City Essentials

Parachuting out of London meant removing a lot of clutter from my life. Among them were clothes, jewellery, handbags, shoes and makeup, ie anything that didn't serve an immediate purpose in a garden or field or forest. Mamma remarked at some point that it would be nice if I wore something else but my jean shorts and one of my gazillion white tank tops, but I haven't seen the point.

Returning briefly to "civilisation" in London has me donning stuff that now feels oddly foreign to me, things that seemed useful to me in my earlier life. Grandma's cherished ring is still gorgeous, but feels over the top on my blackberry scratched fingers. The handbag that I "invested in" right before I decided to leave still smells divine and elegantly carries all sorts of junk, but feels like a bad joke when considering how much food the money I bought it for could buy. The measly pieces of makeup that I still have left make me feel almost garish when I use them, despite being probably unnoticeable to people around me.

Add caption about silly handbag splurges 

Funny how things that used to feel so essential now just feel like a burdensome, superfluous. Why is it so important to look a certain way, to be so polished? Why do we spend so much money on stuff that is pretty but unnecessary? We're fools, yeah.

Early morning ride out into the countryside. #blog #dustofftheroadbike

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Much needed coffee stop #blog

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London, Baby!

I'm off to London for Lil T's christening. I'm so excited to see the rest of the PB posse and my friends again! I know that money will be tight in the next few years, if not for the rest of my life, so this is a true luxury that may not be repeated anytime soon. I'll just have to rely on my friends to come visit! (*thinking long and hard of how to make that prospect irresistible*)

Despite my excitement, I don't actually miss London. I love the place, don't get me wrong, but it's the people that make the city and many of them have moved on. Also, London is so tightly intertwined with my old career, a career that now seems so utterly foreign to me. And I don't miss that at all, not even on a particularly bad day in the sticks.

I thank my lucky stars I was able to leave and let go, just like that.

Relevant picture of my foot dangerously close to massive heaps of cow dung (in London, that would be dog poop)

Magic Mushrooms

What's more paleo than foraging for your own food? Check out what we found in the forest yesterday:

Mamma and the shrooms

All in all, we cooked more than 13 litres of mushrooms, yikes. After cleaning (no water, will just slimefy them), we cut them into little pieces and let them sweat on medium heat until all the juices were absorbed.

This morning, we made an omelet and served it up with the reheated mushrooms, fried in butter and seasoned. Holy moly, that was good.

Red drink is NOT cordial, but kvass, ie fermented beet juice (interesting...)

And I have yet to start hallucinating...

I left this little fellow where I found him

Mobility Lab Rats

My parents are my favourite lab rats for new experiments. This latest one is courtesy of my favourite Cromagnon who got me reading Ido Portal.

Anyhow, I've got my parents to hang throughout the day, the goal being to build strength as well as mobility. I admit, I can't even hang for a minute, but it just makes me want to do it more. It bothers me that something as simple as hanging has become so uncomfortable since I did it last (like eons ago...). The good thing about it is that I can feel my shoulders and back loosening up already.

I hope they don't break (the house or themselves)

Squatting is another pet peeve/ project of mine that I'm trying to incorporate as much as possible in my daily life (now that I don't have to worry about splitting a suit). It's irritating, I want to do it perfectly NOW! But a comfy life spent sitting most of the time isn't to be undone in a few months, ey? Check out my current props:

Cheating with the yoga mat until I can squat like a pro

The third, but perhaps most important thing I've started doing, is to stand throughout the day. I swear I've developed an allergy towards sitting after quitting my office job. I sit down for meals, but will stand for the rest of the day. More props:

Quite the eclectic book collection 

I can't wait to meet my classmates on the PT course for some more inspiration for more awkward habits. :-)

The Upside of Studying in the Sticks

My life consists of studying, eating, exercising and sleeping it seems. But I'm not complaining. Because in between, I sneak in this:

Pine cones hurt more than gravel, trust me on this one

And this:

Lingonberries to go with the moose I just wrestled to the ground

And this:

Glad no one saw me taking this pic

And some of this:

My face hurt from the cold after this particular swim

And this:

Not a tourist in sight

Harvest Time

August is an exciting time in our garden... It's time to harvest some of the veggies that survived the slug attacks. Granted, the harvest isn't as large as I hoped, but it is amazing eating your own vegetables!

See those chillies? Ouch, they are incredibly spicy!

I am also lucky to have a colleague with an allotment and a surplus of courgettes. So many that I made some "zoodles" with them. Yum!

Zoodles are made by cutting courgettes with a julienne peeler, then salted to draw out the liquid (leave for 30 minutes in a colander), rinsed and patted dry with kitchen roll. Then fried briefly in a pan with fat of choice. They are served here topped with roasted seeds, broccoli and burger.

Exam Done! Next!

I passed my nutritional advisor exam on Tuesday, whoop! I missed two questions out of 100, damn. I must've been picking my navel (for lint!) when they told us that microvilli are called the equivalent of "intestinal lint" in Swedish (tarmludd). No chance of forgetting that now.

After celebrating in style (I made some paleo naan to go with the curry... we party hard here), I'm back to studying some more. No rest for the wicked.

Simple(ton) Sauce

Eating clean when on the move can be a challenge. I stayed with some family friends in Lidingö while in Stockholm and although I had full access to their kitchen, I didn't exactly have oodles of time to cook.

Inspired by one of my classmates, I threw together this meat sauce late one evening. It took me perhaps half an hour from start to finish and did the trick. Plus it has very few ingredients, my general credo in the kitchen.

500 g mince meat (organic mooooh, please)
500 ml tinned tomatoes
1 large onion
At least a teaspoon each of powdered ginger, cumin, dried thyme (or whatever strikes your fancy in the cupboard. Go on, go crazy.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Ghee or butter for frying
A dollop of butter to thicken the sauce before serving

Chop and fry the onions on medium heat in a frying pan for a few minutes until soft. Watch them like a hawk, don't let them burn.

Add the meat. Mash up. Season. Fry for a few minutes until no pinkness remains. Dunk in the tomatoes. Mix well, then put on a lid and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes while you make a salad, pick the lint out of your belly button or check Facebook.

Add the butter. If you're feeling frisky, go all the way and plonk in 3-4 tablespoons. Stir and watch the magical transformation of an otherwise average sauce.

Eat it while it's hot. Then put the rest in a glass jar and eat cold the next day at work. Because microwaves are evil. 

Excellent choice of paper bags to bring food in to low carb class (matavfall=food waste; Karamellkungen=CandyKing)

Achtung! Wonder Woman Gushing

Wow. What to do, what to say? How does one sum up a week of this? This course has been absolutely riveting from start to finish. The subject matter is obviously close to my heart, but what made the experience were the people. My amazingly quirky, sassy, intelligent, funny and compassionate fellow nutri-nerds. We're talking "massive collective girl/ boy crush" here. Ouch, I miss them already.

So what's next? A lot. I'll be wrapping up the nutrition course next week, hopefully passing with flying colours (given how much I've studied, I'd be mortified if I didn't...).

And once that's off my plate, I'm on to the next course. To become a PT. How's that for a challenge? The thought makes me grin and squirm at the same time. But the voice in my head that shouts "why the hell not?" is louder than ever. You may call me Wonder Woman, if you wish. I sure feel like it.

This Stockholm hottie wasn't copyrighted, so he'll have to illustrate just how badass I am 

Swirling around this are all the ideas and plans for how I want to use my new knowledge. And I will be letting them swirl for a while longer. Because I now know that things will eventually fall into place. I just need to have faith and patience. Two virtues that I never realised I had.

Start of Fidgety Week 2 (Nutrition Course Part II)

Wow, I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone by. I'm sitting on the train, once again headed towards that fair city of the North, aka Stockholm. The landscape has changed significantly in the last month, harvesting being in full swing across the country.

Grain leftovers? 

I've spent most of the last month getting up early to work out/walk/run, eat breakfast, study for 1-4 hours, break for lunch, go for a swim, pick (but mostly eat) a helluva lot of berries (me and lil T share this passion...), prep for dinner, eat dinner, go for a walk, go to bed. Repeat.

Studying on the beach can be problematic when it's windy...

The studying has gone well. Sure, I've read dozens of books and blogs on the subject of paleo-inspired/ low carb food in the last few years, but it's been for my own benefit only. This has meant skimming the more "sciency" bits to get to the conclusion at the end, ie "yeah, that's all nice, but what do I actually DO?"  Rereading some of my books this summer has meant that I understand more and more of the "why", not just the "what".

Here's to another week of even more moments of clarity. :-)

Quickie Kraut

We love sauerkraut this household, so we're constantly making more when we free up jars.

Today's batch was made with cabbage and some red beets to top up.

Pink food rocks

Check out our previous posts for more rough'n'ready recipes.

For this particular batch, I also used some whey from the raw milk that we bought a week ago. I'm looking forward to see if there is a difference in taste!

Schon Gegessen - Today's Lesson in German

Although I wouldn't say that I'm very fluent in German anymore, there are a few terms that I still use on a regular basis. There are just some words that need to be in German, for example "schon gegessen" to describe food that looks like it's already been half digested, ie "already eaten".

This morning's breakfast certainly fit the bill. The PB posse was polite as usual, but agreed that we have seen better-looking food before. My sister kindly offered another translation of the term: "vom", ie vomit. Lovely.

Lump of something eggy, served with decidedly sloppy leftover kraut salad from last night

In my defence it has to be said that I had to wip up something real fast out of leftovers, plus the below for our trip:

A lot prettier, but who knows what it'll taste of...

But let's face it, food doesn't always turn out Michelin-worthy. It's just that those "vom" dishes tend to stay off the blogs. ;-)