A.R.S.E.

Giz can probably help here.

I've started a new training program this week after having a few weeks off. I'm not following a particular diet, I just want to eat clean healthy food and I'm willing to prepare it myself.

Anyone have any good recipe's they can share? I love cooking but notice that most recipe's are aimed at flavour so they're full of butter/cream etc etc.

Middle Eastern Carrot Soup

I large onionpeeled & chopped
500 gms carrots peeled & chopped
2 cloves of garlic peeled & chopped
1/2 cup dry red lentils
Cumin (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
1 to 1.5 litres Vegie stock.

Cook Onmions & garlic till soft
Add everything else - cook for 40 mins
Blend in blender, stick blender or in batches in a food processor.

Re-heat and add Salt and Pepper and adjust Cumin level before serving.

Serve with a sprinkler of Dakkah or grated Parmesan

Variations / Notes
Add a small amount (the size of your thumb) Ginger sliced to the mix, discard before blending.
Carrots vary in water content and flavour durung the year so adjust this recipe to suit your taste.
Use packaged liquid stock, but if its too strong use 2/3 stock 1/3 water.

Cutter wrote:Middle Eastern Carrot Soup

I large onionpeeled & chopped
500 gms carrots peeled & chopped
2 cloves of garlic peeled & chopped
1/2 cup dry red lentils
Cumin (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
1 to 1.5 litres Vegie stock.

Cook Onmions & garlic till soft
Add everything else - cook for 40 mins
Blend in blender, stick blender or in batches in a food processor.

Re-heat and add Salt and Pepper and adjust Cumin level before serving.

Serve with a sprinkler of Dakkah or grated Parmesan

Variations / Notes
Add a small amount (the size of your thumb) Ginger sliced to the mix, discard before blending.
Carrots vary in water content and flavour durung the year so adjust this recipe to suit your taste.
Use packaged liquid stock, but if its too strong use 2/3 stock 1/3 water.

Sounds terrific Carl. I bet there will be some back door action after a bowl of that stuff.

I'll give that one a go

Cheers Cutter!

Are you looking for a detox/rapid weight shedding diet?

There's the "hospital soup" diet which is awesomely tasty. You're meant to have it every time you're hungry, and I did. It lost me 5kgs within the first week, but better judgement forced me to stop. So now I cook it up, freeze it and eat it when I want something healthy and not heavy. Tends to clean out the system though if you haven't had it for a while

Not really Santa. I'm on a muscle building routine so need plenty of carbs and protein. Fat loss will come along with it.

Sounds terrific Carl. I bet there will be some back door action after a bowl of that stuff.

And it does'nt have to change colour much

Simple Risotto

1 onion peeled and chopped
2 cloves of Garlic Peeled and chopped
4 handfull of arborio rice
1.5 Litres chicken stock.
"Other stuff"

Put your chicken stock in a pan on to heat, when simmering
in another pot fry onion and garlic in olive oil till soft
Add a thumb sized lump of butter, when melted add the rice and stir, you want to coat the rice with the butter and oil.
This is on a medium heat.
Wait a few mins add add a ladle (or half a cups worth) of warm chicken stock, stir,
in fact stir lots all the time, never leave it longer than a couple of mins without stirring.
As you go the chicken stock will be absorbed by the rice, keep topping it up with a ladles worth every time it gets absorbed.
After about 20 25 mins the rice will start to give up some of the stock and rellease it with and become creamy and fairly soft.
Its the stirring that gevelops the starch and protiens in the rice, so stir lots. Add salt at this time. a knacker sized lump of butter finishes it off.
Also 1/2 a cup grated parmesan, the real stuff, not the the stuff in the shakers that smell like socks.

Add the "other things" now, one main thing and one or two smaller things.
Main things like: chopped chicken, peeled cook prawns, smoked fish, asparagus, pan fried mushrooms, cooked pumpkin or beetroot, cubed cold lamb, spicy sausage (cook in another pan and cube)
Pre-cooked marinara mix,
Smaller things: fresh herbs, cheese (cubed mozzarella is good) chopped roasted capsicum (Supermarket) frozen peas (add these with 5 mins to go) pine nuts, sun dreied tomatoes

Use your imagination, think what 2 or 3 things would taste good together
blue cheese & chopped walnuts / Smoked Trout and fresh herbs / Chorizo sausage and sun dried tomatoes and olives / Cold roast lamb and cold roast potato /

Notes:
Keep stirring, it matters in this recipe.
Pre-cook any thing that needs it, the risotto will heat through things, but not cook them - the exception to this is peas.
If you run out of stock you can use water for the last bit, but make it warm.
If you do use a powdered stock taste it carefully and err on the watery side, it gets quite concentrated when cooked and can be salty.
But if you can make reak stock, do so, it makes this dish.

Carls easy chicken stock
Buy a pre roasted BBQ cooked chicken from a supermarket or take away food shop.
Try to avoid ones with herbs or spices or sauces already on them, the simpler the better.
Put chicken in refrigerator until cold.
Then break chicken down by hand separating it into chicken meat and everything else i.e. skin & bones, the soft cartilage in the legs and end of the breastbone, wingtips etc.
Put the meat aside for sandwiches, salads etc, freeze into meal size servings if needed.
If the chicken was stuffed or seasoned inside its cavity remove this and discard and rinse the inside of the body under cold water.
Then put the chicken frame (body) all the skin and bones and the wing tips into a saucepan with 1.5 litres of water.
Then put in 1 brown onion (say a bit bigger than a golf ball) chopped into quarters, leave the skin on it adds colour to the stock.
Plus 2-3 cloves of garlic (skin and all) cut into quarters as well and a few peppercorns if you have them, say 10.
You can add half a carrot & a celery stalk (chopped) if you want

Then bring to a boil then turn heat down low and simmer for 90 mins.

While warm strain the stock to retain only the liquid, discard the skin bones etc.
To strain, use either muslin cloth, or some other material, in a colander / sieve / strainer thingy over a saucepan or large bowl to collect the stock.
You can use a cleaning cloth (Chux brand is one) but get a non treated one and rinse it several times to remove any chemicals.
(It’s cheaper to get a metre of muslin, or some light cotton material offcuts from a haberdashery shop. You can then wash and reuse them)

Put stock in refrigerator to cool, once cool remove any fat from the surface.
Now it’s ready to use or store in freezer for the future. (Freeze as ice cubes is a good idea for adding small amounts to recipes)

Damn, that makes even me hungry.

Will post a couple when i get home

Actually a really good thing to do is look in all the triathlon/running mags. Runners World, Triathlon Plus and Triathlon Plus. They have great recipies