Saturday 28 March 2015

Day 7 - Phew!

One week of food photography comes to an end. Quite nice to document my food for a week and I just had a look back at last year's Whole 30 in February when I did the same. I think the main difference is the choice of seasonable vegetables (hence the constant reoccurrence of cabbage and carrots) and that the food is now prepared for a significantly larger family, so I can no longer do my fancy single portion omelettes.

Breakfast today was prepared by Simon: banana and butternut squash omelette with bacon and salad.
Mummy and baby portion of omelette
Nice hot stock for lunch with mince, left over mash, some rice and salad.
Only three for lunch
Simon wins the fanciest dinner of the week with his skewered chicken burgers. They were topped with sweet and sour sauce and served with roasted vegetables.

Definitely try this garlicky sweet and sour sauce: 

1 grated apple
2 tbs chopped raisins 
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbs chopped fresh coriander
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs water
1tsp tapioca flour to thicken the sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan and let cook for approx. 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat. Stir tapioca flour into a tablespoon of water and pour this mixture into the pan to thicken. Done!

Friday 27 March 2015

Day 6

It's day 6 and breakfasts seem to be on repeat. Probably because we have a winning concept going.

Breakfast was chia seed porridge. This time with dried orange peel, avocado, kiwi, apple and orange. Nice tangy flavour to it.

Straight chia porridge before the flavours are added
Looking a bit more appetising once the fruit is there!

Lunch was enjoyed at Little T's nursery again, hence no photo, but it was pretty good today: "taco soup", which was basically minced beef soup. Not too bad, I just skipped the bread and tortillas.

It was my turn to cook dinner and fish seemed suitable for a Friday. I made herring in creamy, dill tomato sauce with cauliflower/celeriac/butternut squash mash… and cabbage salad.
Fancy plate for Friday night dinner


Some light reading for the trip to Lund. The Sheep Book, no less. #paulssonpaleo



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And they're out! Four happy hens and a vigilant rooster in the manure heap. #paulssonpaleo



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Thursday 26 March 2015

Day 5 Already

Day five of my little photo project and I forgot to take my lunchtime photo. Tsk!

It was egg rotation this morning. This time a vegetarian omelette with grated pumpkin and yellow beetroot, topped with cheese. Served with cabbage/beetroot salad, apple, kiwi and fermented carrots. This was then complemented with some liver pâté (which didn't make the picture).


Lunch was another mugful of bone broth goodness with leftover veggies, tongue and fish.

One of our favourite sources of protein at the moment is organic minced hen. The mince comes from retired laying hens and it feels good that they are not 'destroyed' when they are done laying eggs.

For dinner, we used the mince for hen burgers with broccoli/spinach mash and more cabbage salad. If you are into cauliflower mash, then you definitely need to try broccoli and spinach mash with a knob of butter, salt and pepper. Easily made from frozen vegetables; nutritious and delicious.


Wednesday 25 March 2015

Day 4 of my Food Diary

It's Wednesday and it's been a good food day, but then everyday is. We take turns cooking and we all have our different styles, which spices things up and adds a lot of variety to the meals - apart from the ever present cabbage salad :)

Breakfast was a cold chia seed porridge with apple, orange, banana and coconut flakes. Basically a rerun from Monday, but slightly different, as mother Paulsson made it.

I spent another day at Little T's nursery, so this time I packed my own lunch… It consisted of omelette, carrot sticks and some liver pâté.

Dinner was sliced beef tongue, sweet potato and celeriac mash and cabbage salad. Yum! Cecilia will have to share the recipe for beef tongue some time. It is surprisingly tender and all I know is that it involves a slow cooker for several hours.

Quick treadmill session before batch cooking duty starts. #paulssonpaleo #functionaltraining



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Our beauties. #paulssonpaleo



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Tuesday 24 March 2015

Day 3

Ok... Day 3 and it was Simon's and my turn to cook for the rest of the bunch. We went for some easy choices:

Breakfast was lamb mince in the oven with egg cooked on top, served with the usual cabbage salad and coffee. 
I may need to work on presentation skills, but it tasted excellent!
Tora is settling in at nursery this week, so I had some lunch there, which was not worthy of a photo, and then a mug of broth when I got home (imagine photo of steaming hot broth in big mug here).

Dinner was pollock and salmon soup. Really easy! Just chop up and fry vegetables of choice (e.g. onion, celery, carrot and parsnip), pour over some stock, season with salt, pepper, ginger, lemon, garlic. When the veggies are cooked through, add diced fish and let it cook for a few minutes. Lastly, add coconut milk or double cream if you like. Done in less than 30 minutes and can be varied endlessly.

Our first egg. Thank you, little white and grey spotted hen. #paulssonpaleo



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Day 2

Oh dear... It's only day two and I almost forgot to take my pictures. Not good. There is a clear pattern emerging on the meals already: cabbage features heavily, it is so good raw!

Breakfast was a bowl of chia seed "porridge": chia seeds blitzed in a blender with some kefir, avocado, coconut milk, banana, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, then left overnight in the fridge. Topped with apple, orange, yoghurt and coconut flakes.

There was hot bone broth for lunch, this time with leftover burgers and roast vegetables.

And then finally, dinner was homemade "falukorv" (recipe in Swedish here), broccoli/cauliflower/butternut squash mash and cabbage salad.

Sunday 22 March 2015

Picture Food Diary - Day 1

I thought it was about time that I shared an example of our weekly menu, as some people wonder how we can survive without bread and various other types of food. Hopefully this will provide some inspiration to try out Paleo food. Starting today, I'll be sharing photos of our food for one week… well, the food that I eat anyway, since we all have our own variations of what we eat.

Breakfast eggs sizzling away on the wood fired stove
For a special weekend breakfast, we had fried eggs, home-cured bacon, some cabbage salad and a few slices of apple. Enjoyed with glass of kefir and cup of coffee. It was Sunday after all.


Lunch comes served in a giant mug. Today it included ox tongue, chopped roasted vegetables, a tablespoon of rice  and some other bits of leftovers. This was then topped with hot bone broth. Simple and definitely needed in this cold weather!


Dinner was beef burgers, big spoon of garlic mayo and cabbage two ways: sautéed and chopped in a salad with carrots and beetroot.


Thursday 12 March 2015

Banana and Butternut Squash Pancake

It was my turn to sort out breakfast this morning and I fancied something sweet(er). I checked out the Civilised Caveman and found a recipe for German Apple Pancakes, which I was going to modify… unfortunately, we were fresh out of apples, so I had to rethink and came up with Banana and Butternut Squash Pancake for breakfast instead.

Breakfast pancake with cabbage salad and meat muffin


Ingredients, serves 5:

1 banana, cut into pieces
400g butternut squash, in 1 cm cubes
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg grated (or 1 tsp)
4 tbs coconut oil or ghee (or a combination)

6 eggs
250 ml coconut milk
1 tsp salt
60 ml coconut flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Combine banana, butternut squash, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and oil/ghee in a large ovenproof dish, shove into oven at 190 degrees C for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs, coconut milk, salt, flour and bicarb in a large bowl. Add the apple cider vinegar last. Pour the batter over the fruit and veg and put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes or until set. Serve in slices with protein of choice and maybe a salad.


Tuesday 10 March 2015

Double Digging

For the past month we have been double digging our produce garden. This time honoured technique of digging will provide us with an excellent topsoil, deep rooting zone and well drained vegetable beds. However, this method of cultivation should come with a health warning, it is back breaking work, especially when you have large boulders scattered just below the surface!

So, what is double digging and why are we taking on the challenge? 

This year, we have planned out 6 equally sized vegetable beds, 7 metres in length by 1.5 metres wide, this will give us just under 100sqm of planting area. The double digging process we have pursued is as follows:

- Mark out the vegetable bed; [1]
- With a spade cut the turf layer into small squares; [1]
- Remove approximately 500 cm width of turf layer and put to one side; [1]
- Dig out the soil to approximately two spade depths and also put to oneside (preferably on a tarpaulin), at the same time remove any large stones or boulders; [2]
- Loosen the soil at the bottom of the trench with a fork; [2]
- Scatter organic matter (manure) in the bottom of the trench to about one third of the depth; [3]
- Place cuttings of twigs and branches over the top of the manure; [4]
- Replace the turf dug out at the beginning, but upside down; [5]
- Place a covering of newspaper over the turf; and (finally) [6]
- Cover over with the soil you dug out. [6]



Quite a lengthy process, I think you would agree, but this will be worth the effort. Double digging loosens soil to a greater depth and therefore adds air deeper into the soil which enables roots to grow and the microbes to create good soil structure. This is key to creating the most productive vegetable bed.

Hopefully we will be able to reap the rewards later on in the year...watch this space.

Saturday 7 March 2015

Learning by (Un)doing

Farming* for beginners is a lesson in inefficiency.

Like that HUGE bonfire heap we built with all the branches from around the fields to free up our electric fence. It took us days to cut, saw and drag the branches across the field. Only to realise that perhaps it would be a good idea to use them for the deep beds. And for firewood. And for wood chips for the manure heap. Which meant pulling the heap apart and making bundles and dragging it up towards the stables. Or towards the deep beds. Ah, the hilarity of watching city folks run like headless chickens across a field.

Examples of learning by doing, undoing and redoing are countless, but I can't really complain. I get to spend most days outside, humming my way through chores in wind, rain and the occasional sunshine. :-)
City folk taking selfies on what looks like an excavation site. In ski gear. 

*Apologies to all the real farmers out there. I really should be using citation marks around the word...

Thursday 5 March 2015

Wednesday 4 March 2015