Spaghetti with fennel and shrimps

Hi Dudes,

now I am back again in Amsterdam and I am proud to present a new easy recipe for you. Fresh ingredients - healthy and delicious! Now let's get started.

For 2 people you need:

PREP:  10

COOK: 15 min

LEVEL: easy

Spaghetti / 250 g
Prawns / 200 g 
Red chili / 1
Garlic / 3 gloves
Fennel / 1
Lemon / 1 organic
Olive oil / 4 tablespoons
Salt / a pinch
Pepper / a pinch
Vegetable bouillon / 30 ml
Flat parsley / 1 bunch

Preparation:

1. Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile slice the fennel, garlic and chili (remove the chili seeds if you don't like it spicy). Chop the flat parsley and grate some lemon zest.

2. Cook the spaghetti 3 min less than shown on the packing for al dente. Heat up the bouillon and put it aside.

3. Grab a big pan with olive oil and brown the fennel for 2 min at medium heat. Add chili, garlic and fry for another 2 min. At the end add shrimps and lemon zest at high heat.

4. Add the spaghetti to the pan and deglaze with bouillon. Wait a minute until the water has been soaked by the pasta and spice up with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Add parsley at the end.

Eet smakelijk!

Freeletics: Strength guide, sore muscles and app

Hello Dudes,

I just started with my second freeletics training guide and I want update you about my latest training. My new guide focusses on strength and I think this will help me to shape and form more muscles. The results of the first guide were good and so I am ready and motivated to continue. After I finished my cardio & strength guide I took a break of 4 weeks. It was nice to hang out and to relax a little, but I also felt, that I was missing the training. It incredible how much effect sports has on your mood and how it helps you to think positive.

Now I just have made it trough the first week of my guide and the first lessons were all about collecting training data. I did several pull-up, push-up and squats max exercises. The results you submit are important for the digital coach to adapt the workouts to your actual fitness. I am curious how my first workouts will look like. Finally the digital coach has made it into the app. Thats a huge improvement and helps me to keep to my training plan, when I am training outside.

Now I would like to share some of my training experience about sore muscles. During the first weeks I had huge problems with this. What helped me was to use a warming cream called Finalgon. The cream preheats your muscles and this is perfect when you are training outside or doing pull- and push-ups. You have to be careful not to put on too much because the effect is pretty strong. When I am training I apply the cream on my shoulders and thighs before I go jogging.  Give me feedback what you do against sore muscles.


In the future I will expand my blog activity and talk about cooking, sports and gadgets for stay-at-home-dudes. Therefore I have designed three logos which represent the topics I am blogging about. Let me know what you think about my idea.

Fried rice noodles with prawns

Hi Dudes,

this recipe is inspired by Uli, who has taken his stay-at-home-dude kitchen apron all the way long to Shanghai. He visited a market and had dinner in a local restaurant. Thanks to Uli stay-at-home-dude now has the possibility to get abroad from time to time and be inspired by exotic dishes and recipes. The journey has just begun...

For 2 people you need:

PREP:  15

COOK: 10 min

LEVEL: easy

Sticky rice noodles / 250 g

Prawns / 200 g 

Tofu / 150 g           

Eggs / 2

                                  

Garlic / 2 gloves

Tamarind sauce / 4 tablespoons

peanut oil / 5 tablespoons

Fish sauce / 2 tablespoons

Soy sauce / 1 tablespoon 

Salt / a pinch

Pepper / a pinch

Bean sprouts / handful

Chilli pepper / 1 large

Lime / 1

Preparation:

1. Read how to prepare the noodles on the package. Some noodles have to soak in water first. 

2. Cut the tofu in small cubes and fry it with 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok until they are golden brown. Remove them from the wok. 

3. Add 2 tablespoon of oil and stir fry the eggs. Add the prawns together with copped garlic and soya sauce.

4. Now add the noodles, rest of the oil and put the tofu back in the wok. Add tamarind and fish sauce and salt and pepper. Mix everything and check the flavor. The tamarind sauce has a sour taste. The noodles should absorb all the sauce and be ready after 3 - 4 min. At the end of the cooking time add bean sprouts and mix them with the noodles.

5. Serve with slices of lime and chili pepper and enjoy!

Freeletics

Hi Dudes,

I would like to update you on my freeletics training. Yesterday was the last day of my 15 weeks cardio & strength guide and I am glad I successfully completed the training. It was a long way and I struggled several times not to give up. Especially in the beginning it was really tough and I had to motivate myself to fight my way through it. After a couple of weeks I got used to the training and now it is an integral part of my life. I really enjoyed my training sessions in the end and from time to time I modified the workouts or added additional exercises to my training plan.

My general goal was to improve my overall fitness and to transform body fat into muscles. Perhaps I could have reached more muscles grow, but I am happy with the result. I feel much better now and my back and neck is not hurting any more. A couple of years ago I damaged my meniscus and therefore my right knee was a weak point. The training helped me to strengthen my knees and I feel much safer now to go skiing or playing basketball.

All in all it was worth it and I will continue with the training. This time I will focus more on shaping muscles and improving my overall fitness even more. I have made a video about my transformation and my training. It it meant to motivate you to start with your training and to get you off the couch. Surprise your girls and start today!

My 15+ weeks transformation with freeletics from Stay-at-home-dude on Vimeo.

Meanwhile I added a new section to my blog. It's all about healthy food and sums up all recipes I have posted. I will expand this section from time to time. Stay tuned!

Cheesecake with blood orange

Hi Dudes,

on my kitchen tour 2013 I also stopped by in Karlsruhe and prepared a very tasty cheesecake together with my aunt. I have never posted the recipe and therefore I do it today. The taste of the blood oranges fit perfectly to the cream cheese and the base made of chocolate cookies. My favorite cheesecake so far. 

PREP:  20

COOK: 45 min + 30 min

LEVEL: medium

Chocolate cookies / 135 g

Butter / 40 g

Cream cheese / 675 g

Sugar / 225 g

Vanilla sugar / 5 g

Wheat flour / 35 g

Sour cream / 75 g

Eggs / 3 small
Baking powder / 0.25 teaspoon

Blood Oranges / 3

Sugar / 2 tablespoons

Preparation

1. Take a round baking dish with a diameter of 20 cm and cover the bottom with baking paper. Crumble the cookies together with the butter and cover the bottom of the baking dish with the mixture. Preheat the oven at 175°C. 

2. Whisk the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla sugar for 3 min. Then add the wheat flour, baking powder, sour cream and the eggs and mix all ingredients until you get a smooth dough.

3. Fill the dough into the baking dish, place it into the oven together with an extra fireproof bowl filled with water. Bake the cake for 45 min at 175°C. After that continue baking for 30 min at 160°C. Let it cool down. 

4. Fillet the oranges and use the orange juice that is left to heat it up in a pot together with two tablespoons of sugar. Let it boil until you get a sirup and add the orange fillets at the end. Place the fillets on top of the cake and frost the cake with the sirup. 

Enjoy with whipped cream and a mint leaf.

Spaghetti-potatoes with dried tomatoes

Hi Dudes,

today I post an easy, but also a delicious dish. It is perfect if you don't have much time for cooking.

For 2 people you need

PREP:  10 min

COOK: 15 min

LEVEL: easy

Spaghetti / 150 g

Potatoes / 4 medium sized

Dried tomatoes in oil / 80 g

Garlic / 1 claw

Vegetable bouillon / 750 ml

Olive oil / 1 tablespoon

Salt

Pepper

Preparation

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them in cubes of 2 cm. Bring them together with the vegetable bouillon to a boil. Cook for 15 min.

2. Meanwhile cut the tomatoes in thirds and slice the garlic. Grab a big pot and start to heat up 2 liter of water. At the end of the cooking time of the potatoes, start to cook the spaghetti 3 min less than shown on the packing for al dente.

3. Strain the potatoes, but keep the bouillon in an extra bowl. Take a big pan and start to brown the potatoes in oil for 5 min, than add the tomatoes and the spaghetti. Add a little bit of the bouillon (40 ml) and the sliced garlic to the pan. Stir and wait until all of the liquid has evaporated or has been soaked by the spaghettis. Repeat this ones more. Add salt and pepper and watch out that the spaghetti are still al dente. Pour away the rest of the bouillon or store it in the fridge.

Serve and enjoy!

Stay-at-home-dude.com chef's knife

Hi Dudes,

today I would like to show you my new Stay-at-home-dude.com chef's knife. I sewed a knife sheath made of felt and added my logo. The knife is produced in Thailand, is really sharp and easy to sharpen with a grindstone. It has a total length of 28 cm. The blade is 16 and the handle is 12 cm long. It's my favorite knife because it's thin, but at the same time stable enough. I use it to cut meat, vegetables and for everything that has to be chopped. Like every other sharp blade it should not be washed in the dish washer.

I also own two much more expensive knifes, but I always use this one. It's obvious that the geometry of these more expensive knifes is more precise than this one, but I think with this knife you get the best value for money. It's sharp, it's light and it looks good.

If you want to buy my chef's knife, just click here and I will make one for you. The price is 14 EUR and includes the knife and the sheath. The shipping cost vary from country to country and are charged additionally. The photos here show my prototype.

Venison fillet with brussel sprouts and jerusalem artichoke (19)

Hi Dudes,

yesterday I have startet a new Facebook page that will be synchronized with this blog. The Facebook page is not meant to replace my blog, but to make it easier for me to share content. Visit my new page at www.stay-at-home-dude.com/facebook, like it if you want and stay updated.

Today I want to present a new recipe that I bought at a grocery store called "BILDER & DE CLERCQ". I really like the concept of the store that is located just around the corner of our flat in Amsterdam. It provides recipes and all the ingredients in exactly the right quantities needed to prepare a dish. Forget about buying too much and throw away food. Every dish is presented on it's own table. 14 different dishes are always available and each week three new ones are introduced.

(Source: BILDER & DE CLERCQ)

Beside the dishes the store also offers wine, fresh bread and a selection of other products. You can also go there just to have a cup of coffee. Visit the store www.bilderdeclercq.nl and take a look at the products they offer.

(Source: BILDER & DE CLERCQ)

I was really excited to try out one of the recipes. So yesterday I went to the store and bought a dish. I selected "Venison fillet with brussel sprouts and jerusalem artichoke" especially because I never had jerusalem artichoke. The following images show what I bought and how the products are wrapped.

For 2 people you need

PREP:  5 min

COOK: 30 min

LEVEL: easy

Venisson fillet / 2 x 250 g

Brussel sprouts / 300 g

Jerusalem artichoke / 350 g

Thyme / 2 sprigs

Garlic / 2 cloves

Butter / 2 tablespoons

Olive oil / 5 tablespoons

Port wine / 100 ml

Sea salt / 1 teaspoon

Pepper

Preparation

1. Heat up the oven at 180°C. Wash the vegetables and cut the Jerusalem artichoke in half. Take an ovenproof dish and add the sprouts, artichoke, mashed garlic, thyme sprigs and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Spice with pepper and sea salt and mix all together well. Place the dish in the oven for 30 min. 

2. Take the meat out of the fridge and put it aside on a plate so it can adapt to room temperature. Start to brown the fillets steaks 10 min before the vegetables are ready. 

3. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter to a big pan. Heat it up and fry the fillets at high temperature for 2 to 3 min from each side. Remove the steak from the pan and wrap them in aluminum foil and put them aside. 

4. Deglaze the pan with port wine and add the rest of the butter. Let it boil down till the sauce is reduced and thick. Spice up with salt and pepper. 

5. Serve on preheated plates and enjoy together with red wine. 

It's a delicious dish and we really enjoyed it. In my case the vegetables have been a little bit too long in the oven. Shame on me;-). Enjoy!

Freeletics - Amsterdam sports group

Hello Dudes,

I know that a lot of people are interested in freeletics. Thank you for your requests and feedback. I am planing to do my own review video after I have finished my 15-weeks guide (cardio & strength) in February. Furthermore I want to try out the freeletics nutrition guide and make a list of healthy meals I already postet on my blog.

Now I am in week 11 and my workouts have changed  completely after I have missed 2 sessions last week. I skipped the sessions because I felt my back muscles needed some time to regenerate. So this week I have to do 4 cardio-only sessions. I think that the change of the training to cardio-only is a reaction of the freeletics training guide. If so it is good to know, that if you experience muscles failures the guide reacts on this in adapting the training intensity or focus.

I have started a Freeletics Amsterdam sports group. If you are interested to join the group just add it on Facebook.


Join my AMSTERDAM freeletics sport group now!


I train in the Sarphatipark in Amsterdam. The park is small but has all you need. A large outdoor workout area with pull-up and push up bars etc., a basketball court and one round in the park is about 800 m. There are several shortcuts so you can adapt the running distance easily to your training plan. And one important thing is, that it is not too crowded during summer and no bicycles are allowed in the park. I will add some photos as soon as the sun shines again.

Meeting point is at the training site shown as a blue pot on the map below. I will post my training times in the group. Feel free to join the stay-at-home-dude and start with your training. 

Fried rice with shrimps (18)

Hi Dudes,

today my all new stay-at-home-dude flyers have arrived! So now I am ready to spread out the word.

This year I start with a traditional dish from Thailand. Fried rice with shrimps is always nice. If you prepare the rice an hour before you start cooking, the rice has cooled down and has a better texture.

For 2 people you need

PREP:  25 min

COOK: 5 min

LEVEL: easy

Jasmine rice / 1 cup

Eggs / 2

Shrimps / 12 

Garlic / 2 gloves

Spring onion / 2

Soy sauce / 2 teaspoons

Oyster sauce / 2 teaspoons

Oil / 1 tablespoon

Tomato / 1 medium

Cucumber / 1 small

Lime / 1

Pepper / a pinch

Thai chili / 2

Fish sauce

Preparation

1. Wash the rice and add 1 cup of rice with 1.5 cups of water in a pot. Close the lid and bring it to a boil and simmer at low temperature for 15 to 20 min. Check the bottom of the pot for water. If all of it has gone the rice is ready.

2. Wash and prepare the vegetables. Finely chop the garlic, slice the chili and spring onions. Cut the tomato and cucumber in slices. Wash the shrimps and dry with kitchen paper.

3. Use a wok or a big pan at high temperature, add oil and eggs. Stir the eggs, add garlic and shrimps.
Stir-fry for 2 min than add rice, soy and oyster sauce.

4. After 2 min add spring onion and serve it with slices of tomato, cucumber and lime on a plate. Fill a small bowl with fish sauce and add the chopped fresh cilii.

ทานให้อร่อยนะ

Freeletics

Hi Dudes,

I have been really lazy the last weeks. That's why I have not updated my blog for such a long time. Nevertheless I have some fresh ideas for 2014. One has to do with sports and because food and sport fit so perfectly together, I would like to start today with an introduction to the workout I do as a stay-at-home-dude. It's called freeletics and it is a body-weight only workout that I started in Oktober 2013. After a couple of years without serious training I had problems to get in shape again. As an engineer I mainly worked sitting in front of a computer and lost a lot of my physical fitness. It's incredibly how office work can affect your health.

For me it was important to start a workout that I can not only do in the park, but also at home and without having to go to the gym. I compared 3 training guides and I decided to stick to freeletics. It's definitely the hardest training I have ever done. After I signed up at Freeletics DE I started with the free training workouts. The first 5 weeks are free of charge and after signing up you get a new email every monday. It contains your training plan and basic information about the different workouts. I used these workouts to get used to the concept.

Source: www.freeletics.com

There are 2 types of workouts. One type is called MAX. During MAX workouts you have to do as many repetitions of one exercise as possible in 5 min. The other type are workouts that consist of various exercises like Pushups, Burpees, Situps etc. and you have to do all repetitions and stop your time.

All workouts during one day are called sessions. One session can contain several workouts and MAX. During the week you have to train 3 to 5 times. In the beginning the amount of repetitions is overwhelming. During the first 5 weeks my body had to get used to the hard training. I almost quit in week 3 after having sore muscles and feeling sick, but I decided to stick to my training plan.

After the free training time I decided to buy a 15 weeks training guide. There are 3 types of guides - cardio, cardio & strength and strength. I wanted to start with the cardio & strength guide - burning fat and gaining muscles. Once you have started your guide it adapts the workouts to your personal development. It works almost like a personal coach.

Beside your online account there is also a freeletics app for iOS and Android. Unfortunately the app is more a collection of the available workouts and the coach is not really implemented. Perhaps this will be updated with a next version. I prefer to do my sessions, stop the time and submit the results to the website when I come back home.

Now I am in week 10 of the guide and have noticed how much my body and my overall fitness have changed. It's a good idea to take pictures every week, so you can see how your body changes. I definitely keep on training. Although it is time based, you should always keep in mind to perform the exercises correctly and keep enough body tension. Everybody can check it out for free in the beginning. It will not fit to everybody but it's worth it and I can recommend it. Freeletics receives 4 of 5 stay-at-home-dude-pots. As soon the app is updated I will add the 5th pot!

So now it's up to you! Get your guide at Freeletics and start your workout.