Back from the big apple

I'm back and just about caught up on my sleep. I subsisted on about 5 hours per night whilst in the US, no, not due to excessive partying (though there were a few late night chats) but mainly due to pesky jet lag. How frustrating to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to nod off again. Still, I managed to keep it together until I got back to France and have had a couple of great nights sleep and a morning nap or two (on my days off!) since I have been back.

So by hook or by crook I managed to keep to my challenge 95% of the time. Breakfast at the hotel was a tad tricky. After all, I wanted to keep wheat & dairy free but also to eat well and healthily! Fresh fruit and eggs saw me through. We either had a very late lunch, of a shared salad and later dinner, or an afternoon snack of nuts & apricots and an early dinner, which worked well.

The new thing it seems to me in NYC is the 'small plate' and this made it really easy for us to eat well and healthily. Firstly any bread was sent away from temptation. Smart move - that pita bread at Pylos smelt heavenly. I didn't even get to see it, the warm inviting cushion wrapped in a napkin was despatched before our resolve was tested! Likewise, the toasted pain de campagne accompanying the heavenly brandade de morue and chicken liver pate at Il Gottino was (largely) ignored. They didn't seem to think we were too crazy!

So at Pylos we ate:
Greek almond & lemon soup, aubergine appetizer, hummus, octopus (2 ways grilled & braised). A great atmosphere and a super waitress. Phenomenal food.

At Il Gottino:
Brandade de morue (plus half a piece of toast), chicken liver pate, marinaded fresh anchovies, brussel sprout & walnut & pecorino salad (1% of my lapse!), braised beets with horseradish, endive wrapped in prosciutto. All fabulous, a lovely place.

At Crispo:
Stuffed baby peppers, err...2 other appetisers that escape me right now.
2 shared salads: Bresaolo with artichokes & pecorino, Parma ham with fennel & parmesan (another 2% of my lapse). Half a biscotti. Lovely setting, but slightly offputting server and much more noisy than the other 2 places. However all the food around us looked and smelled very good. Some lovely private areas for groups and the garden space (but undercover) was magical for a party.

At Lumi:
Asparagus, orange & mache salad (delicious & pretty) and chicken livers with broccoli rabe sautéed with garlic. Perfect for our last meal.

So I'm back with a case of new clothes, having had a girlfriend makeover, new makeup thanks to the nice Macy's girl, and I weigh 1 kg less to boot. We walked a LOT! We also went to Gospel Easter service, took a trip to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and saw the Frick Collection. We had an evening of improv comedy and a visit to Zinc Bar to hear some jazz whilst sipping a cocktail.

I'd call that a great success, no?!

Onwards & Upwards!

Well, I thought I'd better report in in case you thought I'd have 'fallen off the wagon' by now. It's all going swimmingly. I have stuck to granola for breakfast each morning, as I know it'll see me through to lunch. Lunch has been either leftovers from the night before (protein) & veggies or salad (eg, yesterday avocado & grapefruit with toasted almonds, recipe to come soon!) with a soy yoghurt to follow. Afternoon snack is still 3 dried apricots & 6 brazil nuts (v high in selenium, v good for you) and dinner has been protein & veggies and occ a small amount of brown rice.

Today:
breakfast : granola, oat milk & tea
Lunch : leftover chicken & fennel, 4 teeny new potatoes, soy yoghurt
Snack : apricots & brazils
Dinner : escalope of turkey, brown rice, green beans & broccoli, soy yog.

I have to come clean with you now. I am distracted - I am off to the USA tomorrow to visit a very dear friend at home for a few days and then on to NYC for a girlie weekend. Not sure how much I'lll be able to post while I am there, but a few photos at least will be in the can for my next post.

See you in a week!

My minestrone

This is one of my favourite soups, particularly delicious when you use homemade chicken stock, but any veggie stock, cubes or otherwise works well too. Sometimes I make it ot use up the contents of the vegetable drawer before the next market day, but I also sometimes buy vegetables expressly in order to make it - try adding green beans, or peas or broccoli, the possibilities are endless. By the way, please don't miss out the cabbage, it really IS good!

If you eat wheat, a handful of small pasta, like stellini or ditalini, thrown in to cook for the last few minutes of the cooking time is a delicious addition. I have also occasionally added leftover cooked pulses to give it a bit of protein (for example, yesterday I added a leftover 1/2 can of butter beans). It's also perfect for folks on a weight watchers type diet. What more can you ask of a bowl of soup!

1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 T tomato paste
3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1 courgette, chopped
1/2 head fennel, chopped
1/4 head cabbage, shredded finely
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried basil
salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pan, then add the onions and garlic and fry gently until softened.
Add the carrot and celery and cook for another 5-10 mins.
Add the tomato paste and cook for another few minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients (and any other vegetables lingering in the fridge that you feel like adding) and cook until all the vegetables are tender, approx 15-20 mins.
Serve hot!
Keeps well in the fridge for 2 days.


breakfast: granola & rice milk (finshed the litre today so on to oat milk tomorrow!)
lunch : brown rice & thai vegetable curry (from yesterday), apple
dinner : griddled steak, green beans & broccoli, banana

Variety is the spice of life

Wednesday
breakfast : scrambled eggs, green tea
lunch : sautéd turkey escalope with fennel spice rub, brown rice, carrots & peas, clementine
dinner : minestrone soup, 2 oatcakes & butter, soya yoghurt
Snack : 3 dried apricots & 6 brazil nuts

Thursday:
breakfast ; granola & rice milk, tea
lunch : brown rice with sautéd aubergine & mushrooms with tahini & soy dressing, soya yogurt
dinner : thai aubergine, potato & mushroom curry, apple
snack : 3 dried apricots & 6 brazil nuts

So, faithful readers (!) sorry about being a day behind. As you can see, today's diet was a little repetitive, but I was working, had not been shopping and noone else would have eaten up the leftover aubergine. I was inspired by Holler's blog 'Tinned Tomatoes' to make the thai curry and a very good combo it was too. However, photogenic it ain't! Hence my choice of a bowl of the minestrone for today's photo. If you are very good I might give you the recipe tomorrow.

Bet you can't sleep tonight....

Cabbage soup

Breakfast: granola & rice milk (too sweet, let's try oat milk tomorrow)
Lunch: Leftover bean & quinoa salad from yesterday, cherry tomatoes
Snack: 6 brazil nuts & 4 dried apricots
Dinner: Minestrone soup, 2 oatcakes & olive oil spread & 1 clementine

I had one of those 'aha!' moments today. It was shortly after a stray piece of cabbage escaped from my soup spoon and smacked me across the chin. Why does cabbage always do that when it's in soup? And how does cabbage do something wonderful to a plain standard old minestrone type soup? Inexplicable.

Anyway, back to the 'aha!' moment. I was enjoying a little reverie about cabbage in other soups, like the Savoy Cabbage & Coriander Soup in Sarah Craven's Garden Cookbook (sorry, I can't do one of those snaazzy links yet - where does everyone learn that stuff?!)...and then I got to thinking how beautiful cabbages are, then my mind wondered into the twilight zone of the brussel sprout. I'm sorry, I just can't forget the traumas of my youth. I'm scared to admit that I actually did used to eat the things, unlike my sister. But it wasn't until I was married with children of my own when I realised, hey! I don't have to serve these with Christmas dinner any more, I'm a grown up!

So, I was musing about how the thing with the blighters is, that they're too big. How can they possibly all cook to a delicious green springiness, when they are so dense. I smiled at the thought of separating out all the leaves and de-ribbing them. Then the aha! That's why all those trendy chefs slice them before cooking.

I have seen the future. And it's green.

Day One.

Breakfast: homemade granola & milk, green tea
Lunch : butter bean & quinoa salad with smoky lime dressing, fresh pineapple with soya yogurt
Snack: 6 brazil nuts & 4 dried apricots, green tea
Dinner : at the mercy of Book Club!

Now the eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that today was perhaps an inauspicious start. Exactly how inauspicious will be difficult to say until I post what I ate at Book Club. The morning milk with my cereal (wheat free!) was due a late decision re. taking up this challenge. However, do not worry, dear reader, the oat milk and rice milk have been purchased and are chilling in the fridge. First impressions of the rice milk, is that it seemms quite sweet. I guess I have never considered that milk is sweet, despite knowing it contains lactose (milk sugar). I'll try the oat milk to compare. I even found some ingenious souls on Recipezaar make their own. I'll keep that idea for another day.

Update: dinner was baked salmon, with new potatoes and mangetouts, perfect! I really didn't feel like desset, but ate a mouthful of lemon meringue roulade (w & d- free!!!).

I based my lunch time salad on one posted today by Karen at www.familystylefood.com. I made a few small changes to take into account what I had in my kitchen, but it was a very delicious lunch. And the best part is that there's enough left for tomorrow! Karen uses black beans, the original recipe in Sauce magazine used black-eye beans and I used butter beans. I may be sticking my neck out here, but I think it's a fairly safe bet that all beans would work well in this recipe.



Butter Bean and Quinoa Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing
from Karen at www.familystylefood.com

Serves 2 for lunch

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed well in a sieve
1/4 small red onion finely chopped (but spring onions would be better - use 2)
1/2 can butter beans
a handful of chopped parsley (original recipe calls for coriander)

dressing:
1 1/2 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
1 T fresh lime juice
1/2 T soy sauce
1/2 t sugar
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 tsp chipotle chile in adobe
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

Place all dressing ingredients in a mini blender and process until combined. Meanwhile, bring the quinoa to a boil in a pan with 1 cup water. Reduce heat, cover and cook until liquid absorbed, about 15 mins. Stir in the onions and parsley and dressing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The beginning...

I have decided. The challenge I have been looking for has crystallised into a plan to cook & live wheat and dairy free for the next 4 months.

Why wheat & dairy free? Because I couldn't handle being a vegan..No, really because I have been reading a fair bit recently following a health 'scare', and I know I want to turn my eating habits around (notice steadfast refusal there to use the 'd' word). I want this blog to be a place where I can document the successes along the way and hopefully to post recipes other people will be inspired to try. I will post my daily menus and photograph the prettier dishes!

I love cooking and I have a low boredom threshold, so I cook every day, quite often a new recipe from my travels around the net. I spend hours each week poring over food blogs and websites researching ideas to try out in my kitchen, so this project will give it all some focus. I have always loved eating 'healthy' food - vegetables, fruit, pulses and cook them on a daily basis. I am a firm believer in the GI (glycaemic index) approach to healthy eating but recently I have eaten too much food from the dark side of the food pyramid...and am ready to regain control.

At the end of the day, this blogging looks so much fun - I'd love to be part of it all! I am really looking forward to getting to know other bloggers from around our planet, and getting my camera working again.

If you wander in here, please leave me a comment. It's nice to know there's someone there!