the Turner family blog: July 2014

LOL - this one's for you Les!

It's been a while and I have a few weeks to catch up on food wise, but they have been some good food weeks. I thought I would just summarise some of the best parts of the last month and a half in food for the Turner household.

I'll start with the most exciting thing first. This weekend past I went to a Pete Evan's Masterclass (from MKRs fame). We (my friend Michelle and I) received a signed copy of his latest cookbook "Healthy Everyday", which essentially promotes a Paleo diet. We cooked several recipes from his new book, and listened to him talk about his food philosophy.

His talk was very interesting, a couple of the points he made included:

- for the first time, coming generations will have a shorter life span than previous generations as a result of the foods we eat.
- we eat overly processed, sugar and grain rich diets, and eat foods we were not designed to eat including genetically modified food
- that having some good fats (eg. coconut oil) in your diet is essential, especially to reduce the chance of Alzheimers and Dementia as the brain is 60% fat
- there is a connection between mental health and other medical conditions and diet. Some illnesses such as depression can be reduced through the adoption of a diet such as the Paleo diet
- removing grains from your diet altogether as well as sugars, dairy and fruits (high in natural sugars)
- essentially eating a lot of vegetables, some good fats and some meats
- eating different foods at breakfast, so instead of eating breakfast cereals and toast etc, eat leftovers from the previous night, eggs, soups and so forth.

A lot of what he said made sense, which doesn't mean that the Turner household will completely adopt a Paleo diet (some of which we do now anyway), but we will certainly put in place the bits we think make sense. We will continue to eat fruit and dairy, we will continue to minimise our carb consumption - which tends to reduce the amount of grains we eat anyway, and we will gradually try substituting some foods, eg. cooking with coconut oil, and using olive oil for cold dishes, trying coconut flour with some baking. Our dinners are generally healthy, well-balanced and nutritious, so I think our biggest area of effort will be reducing the convenience foods we tend to have for recess and after work/school snacks.

Jazz and I went through a list of suggested Paleo snacks last night, and highlighted the ones we are going to use as snack and lunch options. We are trying different ones each week, this week we are having:

- tins of tuna, and tuna slices
- halved avocado with seasoning
- boiled eggs with dukah
- fresh fruit including strawberries, cherries, apples, oranges, bananas, pears and mandarins
- cold sliced chicken and raw vegetables including cute little cucumbers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, carrots, beans
- dates
- probiotic yoghurts

Here is what we cooked during the Masterclass - Zucchini Pasta with Rich Tomato Sauce, Miso Salmon Soup, Cauliflower Fried Rice. We also had the little chocolate and raspberry desserts and some Kale chips.

On to the other food for the month ....

Eating Out

Jamie's Italian - Over the last month or so, we have managed to eat out a couple of times. Dave and I finally got to eat at Jamie's Italian in the first week of the school holidays, and I got to eat there a second time with my ex-work colleagues the following week. In summary, two lovely tasty meals, and not overly expensive. Certainly worth a visit. Here is a sampling of what we had ...

First visit, we tried the Meat Plank:

I tried the King Salmon, while Dave tried a Pasta (I can't remember which one):

For dessert we tried the Limoncello Meringue as well as a Chocolate Brownie, here is the meringue:

On my second visit, I tried the Crab and Avocado Bruschetta (it was delicious):

Black Angel Hair Spaghetti with Scallops:

For dessert - the vanilla panna cotta with berry compote:

Cheryl had the yummy looking trifle for dessert:

Soju Girl - We always try and fit a trip to Soju Girl in during each school holidays while the girls are in Goulburn, this holidays were no exception. They always change their menu slightly each time we go, and we go on two-for-one night which also costs half the price. We always try a couple of desserts, which are divine:

Three Mother's Thai - Eliza picked this one when we were in Civic one night, and we discovered that Babars had closed down. Haven't eaten here for a while, decent Thai - not as nice as Chong Co though.

Sizzle and Grill Japanese - Dave bought a Living Social deal for this Japanese restaurant in Dickson. It was OK, but I think perhaps the girls enjoy sushi train Japanese as opposed to other Japanese food. Some of the dishes included chicken skewers made from chicken thigh, and pork belly skewers, which Dave found too fatty. The girls only ate some veggies, some sushi rolls and a little rice, so we had to eat the rest and it was just too much.

A Selection of Soups

The favourite soups for month included:

This pumpkin soup with smoked ham hock and toasted sesame:

A winter vegetable soup:

Lamb Meatball and Lentil Soup:

Pumpkin soup with pesto bread:

Favourite Main Courses

This silverbeet and lentil pies with Chia (LOL ate the top off before I realised I hadn't taken a photograph):

Cauliflower Risotto with Grilled Chicken and a Sage Sauce:

Dave has been rather partial to Salmon fillets lately (something he hasn't really eaten a lot of in the past), this one was simple and tasty - Salmon with Dukah, served with Sweet and Sour Brussel Sprouts (Jasmin loves brussel sprouts), and a salad made with preserved dill carrots, feta and cannelonni beans: