Little Finds: Salad Dressing

This is the Jamie Oliver chilli balsamic that I have been using (a little of) with my organic extra virgin olive oil to dress salad leaves. It really gives them some excitement and makes a change from my usual fresh lemon dressing. 

It also claims to have 0g sugar.. I'm sure that's not possible, and I see it has some modified starch but used sparingly I think it's a much better option than most others I have seen.

Sweet Beef Pie

One of my favourite winter warmers is cottage pie and with our weather turning less than Spring like this week I fancied recreating this classic dish, whilst keeping it NSNG friendly, of course.

The result was a totally delicious, sweet version of a homemade cottage pie, with no added nasties.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

MEAT LAYER:

- 500g good quality minced beef (I used Laverstock Park Farm) 

- 500ml vegetable stock with no sugar or grain (I used Sainsbury's as pictured below)

- 1 carrot

- 1 white onion

- 1 stick of celery

- Salt & pepper

TOPPING:

- 4 medium sweet potatoes

- 30ml organic single cream

- Salt & pepper

- 1 ball buffalo mozzarella (also Laverstock Park Farm)

I used a slow cooker to prepare my beef mix but a large saucepan on the hob would suffice for a speedier alternative.

Add mince and stock to the crock pot. Finely dice the onion, carrot & celery (or use a food processor if you're a cheat, like me!) and season with salt & pepper. 

Leave on a low heat for around 4 hours. 

Peel, chop and slowly simmer the sweet potatoes for 25-30 minutes or until nicely soft. 

Drain and leave to dry in a colander for 10 minutes to let any excess water evaporate. 

In the saucepan, mash the potatoes with the cream and seasoning.

Tip the mince mixture through a sieve to drain off the excess juice. Do this into a saucepan or bowl so that the 'juice' is saved. 

Layer the mince, topped with the potato in a pyrex dish and top with torn mozzarella. 

Once ready to heat, pop in the oven for 30 minutes at 180' (fan) or until the pie is piping hot and the cheese is bubbling. 

Whilst in the oven, I heated the leftover meat juices in a saucepan on a fairly high heat so that it reduced by about a third. It made for a fairly 'light' gravy but it was full of flavour and just right for pouring over the cooked pie. 

I served this with peas. 

I even had a delicious breakfast the next morning with some of the leftovers! 

NSNG resources & further reading...

Over the past couple of weeks LOTS of friends have been asking us both about NSNG.. What is it? How do I do it? WHAT, I can't eat bread??! etc...

I think you need to be in the right frame of mind both mentally and physically in order to want to start introducing such big changes to your 'conventional diet' and it took us a good few weeks of reading and researching before the fateful day we swept our kitchen of all banished foods and embarked on this quite incredible journey.

I wanted to share the books and websites that we use, so you know where to start!

I just want to add that whilst it seems incredibly daunting, it really isn't. I am AMAZED that after just 2 weeks, I have had no cravings for sugar, bread, pasta or any of those other things that I love. That's not to say it won't happen, and I'm sure there will be a time when I do give into those temptations but many of the resources advocate an 80/20 lifestyle, meaning that once you're in the flow, the odd little 'naughty' food, will be OK. I don't like to say treat, as I'm finding that so many of the foods I am eating are what I would class as treats anyway!

FACEBOOK:

• NSNG UK - A great community of likeminded NSNG'ers  
• Vinnie's NSNG - An American heavy group full of ideas and chatter
• The Paleo Primer - An accompaniment to my new favourite book! 
• The Clickin' Coconut - Our FB page! Come and join in! 

WEBSITES:

• Mark's Daily Apple - Mark Sisson's brilliantly useful website
• 100 Days of Real Food - Some great recipes, easily adapted to NSNG
• Primal Joy - Paleo friendly snacks

BOOKS:

• Fitness Confidential - Vinnie Tortorich 
• The Primal Blueprint - Mark Sisson
• Paleo Primer - Keris Marsden & Matt Whitmore
• Against All Grain - Danielle Walker
• Grain Brain - David Perlmutter

* We are not paid or asked to promote any of these resources, they are generally the ones we love and the ones we are reading / read!