beetroot…I cooked it in coconut oil and salt and added it to a huge green salad with chicken breast. SO GOOD. So simple and perfectly delicious post WOD.

Today I  started with Deadlifts and then did:

50 burpees

10 dumbell split snatch

40 burpees

10 dumbell split snatch

30 burpees

10 split snatch

20 burpees

10 split snatch

10 burpees

10 split snatch

I think I made this up a few months ago… I can’t remember actually but I am pretty sure I never took it from anywhere. Its a really great workout! This is the second time I’ve done it.

I’ve been noticing lately  a lot of people who look for the bad things in life, and complain and try and bring others down. I have no idea why anyone would want to waste their time with things like that. Its pointless… it just brings negative energy into everyone’s life. I have learnt to not take it to heart… spend your 20 minutes being annoyed/ upset/ whatever.. and then move on! They are the ones that need to live with negativity in their lives. You move on… get on with it, spread the joy and the love 🙂 Life is too short to get upset by negative people.

HAPPY DAY

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Paleo life stuff

Good morning Paleo kids. I hope you are all happy and healthy 🙂

A tragedy has occurred in my kitchen. The plug that our oven and gas top stove is plugged into is NOT WORKING.

That means NO oven and NO stove.

WHAT??!!

Because my roommates and I are all down with modern technology we have a whatsapp group for our house and this is the sad, cold way in which I found out the news.

This is how the conversation went:

R: we can’t use the stove until the electrician comes

B: Amy is probably crying now

A: WHAT???!!!! how am I going to cook Eggs???

B: Sit on them like a chicken.

Thank god for crockpots is all I can say…

Poached Eggs are going to have to wait a while.

How do you like my fancy bowl?

Currently I have this amazing recipe cooking away in my crockpot.

I thought I would share with you what is in my bathroom cabinet.

Fascinating right? I’m sure you are all just sitting on the edge of your seats.

Seriously though… I am about to do you a BIG FAVOUR.

So it looks something like this.. only a bigger mess with a whole bunch of oil jars that make me look like a chemist. But I thought if I am going to show you the contents of my bathroom the list I can do is tidy up.

From left to right:

– oil for oil pulling

-oil mix for oil cleansing ( I use grapeseed oil mixed with castor oi)

– coconut oil sugar scrub

– homemade toothpaste: coconut oil, baking soda, peppermint essence

– jar of coconut oil: I use this night and day as a moisturiser ( I also use jojoba oil), and I also use it in my hair.

There are NO WORDS to express how AMAZING oil cleansing is. I am not going to pretend to be an expert so I’ll direct you to the oil cleansing method website and you can read up about it.

I will say that my skin has never looked better… and without going into too much detail, I will add that I have a naturally oily complexion and the only time I have ever had clear skin was when I was on the pill… which I no longer take.  Don’t be afraid of slathering your face with oil!!! Throw all those horrible chemical face cleansers out and I promise that you will never look back.

Happy day!!

Amy

xxxx

 

Bolognese OBSESSED

Ok so here are some thoughts I have been having lately….

1. I am possibly the worst blogger ever because I just don’t blog enough

2. Am possibly the most boring blogger ever because all I do it post spaghetti bolognese

but… DAMN is this recipe the bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. I have taken to making salads just so I can eat olive oil… kinda weird considering I have no shame in eating coconut oil with a spoon but for some reason I feel like to do that with olive oil would be weird.

4. I have figured out why I am single… the thought of going out to do  a WOD is a much more exciting idea then going on a date with some guy who I can probably deadlift more than he can.

5. My grammar is so bad and its a bit embarrassing because I am actually an educated human being.

6. Mobility is SO SUPER important and I go through phases of doing it and not doing it… and now my ankle is sore 😦 don’t skip your mobility work kids!

7.  This website is rocking my world… AMAZING WODS!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways…. enough babbling… here is my newest bolgnese sensation:

ooohh its good!!

I have tried so many bolognese recipes and each one seems to turn out better than the next…

– chop up an onion and 3 tomatoes and a clove of garlic ( I leave it whole so I can remove it later) and cook in some coconut oil

– add in some salt, pepper, bay leaf

– Add in ground beef

– add in a HUGE bunch of fresh oregano and fresh basil

– let it all simmer and cook for awhile

HEAVEN

yallaahhh time to WOD

Have a great week 🙂

Amy

 

 

Paleo Meatballs and Spaghetti- and some more paleo babble

Hey Paleo Kids

hope all is happy and healthy in your kitchens. It is currently the holiday of Chanukah which is super pretty and delicious… lots of lights and latkes 🙂

Last night I went over to a friend and we made sweet potato latkes/ levivot …this is a recipe I made up a few days ago. Its a winner… but I’ll post it another day 🙂

I have to share with you my new favourite meatball recipe!

For the meatballs:

– ground chicken

–  a ton of fresh oregano

– salt + pepper

For the sauce:

– onions

-fresh tomatoes

– fresh basil

-fresh oregano

– lemon juice

– apple cider vinegar

-bay leaf

– garlic

-half a cup of bone broth

-salt and pepper

Method:

In a pot, fry up chopped onions in coconut oil, add in 3 chopped tomatoes, ACV, bone broth…let it all cook up.

add in the herbs, bay leaf, squeeze over lemon juice and let everything simmer.

In the meantime… add your fresh oregano to the chicken and roll into balls. Add the meatballs to the simmering sauce and let it cook until done. ( cover the pot with a lid)

I love to eat them with zucchini noodles.

This is one of my favourite winter morning breakfasts/ post WOD.. snack.. pretty much anytime kinda meal.

And for dessert… Persimon.

Anyways so I wanted to just mention the importance of listening to your body! I LOVE paleo and believe in it 100% but I think that it is important not to follow the rules blindly just because you ‘are paleo’. If you train hard you need to eat more carbs and I don’t think eating white rice every now and then or white potatoes is going to hurt. The whole point of eating paleo is to feel good and do the best you can for your body. I am coming up to my one year paleo anniversary and the last 2 months I have been bending the rules a little… I have been eating a bit of peanut butter here and there, potatoes, rice cakes, peas, the odd full on ‘cheat’- I’m talking chocolate cake and peanut butter sandwhiches… and to be honest I feel better  than I felt going 100% strict. And I am doing well in my workouts and my skin looks good ( thats a whole other story). So I don’t think it is necessary to go 100% ALL the time. I think Gluten and dairy are not good for us and it is best to keep that out your diet as much as possible- but the rest? I think being RELAXED and CHILLED OUT about your diet will do so many more wonders for your health so much more than being stressed and obsessed with 100% strict paleo.

Feel free to agree/ disagree.. add your two cents 🙂

I love to hear other people’s opinions.

Happy eating and Happy Chanukah!

Amy