FI in 10 years

[El Duderino]

You only live once though and I've saved money for so long I figure fuck it I do what I want.

Hey Steve that's great to hear and especially a big congrats on your promotion to black belt! Obviously, I don't really know you but just the combination of how quickly you've gotten to the point of being retired, your dedication to training, and the other things you've mentioned indicate that you're a really disciplined and motivated person, that's awesome and inspirational. We seem to have so many of the same interests and hobbies as I often daydream about having the time to simply practice, roll, cook, and tend to other personal interests like wrenching on cars and reading.

Too bad you're in Sydney and not Chicago, otherwise I'd say we should definitely hang out, play some games, have a roll, and smoke up.

[El Duderino]

The granola, Mexican and Noodles I think are as good as eating out at a restaurant but the cost is a pittance.

More details on the recipes if you don't mind. I usually do steel cut oatmeal with some fruit for breakfast, but I'm not opposed to mixing it up and my version of tacos has some roasted sweet potato, but you're making me hungry for lunch by describing this great food you prepare.

I'm in the middle of making myself a favorite recipe - tofu stir fry with almond butter marinade. Recipe below if you like.

TOFU
• 1 12-ounce (340 g) package extra firm tofu

MARINADE
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil (+1 Tbsp for cooking)
• 4 Tbsp tamari / soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp almond butter
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 1-2 tsp chili garlic sauce or 1/2 tsp red pepper flake or 1-2 Thai chilies, minced

VEGGIES
• 1 pound green beans, trimmed
• Several small, sweet peppers
• 2-3 small spicy peppers

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (~200 C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wrap tofu in a clean, absorbent towel and set something on top, to press out moisture.
2. Once oven is preheated, unwrap tofu and cut into small cubes. Arrange on the lined baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 25-30 minutes or until puffy, dried out, and slightly crispy on the edges (see photo). The longer you bake it, the firmer and crispier it will get, so adjust cooking time accordingly.
3. In the meantime, to a small mixing bowl, add sesame oil, tamari, maple syrup, almond butter, lime juice, and chili garlic sauce/red pepper flake/Thai chilies. Then taste and adjust flavor as needed, adding more almond butter for creaminess / nuttiness, tamari for saltiness, lime juice for acidity, or chili garlic sauce for heat. Set aside.
4. Add baked tofu to the sauce and marinate for 5 min, stirring occasionally.
5. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the tofu, leaving most of the marinade behind (this will be added to the vegetables for flavor).
6. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned on all sides and slightly caramelized. Remove from pan and set aside.
7. To the skillet, add remaining 1 Tbsp (15 ml) sesame oil, green beans and peppers and 2-3 Tbsp (30-45 ml) of the marinade. Cover to steam until green beans are slightly tender. Then remove lid, increase heat to medium high, and add remaining marinade and the tofu. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently. Then remove from heat.

[steveo73]

I like that Tofu dish.

[steveo73]

I'm a wanker so I'll give my food philosophy and then recipes.

Food Philosophy

I believe the science is pretty clear on what to eat. I don't believe it's debatable. I believe the science states whole food plant based is the diet that is best for our health. I also want my food to taste good and be cheap.

I don't believe you have to be 100% perfect or close to it.

I smoke a small amount of pot typically everyday. I use butter, cheese and eggs in minimal amounts. I'd also use mean but every time I think about buying it I think it's too bloody dear.

[steveo73]

Granola

1. Put all the raw ingredients into a big bowl. These are dry ingredients. My base is steel cut oats. If I measure which I typically don't I think it's probably 5 cups. I then add cashews, Pepita's (pumpkin seeds), chia seeds, almonds, LSA (flax seeds), desiccated coconut and sometimes I add chopped up dates. I assume you could use other ingredients.
2. I melt butter, honey and salt together. Use whatever you want. You could probably use coconut oil or any oil and sugar but I like the butter and honey combo. The more of this stuff the less healthy it is.
3. Pour that mix into the dry ingredients and stir it all around.
4. Cook in the oven. This is not so simple. The safest way is low and slow. I don't always follows this. I'd state 140 degrees celcius and check every 10 minutes. When you check stir it around. If it is starting to brown up start checking every 5 minutes. When it looks done take it out.

A sensational meal is as follows:-

1. Place frozen berries into a bowl. Microwave until these are mush. Add sugar to taste.
2. Make porridge. I use the stove top and steel cut oats.
3. Pour porridge into berries.
4. Top with granola.

This is a gourmet breakfast or meal for any time of the day.

[steveo73]

Mexican

Black Bean Mix
1. 2 tins of tomatoes.
2. 4 tins of black bins. You can use dry beans. It's probably cheaper. The canned black beans are though so cheap I typically just use them.
3. Chop up some carrots (I use 2), some onions (probably 2) and cook these down. I typically just add water and a stock cube.
4. Add crushed garlic, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. You could also add chili. I tend to add this when I serve the food because I make a large batch and I like more heat than most of my family.
5. When these carrots and onions are softened add the tomato cans.
6. Cook this down.
7. Add black beans.
8. Cook down.

--> This tends to take me a good couple of hours (say 3 to 4 hours). It's slow cooking and it's cool.

Tacos
1. I think it's about 3 cups flour to 1 cup water.
2. I melt a chunk of butter in the water. It wouldn't be more than say 50 - 100 gm at best.
3. Stir together with a spoon.

--> I just make tacos or burritos by rolling out a bit and toasting it in the fry pan. I don't use any oil or butter or anything on the fry pan.

Condiments
Guacamole
1. Avocado
2. A bit of onion.
3. Coriander
4. Tabasco or chilli
5. Salt and pepper.

--> You just mix it together to taste.

Pickled Onions
1. Chop up 2 red onions.
2. Boil a cup of water and a cup of vinegar.
3. Combine together & leave in the fridge.

Corn
1. Just put a chunk of corn into a fry pan.
2. Fry it up with some salt and pepper.

Capsicum
1. Cook say 4 large Capsicums in the oven.
2. Let it cool, peel off the skin, get rid of the seeds and chop up the fleshy part.
3. You can add a bit of vinegar, salt and pepper but it doesn't add that much.

--> This typically lasts me all week and I eat this once per day. I also feed the family but the older kids don't like beans so myself, my wife and my youngest kid had Nachos last night. You just put the chips on the bottom, black bean mix and cheese on top and cook.

[steveo73]

Obviously, I don't really know you but just the combination of how quickly you've gotten to the point of being retired, your dedication to training, and the other things you've mentioned indicate that you're a really disciplined and motivated person, that's awesome and inspirational.

I'm a plodder mate. I do what I enjoy. I don't train hard or save too much or push it too hard. It's just doing the right thing consistently over a long period of time. I'm 48.

We seem to have so many of the same interests and hobbies as I often daydream about having the time to simply practice, roll, cook, and tend to other personal interests like wrenching on cars and reading.

It is awesome. We are in a lockdown now though and I can't roll. It sucks. It's going to end soon though. I'm so happy because so many people are getting vaccinated. I honestly think we could get to 80% vaccination levels. I may be too optimistic but if we get to that level we'll have done so well against COVID.

Too bad you're in Sydney and not Chicago, otherwise I'd say we should definitely hang out, play some games, have a roll, and smoke up.

That would be awesome.

[El Duderino]

I'm a wanker so I'll give my food philosophy and then recipes.

Lol @ being a wanker. Once again our thinking is aligned, this is getting weird

Thanks for all the recipes!!!! Definitely going to try them all out and I'm sure my cookbook will be expanding

[steveo73]

I'll give another update but I'll focus on COVID because it's fascinating.

In Australia we've basically shut the borders down significantly and used lock-downs to manage COVID. As such we've had amazing numbers in relation to deaths. Currently we are tracking at about 40 deaths per million people whereas the UK and US are currently tracking at pretty close to 2000 deaths per million people.

We are now though entering a phase of opening up and we have a Delta outbreak occurring mainly in NSW and specifically in Sydney but it is also starting in Victoria. These are the 2 biggest states with the vast majority of people. I live in a hot spot area and we are currently in a strict lock down including a night time curfew.

We have also had a really poor vaccine rollout. I think that there have been a couple of reasons for this:-

1. No big outbreaks until now.
2. The BS misinformation that has been propagated I think mostly on social media.

The misinformation needs some more comments. Australia bet predominantly on the Astra Zeneca vaccine which copped it due to the blood clotting issues. My personal believe is that this is a load of bullshit. The AZ vaccine is a really good vaccine and there have been minimal issues. My parents are both old and they took the AZ vaccine without any issues as soon as it was available. We are slowly getting more and more Pfizer vaccines and that may increase our vaccination rates from that point on.

I live in Sydney and in a hotspot. I live in a wealthy suburb and our suburb hasn't really copped it but our local government area has lots of migrant communities and just close to where we live COVID has run rampant. My SIL married a fundamentalist Muslim and that community has bought into a whole bunch of this misinformation. My SIL lives with an extended family and basically all of them contracted COVID just recently and they didn't get tested or go to hospital. Other people in the same situation have died recently and the health care system only finds out once they are dead or near death.

In stating all of that NSW now has a first dose vaccine rate of over 70% of the adult population. I believe this is mainly due to the Delta outbreak and people getting scared and pushing to get vaccinated. Just for everyone's information myself and my wife were vaccinated via the Pfizer vaccine as per the health advice prior to this Delta outbreak. Our two oldest children - nearly 18 and 20 - have both had one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. They both were given quicker access due to where we live. We have a 10 yo son who is unvaccinated. Personally I think the risk for our family is pretty low.

My gut feel is that we will come out of lockdowns in November and I think we will do really well because we will have a high vaccination rate. I am only talking about NSW at this point in time. It'll be interesting what happens over the rest of the country up until Christmas.

[steveo73]

Another update. Personally things are good for me. There isn't much to say here. I'm becoming more ERE like in that I'm becoming a jiu-jitsu instructor a couple of days per week. It might fizzle out but it's not required anyway.

The big update is that we are not out of lockdowns and case numbers have dropped. In my state we have a >90% of eligible people having at least 1 dose and getting really close to 80% double vaccinated.

In Victoria (another state) they are slightly behind our vaccination rates but they've just had increasing case numbers which is bad but I think they will still open up soon.

In our capital territory which has a small population but it's the capital of our country the vaccination rates for one dose is like 97% or even higher.

We have restrictions for unvaccinated people as well. So we can't go to restaurants or pubs or gyms unless we are fully vaccinated.

It'll be interesting how the next month to 3 months develop from here.

[steveo73]

Another update. Lockdown has been over for a couple of more weeks and things are going really well. Cases are dropping. Vaccination rates are up. Booster shots are available from tomorrow so long as you are 6 months past your second dose. We are having problems getting to a >95% vaccination rate of the eligible population but I think we will get there over the next couple of weeks. The government may continue to have additional restrictions if you aren't vaccinated.