the spread

whole wheat blueberry pancakes with cinnamon, walnuts and pecans

roasted red potatoes

my brother made guacamole.

fruit salad i made

easter chocolates

i’ve been growing herbs, they’re doing well. the basil will be on the plate first i think,

this one is a big basil plant transplanted from seeds.

more seedlings

there was more food, too, but i was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures!

add 1/2 can light coconut milk, a bunch of ground cumin, curry powder, chili powder, tiny bit of cloves and cinnamon, dash of turmeric powder, lime juice or zest, ground black pepper, and salt

cook until the meat is done (not long) and ENJOY.

i eat this every week lately and i’m not tired of it yet. it’s not very photogenic though.

fruit salad and bagels from brunch a while ago, in the afternoon light

some more brunch food: i was trying to give people heart attacks with fried potatoes and bacon.

i was making homemade spinach pasta in cleveland for family to eat. basically orgasmic tasting with some minced garlic sauteed in olive oil, and some grated parmesan.

i want more shallots. too bad they are between $0.30 and $0.50 each when i go looking for them, and regular onions are much cheaper. shallots have a sweet allium flavor and aroma that is sometimes perfect, though.

today i made brown rice, roasted sweet potato and butternut squash, added caramelized onion and fresh baby spinach, and prepared a vinaigrette out of lime juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, feta cheese, salt & pepper, a big handful of fresh cilantro. i would post photos but the only thing that looks photogenic is the bright green dressing, and the rest is not photogenic, though it is delicious. this is a go to recipe whenever i am around my mom. hopefully when she manages to GTFO of ohio, i can cook for her more than once every six months!!

other highlights of the last week include a pound of fresh ricotta from the west side market (try to get me away from that deliciousness, i’ll fight ya) and a newfound love for canadian bacon, which is cured meat so i guess i’m cheating a bit, but DAMN is it good. i never ate canadian bacon before, i’m not sure why. probably because it’s expensive.

the food motto for the new year is “quality over quantity”. no more buying cheap shitty ingredients to make a big pot of whatever — now i plan to eat more frequent and smaller meals with better ingredients and more sensible portions. this is not a weight loss plan, but a plan to keep up energy throughout the day because training on bad nutrition and bad hydration is miserable.

ironically, after so many years of near-vegetarianism and being around dudes who were basically vegetarians or close to it, i now want to eat more meat. meanwhile my partner has been clamoring for more vegetarian meals (he wants to eat freshly slaughtered things on special occasions only, and go vegetarian the rest of the time, for moral/spiritual reasons). his goal is to eat more vegetarian meals and mine to eat more good meat and good fats. so, i guess the blog will have a mix of both, if i can keep up with photographing and posting what’s going on in the kitchen, which i hope i can!

so i guess this blog is gonna look a little different then?

what i have been eating of late:

curried shaved beefsteak with two kinds of green beans and a heap of garlic and ginger fried up all crispy…brown rice cooked in chicken broth & chicken drippings…cajun marinated chicken legs (where’d you think those drippings came from, hehe)…endless raw nuts…endless bowls of tangy whole milk greek yogurt…protein shakes made with raw almond butter, coconut milk, chocolate whey, frozen berries, and oats…herbal tea…not-so-ripe bananas (less sugar that way)…avocados…eggs and more eggs and more eggs…uncured bacon…black beans smothered in salsa verde and sour cream and cheese and cumin…chicken poached in spicy tomato sauce with cooked spinach…wild scallops sauteed in butter and lemon…curried shrimp with cashews and turmeric and south african curry blend…pasta made out of brown rice with pesto…handfuls of probiotics (no exaggeration!)

so i guess i am verging on eating paleo, if not for the occasional brown rice or oats or legumes? is that what this is? i am really just trying to get my digestive system back to good health and eliminate sugar cravings from my life.

i have seen with my own eyes how eating paleo (actually paleo, too, not my weird version) and working out like a beast can shred anyone, regardless of how they started out or how old they are. i already feel pretty solid just from eating normally/lazily and fighting 4-5x a week, so i’m really excited to see how eating like this can keep me out of the emergency room (ie avoid stomach pains) and how much my endurance/explosivity in the ring can improve.

i had fancier things planned but once i got to boston and was in star market buying groceries, i got less ambitious. everything was expensive, i was not feeling well, and my mom and brother have crazy dietary limitations, so a lot of what i wanted to make was not feasible. i dialed it down. but we kept it healthy- the summers family loves their vegetables on holidays.

i should also note that between my brother and i we ate a whole box of trader joe’s opera cake (orgasmic chocolate freezer thing) and a whole cartoon of mango sorbet. see, this is why i do muay thai five days a week when i’m in good health, so i can be an A+ glutton   …among other reasons.

i roasted some sweet potatoes, but then my brother ate em like popcorn before i could do anything.

we ate this the night before thanksgiving -- that's whole wheat bruschetta and a salad of spinach, fennel, apples, grapefruit, shaved parmesan, spring mix, onions, and a lemony vinagrette.

the classics: turkey, unfinished gravy that no one ended up eating, and stuffing in a pan.

this is a side dish: salad made of steamed brown rice, baby spinach, shaved parmesan, roasted butternut squash, caramelized red onion, dressed with green olive tapenade/olive oil.

pan-fried brussels sprouts with copious amounts of butter and roasted-until-sweet-and-creamy garlic and lemon and pepper and cheese. not many in the photo...we devoured them!