The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Smurphington

I listened to an interesting topic on radio 4 food programme - it was on the eat well plate and whether we have been misinformed in the advice on carbs and that it is in fact very bad for us. Obviously if you are diabetic it's a must to reduce them but for the population as a whole I'm always hesitant at cutting out food groups. I mention this on your diary as I think the lovely recipes you post are proof you can eat healthy without being super restrictive and can do it in a money savvy way so Thank you for the inspiration

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:


Mmm, I'm not sure I always get the nutritional balance spot-on Smurphington, and we are more reliant on bread in this house than I would like. The only slight saving grace is that we pretty much always eat wholemeal - unless, ironically, I have made it myself, and then it is more likely to be made with white bread flour....... I think it is possible to 'eat badly' whatever your diet. And there are many reasons. It is possible to eat rubbish, even on a vegetarian or vegan diet. I don't know enough about nutrition to get perfect balance in our meals.



At least the summer weather is encouraging us to keep up with the salad munching I have been experimenting with HM 'conventional' coleslaw, with and without onion. I certainly don't like 'raw' onion in coleslaw, but lightly pickled (I tried red onion pickled with lemon juice) it was nice. I can feel smug about shoe-horning cruciferous veg into summer eating as well :rotfl:


Last night we had steamed quiona (mrAl tricolour stuff), rocket, onion free coleslaw (used celery instead), three bean salad - made with gifted HG broad beans and peas, grilled halloumi and tomato dressing. And I nearly got divorced as DH moaned that tea was taking too long He did - whilst eating said tea - admit that he knew cooking from scratch takes longer..........


The dressing was a new to me recipe, and is a keeper - it has a nice flavour. However, don't do as I did, and fail to follow the recipe to the letter..... The recipe clearly states to 'de-seed the tomatoes' I didn't (and I used salad tomatoes as they were what I had). The dressing would have been much thicker had I not left the seeds in...... jus' sayin'........


I'm going to draw up a broad meal plan for the week - more to use up things, rather than set prescriptive 'teas'. The weather is too hot to consider 'set in stone' food choices.


I caught the episode of JO 'escapes' last night on f00d n3tw0rk - when he went to Puglia, and it was where he was asking the little tots in school what all the types of vegetable were. Their school lunch looked scrummy too The episode was where he learnt to make 'orichette' (little ears) pasta - and in Puglia it is always only served with a tomato sauce. I picked up a couple of boxes of 'posh' brand pasta - in that shape - a little while ago, from a shop that was having a 50% sale as it was closing down. I think that tea tonight may well feature a 'little ear' pasta salad, combining my bargain pasta with the left over tomato dressing :money::rotfl:


If today turns out to be as hot as yesterday, a toddle to the post box may be all we can manage. But it will stop us spending money, so silver-lining and all that


Ta for popping by. Appreciated.


Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Morning Greying :hello:

Lovely to read about your food adventures (but oh dear to DH complaining at the tea taking too long! :eek: I do sympathise with both of you - I am grumpy when I've not been fed sometimes but if I'm not helping with the cooking I try to keep my grumpiness to myself! Don't always manage though )

Anyway, I'm glad you didn't actually divorce over it

I'm eating hotel food for work all week (well, er, that made it sound like *eating* is my job, which it isn't :rotfl: but we are *in* a hotel all week (not *staying* though, just the daytimes), and yesterday I had a halloumi salad, which was very tasty :j Everyone else's dishes were quite complicated, but mine was literally four slices of grilled halloumi over quite a lot of salad leaves and some dried tomatoes mixed with 'chilli jam'. Most tasty (although a teensy bit hot for my liking).

Today I'm having spinach and goat's cheese souffle with matchstick blue fritter (mainly just to see what a matchstick blue fritter is :rotfl: )

This is all far more elaborate food than I'm used to - I feel like I'm at your house! :j Have you ever made a souffle? I don't think I've ever even eating one, let alone made one! :eek: I'm intrigued

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Morning Greying :hello:

This is all far more elaborate food than I'm used to - I feel like I'm at your house! :j Have you ever made a souffle? I don't think I've ever even eating one, let alone made one! :eek: I'm intrigued

Ha ha - you are too kind. We do eat beans on toast y'know!


Yes, I have made a souffle or two, but I am a coward and stuck to 'twice baked' as they are much more forgiving. And I only ever cooked them for me and DH - who despite occasional lapses, is usually quite accommodating of my culinary experimentation.


I was thinking the fritter was going to be cheese again - but I was thinking of 'Blacksticks Blue' cheese, not matchsticks blue. Ooooh, what could it be?? Blue potatoes? That would be fun Enjoy. And report back Please


Greying X

Smurphington

Ooh halloumi salad is one of my favourites. I'm having falafel and houmous pitta with a selection of veg. My falafel are the cauldron ones though

Cheery_Daff

Well sadly both souffle and fritter were disappointing (and tiny). Souffle was more like what I would have described as a crustless quiche, only about half an inch high and barely the circumference of a tea cup.

Fritter was weirdly egg shaped, deep fried kind of batter (but very thin, not remotely like fish batter which I'm a big fan of), not sure what was inside, a big blob of melted blue cheese, surrounded by... ? Possibly just more batter mix? On a small bed of rocket.

Had to have two bread rolls and still not sure it'll keep me going all afternoon!

So difficult to judge though - someone else ordered off the same menu and had the most enormous bowl of spaghetti :rotfl:

Here for another three days so plenty of time to experiment, although being veggie my choices are fairly limited. Aside from what I've already had, I've got a choice of two different types of risotto (for some bizarre reason we can choose either from bar menu or a la carte menu), and a chick pea burger. Might just have halloumi every day :rotfl:

gallygirl

Ooh Cheery, how disappointing


Can someone help me please? Does anyone know what is in Koffman cabbage? I know it's a famous Pierre Koffman recipe but can't find anything other than vague references online

in_need_of_direction

no help available from she who had chicken goujons, frozen sweet potato fries and onion rings for dinner - is that 2 of my 5 a day?

beanielou

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

no help available from she who had chicken goujons, frozen sweet potato fries and onion rings for dinner - is that 2 of my 5 a day?

Yes of course:p:D

Greying_Pilgrim

gallygirl wrote: »

Can someone help me please? Does anyone know what is in Koffman cabbage? I know it's a famous Pierre Koffman recipe but can't find anything other than vague references online

I don't know is the short answer gally. But looking online, the cabbage associated with Chef Koffman seems to be the Savoy cabbage - you, know, the green crinkly one. And Chou farci (stuffed cabbage - if my schoolgirl french is up to translation standard) seems to be a favourite of his. I have found him making it on THIS video clip (jump to 6 mins 52 secs for ingredients - he makes it as part of poule au pot) and then there is a (different) recipe (scroll down to recipe 7) for his stuffed cabbage HERE.


Might not be the absolute reference you were seeking, but certainly in the spirit of Chef. If anyone has PK's contact details - I'd contact him, he is soooooo supportive of people wanting to cook.


HTH



Greying X