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Healthy Food Taken Too Far?

November 20, 2015 by Michele Neylon 2 Comments

While I love healthy food, I don’t think it needs to be boring.

Of course some people like to take “healthy” to an extreme.

Take these breakfast cereals as an example:

Not only are they “gluten free”, but they’re also made from “veganic sprouted” brown rice, ancient maize and ancient grain. Maybe they taste ok, but they sound a little bit on the boring side!

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be in favour of some of the sugar based breakfast cereals that are available in most Irish supermarkets either.

You can find more of their products here.

Weight Loss Realisations of the Morbidly Obese

November 20, 2015 by Jason 2 Comments

Guest post by Jason.

I have never liked the phrase “Morbidly Obese”. It sounded so dramatic a diagnosis from a white coated stranger with a body mass index calculator. Obesity comes with a large disclaimer of a future of complications with high cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes to name a few.

Lifetime of Realisations

I’m a relatively young guy who is just about to enter his thirties. I haven’t yet developed any of the above conditions. Yet my twenties has taken its toll on my young body. Apart from my BMI that is off the richter scale; I’ve developed problems with my back in the form of two prolapsed disks as well as sleep apnoea.

The graph shows the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat (%BF)..

The only cure to my sleep apnoea is CPAP therapy that feels like trying to sleep with a bicycle pump blowing up your nostrils and significant weight loss. The back problems have a similar cure combined with strengthening core mussels and weight loss. I have to loose over 7 stone+ to get me out of the obesity range.

Turning Point

My first child was born this year and it forced me to reflect on my lifestyle choices. It was a bit of a turning point for me. I was concerned that I might not be physically able to look after him in the future if I continued on my current downward heath trajectory. So I decided to tackle the problem head on.

I’ve taken part in many weight loss regimens in the past. I’ve tried Weight Watchers, Atkins and Motivation weight management. With mixed success, loosing a few stone and then putting it all back on over the following years.

About three weeks ago I signed up for Slimming World and I’ve attended two out of three weigh in meetings. The meetings provide a support group, with a weight in and then a chat from the groups coordinator. I lost 5 pound and put one back on but I’m going to stick with the plan as some of the group have already lost 6 stone+.

To be continued ..

Jawbone UP3 Quick Review

September 27, 2015 by Michele Neylon 2 Comments

Over the past couple of years I’ve tried a number of different fitness trackers. I’ve had multiple fitbit trackers, some got lost, others had issues with their battery.

Last year I switched to the Jawbone UP. Apart from anything else the battery issues with the Fitbit were driving me nuts – they’d lose their charge very quickly or refuse to take a charge.

The UP worked really well up until a few weeks ago when it too started having issues with holding a charge. And then it broke completely, so I had to get a replacement.

I was considering going back to a Fitbit, but they don’t ship to Ireland!

Jawbone, on the other hand, does ship to Ireland, so I was able to order directly from their site and get my new “toy” within a couple of days.

I chose the UP3 as it has a couple of features that I was interested in:

automatic sleep tracking
heart health

Both the Fitbit and the Jawbone models I’d tried in the past had sleep tracking, but they all needed you to tell the device manually when you were going to sleep and you also had to remember to “wake up”. With the Jawbone UP3 the device automatically detects when you’re asleep and from using it over the last few days it’s pretty accurate.

The “heart health” feature is something that intrigues me.

The UP3 comes with a bunch of sensors in the band that need to be in contact with your skin in order for it to work.

With earlier models of the UP you had to “plug in” the device to charge it. With the UP3 the charging is done using a magnetic strip in the band which couples with the USB charger. One potential downside to this is that the contacts might get a little dirty from use, but at least you won’t end up breaking the device through wear!

The mobile app for iPhone got an upgrade as well and while previously firmware upgrades were a bit messy,with the UP3 the firmware upgrades can be handled directly via the mobile app.

Hopefully I won’t have issues with the battery in this device!

Cute Beatles Themed Pepper Mill

September 24, 2015 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

I’m currently in the market for a pepper mill for the office. I’ll probably get a rather boring, yet functional one. However while browsing I came across this one that I really like. It’s cute and quirky and still does its job:

Yes, it’s “The Sergeant” which of course is playing on the imagery of the iconic Beatles’ album.

I guess I could add it to my growing collection of quirky kitchen gadgets like my Star Wars bottle opener ..

Spaghetti Carbonara

September 6, 2015 by Michele Neylon 2 Comments

I’ve always liked carbonara. It’s one of those dishes that isn’t complicated, but is incredibly tasty. I guess it proves that you don’t need elaborate “fussy” recipes to get good, tasty food.

It’s not a super lean or low calorie dish, but it’s good quality food and free of processed junk.

And no, you don’t need mushrooms or cream to make carbonara. In fact if you add either ingredient it’s no longer carbonara.

So here’s the recipe I use. You can tweak it depending on what you can get your hands on. For example, pancetta is more widely available in Irish supermarkets these days, but it you can use bacon rashers if you need to. The more “traditional” recipes talk about using blocks of pancetta and slicing it off them, but I’ve never found pancetta for sale in Ireland in that form. If anyone knows of shops selling it please let me know via the comments!

Spaghetti Carbonara

A simple yet tasty Italian staple

Course Dinner

Cuisine Italian

Keyword bacon, italian, pasta, spaghetti

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 13 minutes

Servings 2

Calories 600 kcal

Ingredients

2 - 3 eggs depending on size free range eggs are always best
1 - 2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped or sliced thinly
1/2 packed of pancetta most packets come with two separate sections
100 g spaghetti
grated parmesan freshly grated is best
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Prepare the spaghetti al dente as usual
While the spaghetti is cooking (usually 6 to 8 minutes) fry the pancetta with garlic. You might need to add a small bit of oil to the pan, but pancetta has a lot of its own oils
Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them. Add a bit of the black pepper and some of the parmesan
When the spaghetti is ready drain it
Combine the spaghetti and eggs in a large bowl, then add the pancetta with garlic.
Mix the pancetta and garlic well so that they're relatively well mixed into the pasta
Serve and enjoy!

Simple Cooking Makes Me Happy

August 28, 2015 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

Cooking my own food is (nearly) always a pleasure. There’s a lot to be said for being able to choose exactly how you want your food cooked and served.

While I do enjoy eating very elaborate dishes when I’m “out”, I tend to stick to much simpler fare when I’m the one doing the cooking.

The local butcher does very tasty burgers that are quite generous in terms of thickness. While I would normally grill burgers I’ve found that doing the fresh burgers with some onions, garlic and chilli produces a very nice combination which has its own juice that goes well with boiled (or microwaved) fresh baby potatoes.

Fresh burgers with mushrooms, shallots, chilli and garlic

Yum!

Geeky Chopping Board

August 18, 2015 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

I’m not sure if I’d want this kind of style of chopping board in my kitchen, though that’s also partially because I prefer wooden boards.

The “motherboard” chopping board is a glass chopping board. It’s got the design of a motherboard printed on to it, so if you’re a bit of a geek you might appreciate it.

Or maybe if you’re trying to find a gift for a geek who cooks, then this is the right option?

It’s a reasonable size board: H:31 x W:41 x D:0.9cm

More details here.

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Spaghetti Carbonara

Ingredients

Instructions

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