Tag: nutrition

Lazy Sundays

Out on the water, the yacht, white on blue, crystal clear water in all directions.

The wind rustling my hair and the sails bold as the boat silently cuts the water to our favourite lagoon.

It’s time to open the picnic basket and the cooler. What did we throw into it early this morning with sleepy eyes and a dormant brain before rushing off to the lakes.

Bread, fresh from the bakers, the mad dash to the shop on the way to buy warm baked rolls just out of the oven. Fresh fruit and a knife, tomatoes, cucumber and mayonnaise, lots of green stuff. It looks like I just emptied out the vegetable drawer in the fridge and threw everything in there. Now, when hunger strikes it’s time to make up something to eat, now we find out what we forgot. Now we realise we don’t really want to be this healthy and would prefer to eat something vaguely unhealthy but there is no choice.

I slice juicy melon, the scent hitting us in the heat of the day as we throw out the anchor. I fill the rolls with salad things, they have gone slightly chewy. We are in a silent bubble, the distant sounds of revellers on the beach, children jumping into the water, chugging engines seem unreal, snaches of music and the soft lap of water on the keel create a dreamy haze.

No wasps here.

We ravenously tear at chunks of bread with our teeth, slices of cucumber and tomato spill onto our hands dripping onto the deck. Did we forget napkins and tissues again? This feast washed down with bottles of icy water from the cooler. A delicate pink wine, fresh and cool or a cold beer. I can feel an afternoon headache coming on but I don’t care. The sun beats down and turns the water into a million diamonds. It’s all simple, quiet, delicious.

We ruffle the water with our sticky hands then settle down to some serious sunbathing for the rest of the afternoon saving the punnet of strawberries for later.

This is the life.

Beetroot salad

For this recipe I used two beetroots, raw, a pink and a yellow, this gives a pleasing pastel nuance to the finished dish. Dark beetroot can also be used. It is a refreshing light salad or side dish. Also shown is the original recipe which has since evolved into the recipe I am offering you today.

ingredients.

2 beetroots
Japanese vinegar
Mirin
Salt
Cinnamon, ground
Juice of 1/2 an orange
Zest of one orange
quarters of 1/2 an orange
Mustard seed
Fennel seed

Wrap the beetroot in paper and foil and cook in the oven for 1/2 to 1 hour depending on size at 180°c.
Allow to cool and then peel.
Slice into 5mm. slices so the coloured rings show.

Put a layer of slices in a bowl and add one tbsp. of vinegar and 1 tbsp of Mirin. a sprinkling of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. mustard seed, 1/4 tsp fennel seed and a sprinkling of salt. Plus the zest of half the orange.

layer again and repeat.

squeeze 1/2 the orange an add the juice to the beetroot mixing gently.
Cut the other half of the orange up into pieces making sure to keep the segments whole but without skin or pith.
Mix gently into the salad and leave in the fridge for 1/2 an hour to cool and marinade.

serve and enjoy

Red cabbage salad

Red Cabbage salad Recipe

1/4 red cabbage
4 large radishes
1 Spring onion
Juice of half a lemon
grated lemon zest. (1/2 a lemon)
1 tbsp Mirin
Celtic sea salt to taste
3 tbsp Hellmann’s vegan mayonnaise. (or homemade vegan mayonnaise)

Technique.

Cut the stalk out of the red cabbage and remove any bruised outer leaves.
Finely slice the cabbage, into approximately 1-2 mm strips, the fineness of the chopping, or slicing makes the difference here.
Place in a bowl and massage firmly to bring out the colour and soften the texture.
Add the salt. (be sparing with the salt)
Grate in the lemon zest – be careful to avoid the pith as the zest is so much more fragrant.
Squeeze 1/2 the lemon and add the juice to the cabbage, mixing well.
Top and tail the radishes and slice to 1mm thickness, slice as finely as you can leaving the radish in nice wafer-thin translucent rounds, mix with the cabbage. Use a mandolin if you can’t do this well with a knife.
Finely slice the spring onion making sure to use the white and green parts, 2mm thickness is fine enough for the spring onions.
Add a tablespoon of mirin.
Add three tablespoons of mayonnaise.
Mix thoroughly and leave to chill for an hour, then mix again to stir the juices through.
It is ready to serve.

This will produce a juicy, cool and fragrant cabbage salad with a generous dressing which is refreshing and satisfying.

P.S. It is always possible to change the chopping techniques, but this will change the whole texture of the dish. It is always possible to change some of the ingredients, ordinary table salt if you have no celtic sea salt. Normal mayonaise if you do not have vegan or Hellman’s. Instead of Mirin, a small spoon of sugar – but remember that changing the ingredients changes the entire flavour of the dish.

Try it, let me know how it went, I look forward to your comments.

Welcome

Hello sweethearts, just wanted to welcome you to my blog.

Mostly about food.

I came by the title in my adventures as a health conscious foodie.
I found that I could be a perfect vegan for quite long periods of time; except for cheese.
It was very hard for me to stop eating cheese as I was addicted to it
Since being a perfect vegan required that I stop I found a way to do so.
However I have fallen from my perfect foodie pedestal often, because of cheese.

The thing is I really like my health, I also really love food.

All kinds of food.

I would prefer to be a perfect vegan at all times,
it’s not as if I could go straight for the carnivore diet, I don’t even like meat that much.
Mostly i’m really suspicious of meat (was that really run down on the road today?)

And I’m also a social coward so when someone dishes up platefulls of delicious traditional fodder they have spent hours preparing in hot steamy kitchens I feel obliged to try some before quietly mentioning I actually prefer vegetables.

Yes, vegetables.

The look of horror on their faces is sometimes quite surprising, then they always ask.
“Where do you get your protein from?”
They don’t even KNOW that proteins are made by plants, they really believe they all come from animals. How crazy is that! And they also can’t work out why I haven’t dropped dead yet from malnutrition and how come I am so strong? They find this all very suspicious. but that’s OK, the message gets across.

And yes, I still sometimes accidentally eat cheese and sometimes other bits of dead animals too.

It’s a big secret.

But please don’t tell, I wouldn’t want it to become a habit.

This site is mostly about my adventures with food, recipes, eating out, and general dieting.

Some nutritional science might be alluded to.

It is also about staying healthy and all the circumstantial evidence which might actually support how to do this.

I hope you enjoy!