by Sam Tackeff | Sep 13, 2012 | Challenge, Uncategorized
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Things are shifting, and they’ll be looking a little bit different around here. For the next two months I’m participating in a challenge at my gym. Yes, that’s right, cue the crazy-alarm, I’ve gone ahead and lost my mind. The challenge is based on both fitness and nutrition, and boy am I looking forward to it. We’ll eat healthy, unprocessed foods (okay, so minimally processed – I don’t have a larder of canned foods to draw from, nor do I have a 12 cup food processor, so I’m okay with things like canned coconut milk, and frankly Rao’s tomato sauce is better than what I can make even from the best tomatoes) and each week we participate in new fitness challenges, with benchmarks at the beginning and end in power and endurance.
There are a few great things I love about this challenge. First, that I’m doing it with a team (and there are over 50 people participating). Doing anything with a team is fun. I wasn’t really a team gal in school, but now that I’ve been going to the gym on a regular basis and working out with people, I get it. Second, everyone is required to use a food journal. I’m a strong believe in using journaling to help you attain your goals. This is also good because I have a blog, and I plan on using it as my own accountability. Daily meals, inspiration, lists, and even yes, some workouts. Which means lots of posts over here – I hope you don’t get sick of me.
My focus for this challenge is on whole foods, cooking, improving my fitness, and general happiness. I haven’t hashed it all out yet, but, for now here’s what I’ve come up with in addition to the challenge rules:
My major nutrition goals for this challenge include: planning my meals and share my meal planning, eating at home as often as possible, eating a rainbow of colors and taking advantage of seasonal produce, and drinking a hell of a lot more water.
My major fitness goals for this challenge include: running a race, and then another one. I’m signed up for the first, in a little over a week. Yeesh! And, a 200 lb. deadlift. We’ll work on that one. I have a little ways to go.
Happiness goals include: Sticking to my kitchen resolutions, doing more to make my house into a home, being a better partner, daughter, sister and friend.
This won’t be about preaching, it’s a personal reset. But, I do hope to see you around. Have you ever done a challenge before?
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 12, 2012 | Eggs, Turkish
Yesterday was a long day. I tried to avoid the television, but the tweets and messages and blogs of my friends remembering 11 years ago were sobering. I made the mistake of turning on NPR while in my car, and choking up while driving and listening to the short memorial stories.
And then I met my mom for a walk on the ocean. The air was the warm end of summer air, the sky was bright. The Atlantic was flat and deep blue, and seemingly endless. We talked about life, food, her first day of preschool. This walk – the same one we’ve gone on since I was a small child – always puts me in a better place.
Reluctantly, I came home again to an empty house, and although it’ll be the two of us again tonight, it was lonely. It was also late, and I was tired. My mom had given me several ripe tomatoes from her garden, and some fresh parsley, so I set to work putting together a riff on Turkish menemen – scrambled egg with peppers and tomato. Because I was pepper-less, I just added an extra tomato. I find that you can never eat too many tomatoes at the end of summer, because soon they’ll be gone, and you’ll regret your missed opportunities.
This is one of those dishes that I come back to again and again, the type of food that I eat alone. It’s dead simple, cooks up quickly, and works just as well for dinner as it would for breakfast. It also, for the record, tastes great when you come back at 2 am after a long night out.
Turkish Tomato Eggs
serves 1
1 tablespoon olive oil (or 2!)
2 or 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped or grated
salt
pinch of chile flakes (Such as Urfa Biber or Piment D’espelette)
pinch of thyme
3 large eggs, whisked
small handful of chopped parsley
In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, pour a generous amount of olive oil (a tablespoon or more if you can rationalize it). Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan, and season with a little bit of salt, a large pinch of chile flakes, and a small pinch of thyme. Stir, and let it bubble for three to five minutes.
In a bowl, whisk three eggs with a small pinch of salt. Pour the egg mixture over the tomatoes, and let it set for a bit, and then stir gently for a few minutes. This dish is fairly soupy, and not dry, but you are looking to cook the whites. When cooked, add a large handful of chopped parsley, and eat right away.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 11, 2012 | Indian, Seafood
And like that, the weather in New England seems to have turned the corner to fall, although I’m not quite sure it’ll stick. We might have more summer yet. Or so I’m telling myself. In the mean time, last night was the first night that I’ve been alone in a long time (I nervously sent Devon off to North Carolina for a conference). It was cool out and I was craving a bowl of something warm and deeply comforting. With the last of my wild Coho salmon I was sent by Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association, I decided to make a simple curry for myself, inspired by a Nigel Slater recipe.
I don’t think that most people associate fish with curries, but warming spices go wonderfully with fish strong enough to stand up to them. Or, as Tamar Adler reminds us in An Everlasting Meal, they are perfect for strongly flavored fish (like bluefish), that you may have left a little bit too long in the fridge.
I made my curry and served it with cauliflower couscous, which, is just blitzed cauliflower that I heated up for about five minutes in a pan with a little bit of coconut milk and some salt. It shares the texture of couscous, is perfect for sopping up the creamy curry, and has the added bonus of being nutrient-dense veg. (You can also make cauliflower into “rice”, which may or may not have been what I was attempting to do… until I went ahead and over did it by 20 seconds in my processor.)
The great thing about this curry, as with most every soup, or stew, is that it tastes absolutely fantastic the next day. Even cold. Which is exactly how I’m eating the last bits, gleefully as I write this.
A warming salmon curry
serves 2
If you don’t have all the spices on hand, and have a good curry blend (such as Trader Joe’s), go ahead and use a tablespoon of that instead. But, take note that these are really useful spices to have on hand, so you might as well just go and buy them.
1 wild salmon filet, 1 – 1.5 lbs.
salt and pepper
1 medium onion
1 Tbs. coconut oil
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground chiles (I used Turkish Urfa biber)
1 can (14 oz.) whole, peeled tomatoes in their juice
1/2 cup coconut milk (full-fat, don’t skimp!)
1. Remove the skin, and chop your salmon filet into large pieces (about 2-inch cubes), and season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Put together your spices in a small bowl, and set aside. Chop up a medium onion, and warm it in a large skillet on medium heat in a tablespoon or so of coconut oil. Stir about until it softens, being careful not to let it burn.
2. Add the spices to the onions, and stir gently for about 30 seconds, until the aromas start wafting up to you. Add your can of tomatoes, with the juice, and break the whole tomatoes up with your spoon. Stir, and let the mixture bubble and the flavors meld for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste your sauce, and add a little bit more salt if need be.
3. Add your salmon, nesting it gently between the tomatoes. Let the salmon cook for five minutes on one side, and carefully turn over, letting it cook for another five minutes. Pour in your coconut milk, and simmer for about five more minutes. Serve warm, over rice, or cauliflower rice.
