No red hens were bought, however.
Woke up feeling like I'd been hit in the head, which was most irritating. (If I'm going to feel like I've got a hangover, I'd prefer to have had the enjoyment the night before!) However, I did make it to the Farmer's Market, and it didn't really rain (at least not compared to last week.)
Unfortunately the mushroom people weren't there, but I bought a lot of other interesting food:
* breakfast - an apricot danish and a strawberry youghurt drink
* hot-smoked salmon (expensive but delicious)
* rowan jelly (experimental, but it was from a venison stall and I've got some venison sausages in the fridge, so we'll see.)
* loaf of roggenmischbrot (slightly less heavy than last week's verion, being mixed with non-rye flour. Still looks good.)
* a nice white bread roll, to have with a lamb burger tonight.
* organic veggies - two heads of broccoli, fresh garlic, tatsui (sort of like pak choy), a head of unnamed but fancy lettuce, a yellow and an ordinary zucchini, and some plum tomatoes.
* six organic free range rare breed eggs. (They're blue! And the yolks are apparently lower in cholesterol.)
* a slice of gingerbread
* 2 punnets of strawberries
On the way home, I passed an interesting international market on Princes Street, where I picked up:
* some gorgeous-looking french tomatoes (will slow-roast some for sandwiches, and turn the rest + the scottish lot into pasta sauce).
* a mixture of very ripe and not-so-ripe peaches. (Some for eating, some for roasting.)
I would have liked to buy some salami, but I couldn't buy a half-serve, and there's only so much processed meat I can eat.
As a sort of mid-morning snack, I also had a serving of dutch mini-pancakes (thankfully NOT deep-fried) with sugar and lemon. Yum.
All this extravagance took some time, and more or less precluded lunch. I had a few strawberries and some orange juice, and will have an early dinner. At the moment, this looks like it will be a lamb burger with lettuce, tomato and cheese, followed by a peach.
I spent about 32 pounds today, which I suppose isn't too much for almost a week's food, but is not cheap for a single student. Especially since I still need to buy some yoghurt, fruit and meat for sandwiches. But I'm sure I had more fun and will eat better than my neighbours who budget shop at Lidl.
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Friday, 29 June 2007
Anyone for tennis?
Not really, since the closest I've come to a tennis court myself is walking past a few people playing in the Meadows on Wednesday evening. However, I have been glued to Wimbledon, particularly since the telecast starts at lunchtime! (And I've now discovered the BBC's streaming - there goes the next week.)
Anyway, not a top-notch day, health wise. I woke up unbelievably groggy and then had a fairly upset stomach, which meant I didn't have time for breakfast before heading off for a haircut.
Lunch: a grainy roll with turkey, cranberry sauce, brie, lettuce and cucumber. Very nice! Followed by a failed attempt at some blueberry yoghurt that appeared to have gone off, a yoghurt mini-muffin, and a banana. And a low-cal hot chocolate while I channel-surfed between Janko Tipsarevic/Fernando Gonzalez and Jelena Jankovic/Lucie Safarova. (I'm not normally one for tattoos, but Janko's is from Dosteoevsky (sp). And he's not a bad looker at all..)
Dinner: an interesting pizza-like thing that's been lurking in the freezer. From the Tesco Whole Foods range, it's got a soy-linseed and other seed base (I discovered a few pumpkin seeds as well), and is topped with red capsicum (lots), mushroom (not much), and a few stray sun dried tomatoes, along with a feeble amount of cheese. I stripped off the stray tomatoes, removed the mushrooms, and covered the whole thing with my slow-roasted tomato concotion from yesterday. Then I redistribute the mushrooms more evenly, and covered everything with a mixture of smoked cheddar and parmesan. Very tasty, and not too unhealthy (well, for a pizza...) I will really have to start making my own pizza bases - perhaps when I'm home in August.
Dessert was the last two peaches, roasted as usual and served with a bit of ice-cream. Pleasingly, the 100g mini tub is still not quite empty - I'm saving the last spoonful to have with some farmer's market gingerbread tomorrow. (Assuming I brave the weather, that is.) However, I forgot to turn up the oven after cooking the pizza, and the missing twenty degrees did seem to make a difference - the sugar caramelized as usual, but the peaches weren't as soft. Was still yummy, though.
Am pleased with the way the week's gone, food-wise, although my activity levels and general health was ropey. (And let's not even talk about the amount of work I've got done on my PhD...) Tomorrow's the last day of June, and also marks 2007's halfway point. Since I've more or less got a handle on my eating, my half-year resolution is to work on my exercise. I know I can't do much, but I HAVE TO get moving more. Even if it's just for a stroll. I'm seeing various doctors in just over a month, and I'd like to get a good response to my efforts for a change, instead of a "yes, but..." We shall see.
Anyway, not a top-notch day, health wise. I woke up unbelievably groggy and then had a fairly upset stomach, which meant I didn't have time for breakfast before heading off for a haircut.
Lunch: a grainy roll with turkey, cranberry sauce, brie, lettuce and cucumber. Very nice! Followed by a failed attempt at some blueberry yoghurt that appeared to have gone off, a yoghurt mini-muffin, and a banana. And a low-cal hot chocolate while I channel-surfed between Janko Tipsarevic/Fernando Gonzalez and Jelena Jankovic/Lucie Safarova. (I'm not normally one for tattoos, but Janko's is from Dosteoevsky (sp). And he's not a bad looker at all..)
Dinner: an interesting pizza-like thing that's been lurking in the freezer. From the Tesco Whole Foods range, it's got a soy-linseed and other seed base (I discovered a few pumpkin seeds as well), and is topped with red capsicum (lots), mushroom (not much), and a few stray sun dried tomatoes, along with a feeble amount of cheese. I stripped off the stray tomatoes, removed the mushrooms, and covered the whole thing with my slow-roasted tomato concotion from yesterday. Then I redistribute the mushrooms more evenly, and covered everything with a mixture of smoked cheddar and parmesan. Very tasty, and not too unhealthy (well, for a pizza...) I will really have to start making my own pizza bases - perhaps when I'm home in August.
Dessert was the last two peaches, roasted as usual and served with a bit of ice-cream. Pleasingly, the 100g mini tub is still not quite empty - I'm saving the last spoonful to have with some farmer's market gingerbread tomorrow. (Assuming I brave the weather, that is.) However, I forgot to turn up the oven after cooking the pizza, and the missing twenty degrees did seem to make a difference - the sugar caramelized as usual, but the peaches weren't as soft. Was still yummy, though.
Am pleased with the way the week's gone, food-wise, although my activity levels and general health was ropey. (And let's not even talk about the amount of work I've got done on my PhD...) Tomorrow's the last day of June, and also marks 2007's halfway point. Since I've more or less got a handle on my eating, my half-year resolution is to work on my exercise. I know I can't do much, but I HAVE TO get moving more. Even if it's just for a stroll. I'm seeing various doctors in just over a month, and I'd like to get a good response to my efforts for a change, instead of a "yes, but..." We shall see.
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Late Night Snacks
And the rest of the day's food, as well.
Rather a slow day - I blame Wimbledon. Oh Tim! It was a good effort, though.
Anyway, breakfast: 1/2 cup of soy lin cereal with strawberries, yoghurt and milk. Last of the Farmer's Market strawberries until Saturday.
Morning tea: cup of milky tea with sugar
Lunch: leftover 1/2 tin of cream of tomato soup, 1 home-made mini-bagel with margarine, and a large and rather odd salad comprising baby leaves, a chopped apple, a carrot, and the tail end of the Peculiar Blue cheese, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. A bit of salad left, to be eaten with dinner.
Followed by some lemon tea with honey.
Dinner: I'd spent much of the day slow-roasting with orgeano some baby plum tomatoes I picked up at the market last week. I really don't like eating raw tomatoes, so this was an attempt to make them edible. It worked, though they weren't kidding about the slow. It took six hours! I fried most of the tomatoes off with onion and garlic to use tomorrow for...something, and then used the rest to make a sort-of-spanish two-egg omlette, with added mushrooms, scraps of cold meat, and two boiled and sliced new potatoes. Plus the rest of the salad. Not too bad, but a bit heavy.
Evening snack: a banana, and a homemade chocolate mini-muffin with rasberries.
Hmm. Might be eating a bit too much considering my activity levels at the moment. I know it's all fairly healthy, but still...will ponder this further.
Rather a slow day - I blame Wimbledon. Oh Tim! It was a good effort, though.
Anyway, breakfast: 1/2 cup of soy lin cereal with strawberries, yoghurt and milk. Last of the Farmer's Market strawberries until Saturday.
Morning tea: cup of milky tea with sugar
Lunch: leftover 1/2 tin of cream of tomato soup, 1 home-made mini-bagel with margarine, and a large and rather odd salad comprising baby leaves, a chopped apple, a carrot, and the tail end of the Peculiar Blue cheese, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. A bit of salad left, to be eaten with dinner.
Followed by some lemon tea with honey.
Dinner: I'd spent much of the day slow-roasting with orgeano some baby plum tomatoes I picked up at the market last week. I really don't like eating raw tomatoes, so this was an attempt to make them edible. It worked, though they weren't kidding about the slow. It took six hours! I fried most of the tomatoes off with onion and garlic to use tomorrow for...something, and then used the rest to make a sort-of-spanish two-egg omlette, with added mushrooms, scraps of cold meat, and two boiled and sliced new potatoes. Plus the rest of the salad. Not too bad, but a bit heavy.
Evening snack: a banana, and a homemade chocolate mini-muffin with rasberries.
Hmm. Might be eating a bit too much considering my activity levels at the moment. I know it's all fairly healthy, but still...will ponder this further.
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Today I ate...
Rather variable day today for everything, including the weather. Bits of frazzlement over travel plans for the rest of the summer (when to go to London, when to go home); problems booking train tickets; severe irritation at the pub quiz, when we got the jackpot questions right only to be pipped to the money by a team who had done slightly better in the main round. *sigh* At least they bought us drinks!
Anyway, foodwise:
Breakfast - 1/2 cup soy-lin cereal with rasberry yoghurt and milk, followed by a banana
Lunch - leftover pasta with extra cheese and almost a cup of broad beans, the last few scraps of roggenbrot, toasted (about 2 1/2 slices) and a bowl of sliced strawberries with a miniscule scoop of ice cream.
Afternoon tea - a chocolate chip cookie from Millie's. Quite nice, particularly after a frazzled time at the station. And the advantage of buying from a stall is that you only get one. After that, it's gone. My willpower's too weak for a packet. Or for home-baked. Biscuits are something I really only bake when I have someone to share them with. Otherwise it's just too easy to polish off half a batch.
Dinner - half a tin of tomato soup (Baxters, and though purists may sneer, I rather like their products, particularly when I'm tired/in a hurry/not very hungry) with a home-made mini poppy-seed bagel. An apple.
In the pub - a pint of Addlestone's cider.
Thus endeth the menu.
Anyway, foodwise:
Breakfast - 1/2 cup soy-lin cereal with rasberry yoghurt and milk, followed by a banana
Lunch - leftover pasta with extra cheese and almost a cup of broad beans, the last few scraps of roggenbrot, toasted (about 2 1/2 slices) and a bowl of sliced strawberries with a miniscule scoop of ice cream.
Afternoon tea - a chocolate chip cookie from Millie's. Quite nice, particularly after a frazzled time at the station. And the advantage of buying from a stall is that you only get one. After that, it's gone. My willpower's too weak for a packet. Or for home-baked. Biscuits are something I really only bake when I have someone to share them with. Otherwise it's just too easy to polish off half a batch.
Dinner - half a tin of tomato soup (Baxters, and though purists may sneer, I rather like their products, particularly when I'm tired/in a hurry/not very hungry) with a home-made mini poppy-seed bagel. An apple.
In the pub - a pint of Addlestone's cider.
Thus endeth the menu.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Today in the Kitchen
A fairly boring day, food wise, although Tim Henman's victory at Wimbledon was anything but! (Hey, my television's in the kitchen. Surely that counts?)
Anyway, breakfast was three very small slices of roggenbrot, toasted with jam, followed by a bowl of strawberries with Greek yoghurt. There's something rather appealing about slicing a very small loaf of bread - you're eating the same quantity as with a normal Jumbo-Loaf, but the increased number of slices feels almost luxurious. I probably could have eaten less, but I didn't have anything mid-morning.
Lunch was a homemade mini-bagel with baby salad leaves and a bit of blue cheese, a homemade wholemeal yoghurt mini-muffin with rasberries, and a banana. The bagels were from a batch I made last week and froze, the muffins were frozen the week before. Even small batches tend to last a while round here - I made two lots of mini-muffins, twelve in each tray, gave away four when they were fresh, and popped the rest in the freezer. The act of defrosting does tend to stop me overeating, which is probably a good thing. I just wish I had more people to share cakes with. Then I could make them more often!
Dinner was use-up-the-leftovers pasta, with some more fried exotic/wild mushrooms, the last bits of a head of broccoli and cauliflower, the last few baby spinach leaves, and some scraps of meat, and some smoked cheddar. The cheese was delicious, although it overpowered the veggies a bit. Probably not such a bad thing, since they were rather bland. Would have benefitted from some garlic or lemon.
Anyway, there's a few leftovers for tomorrow, which I might liven up with some extra mushrooms and some broad beans. We must eat more vegetables. Fruit, on the other hand, has never been a problem, as witnessed by the baked peach I had for dessert. I splurged today on a very small tub of vanilla ice-cream, and had about three small spoonfulls with the peach. It's certainly cheaper to buy bigger tubs, but if it's there it gets eaten excessively. Best not to keep it around too often.
Minor irritation: after weighing out my pasta, and castigating myself for eating too much cheese, my neighbour made an enormous amount of pasta, and then someone down the corridor deep fried some chicken! It's not that I begrudge others the ability to eat what they want, but I get tired of having to be so careful myself. Unfortunately, my medical condition leaves me little leeway. (A moment on the lips, several generations on the hips, springs to mind.) And this is when I'm at a normal weight!
On the upside, the non-cookers who share my kitchen often comment on my healthy diet. Hopefully my insides are fitter than the rest of me!
Anyway, breakfast was three very small slices of roggenbrot, toasted with jam, followed by a bowl of strawberries with Greek yoghurt. There's something rather appealing about slicing a very small loaf of bread - you're eating the same quantity as with a normal Jumbo-Loaf, but the increased number of slices feels almost luxurious. I probably could have eaten less, but I didn't have anything mid-morning.
Lunch was a homemade mini-bagel with baby salad leaves and a bit of blue cheese, a homemade wholemeal yoghurt mini-muffin with rasberries, and a banana. The bagels were from a batch I made last week and froze, the muffins were frozen the week before. Even small batches tend to last a while round here - I made two lots of mini-muffins, twelve in each tray, gave away four when they were fresh, and popped the rest in the freezer. The act of defrosting does tend to stop me overeating, which is probably a good thing. I just wish I had more people to share cakes with. Then I could make them more often!
Dinner was use-up-the-leftovers pasta, with some more fried exotic/wild mushrooms, the last bits of a head of broccoli and cauliflower, the last few baby spinach leaves, and some scraps of meat, and some smoked cheddar. The cheese was delicious, although it overpowered the veggies a bit. Probably not such a bad thing, since they were rather bland. Would have benefitted from some garlic or lemon.
Anyway, there's a few leftovers for tomorrow, which I might liven up with some extra mushrooms and some broad beans. We must eat more vegetables. Fruit, on the other hand, has never been a problem, as witnessed by the baked peach I had for dessert. I splurged today on a very small tub of vanilla ice-cream, and had about three small spoonfulls with the peach. It's certainly cheaper to buy bigger tubs, but if it's there it gets eaten excessively. Best not to keep it around too often.
Minor irritation: after weighing out my pasta, and castigating myself for eating too much cheese, my neighbour made an enormous amount of pasta, and then someone down the corridor deep fried some chicken! It's not that I begrudge others the ability to eat what they want, but I get tired of having to be so careful myself. Unfortunately, my medical condition leaves me little leeway. (A moment on the lips, several generations on the hips, springs to mind.) And this is when I'm at a normal weight!
On the upside, the non-cookers who share my kitchen often comment on my healthy diet. Hopefully my insides are fitter than the rest of me!
Monday, 25 June 2007
Monday's Menu
Anyone who made it through my rather lengthy 'manifesto', I salute you. As well as being incurably long-winded, I am rather prone to tangents, but I promise any discussion of politics, sport, my research or other random topics will be clearly marked.
Right. Today's food (or rather, yesterday's.)
Monday wasn't a brilliant day, energy-wise, which meant breakfast-at-lunch. But it was a rather good one - three slices of roggenbrot topped with mushrooms fried with baby spinach and some Peculiar Blue Sheep's Cheese. And a side baby-leaf salad. Followed by chopped strawberries with greek yoghurt. The mushrooms (mixed wild and exotic), cheese and bread came from the Edinburgh Farmer's Market on Saturday, which I braved in the pouring rain and then needed a nap to recover from. Oops! But not atypical.
Dinner was a piece of oven-cooked Arctic char (the fish was frozen), with new potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. Followed by two peaches roasted with a bit of butter, sugar and cinnamon at the hottest oven setting for about fifteen minutes, served with the last two spoonfuls of lunch's yoghurt. Yum.
Let's see how the rest of the week pans out. I have quite a full fridge/freezer right now, and a research trip planned soon, so I'm going to try to eat as much of what's already there.
Right. Today's food (or rather, yesterday's.)
Monday wasn't a brilliant day, energy-wise, which meant breakfast-at-lunch. But it was a rather good one - three slices of roggenbrot topped with mushrooms fried with baby spinach and some Peculiar Blue Sheep's Cheese. And a side baby-leaf salad. Followed by chopped strawberries with greek yoghurt. The mushrooms (mixed wild and exotic), cheese and bread came from the Edinburgh Farmer's Market on Saturday, which I braved in the pouring rain and then needed a nap to recover from. Oops! But not atypical.
Dinner was a piece of oven-cooked Arctic char (the fish was frozen), with new potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. Followed by two peaches roasted with a bit of butter, sugar and cinnamon at the hottest oven setting for about fifteen minutes, served with the last two spoonfuls of lunch's yoghurt. Yum.
Let's see how the rest of the week pans out. I have quite a full fridge/freezer right now, and a research trip planned soon, so I'm going to try to eat as much of what's already there.
So here I am
I've been wanting to start a food(ish) blog for some time, ever since I started lurking on other people's. Perhaps this will also force me to get out there and comment!
The blogsphere is already full of wonderful cooks, photographers and writers, presenting recipes and pictures to tantalise the tastebuds, and essays on food to boggle the brain. That's not really what I'm here to do.
My aim is simply to discuss shopping, cooking and eating from my perspective. Which is that of a food-loving single student, in a city, on a tight budget, with some long-term health problems.
What does that mean?
The bad: No matter how good my intentions, there are times when I just can't get to the farmer's market or even the supermarket. Sometimes I can't afford the tastiest cheese or the organic beef. Occasionally I'm too tired to eat breakfast until lunchtime. Now and then boiling pasta is too much work. Or a general state of unwellness will have me eating lots of toast.
The good: There are also times when I come back from the market with a backpack full of delicious things that I can't wait to cook. There are days when I can make three sets of cupcakes, bagels and a dip, and then go to a party. Or leave pastry chilling in the freezer while I run off to a movie, and then come back to make a tart. Sometimes I will run away from my research to have lunch in a cafe, and I love to amuse my parents when I describe the latest new-to-me food that I've just tried.
That's my life. And that's what I want to describe. In an ideal world, I'd have an organic box, a horde of eager tasters for every dish, the energy to go across the city to find the perfect sausage, and the health to not worry too much about weighing every dish of pasta I cook. But real life's not like that. Maybe Hugh Fearnley-Whatshisname in the Guardian can suggest putting your head in the oven if you buy out-of-season fruit vegetables (my admittedly petty response was to throw the otherwise inoffensive magazine across the room). When I'm not feeling too well, in a student flat in Scotland in winter, and have Tesco Metro round the corner, I'm not going to munch on a turnip and go miles on a bus to find purple sprouting broccoli. The local supermarket, and the pick-me-up from some out of season pineapple, will leave me with enough energy to enjoy what I eat, and to get out of bed to face the world the morning after. That's enough for me.
And I'm happy.
Even within these limits, there's plenty of room to be a foodie. Most of my weekly budget goes on food. I share my kitchen with six other people, and cook more often than five of them. I waylay hapless passers-by with cupcakes. I brag about the quality of my market strawberries. In my tiny little room I have a stack of food magazine. (Delicious features the most.) In my limited cupboard space I have more pots, pans, baking tins and utenils than any sane person needs. I dream of knives and saucepans that don't come from Ikea. Oh, and I hate washing up. (But one advantage of student living - there's a cleaner to mop the benches and floors. Yippeee!)
My complete inability to be concise has surfaced again. Hmmm. Where was I? Oh yes. What I buy, cook, and eat, and why. To what ends? Partly to make my health easier to monitor (don't worry - I don't expect much public interest in my food diaries!), and partly to demonstrate the difficulties of balancing disability, good food, and environmental concerns. And to show that packaged meal, skipped meals, low-calorie meals, or other wonky combination of edibles, aren't the end of the world.
The blogsphere is already full of wonderful cooks, photographers and writers, presenting recipes and pictures to tantalise the tastebuds, and essays on food to boggle the brain. That's not really what I'm here to do.
My aim is simply to discuss shopping, cooking and eating from my perspective. Which is that of a food-loving single student, in a city, on a tight budget, with some long-term health problems.
What does that mean?
The bad: No matter how good my intentions, there are times when I just can't get to the farmer's market or even the supermarket. Sometimes I can't afford the tastiest cheese or the organic beef. Occasionally I'm too tired to eat breakfast until lunchtime. Now and then boiling pasta is too much work. Or a general state of unwellness will have me eating lots of toast.
The good: There are also times when I come back from the market with a backpack full of delicious things that I can't wait to cook. There are days when I can make three sets of cupcakes, bagels and a dip, and then go to a party. Or leave pastry chilling in the freezer while I run off to a movie, and then come back to make a tart. Sometimes I will run away from my research to have lunch in a cafe, and I love to amuse my parents when I describe the latest new-to-me food that I've just tried.
That's my life. And that's what I want to describe. In an ideal world, I'd have an organic box, a horde of eager tasters for every dish, the energy to go across the city to find the perfect sausage, and the health to not worry too much about weighing every dish of pasta I cook. But real life's not like that. Maybe Hugh Fearnley-Whatshisname in the Guardian can suggest putting your head in the oven if you buy out-of-season fruit vegetables (my admittedly petty response was to throw the otherwise inoffensive magazine across the room). When I'm not feeling too well, in a student flat in Scotland in winter, and have Tesco Metro round the corner, I'm not going to munch on a turnip and go miles on a bus to find purple sprouting broccoli. The local supermarket, and the pick-me-up from some out of season pineapple, will leave me with enough energy to enjoy what I eat, and to get out of bed to face the world the morning after. That's enough for me.
And I'm happy.
Even within these limits, there's plenty of room to be a foodie. Most of my weekly budget goes on food. I share my kitchen with six other people, and cook more often than five of them. I waylay hapless passers-by with cupcakes. I brag about the quality of my market strawberries. In my tiny little room I have a stack of food magazine. (Delicious features the most.) In my limited cupboard space I have more pots, pans, baking tins and utenils than any sane person needs. I dream of knives and saucepans that don't come from Ikea. Oh, and I hate washing up. (But one advantage of student living - there's a cleaner to mop the benches and floors. Yippeee!)
My complete inability to be concise has surfaced again. Hmmm. Where was I? Oh yes. What I buy, cook, and eat, and why. To what ends? Partly to make my health easier to monitor (don't worry - I don't expect much public interest in my food diaries!), and partly to demonstrate the difficulties of balancing disability, good food, and environmental concerns. And to show that packaged meal, skipped meals, low-calorie meals, or other wonky combination of edibles, aren't the end of the world.
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