vegetable soup or vegatable moussaka
monday dinner:
this is my new challenge. trying to write down within 4 hours of finishing the meal. i doubt it will happen more than once a week though.
so 2 courses this evening - hang on - 3 if you count the tea at the end of the meal.
so here goes:
1. vegetable soup - i didn't make it! but it was good, from woolworths (surprise, surprise), but it did have a slightly artificial soup in the packet type taste, but still nice.
2. vegetable lentil mousaka - i've discussed mousaka before, so won't go over it again. last time i had to disguise the taste by eating bread with it, but today i actually enjoyed it. i had 3 pieces of bread ready to eat it with, and i admit i did eat them, but i actually enjoyed the mousaka - and it was vegetarian - so i don't have a conscience eating it. (which i'll leave to write about another day. the psychology of eating meat and fish and other non vegetarian stuff).
and then i had a cup of tea - rooibos with milk.
i was going to have the little yoghurt desserts i have on a regular basis, but i feel i'm getting addicted to the yoghurt desserts, so decided to give it a skip tonight.
anyway, i might have another cup of tea a little later, as the weather is turning here, the wind is blowing, and it's starting to get a little chilly (not like london or new york, but compared to the hot days we have had here the last few months, the weather is definately changing)
anyway, now that i've been writing about what i had for dinner, i'm feeling a little hungry! willpower!!!!!
merry is the food of merryfood
this is rather upsetting and i know it's not a food related gripe, but i just did a search for merryfood on a number of the search engines, and not only does my merryfood blog not appear, but no results appear under the search "merryfood".
so i'm thinking if i spend tons of time, making sure that the merryfood blog that is the wannabee culinary king gets into the search engines such as google, excite, aol, and ask jeeves, then will anyone search on the word "merryfood".
and the answer is probably no.
anyway, if my blog is going to be called merryfood, then i want merryfood to appear in the search engines.
so this is the start of the merryfood challenge to get my blog into the search engines.
it would really help if you could say something nice about my website - http://merryfood.blogspot.com somewhere on your website as the search engines like it when another websites links to this website, and that means my merryfood website will be put into the search engines.
so this is a please - say something nice about this site on your site.
thanks in advance! :)
avocado with spring onion
monday lunch:
after a usn protein whey shake, i waited awhile and then decided it was time for a late lunch.
i had an avocado which was going to go bad if i didn't use it, so i decided to have a straightforward lunch. avocado with spring onion on a slice of bread.
so i took the avocado and weeded out the parts which were still good, and then chopped up a spring onion, added a bit of black ground pepper, and the avocado concoction was ready.
i had 2 slices of the pumkin bread left over and i toasted 2 slices of wholewheat bread.
let me tell you - the toasted avo sandwhich was 100x better than the avo on the pumkin bread.
anyway. an easy lunch - avo with spring onion toasted sandwhiches. and takes 3 minutes to make.
and i finished off with a hot cup of rooibos tea.
anyway, i was having a break from work so decided to quickly update the wannabee culinary king blog, but i've just looked at the watch and it's now 6:30pm so i guess it's almost time for dinner!
time flies when i'm having fun!
water from the tap
i need to start drinking more water during the day. the idea is to drink at least 2 liters of water every day. so i'm filling up the l'aubade and valpre bottle and the idea will be drink both of them each day.
routine breakfast
monday breakfast:
i should just write "the routine" or "same as yesterday" or something like that.
anyway, had the usual - berrocca to feel healthy, then a plate of hi energy cereal (warmed up to perfection in the microwave) with a mug of nescafe coffee. the only thing different is that i added a little more coffee to the cup as i felt like a slighly stronger cup of coffee this morning.
i'm thinking seeing as though i enjoy my cup of coffee so much in the morning that i should purchase a cappachino machine - i've got one of the expresso pots which you place on the stove, and which forces the coffee to the top, but it makes an expresso, and then you have to boil or heat the milk seperately to make a cappachino which is an awesful lot of work.
so i'll have to go cappachino machine hunting one of these days.
parisienne potatoes
sunday dinner:
well, after a good gym workout, i felt the need to restock my empty cupboards and fridge. so off to woolworths i went to shop! :)
so sunday dinner was an experience.
i had parisienne potatoes with a garlic and butter type sauce. the parisienne potatoes are really easy to make. just make a small hole in the bag of the parisienne potatoes and chuck it in the microwave for 8 minutes or so. i suppose i could have left it in a few minutes longer. anyway, the garlic and butter mix with the parisienne potatoes and give them a delicious taste. i was also surprised that the fat content of the parisienne potatoes was so low - i'm definately going to start making them more often in the future.
i also bought some wheat free pumpkin seed rye bread. the bread is made from rye flour together with a combination of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.
The pumpkin seed rye bread is a little pricy, but it's nice to have it once in awhile, especially since it's part of the margaret roberto selection.
according to the packaging, rye flour has a low gluten content which makes it ideal for individuals with a gluten allergy. i don't think i have a gluten allergy but it is still good to know that i'm eating healthy.
i had bought a packet of fresh norwegian salmon ribbons, and a tub of low fat, actually it was fat free smooth cottage cheese. so i take a piece of the pumkin seed rye bread, add a strip (or should that be a ribbon :)) of norwegian salmon, having already laid some cream cheese onto the bread. then a dash of lemon juice (unfortunately i didn't have any lemons, so lemon juice out of the bottle will have to do), and then a dash of black pepper, and i have a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich.
but i wanted to take the sandwich to the next level, so i also cut a piece of spring onion into small diced pieces (i'm still not sure what they mean by diced when speaking about food), and sprinkled the spring onion onto the top of the salmon cream cheese sandwich.
so you can picture the dinner - a bag of parisienne potatoes accompanied by smoke salmon cream cheese sandwiches. the perfect meal for a lazy sunday night.
especially since phone booth was the movie of the night on tv, and the last time i saw phone booth was on circuit a few years ago. anyway, phone booth didn't disappoint, as colin farrel plays the role brilliantly.
l'aubade
well, sunday, i had the usual breakfast and cereal, but i was running a little short of food, so i spent most of the day drinking water out of the l'aubade bottle. the l'aubade bottle is a see through type blue, and has a chic look to it. so when i'm drinking tap water out of the l'aubade bottle it feels more special than simply drinking tap water.
you can do this with any mineral water bottle, and i know of a number of people that use valpre type bottles to drink tap water. so whether you are using a l'aubade bottle or valpre bottle or another type of mineral water type bottle, change your tap water into a drinking experience.
chicken strips
saturday night:
i can't remember what i had for saturday lunch! got to become more diligent at writing down the tales of the wannabee culinary king.
anyway, saturday night i headed to A's restaurant with BS for a late dinner. we shared a mushroom starter which was great - their were 4 mushrooms and they had a spinach type topping.
for mains we both had the chicken strips in the basket with french fries. a really good value for money type meal.
chocolate nutella or nutella chocolate?
saturday breakfast:
after the usual berrocca (this must be getting repetitive by now, as i have berrocca every day now), i decided to have a slight change with my coffee as it's saturday.
so i made 4 slices of brown toast - and then had the following on them:
2 x nutella chocolate spread
1 x syrup
1 x peanut butter with a drop of syrup
the nutella slices of brown toast were amazing - like eating chocloate - guess that what nutella is - chocolate!!! :)
litchi sorbet
well, i was going to get a pizza and watch a dvd but s convinced me to go to g's cousin for dinner.
so started off with some sort of tart - it might have been asparagus - but not sure. then a meat and rice and other veg type dish. finishing off with fruit salad & sorbet.
the sorbet was amazing. it was litchi flavour, and i should get some for home. although someone at the table commented that litchi sorbet or in fact any sorbet is pure sugar.
can't remember
friday breakfast & lunch:
that's the problem with not posting on a blog every day - you quickly forget.
so i probably had the usual for breakfast yesterday - the hi energy cereal, the cup of coffee, and the berrocca vitamin to get me going for the day, but i actually can't remember eating breakfast.
also lunch? i think i had scrambled eggs on toast! yes - i did. ummmm. i think.
yes - i did - i finished off the cream cheese, on a couple slices brown toast with scrambled eggs.
Vegetarian Cottage Pie
saturday lunch:
i had a late lunch today. a vegetarian cottage pie from woolworths. i'm not sure why but i'm finding the vegetarian dishes from woolworths a little strong if i don't eat them with a few slices of bread - and i must admit i don't know how healthy that will be in the long run?
anyway, with a few slices of brown bread, the vegetarian cottage pie is tasty. i make cottage pie sandwiches! quite creative! LOL
lentil moussaka
thursday dinner:
well, a chilled out dinner tonight - i was watching desperate housewives on tv - last week was the pilot episode of desperate housewives and i only managed to catch the first half of it. it's an entertaining show - although i'm not as impressed as i thought it would be, as desperate housewives has been getting a lot of attention lately. however, i think it might have been overhyped.
anyway, i heated up a vegetarian lentil moussaka which i bought at woolworths a few days ago. the packaging says that the lentil moussaka "is crated to assist in achieving a healthy vegetarian lifestyle".
i need to actually write the way they describe the vegetarian lentil moussaka, as i couldn't do it nearly as well: "slices of caamelised aubergine layered with a rich combination of lentils and tomato, all topped with a creamy, yet light bechamel sauce." poetic. i haven't quite managed to capture the poetic spirit yet of describing food in that way.
anyway, the only problem with the lentil moussaka is that the fat content is high. the total fat content is 10 grams per 100 grams. (anyone know the difference between mono unsaturated fatty acids, poly unsaturated fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, and trans fatty acids?).
i finished off the meal with the low fat yoghurt with black cherries dessert from woolworths - i'm getting quite addicted to this dessert - it tastes great. although the yoghurt is a little sour if you don't mix it with the cherries.
anyway, ali g in da usa 2 is on at the moment. ali g is hilarious! i can't decide whether i like ali g, borat or the new character he has created. sasha baron cohen is a genius for thinking of the ali g show. actually, there are quite a few of these shows at the moment. the ashton kutcher show - punked (on mtv) is brilliant as well, and there is some new show which has started here - the jamie kennedy experiment. i caught the last few minutes of the jamie kennedy experiment the other day, and it didn't look brilliant, but maybe i have to watch a few episodes and then i'll see whether i enjoy it more.
anyway, ali g is in the character of the slightly camp guy (okay - not slightly camp), and he's busy interviewing a minister, and telling the guy how much he likes being gay! hilarious!!!
go Ali G!!!!
soup (again)
thursday lunch - late:
finished off the potato and parsnip soup that i started the other day. real good!
cuppichino x2
thursday breakfast:
i had an 11 meeting and didn't feel like having an early breakfast, so i downed my berocca which is becoming routine, and headed for the meeting.
after, VL wanted a bite to eat, so we headed to simply aisa, a noodle restaurant. i think simply aisa might be connected to the aisan kitchen group - actually thinking about it, perhaps not.
anyway, i had a cappachino.
then had a chat with AJ and he needed a bite to eat, so we headed to strega - strega is below po na na, and has a court yard - the place was full of models - i definately know that strega is the place to have lunch. i think there might be a number of modelling agencies across the road from strega.
anyway, what did i have to drink at strega? that's right - a cappachino.
so by the time i got back to my place around 4 this afternoon (after a good gym workout), i had had the grand total of a glass of berrocca and 2 cappachino's. i should start noting what flavour coffee the various restaurants use for the cappachino's.
planet bar mount nelson
the mount nelson is a five star hotel in cape town, and the planet bar is no exception to this five star accomplishment.
it is a small bar to the left of the main entrance, and although i didn't go outside, it appears that the outside area of the planet bar overlooks the mount nelson gardens.
what was my first impression of the planet bar - small, it looks much bigger in photo's. why is that? well, it's a small rectangular bar with the bottles at the far end, and behind the barmen is a huge mirror, so when you take photo's of the plant bar, it looks much bigger than it is because of the mirror.
the second impression is classy - the chairs, couches and general theme of the planet bar is victorian (well, not modern - some sort of 17 or 18th century theme), and the ceilings are pressed (as NB pointed out to me). the couches are comfortable, and their are scatter cushions lieing around to help you relax as much as possible.
the clientele are interesting. when we first walked in to the planet bar, there were about 3 people in the bar, but people walked in and out the entire hour we were there, many of them with foreign accents - it could be the people staying in the mount nelson from international destinations, or simply that foreign tourists to cape town are told to take a visit to the planet bar.
near the end a large group of tourists, seemingly from germany, walked through the bar to the outside section - there must have been about 15 of them, and in the small planet bar it was funny to watch them walk through, as it seemed like a queue had formed! :)
we didn't feel like more alchohol, so opted for cuppuccino's, and this is my only problem with the dear planet bar at mount nelson. yes - the mount nelson is five star and one of the top hotels in cape town. yes - the planet bar is luxurious, and a great place to have a drink or coffee. but R18 per cuppuccino! that's the most expensive cup of coffee i have had in south africa. and the cuppuchino definately wasn't the best cup of coffee i have had - it was mediocre, and NB remarked that she found it too strong. i had heard rumours that the mount nelson charges in dollars for eating there, and now i can understand that these might not just be rumours.
nevertheless, i guess paying an extra R10 per cup of coffee is worth it, as the planet bar really makes you feel you are in victorian space (enjoy the pun - lol) for awhile!
an interesting tip is that there are 2 entrances to the mount nelson, and the smaller one (i think it's in kloof street - the mount nelson's official address is in orange street in gardens) is much closer to the parking lot, so it's easier to drive in and out of that entrance.
i'll definately be back to the planet bar - but next time for a drink!
tuscany beach camps bay
wednesday dinner:
i met NB in camps bay for a walk along the promenade. we were talking quite a bit, so walked from one side of camps bay to the other twice. the camps bay beach has an interesting new shape in the water - some sort of sandbank - which was most likely caused by the storm in cape town last week.
anyway, we were going to go to sand bar, and then decided to look at the menu's at the other side of the camps bay promenade, but decided to give summerville and blues and the usual restaurants a skip, and head back (walking back sure builds up an appetite), and decided to spend the night at tuscany beach.
tuscany beach is a restaurant, but as most cape town restaurants have these days, they also have a great cocktail menu. tuscany beach is inside and outside, so we decided to opt for the outside table so we could watch the passerby's (no eating is fully complete without some people watching!), and also to hear the waves of camps bay beach crashing every few minutes (camps bay beach doesn't usually have waves crashing, but they sure were last night).
anyway, after we had relaxed for a few minutes, i had a martini fruit cocktail, made from fresh apple juice and apple chunks, and a lot of alchohol, and NB had a strawberry daiquiri. the service was great, and the friendly waiter was totally understanding when we kept telling him that we weren't ready to order, as we were busy talking about a variety of subjects.
after some delicious brown and white bread (interesting to see tuscany beach serving both), i opted for the linefish catch of the day, which was the grilled salmon. although it was delicious, this is my only gripe of the evening, as the waiter said the chilli sauce was MILD, and it was anything but mild, with a kick every mouthful. lucky i like chilli sauce. the meal is accompanied by vegetables, and i was happy that tuscany beach was also happy to give me half chips / half potato, rather than a choice of one from the french fries, mash potato and rice. the vegetables of the day were tasty - creamed spinach and pumpkin (i was trying to work out whether it was pumpkin or butternut, but i've decided that it was pumpkin).
the cape salmon was great! and i accompanied the meal with a glass of cabernet sauvignon - i'm not sure which house white brand wine they brought me in the end, as there were 2 on the menu (3 but one was sold out - ahhhh - my first choice, the sole was also sold out). i'm not at the stage where i can tell a good cabernet sauvignon from a bad or mediocre one, so i can't tell if it was good. i still need to aquire a taste (which i'm starting to do with red wine). the first couple mouthfuls of the white wine tasted like vinegar, and only after forcing down a number of mouthfuls, did it start to taste anywhere near decent. NB had a sip of the white wine, and said it was good, (and she's more of a wine connosieur than me), so i'll have to just accept i know nothing about white wine.
NB had a penne pasta dish and said it was delicious.
i suppose tuscany beach should have turned on the heaters outside the restaurant, as it was getting a little chilly, but they didn't, and after a good meal, we decided to head for coffee to another restaurant - after intense debate we chose the planet bar at the mount nelson hotel which i've been wanting to go to for some time.
platter
wednesday lunch:
i was at a weekly lunch seminar which i'm going to try attend weekly from now on.
their was a platter to snack on while the presentation was going on, and the platter snacks, were to my surprice delicious. it was a fish and vegetarian platter, and had small snacky things that i have no idea what are called. things like blepes (don't know if that is a word), salmon on some sort of bread, small fish balls, some pancake type food, and a couple of other things that i can't begin to describe.
but this was probably the best platter snacks i have had!
alta rica
wednesday breakfast:
after my usual berocca effervescnet this morning, i had the usual - hi energy breakfast cereal and a cup of coffee. breakfast is quite a routine meal, and i don't like to be too innovative with it. little changes here and there - but that is it.
so today there were 2 changes.
firstly, i had alta rica coffee instead of the normal nescafe (although alta rica is a nescafe coffee as well).
alta rica describes itself as follows: "100% arabica beans, long roasted to release the complex and intense flavour. best enjoyed black to fully appreciate the intensity of this coffee".
alta rica is rated 3 on the nescafe coffee intensive index.
i'm still trying to decide whether i'm an alta rica fan or not.
i also remembered to warm up the hi energy cereal in the microwave today. it tastes a lot better when it is slightly warm.
knorr soup
i was watching television and an advert was shown for knorr soup.
the punchline was "every meal is a story".
i thought the knorr advert was really good, and made me think that the reason for this online diary is to let my food adventure be told to the world.
good for knorr!
butternut
tuesday dinner:
well, a 3 course meal tonight, so i'm feeling rather content with life.
starting off with a potato and parsnip soup which was delicious. it's a strained soup, so there are no pieces of potato or parsnip that you have to chew.
rather, you just enjoy the flavouring of the soup itself!
then ont the main - butternut with a spinach, mushroom and feta filling. i baked the butternut for about 35 minutes in the oven (the instructions said cook for 30 to 35 minutes), but it was still not entirely cooked. so i put it back for a few minutes, but it still wasn't done. so i took the butternut and mashed it, and then spread the spinach, mushroom and feta filling across the butternut - it was still a little raw but very tasty.
i also wasn't sure whether to eat the skin of the butternut, so i rather left it, not knowing whether you are suppose to eat it or not.
then for dessert, i had the usual dessert that i often have - the low fat yoghurt with rasberry's at the bottom of the plastic container, which you then mix in with the yoghurt.
so now i'm feeling calm and relaxed, and perhaps i'll have a cup of tea a little later, but other than that, i think i'm all out eaten for the day.
toasted avo
tuesday lunch:
i've been craving an avo sandwich for some time now, so after a good gym workout, i stopped at the woolworths to pick up some ripe avocado's and a slice of brown bread. i decided to go for brown bread rather than white bread, as it's healthier.
i' got a brown bread called super wholewheat bread.
super wholewheat bread is described as follows:
"it's not only bigger
it's also softer with a silky
fine texture and with
added crushed
wholwheat"
i never knew a loaf of brown bread could be so poetic! LOL
anyway, 4 slices of the super wholewheat bread later and i'm content.
2 slices with avocado, (and a half avocado on the side as an extra), a slice with low fat parmalat smooth cottage cheese, and the 4th slice with low fat parmalat smooth cottage cheese and a dash of strawberry jam - well, i think it was strawberry jam, but it might have been some other berry jam.
and of course the avocado has to have a touch of black pepper on it to give it flavour.
lastly, the bread needs to be toasted to give a toasted avocado sandwhich - well, toasted avocado with black pepper sandwhich to be precise.
and this is really last now - the avocado should be mashed - i know it sounds disgusting, but it needs to be mixed up.
just remembered that i also wanted to add spring onion to the avocado, and i clean forgot to buy it!
hi energy breakfast
tuesday breakfast.
the problem with writing a daily account of how i'm turning cooking into an art, is that many of the meals after awhile are the same.
so today is no different.
i woke up and had a glass of berrocca to give me the boost - i'm really trying to strenghten my immune system by having a daily multi vitamin - i'm not sure if berrocca is the best one - i'm thinking maybe pharmaton or one of the other daily multi vitamins, but for now i'm starting to feel healthy.
then a plate of hi energy pronutro like cereal, and a cup of coffee.
nothing much i can think of which was different except that i was planning to heat the hi energy cereal in the microwave, as i prefer it when it is slightly warmed up, but i was busy with something else, so forgot to warm it up, and ate it cold.
vegetable ravioli
i had meetings and functions most of the day, so didn't really have a chance to think about food.
so for lunch i made a pot of fresh roasted vegetable ravioli, and left someover to eat for dinner.
the vegetable ravioli is from woolworths, and according to the packaging it is "made in vincenza in one of the oldest filled pasta factories in italy".
it wasn't amazing, but perhaps that is coz it's been in my fridge for a couple days, or i over / under cooked it, but ravioli is filling, so it was suitable for giving me energy for the afternoon (although i often feel tired after eating heavy carbs such as pasta).
oats
monday breakfast:
i was running to an early 10am meeting on monday, so quickly had the berrocca, and a cup of coffee together with a bowl of jungle oats. nothing different about the jungle oats, except that i added a drop of honey to the oats, which gave it a sweet taste - but countered by one of the 4 special ingredients, salt, it tastes great.
pizza, pizza, pizza
Sunday - breakfast, lunch and dinner!
well i had the casalinga pizza half eaten on saturday night, but that meant there was still half a pizza left on sunday. i had a few slices of pizza for brunch on sunday, and then in the evening i went to EF's place to watch a dvd, and i took the last 2 slices to her place, and had them for dinner.
so the casalinga pizza is no more. it was a really good pizza, and i really enjoyed it, but it definately does not contribute to the healthy way of living!
i also had a slice of home made cheese cake on sunday night which EF made herself. home made cheesecake is delicious!
vegetarian pizza
saturday night:
so i was suppose to go to another braai after s's braai, but driving back from the first braai, i realised i was tired and lazy, and didn't feel like it, so i thought i would have a relaxing saturday night watching a movie on tv, and maybe doing a spot of cooking.
so i got home and settled down to watch some stuff on tv - i actually flipped to the bbc prime channel and was watching a show about 5 girls competing against 5 guys in a variety of tasks - and the winning team got a trip to thailand (although i don't know if that is the best place for a holiday considering what has recently happened in thailand).
anyway, about half way through the show, which was actually really entertaining (ahhhhh - i remember now - it was being hosted by the ex soccer star - ian wright), my tv and lights and all the other electricity suddenly went out.
now i remember when i moved into the flat a few weeks ago, that they had mentioned that the electricity was prepaid, but i hadn't really throught about it. nevertheless, i lit a few candles around the flat, and found the electricity meter, and yes - the electricity meter showed a balance of zero!
anyway, to cut a long story short, i found out you can buy time at a cafe, and i found out what cafe was open to sell it, and i bought the electricity. but after this situation, i didn't feel like cooking, so i decided to have a pizza from st elmo's.
i chose a vegeterian casalinga pizza, which had all the toppings. st elmo's really makes a great pizza. a casalinga pizza has olives, mushrooms, asparagus, and a whole lot of other ingredients. i chose a large casalinge pizza with a thick base (you can choose between a large and thin base).
anyway, it was delicious, but a large pizza from st elmo's is far too much pizza for one person - and i managed to get through just under half of the pizza.
so you can guess what i'll be eating today? that's right - pizza!! :)
amstel continued
i forgot to mention that i think a beer in a bottle has a far nicer taste than a beer in a can if you are drinking the beer straight out the bottle or can.
i'm not sure between drinking a beer out of a bottle or a glass - if the glass is the right type of glass, then it could be preferable, but on a hot day, nothing beats drinking a beer straight out of a bottle.
amstel and domedes
saturday lunch:
i spent the morning attending the seminar AH was giving which was interesting and i learnt a couple of new things. one of my other mates, SC flew in to the city at 1, and i told him i would pick him and his kid up from the airport (who is really cute - 4 years old), and take them to his brothers place, as there was a party happening there.
so between 1 and about 4:30, i was at s's brothers braai. so what did i actually have for lunch?
a couple amstel beers (2 cans to be precise as i was driving and didn't want to drink too much, although 2 beers is enough to hit me!), some delicious demados (those rice and other things mixture, which are then wrapped up in seaweed (i had about 7 or 8 demado's - although demado's are a bite so doesn't take long to eat).
then i had a few (two i think) corn on the cobs which had been (i think) thrown on the braai to cook them, as they had great flavour - but they were the small ones - about a quarter of a normal corn, so they also didn't exactly fill me up.
and i ate quite a few of the chips on the table - the chips had a strange flavour, and i'm still not quite sure what they were.
on the way out, there were some breadrolls lying on the kitchen table, and so i took one for the drive - it had some amazing flavour.
one of those totally non healthy lunches, but you definately need that once in awhile.
nothing!!
saturdy breakfast (or lack of breakfast):
i said that AH could use our office for a small seminar he was having, so i had to be @ the office at 8:30 to let him in and show him around.
when i woke up at 7, i had my (now routine) glass of berrocca, and then didn't feel like eating so early. as i was driving to the office, and as i was 15 minutes early, i decided that it would be a great idea to get a cappachino. only problem is that every coffee shop i drove past at 8:15 on saturday morning was closed. not a single place to get a cappachino - and i must have driven past 4 places!
so i had to be content having a cup of filter coffee at the office
home cooked meal
Friday dinner:
i ate at JM's place tonight - well, actually at her folks.
it was a good meal. a proper home cooked meal, which i don't get very often.
There was 2 types of meat, and a number of vegetables.
And I had some type of cake for dessert (although there were lots of different cakes), and a cup of black coffee.
scrambled eggs on toast
the problem with blogging is that time flies by, and then you realise you haven't blogged for a couple days. it's like that with me. i woke up this morning - sunday morning - and reaslied that i hadn't blogged since friday morning.
now my intention was to do 3 postings a day at least, so i've got a bit of catching up to do.
here goes:
friday lunch:
an amazing lunch. really simple, but i enjoyed it immensely. scrambled eggs on toast. now you'll be saying "what's so special about scrambled eggs on toast". well, first the eggs have to be cooked correctly - not too long or they'll be dry, and not too quick or they'll be - well uncooked eggs - so you have to get it right in the middle.
then the real secret ingredient is to add some low fat smooth cottage cheese to the toast before you put the scrambled eggs on. it gives the scrambled eggs a creamy smooth taste which is delightful.
that was the last 3 slices of bread i had left, and i have to decide now whether to buy another loaf of bread, as i know it's not that healthy.
yoghurt & banana
friday breakfast:
after a berocca effervesent tablet to get the day off to a roaring start, i decided that i didn't feel like cereal.
so i found some fruit yoghurt, cut up a banana, and that was my breakfast. it actually tasted really good, and was a nice healthy breakfast. i also had a hot cup of nescafe coffee to wake me up.
which is slowly starting to kick in - it's just after 10am now, and i'm starting to feel a little awake. probably because i've been trying to get through to telkom for the last hour to find out when my fast internet and telephone line is being installed. and telkom are notorious for not answering telephones, not caring about the customer, and when they do answer, they don't seem particulary interested in helping.
so anyway, i'm now sitting on my cell phone paying about R2 a minute to try find out when my landline is going to be installed. but at least i'm getting somewhere.
and because of my healthy breakfast, my blood pressure isn't going up too quickly! (okay, so maybe it still is!!!!)
curried fish cream cheese bagel
thursday dinner:
3 course dinner tonight. i'm going big! yet it was really simple to prepare:
1. starter - a plate of the butternut soup which i still had left over from the other night. i've thrown the packet away so i can't tell you what exactly is in the butternut soup, so remind me next time.
2. main - curried fish and a warmed up bagel with cream cheese.
3. dessert - low fat yoghurt with fruit type thing. don't know how to describe it better (and my hands are tired from typing)
norwegian salmon
thursday lunch:
i cooked norwegian salmon for lunch. the only problem is that i was meant to have it last night for dinner, but i went out for dinner last night (to masa buca if you've been reading every day :)) and so the expiry for the norwegian salmon was for the 5th and today was the 7th.
anyway, the norwegian salmon smelled very strong when i took it out the packet (salmon is sealed in airtight bags) and i wasn't sure whether the smell was good or bad.
nevertheless i took a chance and grilled it for a few minutes, and microwaved some prepared ready to eat vegetables (with some sort of peanut sauce) which was really nice.
the salmon was delicious as usual - norwegian salmon, actually any salmon, is really easy to prepare.
however, i have to admit that i did cheat, as i did have 2 slices of bread with the salmon and vegetables so it wasn't as healthy a lunch as it should have been.
USN muscle fuel
After a good gym workout this morning, i decided that it's time to take a few gym supplements, so i started today with a USN muscle fuel supplement.
USN is the ultimate sports nutrition (hence the symbols USN) company, and they have an entire range of gym supplements.
Muscle fuel is a high protein nutrition shake, and it's also described as fuel dynamic - for optimising muscle growth.
each helping of USN muscle fuel has 53 grams of high bv protein, 13 grams of glutamine, (they mention gluatamic acid, lglutamine and glutamine peptides but i'm not sure what these are) and 2 grams mct.
anyway, i've got muscel fuel and some other supplement which also provides protein, and i'll start having one or 2 per day, so that i have 5 meals per day - apparently that is ideal - 5 or 6 small meals, rather than 3 larger ones.
the flavour of the usn muscle fuel is rich chocolate, and it tastes quite good - far better though if you add a little milk to the water that you mix the powder with.
some people apparently add pure milk to the muscle fuel, but i think it's healthier to add mainly water and just a tad milk although it doesn't taste as good.
banana breakfast & berocca
Thursday Breakfast:
I've decided to get healthier, so the first thing i had this morning when i woke up was berocca - the effervescent one. It is a multi vitamin, and whether it is psychological or not, I felt more energetic a few minutes after taking it.
Then onto breakfast which was the same as yesterday - hi energy cereal with a cup of coffee, with 2 differences. The hi energy cereal had a banana added cut into pieces, and the coffee was the nescafe alta rica blend, a grade 3 intense coffee.
Alta Rica is described as 100% arabica coffee beans, which have been long roasted to release the complex and intense flavour. A fantastic cup of coffee which I thoroughly enjoyed.
There are a number of different nescafe coffee blends, and i'll start trying some of the other ones.
roast vegetables
Wednesday Dinner:
tonight i was at a marketing get together listening to a number of speakers speak about tools in the online marketing space. it was very interesting.
afterwards, i made a last minute plan with N to meet her for a late dinner.
we decided to meet up in observatory, and we went to a restaurant which has been open for five months now called maso buca (or something along those lines).
it's now in the main road of observatory. it's a little off the main road. we found an outside table at maso buca and although the outside tables overlook the road, it was still pleasant.
we shared some potato dish for starters which was nice - maso buca is a greek and italian restaurant so all the names on the menu were strange and unrecognisable.
for mains, i had the roast vegetable dish which for R35 bucks was a bargain - the spicing made it really tasty.
N had the slow cooked lamb - the menu says that the lamb takes 6 hours to cook - and N said it was enjoyable. all 200 grams! :) (private joke)
okay - the reason for the joke - and i'm tired so i don't know why i'm writing this, is that their was another person in the restaurant that night who had a fight with the owner (who is a friend of N's) as they didn't believe the lamb had enough meat - so the owner took the patron into the kitchen, and weighed the meat, and there was still 150 grams of meat left, although the guy had already eaten part of it. neverthless, he walked out without paying - what do you do in a case like that? citizens arrest?
anyway, N said the slow cooked lamb was really good, but even if it wasn't, there was no way we were complaining - as we heard the owner screaming at the guy as he walked out the restaurant (if someone walked out of my restaurant without paying, i'd probably have done the same so i don't blame her)
we also shared a bottle of red - a merlot - which was a nice wine with a dark woody chocolatey taste. although i still can't tell one bottle of red wine from the next - let alone a merlot from another sort of wine.
after the meal, as we were walking back to the cars, we passed the poi happening at cool runnings. the poi is amazing - a number of guys throwing sticks and ropes around with fire attached to them. so when they throw the sticks around fast, the display is a breathtaking fire exhibition - we stayed for about half an hour watching a number of different guys throwing fire around to the beating of a hypnotic drum rythm.
and now, a couple of glasses of red merlot richer, it's time to bid adieu (or whatever the correct word in greek is).
smoke salmon
Wednesday Lunch:
On the way home from the virgin gym today, i stopped off at pick n pay to pick up a couple of things.
as I was leaving I decided it would be good to finish off the smoke salmon I purchased yesterday on some bagels rather than on wholeweat bread.
So I bought 2 bagels - one bagel with some sort of stuff on top of it - i have no idea what it is on the bagel, and one plain bagel.
i also bought some of the parmalat smooth cottage cheese. i've liked the taste of smooth cottage cheese for years, and only today did i realise what it was. i've had it at parties for years now, and i never realised it was simply low fat smooth parmalat cottage cheese.
anyway, it was a simple but delicious lunch - you take the bagel, (i used the plain bagel), cut it in half, add the smoke salmon (i didn't have as much smoke salmon as i would have liked, but it still worked well), add the parmalat smooth cottage cheese, and a touch of lemon juice (i didn't have lemons - i cheated and used the lemon juice from a bottle), and you have a smoke salmon cream cheese bagel.
i also started getting healthier today and bought some of the effervescent berrocca - the type that dissolves when you add it to a glass of water - so i had my first glass of berrocca in quite some time.
so after a gym workout and eating healthy, i'm feeling top class this afternoon.
hi energy breakfast
Wednesday Breakfast:
as you can probably figure out by now, i had a decent size shop at woolworths last night.
i also bought some hi energy breakfast cereal called, LOL, HIGH-ENERGY cereal! :)
it's very similar to pronutro, but doesn't form a cement paste like pronutro does. but in a similar way to pronutro, with the hi-energy breakfast cereal, you just add milk, and it's ready to eat.
i bought the hi-energy regular flavour - and i think it tastes pretty good.
i accompanied the meal with a hot steaming cup of nescafe coffee.
i think it's time i bought a proper cappachino machine for use at home. i need to start researching which of the cappachino machines are best.
Vegetarian Cottage Pie
Tuesday Dinner:
I felt like something different so warmed up a microwave vegetarian cottage pie from woolworths. The vegetarian cottage pie is easy to make. Simply prick a few holes in the plastic of the vegeterian cottage pie container, pop it in the microwave, and within a few minutes - about 3 or 4 minutes, your dinner is ready to eat.
I had it with a couple slices of white bread, and added the vegetarian cottage pie to the bread in a sort of sandwhich form - so creating the first (as far as i know) vegetarian cottage pie sandwhich.
for something sweet afterwards, i had the low fat yoghurt with rasberry's from woolworths. this small plastic container is filled with low fat plain flavoured yoghurt and has a number of rasberry's added. the best is to mix the yoghurt with the rasberry's to the texture you best enjoy.
butternut soup
Tuesday Lunch:
I had a quick bowl of butternut and orange soup after my meeting. Butternut and Orange soup is a prepared soup from one of the convenience stalls.
It is very tasty.
cappachino & muffins
i had an early meeting this morning, so i started off with a cappachino at e vida caffe - the coffee is delightful - a portugese blend, and vida caffe always has a buzz about it.
this morning at vida, it was packed, and the vibe was great.
after a great cappachino (and they give you a small dark chocolate with your coffee), i popped in to charley's to grab a blueberry muffin.
tuna & avocado salad
monday dinner:
i ate at G's place last night. we sat on the verandah and the view overlooking the waterfront was amazing.
i mixed a tuna salad together with a pasta salad, and added in some avocado. it was actually really good - far better than i expected - i'm really starting to enjoy avocado these days.
i accompanied the meal with a glass of tap water! :)
soup at relish
i had a great soup for a late lunch at relish. however, i can't for the life of me remember what was in it. but it tasted great.
the cappachino was also pretty decent.
i'm always amazed when i go to relish how empty it is, but according to other people in the know, relish is booked out for dinners. so maybe i just always seem to go at the wrong time.
jungle oats
monday breakfast:
a great tasting meal, which keeps you going all day. take a cup of oats, add boiling water, place it in the microwave, and leave it for a couple minutes. opening the microwave and stirring the oats every 30 seconds or so to prevent it from spilling over the side of the bowl.
add butter, sugar, milk and salt (the secret ingredients), and you have the perfect bowl of oats
toast again
I spent about an hour driving all over the place, deciding what I felt like for dinner. I was going to grab a burger first, and then decided that a hamburger wasn't healthy enough. So I took a drive to pick up some fresh fish, but both of the fresh fish restaurants were already closed (9pm sunday night - why didn't i think of it before i started the drive).
anyway, the drive was wonderful, and when i arrived home, i felt like a sweet dinner.
so i opened up a can of guava's and had guava and yoghurt. i was going to have 2 or 3 guava pieces, but ended up finishing the whole can of guava's.
i was still a little hungry, so had some more toast (if i don't eat the loaf of bread within a few days it goes bad - i wonder if there is a place that sells half loaves of bread. i hate the idea of buying bread and having to throw it away).
so anyway, to filfull my sweet tooth craving, i had a couple slices of toast with chocolate spread, and syrup. i didn't mix the chocolate and syryp. one slice had chocolate spread on it, and the other had syryp. and i ended the meal with a nice hot cup of tea (with milk and sugar)
toast
Sunday Lunch:
a very basic lunch today as i'm not in the cooking mood.
so i had a couple slices of toast with jam on some of them.
kauia
Sunday Breakfast:
I had a meeting at Kauia this morning so my sunday breakfast consisted of a monster c - a monsterc is a type of drink that kauia makes - sort of like a shake - but supposedly far more healthy. and it tastes great.
braai / barbecue
we had a braai / barbecue last night (i know some of you say braai and some say barbecue, so i'll write it as braai / barbecue to appease all of you) :)
anyway, JC was a great host, with plenty of snacks and drinks ready on arrival.
i had a couple of beers which i haven't done for some time, although i was drinking amstel beer from the bottle (far better taste than the cans), and later in the evening i noticed there was also windhoek beer which i far prefer.
the meat was amazing - well cooked JC! i'm still feeling and nice and content this morning.
Toasted Cheese
Saturday: Lunch
A very simple lunch of 2 pieces of white bread (yes - i know they're not as healthy as brown bread, but i felt like it anyway), with gouda cheese.
I know you can use the oven for making toasted cheese sandwhiches but i decided to be more creative.
1. I toasted the bread
2. I grated the gouda cheese
3. I placed some of the grated cheese on each piece of toasted bread
4. I placed the toast with the grated cheese on top, in the microwave for 30 seconds.
5. I cut the pieces of toast in half to give me 4 pieces
6. On 2 of the pieces, I added a smothering of strawberry jam
The only bad part of the lunch, other than the white bread being substituted for brown bread, was that I heard later in the day that gouda has a very high fat content. And there I thought I was having a healthy lunch!!!
weetbix
Saturday: Breakfast
A simple meal of 3 x Weetbix with a topping of muesli, with milk added - the important ingredient here is to warm it up in the microwave. This gives the weetbix a totally different taste to when it is eaten cold.
And a cup of coffee - Nescafe - but with milk added (& a smothering of sugar, although i've stopped measuring the sugar exactly. I simply pour from the sugar container into the mug). The important part of making the perfect cup of filter coffee in my opinion is to place the milk and the coffee together, before adding the boiling water (the sugar can be added anytime), and creating a paste between the milk and the coffee. This gives the coffee a very different taste, compared with adding the boiling water to the coffee, and then adding the milk.
pumkin pie
I was @ K's place for dinner last night.
I won't go through the entire meal, but will focus on 2 dishes which were amazing.
The first was a potato and smoked salmon salad. It was small boiled potatoes cut in half, with large amounts of smoked salmon and a creamy mayonaise type sauce.
The second was the Pumkin Pie. Pumkin Pie is a very pleasing food to eat - as it gives a warm ,relaxed, content feeling. It was amazing!
Also, I had my coffee black after the meal, which I don't usually do, as I almost always add milk. I really enjoyed it, and it has a totally different taste to coffee where milk is added. I'll definately be having coffee black again in the future.
boiled eggs
Today I decided to get creative and try boiling eggs. Now this sounds simple, but for some strange reason, I don't remember boiling eggs in the past. I'm big into omlettes, and scrambled eggs, and I've boiled eggs in the microwave, but I've never placed eggs in a pot or pan on the stove.
So I did a bit of investigation on the internet, and found a fantastic website, which describes how to boil the perfect egg - either soft boiled or hard boiled. Unfortunately, I closed the browser window, and can't remember the URL.
I also came upon an interesting piece in the guardian, about the lack of cooking skills in the UK, where apparently only 4 out of 10 girls in the UK have ever boiled an egg in their life! I wonder how many guys have boiled eggs? one of out a thousand???
Anyway, the eggs came out perfectly, and accompanied my buttenut pasta lunch (the pasta had butternut flavour, or had been made together with butternut). I also grated a small amount of gouda over the pasta to give flavour to the meal.
And the accompanying drink - a chilled glass of tap water with a dash of berrocca in a V Long Martini type glass (looks like a martini glass without the handle)
