Moin!

Die Jahreszeiten im Moinland unterscheiden sich ja nicht wirklich durch das Wetter sondern vor allem durch die Temperatur des Regens. Wenn er sich, wie heute, tief in die dicke Kapuze beißt, weiss man es wird Winter.

Es ist kein echter Moinländer der das nicht als Gelegenheit nutzt. Wir waren gerade in der Stadt angekommen als uns die ersten Tropfen einholten. Schnell noch bei Munderloh was fürs Rad gekauft und da stand sie vor uns:

Erbsensuppe bei Monse

Was dem Bayer seine Weisswurst ist dem Moinländer seine Suppe bei Monse. Für unschlagbare drei Euro gibt es eine wirklich anständige Portion aus dem riesen Topf, der mindestens genauso alt ist wie das Moinland.

Ein kurzes “Moin” und man steht mit wildfremden Freunden unter einem Sonnenschirm und löffelt das Nationalgericht. Regel, Schnee, Eis, Hagel … Bald kommen sie wieder, die schönen Gelegenheiten auf eine gute Suppe bei Monse.

I hope everyone had a great Friday! I know I did!!

It hasnt rained for TWO DAYS! Ive taken a week off of running due to a sore leg, and decided that the dry weather was a perfect time to get back out there. I went out last night for a short run, just to try it out. My leg was feeling much better, and it felt so great just to get out there! Ive been working out on my stationary bike all week, but it isnt the same. I have a very short attention span, so unless I put on a really funny movie, I get pretty bored. Im very happy to have my runs back!

Today was a good food day, that was filled with lots and lots of greens! I started off with a breakfast of oatmeal with mixed berries, greek yogurt, and agave. Followed by a Green Monster of course!

Lunch was left over Winter Greens Soup that I made last night for dinner. I made this a few weeks ago, and its just so delicious! (This picture is of last nights dinner, not  todays lunch)

We went to Big Ridge tonight for my friend Kelly’s birthday.  We were supposed to be there at 7, and after my run I was famished, so I made myself a quick snack of spinach and goat cheese – drizzled with olive oil, agave, and rice wine. It hit the spot!!

At the restaurant I ordered my favorite thing off the menu. The Brewers Salad.

It was wonderful as always. I forgot to take a picture of it because I was just too excited!

Tomorrow is grocery day! I wont lie, Im really looking forward to it. I think Im going to get some cookbooks together and plan out my meals for the week so I wont go overboard and buy a whole bunch of stuff I dont need. Thats the plan at least . . . no guarantee that it will happen!

What to do with the left over turkey, chicken, or beef ?  Well, I am going to make a super sandwich and  mushroom & potatoes soup for today lunch.  It easy to prepare and I don’t have to spend long time in my kitchen.

Ingredients
cooked turkey/chicken – 6 slices
whole meal bread – 6 slices
low-fat cheese – 3 slices
mushrooms – 60g, sliced
tomatoes – 2, sliced
lettuce leave – 3
margarine

Method

1. Preheat the sandwich maker.
2. Brush some margarine on one side of the each bread.
3. Arrange the ingredients : lettuce, tomatoes, turkey/chicken slice, and then the cheese on top of one bread slice.  Add another bread slice on top of the cheese.
4. Place the sandwich into the sandwich maker and heat for 5-6 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Serves 3.

Here is the mushroom & potaotes soup recipe.

There are other recipes you can make if you don’t like making sandwiches.  Visit here for more recipes.

Hi guys!

Wow, yesterday was a huge eating day! I literally felt stuffed and sick last night when I went to bed . But today is another day and I’m back on the bandwagon!

I started the morning early with a tiny bowl of Digestive 1st cereal, only a tiny bowl because I wanted to pick up this baby for morning tea! For the last 6 months that I have been working at my job I have walked past a Croissant Express and they have the best baguettes ever – they call them Frozwiches. I have no idea why, but they sure do taste great. Anyway I have been dreaming about a PB Froz for months and yesterday I satisfied the craving. The baguette was delicious and I ate the whole thing when I really probably was full after 1/2 but oh well. The PB on the other hand was spread a little thing for my liking. Probably a good thing in retrospect! Ha ha.

There was also a morning tea at work that I had forgotten about, a couple of hours late so I went along to that and there were homemade Florentines which looked amazing so I had a small Florentine too. No pics sorry.

For lunch I met up with some old colleagues and we went to Country Road Cafe. I ordered the frittata which came with salad. The frittata was tasty but super creamy and cheesy. Again, oh well. What can you do!

Anyway so I was completely stuffed from all that obviously so didn’t eat again till way later, like 9pm later, which is never a good thing with my belly because it usually means I don’t sleep very well. Some wine and beers later a bunch of us decided Mexican was a good idea…

Paella

Fiesta plate

Nachos

Chilli con carne

I had some cheese and jalapeno quesadilla, a tamale, chips and gauc, and heaps of paella and another beer. I totally overdid it and felt a bit sick afterwards . Of course, I slept badly too and woke up with a headache wishing I had eaten steamed vegetables. Gosh it is amazing the way crappy greasy food makes you feel as opposed to fresh, nutritious veggies and wholefoods.

Just went to the hairdressers and I’m blonde again! Couldn’t eat till about 10.30am and really all I felt like was a veggie juice. I popped into the Subiaco Farmers Market and ordered a Green Smoothie with a wheatgrass booster!

It hit the spot and I really do feel a lot better. I’m even contemplating some lunch now…

Lots and lots to do today, packing, cleaning, washing, errands, hanging with my guy!

Then tonight we are having dinner at Rosie’s place. Tomorrow I have my 15k race at Deepwater Point, then a Hen’s Day lunch and then I’m off on our month away .

It’s all happening here!!!

Hello bloggies!

We have a lot to catch up on! After posting Wednesday night I had this bowl of grapes and dried apricots:

My approach to Thanksgiving was simple: to treat it like any other day. I woke up, had a couple bites of banana and some coffee, and set out for the trail to run. I was very pleasantly surprised to wake up without any soreness from my 6+ miler! I ran an easy 3 miles in about 29 minutes, came home and had this:

We were supposed to be at my dad’s at noon, a family friend’s right after that, and my aunt and uncle’s at 1:30 to eat at 2 – but my family is never on time. I know that, but I still get anxious and stressed out when they’re late. I knew I had the massive stash of bars I keep in my purse and grabbed a gala as well, since I couldn’t gauge my hunger or eating schedule.

After we left our family friends’, I ate my apple, figuring I would just switch out my lunch and afternoon snack. We didn’t end up eating until 4:30, which was fine since I had eaten. I was full from the apple all afternoon and just had a few random shrimpies before the big meal.

I didn’t take any pictures, but here’s what was on my plate:

• Spinach and mixed greens salad with olives, shrooms, and yellow pepper
• Roasted brussel sprouts
• Roasted parsnips
• Turkey
• Mashed winter squash (not sure of the type – when I asked, I got “yellow” as a reply)

Trust me, it was a large meal. For dessert, there was chocolate Tofutti ice cream, vanilla and eggnog ice creams, plus an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. To be honest, I was satisfied with my meal and really didn’t want any dessert, so I didn’t have any.

It was nice to see my family, hang out with their doggies, and talk about Farmville with my cousin, but I wasn’t in the best mood all day. Thanksgiving is nice, but Christmas is by far our family’s (at least, my dad’s side) favorite and biggest holiday. By the time my brother and I got home at 7, I was STARVING – figures. I made pure deliciousness (better than Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps …)

Frank’s was a delicious and perfect addition – as it always is.

A little while later, I popped some popcorn with added cayenne and cinnamon and had a hot chocolate.

Perf!

Although yesterday was Thanksgiving, today was the day that I actually felt like it. As much as I love my extended family, there’s a lot of things that make me anxious at/about family stuff (I’m sure you all understand). My mom, stepdad, and uncle spent the holiday yesterday with my stepdad’s family, so my Mom and I planned to make tonight Thanksgiving in our house!

I took the day off from exercise, and made a delish and light yogurt bowl:

Then I picked up one of my best friends who I haven’t seen since AUGUST for lunch at Chef’s Table, where my mom and I had lunch the other day. Today my amazing salad consisted of:

• Romaine
• Grilled chicken
• Kidney beans
• Steamed broccoli
• Shredded carrots
• Fat free balsamic

So amazing. Salads always taste better when someone else assembles and mixes it up for me! I came home intending to do work, but instead I read blogs and watched That 70’s Show all day. Oh well, it was my holiday. I also had a Granny Smith with cinnamon:

Then I helped my mom start to cook! I peeled tomatoes, rinsed and prepped green beans, and other small things that wouldn’t affect the taste of food if I messed up, considering I burn toast.

The six of us had enough food for my entire dad’s side of the family (20 people). We made:

• Turkey
• Mashed potatoes
• Mashed butternut squash
• Steamed green beans
• Peas
• Mashed white turnip
• Mashed yellow turnip
• Stuffing
• Cranberry sauce
• Gravy

My mom, stepdad, and I had some of this Viognier (white wine) while we were finishing cooking and setting the table. I laughed at the company name, Cono Sur, which apparently comes from the region of Chile the wine is produced in, but I thought was a play on “connoisseur.” ANYWAY, it was pretty good – crisp and fruity, but not overly sweet at all. I also had a splash more with din. My plate had:

• Turkey
• Mashed potatoes (I asked my stepdad to make me a small portion of pure potato – no butter or anything mixed in)
• Butternut
• Green beans
• Peas
• Yellow turnip

Everything was SO GOOD. My favorite thing is to get a forkful of peas, mashed taters, and turkey all in one – best taste combo for the holidays! The yellow turnip was my favorite dish by far. It has such a great taste and texture, sweet but nutty, chunky but smooth. Yum! Obv went back to seconds this Thanksgiving – of turkey (this time with hot sauce!!), mashed taters, peas, green beans, and turnip). Now I’m super stuffed. I actually can’t remember the last time I felt this full, which is great because I’ve really learned to stop myself from overeating. But, it was a holiday, all delicious and amazing, and all WHOLE foods! Like really, I ODed on veggies – it’s fine. Sadly, we didn’t have any dessert, but since my stomach is carrying a small child of produce, it’s probably not a bad thing. Now that it’s officially Christmas season, I’m sipping some Candy Cane Lane (hoping the green tea jumpstarts my metabolism to relieve the food baby pressure) and watching ELF!! YES – I’ve been dying to watch this all week. Good night!

P.S. My new bangs and I are still trying to work things out – haircut picture when we stop our argument.

After the gym today, my little sister decided she was going to be my social event planner for the afternoon. So I had about an hour to eat lunch and get showered and ready for…

New Moon.

I read all of the books, per my sister’s advice. She is a pretty good reader/writer so I took her word for it. I liked all of the books (the last one, especially) but it’s not like I’m obsessed with the series. I think Stephanie Meyer has a wonderful imagination but don’t think she’s as talented a storyteller as J.K. Rowling. But I’m not gonna hate! Sometimes with writing, you can have the best ideas in the world but when you try and put it into story form it turns into mush. Happened a lot with me in college. Her story isn’t mush it just wasn’t my favorite thing to read.

Anything that involves Jacob taking off his shirt is fine by me, however. What did you all think of the movie?

For my workout today:

• 25 minutes stairmaster
• 30 minutes treadmill
• triceps, biceps, lat pulldown
• hamstring curls

Looks like i forgot abs again. Guess I’ll have to 8 Minute Abs before bed. Thank god for that video. Without it, I’d have no excuse. I just can’t justify laying down on the mats at my gym. Eek.

Once home, I made lunch. It was almost 4.5 hours after I’d eaten breakfast so I was pretty hungry!

• caramel apple lowfat yogurt (delicious and only 70 calories!)
• topped with flaxseed and some cheerios
• sandwich thin with turkey, lettuce, hummus

and…

• some TLCs and sabras hummus

I knew that I’d want to nibble on something during the movie but I didn’t want to get movie theatre food. So I brought along some homemade trailmix.

• 100 calorie cocoa-roasted almonds
• 1/2 cup of cheerios (because I guess I didn’t get enough with my yogurt?)
• 3 chopped dates

All together now!

I just loved this combo. The cheerios were mild and counteracted the sweetness of the dates. The almonds kept me full for longer and the subtle chocolate taste was perfect and all you need for a chocolate fix without putting in straight up M+Ms (which I love, PS).

Once home, we had leftovers for dinner.

My plate today looked a lot like my plate from last night. There will probably be a duplicated pie picture later tonight as well. Hope you had a great day!

Alison

Afternoon, friends! Our day has been a fun one. 

Since Thanksgiving is officially over, we headed out to the Christmas tree farm to bag a live one!  Ryan and I haven’t decided if we’re going to get a tree this year– we’re only back in Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks before heading back down south, so it would be a lot of effort for such a short amount of time.

Since we might not get a tree of our own, we were happy to tag along with my parents as they picked out theirs!

The farm that they go to is about 30 minutes outside of town:

They found a good one:

This little guy had a long way to go! 

After a fun day at the farm, we headed back into town and debated what we wanted to do for lunch.  We finally decided to go…back to Earthereal!  Ryan and I aren’t here often, so we really have to take advantage of it when we can! 

My dad’s first suggestion had been Mexican food, which he got to have after all:

Yum– the daily vegetarian special!  This was sour cream enchiladas with a homemade mole sauce, Mexican brown rice, and a side salad.

My mom and I got two sandwiches to split: the avocado special (avocado (duh), carrots, mushrooms, tomato, sprouts, and cheese) and the egg and avocado (sliced hard boiled eggs, avocado, sprouts, and cheese).  I think we met our daily avocado requirement!

And of course, dessert.  BUT, as per my back on track plan, I opted for a sugar-free carob cookie, and only ate half.  I tucked the other half into my purse, so I’m sure he’ll be making a reappearance at some point

Hope your day is going well!  Are you braving the shopping malls?  I am NOT!

We’re going out to one of my favorite Shreveport restaurants (can you tell that I have quite a few?  Like I said, my family likes to eat!) for dinner, so I’ll be back with a post after that.  Good day!

L. and I were engaged in massive, deserved loafery involving leftover pie, hot coffee, and a Criminal Minds marathon when we realized we were hungry again. (How is it you always get hungry again?) I heated up and split in two a dish of vegetable barley soup and toasted the last harvest roll. I used to think I didn’t like raisins, but when they’re golden and toasted and studding a homebaked roll with sweet potato and nutmeg? Not bad, not bad, warm and relaxing.

Så… Äntligen Fredag. Firas självklart med att beställa mat till skolan från biteline. Å dricka en kall starköl till

(sorry for the delay in posting this!)

I’m really into colorful food. In fact, I know that all of us here feel strongly about having a lot of colors on the plate at any given time. It’s tasty, nutritious and looks good!

We spent our last early evening in Antibes (what feels like a lifetime ago to me now!) cooking, deciding to make something seasonal and full of flavor and shades of the beachy locale.

The menu ended up consisting of: crab (stick), corn, rice and mustard mayonnaise salad; fig, hearts of palm, tomato and mustardy greens salad dressed with lemon and a little tiny bit of aioli; trine pasta with fatty, lightly smoked salmon and a sauce of tomatoes, garlic, onion, cream and reduced lobster bisque.

The salads:

The first is really easy and a definite Russian holiday table classic: cook some basmati rice (in this instance we cheated and used the readymade kind), chop up some crab sticks and toss this with some canned corn (sweetcorn). Then put in enough mayonaisse to make the salad ’sticky’ so that it is not dry but also not goopy. I do have to say that the original Russian recipe would encourage as much mayo use as possible!

The second salad is a great example of how you can take a random assortment of seasonal produce and concoct something amazing so, we took:

• 3-4 ripe figs
• a bagful of mixed greens/baby greens salad leaves
• a jar of hearts of palm – chop them up
• couer de bouef tomatoes – also chopped
• juice of half a lemon – mix the lemon juice with the oil and aioli (garlic mayonaisse)  for the dressing
• a bit of salt & pepper

Pasta:

Trine pasta with salmon in a lobster bisque and tomato sauce

1. Boil trine pasta. Without breaking it, preferably!

2. Chop up half a couer de boeuf tomato, about half a small clove of garlic and half a medium-sized white onion.

3. Sautee the garlic and onion with a mix of olive oil & butter.

4. Add in about 1/2 of a can of lobster bissque. Mix in about 1/4 cup of cream, adding more to taste.

4.1 NB!  Don’t add too much salt as the bisque will most likely be a bit salty.

5. Let reduce, add in the tomatoes as liquid reduces.

6. Keep stirring and tasting to adjust any ceam and salt proportions as need be for about 10-15 minutes.

7. Add in fatty smoked salmon, chopped into small pieces. Stir to combine with sauce and heat through.

8. Put pasta in a large bowl and pour sauce and salmon on top. Garnish with roughly chopped parsley.

9. EAT

Makes a perfect late fall lunch to enjoy with your friends!

Good morning all! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday and were able to be surrounded by good company.

After breakfast, blogging, and parade watching, I headed over to the gym in order to carve out some caloric space for the carved turkey that I would be consuming later. Twas a decent workout that included the following:

-30 Min. treadmill run/walk (2.75 miles total)

-Uber quick and light strength training workout that included 2 sets. 10 reps of the following:

-Lunges, squats, calf raises, bicep curls, tricep extensions, overhead shoulder presses

-25 crunches, 20 oblique crunches on each side

-streeeeeeeetch

I’m looking to spice up my strength training regime. I try to stay away from complicated exercises that require fancy accessories. If anyone has any free weight exercises or fun twists on the classics (push-ups, crunches, squats), I’d love to hear them!

I had a light lunch for some post-workout fuel just to tide me over until the feasting commenced later:

Whole-Wheat Pittettes, Granny Smith Apple Slices, Hummus, Cheddar Cheese

I love this lunch. It’s my new go-to simple, no-cook lunch. Though, it is nice to heat up the whole-wheat pitettes in the microwave for 15 seconds before the hummus dipping takes place.

I then got geared up to head up to Harlem for a Thanksgiving bonanza. I walked a lovely, serene beautiful 2.5 miles from my apartment, through Central Park (which was filled with families enjoying T-Day walks), and met up with these two kids at the 72nd Street Subway Station:

Jodi and Vince

I also sipped on this while inhaling the incredible atmosphere on my walk:

Tall, Non-Fat, Decaf, No-Whip Pumpkin Spice Latte (My Most Complicated Starbucks Order to Date)

Then, once our destination was reached, all this crazy stuff went down:

Candy Yams, Creamed Spinach, Mashed Potatoes, To Name a Few of the Many Dishes Available

Turkey, Stuffing, Gravy, To Name A Few More.

Apple Crumble Topped Apple Pie (Tez Combined the Two Recipes, Soooooooo Good)

I didn’t spend too much time snapping carefully poised photos during the Thanksgiving feast because I was in serious c’est la vie mode. Suffice it to say, Jay and Tez (the charming and wonderful hosts) know how to put on a feast. I had an unpictured horderve plate with a few small bites of sun-dried tomatoes, half a grape leaf roll, and these delicious little pumpkin filled pastry crust doo-dads (I think that’s the proper name for them).

Here’s what my plate ended up looking like:

Green Beans & Carmelized Apples, White Meat Turkey, Deliciously Fluffy Roll, Apple Slaw, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Stuffing, Creamed Spinach, Candied Yams

Nick took care of the turkey leg:

Own That Leg, Boy!

Dessert plate:

Chocolate Cake, Apple Crumble Pie, Lotsa Whipped Cream (Sorry, Healthy LIving, It's Thanksgiving, A Time to Be Grateful and Splurge).

Prosecco is yummy:

The night was great. Much laughter was had, as well as some Wii play, Left Right Center, Yahtzee (I came so close to winning, thanks a lot, Jay!), and it’s worth mentioning that we each had to take a shot of our preferred liquor whenever we took our “chance” turn in Yahtzee. I chose Vodka. It burned, hence the term “fire water.”

I don’t think I can articulate how much food was present. Let’s just say, that at around, ohhhh 11:30PM, Jay PULLED THE SPIRAL HAM OUT OF THE OVEN.

We all enjoyed an appropriate midnight snack of ham sandwiches and coffee:

Again, Healthy Living Was Not My MO Last Night.

I then scooted home in a cab, read, and passed out. It’s Friday, and I’m still in a bit of a food coma.

What was the best new dish you tried for Thanksgiving this year?

Sumo Pot in Orchard Plaza

I haven’t been there for ages and i only found out recently that the owner sold the restaurant away. The current owner changed the whole concept of the restaurant to Chanko Nada. But there’s not much changes made to the place itself as the chef and workers are still the same. The only changes were probably the introduction of the Chanko Nabe, the speciality and the introduction of the various sumo posters on the wall.

What is Chanko Nabe? Do a quick search and you can find this on Wikipedia;
It’s actually Chanko Nabe, which is food for the soul of sumo wrestler.

Photo credits BBC UK

There are four versions of soup found here –  Shio (Salt Based), Miso and Curry.  If you want Izakaya food, they have quite a variety too (including Chicken Bones).

In Singaporean terms, it may actually pull it off as steamboat but in fact, Chanko Nabe (ちゃんこ鍋) is more sophisticated as this is one pot of Japanese Stew filled with the following;

• Tori Dango 「鳥団子」Chicken meatballs

• Kurobuta 「黒豚」Sliced Pork
• Mushrooms
• Daikon (Radish) and Carrots
• Beancurd
• Konnyaku (The healthy japanese food)
• Lots of Vegetables (Bak Choy, Bean sprouts)

There’s no exact ingredients found in a Chanko Nabe but generally, the ingredients used at Chanko Nada are the common ones.

We love the  Tori Dango (Chicken Meatballs) so much that we just have to get an extra plate of it at $8.

As mentioned earlier, there’s a minimum order of 2 Pax in Chanko Nabe. It costs about $70 (Including Service charge and GST) for a Pot of Chanko Nabe) But seriously, the portion is huge! So a Chanko Nabe for 2 Person can easily fill 3 People.

For the experience, for the fun of it.

Chanko Nada Restaurant

As the goats go baa-baa-baa while being slaughtered, my day today has been really.. ‘bleah’.

Morning already didn’t start off well. I thought mum was a little harsh with her tone, so I ended up being a little anal and wanted to skip breakfast. Snap! I quickly got my senses back and managed to eat the wholemeal bread I got from Cedele yesterday. I had it along with some jam spread and 1/2 cup of black coffee. I didn’t eat the applesauce in the end as I was really full while at the 3rd slice. The bread was really good, it was soft and fresh and chewy. I can’t wait to get their rye bread; I always miss its schedule!

I simply love the texture of the bread.

After that, mum and I headed down to the market to get some fresh goods for today’s lunch and dinner. When we got back, it was already 10.30am, so, time for my mid-morning snack! Blackcurrant Ensure warmed up, and hmm, I’m it has now climbed to the 3rd place for being my favorite Ensure flavor.

Bummed around and soon, it was already lunch time!

All prepared by mum!

I had it along with a bowl of brown rice porridge. My favorite was the mushroom with edamame dish, though it was a little salty. The edamame beans were from last night’s dinner, haha. Actually, I was feeling rather happy after eating lunch, and I thought all was good, until about 15 mins later. For no reason, I felt so horrible. It was like, all the food that I’ve eaten just came all back to my throat and made me feel like throwing up. So I wanted to go down for a walk, but mum asked to go later. I refused and went out alone, and the next thing I knew, I was in the public toilet trying to throw up. After that, ED tried to tempt me to buy something to eat. Thankfully I didn’t succumb to that if not it’d have been another purging session.

When I got home, I snapped at mum when she told me twice to take my Ensure. But it was only 3.45pm and I usually have my mid-afternoon snack at 4.30pm. Poor mumsie, she had to suffer my ridiculous temper because of ED.

So, being the 2nd time I’ve tried taking rice (though still in the porridge form), I thought I could make some improvement. But seems like I’ve not. I still can’t accept rice. Seriously, I don’t understand why too. The struggle with ED just now was really too overwhelming that eventually, it made sure it won. Seems like I won’t have a ‘clean record’ when I see the doc. next week.

K ’nuff said, I did have my Ensure at 4.45pm (Vanilla flavor), and it left me really full.

Dinner was fusion-inspired, haha.

Yummy pasta!

I had some farfalle with bbq, chilli, and a huge dollop of tzatziki. Along side was mum’s stir-fried bean sprouts with baked firm tofu and steamed okra with black fungus. Though delicious, I didn’t finish my dinner.

So, today has actually been quite a bad day in terms of eating. Sigh .

The school day in Britain is different from the French school day : not as long but more concentrated. Most British schools have morning and afternoon sessions every day, from Monday to Friday. Children stay at school from about 9 am to 3.30 pm but many stay later for other activities. There are different possibilities for them to have lunch.

 They can stay at school, like the great majority, and eat a prepared meal, a packed lunch. Many children do this. This meal usually starts just after midday and is eaten in the classroom, with the teachers and friends. Some parents try to provide healthy things like a yoghurt or a fruit but the favourite food for the kids are chocolate and crisps. Some parents give up to the children’s tastes and give candies and junk food, that is easier to prepare as well as it is ready made.

Some, a minority, go back home. They can stay at school and get a school dinner : a prepared meal, served at school. It is often prepared in the school kitchen, or by a catering system and brought in. School dinners used to be boring, with very little choice, but things  have improved and most schools allow children to choose from a menu. There is generally a hot main course, a choice of vegetables, or a salad, and a variety of puddings. The problem is that most children avoid healthy things like salad and keep on asking for crisps, especially when they are asked to choose what they prefer !

 As far as the teachers are concerned, they used to sit with the children and eat with them. But this is no longer true as they have so many things to do at lunchtime. Some teachers bring a packed lunch and very few go back home. Sometimes they go to a pub or a takeaway to get something to eat. Teachers’rooms also provide microwaves and fridges so that each one can have the choice and his or her own diet !

 Proposition de corrigé :

 We are given the different possibilities for schoolchildren and teachers to have lunch at work. In this document it is emphasized that the school day in Britain is different from the school day in a French school. The week is different and the number of long school days is more important.

 There are various possibilities for them to have lunch : they can go back home although they seldom do it. They can get a prepared meal at school but it is not pleasant although they now get a choice in the vegetables and the dessert. The meals are provided by the school or delivered by a catering service. One problem is that the children often choose what is unhealthy for them : crisps and no vegetables.  

 The last solution is to bring their own packed lunch at school although it is often unhealthy as well as parents prepare it according to the children’s tastes : crisps, chocolate and no fruit or salad.

 As far as the teachers are concerned, they have several possibilities : in many schools they have to sit with the children and eat with them in their classroom ; it happens less and less though. Due to the lack of time and the amount of work a lot of them do not go back home but bring a packed lunch and eat in the teachers’ lounge, sometimes they can go to a pub or a café to get a more friendly atmosphere.

 Now it is your turn : Describe the situation in France. Talk about your experience.

  Discussions possibles:

What is the junk food ?

What are the differences between school meals before and nowadays ?

What can be the consequences of an unhealthy diet ?

How can school help the children and their families become aware of what a good diet is ?

What is a balanced lunch ?

Discussion on your favourite food ! It is up to you …

Salads and sandwiches around R30.

Excellent tea and scones with Jam and Cream (also koeksusters!)

Open during the summer on weekdays from 9am to 4pm.

Nu har vi varit ute på en liten promenad till Orminge där vi åt lunch och handlade lite förnödenheter.

När vi kom fick Lykka sin dagliga dos av gröt. Idag skippade jag att spä ut den med bröstmjölk som jag har gjort tidigare. Så nu gjorde jag den som man ska så den blir riktigt tjock och grötig. Och som hon åt! Mums!

mmm gröt!

Som vanligt fick hon amma efteråt.

Nu ligger vi här på soffan och slappar. Lykka håller på att somna ser jag nu. Nice

Reading time: 5 mins

I first heard about the ‘Hay diet’ or ‘food combining’ from my parents.  They found that they lost 1lb a week pretty much every week and weren’t eating any less food than normal, just in different combinations.

The idea is that you don’t eat protein and carbohydrate together, and that fruit and veg are neutral.  There are various other elements to it but this is the essence of it.  There are links at the end of the post where you can go and read about the details of the diet in more detail if you want to.*

Proteins are things like meat, egg and dairy products and carbs are things like bread, potatoes, flour, rice, pasta etc.

So what this means is that you shouldn’t have cows milk on your cereal, meat or cheese in your sandwiches or potatoes, rice or pasta with your meat.

When I first heard about the Hay diet I thought that the idea of losing 1lb a week without eating any less food sounded great until I found out these ‘rules’*.  That put me off rather!  After a couple of months and my parents were still losing 1lb a week and working out at what point they were going to stop as they’d reached their ideal weights I decided that it was probably worth giving a go.  I found out that even just applying these techniques to one or two meals a day was worth it although you wouldn’t lose weight quite as fast.

So I found out from my mum what exactly they were eating for their meals and started the following rough plan:-

Breakfast

Soya milk has protein in it but alot less than cows milk, so I have it on my cereal for breakfast.  My first thoughts on this were that I’d tried soya milk before and thought it was foul stuff!  I tried a little bit of my mum’s (unsweetened) and was pleasantly suprised, it was actually quite ok, not just like cows milk but once it was on cereal it was absolutely fine!  One meal sorted

Lunch

I alternate between two sorts of lunches.  I either have a protein one or a carb one, both with loads of salad.  Being as I work from home I’m not keen on taking too much time out to sit and eat ‘doing nothing’ so my first lunch idea works well.  I cut up a whole load of salad bits (cucumber, beetroot, tomato, spring onion) into mouthful sized cubes and combine them in a cereal bowl along with cubed cheese and hard boiled eggs.  Sometimes I drizzle a little bit of salad dressing too.  This is an easy lunch to eat with a fork whilst catching up on emails!

The other lunch is a sandwich one.  3 slices of wholemeal bread (Burgen’s my favourite as it’s low GI too) with salad in it.

Dinner

This I found much harder to come up with meals that I wanted to eat and that fitted in with what the rest of the family are having as I was determined not to start cooking two different meals.

One easy meal is a cooked breakfast but without the fried slice or slice of bread and butter.  I grill the sausages and bacon to cut out the frying as much as possible.  I must admit we still have fried eggs, although one could have them poached instead.

Another one is when having what I think of as an ‘easy meal’ for those days when I choose not to spend so much time preparing food.  On these days I serve something like sausages, burgers or fish in batter to everyone else and have a veggie alternative myself, there’s a growing amount of choice of this sort of food these days and some of them are really nice!

One alternative we tried was quorn and although we found it quite pleasant (in a spag bol type meal) it had rather undesirable effects the next day that changed our minds rather rapidly!  We did try the quorn sausages too just to make sure that’s what had caused it and it was so we’re not adding that to our diet.  Apparently this only happens to some people so it’s well worth the try as it opens up alot of possibilities for meals.

The easiest thing I found to do for a meal was just to do a bit extra veg for myself instead of potatoes, after all potatoes are only another veg themselves.

Conclusion

I’ve also swapped all snacks for fruit too which obviously must make a big difference in weight loss.  I imagine it’s a combination of the food combining and that I’m eating more fruit and veg and less sugary/fatty snacks.  Either way it’s working, I’m eating healthily, losing weight steadily – what more could a girl want?!  I’ve lost 3/4 of a stone at the consistent rate of 1lb a week so I’m very happy

I’ll be posting some ‘Hay Diet’ recipies soon so do subscribe (top right hand corner of page) so that you don’t miss them

I’d love to hear your weight loss stories too!

Related posts:-

How to survive juggling self employed work and school holidays

Awesome stationary that doesn’t cost the earth

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* Read more details about the Hay diet in these two sites.  The diet can be used to help ease digestive problems and many other common ailments as well as being used for weight loss:-

http://www.vitaminuk.com/pages/articles/whatisthehaydiet.htm

http://www.netfit.co.uk/fatcom.htm

Tänkte mej en tidig lunch här hemma, finns ju ingen anledning att invänta kollegorna här menar jag. Gjorde mej en tallrik havregrynsgröt som jag avnjöt med lingonsylt, eller tanken var att avnjuta den i alla fall. Jag brukar nämligen tycka att det är jättegott! Men…

Köpte Coop X-tras lingonsylt sist jag handlade. Inget höjdarköp precis. Borde ju så klart ha tänkt på det när jag handlade men som vanligt var jag väl stressad och på väg hem och tyckte väl att den lät billig. Läste nyss på innehållsförteckningen, måste först leta fram glasögonen för texten var minimal.

Enligt märkningen så innehåller sylten faktiskt mest lingon, det trodde jag ärligt talat inte. Eftersom lingon står som första ingrediens så ska det ju vara mest av detta enligt reglerna. Men den smakar inte lingon tycker jag. Kanske alla konstiga E-nummer den innehåller tar överhanden i smak? Konsistensen är helt ok och utseendet också. Den smakar förvisso inte illa men surt och absolut inte lingon!

Och när jag äter lingonsylt vill jag att det ska smaka lingonsylt, punkt slut! Så nej, någon mer Coop X-tra lingonsylt blir det inte för min del!

sillmacka

Personligen tillhör jag dem som fullkomligt älskar sill. Jag kan ibland bli så väldans sugen och äta en hel burk! Vanlig inlagd sill är min favorit.

Ättikströmming gillar jag också. Men inte lika mycket som sill!

Idag blev det en god sillmacka till lunch. Nu är jag mätt och belåten

/Ro Artemis

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you had a fantastic day! I certainly did. I played photographer and I am in love with my Nikon!!

This morning we woke up at 8 a.m. and I got ready to head to the gym, Adam decided to come too. We got there and had about 30 minutes to work-out to have time to grab breakfast.

I ate half of this before leaving..

YUM! Just like a blueberry muffin.

These were the nicest machines I have been on in a long time. The small gym had a big T.V. as well, but the screen was fuzzy so we used the sound from that and watched our own screens. It Recipe Fail made the time fly! I got two miles in which was my goal. I wish I could have run for more like an hour, but I did something and that’s what matters. Unfortunately, I had a side stitch on my right side the whole time. I don’t know if it was from eating or what, I know i only ate half a bar but I swear I can’t eat at all before running because I always get side stitches. I usually need to eat 2-3 hours before running, but then I don’t get the fuel I need for a tough workout. Any tips?

After the gym we saw my family grabbing breakfast and then taking it back to the room. I made a bowl of Quaker oatmeal, brown sugar, granola and raisins. I also mashed a banana up in the bowl when we got back to the room. I ate half of the bowl with my coffee and some O.J.

The spread.

We then watched the parade..MY FAVORITE PART!! I was lucky enough to be able to see the parade live two years ago when my mom and sister lived in the city.

Anyone see Uncle Jesse dancing and singing?

I actually sang “Put On a Happy Face” during my all-girl camp production of “Bye, Bye, Birdie”. Hey, I got a solo! It didn’t matter that I played a guy named Albert.

After we watched the parade and got ready we headed to my aunt and uncle’s house..

The wine for the evening started with a glass of “Flying Fish” riesling. It was very smooth and sweet but not too sweet. It was pretty good.

The wine for the evening started with a glass of “Flying Fish” riesling. It was very smooth and sweet but not too sweet. It was pretty good.

Snacked on some pistachios..

My Aunt Meg grilled a couple sandwiches on the Forman as snacks and cut them up. This was chocolate chips, olive oil and brie.

Oh yes, and It was REALLY good. Try it sometime.

Then I had a glass of this Little Penguin riesling.

I noshed on a little bit of snacks that were put out, but mostly pistachios. I didn’t snack too much, I was preparing for the big fiesta.

Look who came up with my mom and step-dad..

Bo! I love this dog.

My plate, why I needed I roll is beyond me. Oh wait, they were homemade..

So yummy!

I only one plate! I was impressed, I normally want seconds whether I am full or not. I saved room for dessert.

Oh, and my contribution..in case you were wondering..

I really take pride in my apple pie, and decorating it is my favorite part I will post the recipe when I get home tomorrow!

It’s really yummy, if I say so myself.

A glass of half-calf with skim and stevia. I needed the boost while my body worked to digest dinner.

Dessert. Oh and I ate most of it. There small dark brown piece is apple butter pumpkin pie, my sister used Paula Deen’s recipe.

My apple pie and some whipped cream.

We headed back to the hotel, dropped of the boys then walked around Wal-Mart. I didn’t get anything, I just tagged along to work off some of the thousands of calories digested today. It was very much worth it, but it’s time to sweat and eat a lot better to get balanced again.

I had some left overs about 5 1/2 hours after lunch. I was hungry!

I am off to get some rest and sleep some of this food off! Looking forward to a nice long weekend with my husband before it’s back to the grind for ONE MORE WEEK! I’m almost done!!!! YAY!

I just want you all to know how thankful I am for this blog and YOU! I may say it a lot but I really mean it. It means so much that you take the time to read my blog day-to-day. You’re all so great! Thanks for sticking around.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I’ll leave you with our attempt at a cute picture of my mom, my sister and I..

Love and thanks,

Katy

]]> http://eatventures.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/feeling-thankful/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:20:22 +0000 Emily http://eatventures.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/feeling-thankful/

Again, I’ll try to keep this quick, but it’s been a great Turkey Day.  I’m thankful for family, good food, and my wonderful husband.

We slept in until 10:30 this morning (I’m feeling sick again, boo!) and then woke up to the world’s tastiest breakfast.

My grandma is so cool, she had Greek Gods’ Honey Greek Yogurt waiting in the fridge for me!  I had a small bowl of fruit,

and honey Greek yogurt with berries and a sliver of homemade coffee cake.

Mmmmmmn!  I was in love with this breakfast!  If it wasn’t Thanksgiving I would have gone back for another bowl!  I think I’ve got my aunt hooked on Greek yogurt now too

We went to a family friend’s house for Thanksgiving at 1, so we headed out around noon to socialize.  Look how cute my grandparents are!

I’ve gone to Thanksgiving with this family ever year I’ve been with my grandparents and it’s always so much fun.  They have the best decorations, I wish I could have gotten more pictures.

I made a small appetizer plate with pretzels, honey raspberry dip, and crackers with dirty martini dip.

And I had a light beer to drink.

As I mentioned before, I am actually not much of a Turkey Day food fan!  I didn’t even eat any turkey meat!  I tried to just take a small bit of everything.

Clockwise from the top – stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, roll, jello mold salad, cranberries.  I finished everything on my plate (except for the roll which I gave away).  I didn’t actually eat very much, but I didn’t do seconds because I knew dessert was coming.

I actually gave away that mini cake in favor of a second cookie!

It was great getting to catch up with people and Adam was definitely stuffed!  He took a fat nap before we even headed home, and hit the couch asap.  My grandmother and I wanted to take a nice walk but unfortunately it was raining.  The other disappointment was that there was nowhere for me to volunteer.  I really wanted to put in some time at a food bank or soup kitchen today but everywhere my grandma called had too many volunteers.

We ate dinner around 7, and I was actually hungry again.

Leftover sweet potato casserole,

and a yumtastic sandwich – turkey, cranberries, cream cheese.

Plus apple and celery salad on the side.

I was still a bit hungry so I went back for more salad.

We played cards after dinner.

I had a coffee with 2% and an amaretto stick,

a mini 7-up,

and a small handful of caramel corn.

We kept my grandparents up past midnight playing cards, I’d say it’s time for bed!

How was your turkey day?

L.’s mushroom soup looked just like the picture in the cookbook. D. took the drumstick in her hand and wrenched it around and off, totally stone age. K. brought biscuits, bringing the bread total to three. D. brought a green salad but it never quite made it to the table. And then we went walking along the high line, down to the water, where birds sat on the river in the early dark, I didn’t even see them at first. I’m pretty lucky, just as grateful.