Sunday 18 March 2012

Food for Spring

After a long time, another food post!

With the onset of spring, I usually have an increased craving of fresh (i.e. uncooked) foods such as salads and raw vegetables. This week, I had several such meals for both my lunch break and in the evenings. Here are just two of them, when I remembered to take pictures:

This salad consisted of half a bag of a ready-to-eat mix of leafy stuff such as lamb's lettuce, radicchio and frisee lettuce, one whole avocado and half a red, green and yellow pepper each (the other halves I had eaten the day before). Yellow peppers are my favourites - I love eating them just like that, without any addion, as I did here and many times since. The salad was dressed with a simple vinaigrette, the recipe for which I posted here. For this particular salad, I went a bit easier on the olive oil, since the avocado already contains quite a lot of fat without adding extra oil.

Some weeks ago, I had come down with a stomach bug which made me get on rather too intimate terms with my toilet. Thankfully, it was over after two days, but for those two days, nothing I ate would stay with me, and I was so glad for the working-from-home arrangement - and even more glad for my parents being so close! They came here both days, bringing coke (normally, I drink just tap water all day) and salted pretzels and rusk for my poor tummy, and generally making sure I had everything I needed.

The rusk I never touched until this week, when I turned it into a nice lunch for me, along with half a cucumber (another left-over from one of the salads I had during the week) and the goat cheese I like very much and regularly get from the supermarket:



So, in culinary terms as well as where the weather was concerned, this week was very much spring!

14 comments:

  1. Sorry about the tummy bug. Hopefully it's gone and will stay gone.

    That looks lovely and so very healthy too. I find it very odd that I eat more salad in Scotland than I do here in NZ. Why? I have no idea because fresh stuff is so plentiful here. Avocados are especially plentiful here in Hawkes Bay and friends have them on their trees too. I love goat cheese baked - really yummy.

    I can't tell the difference between any peppers by the way.

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    1. Oh yes, Graham, that bug was done and dealt with after two days; I was still a bit wobbly on the third day, but after that, my energy was all back.
      Avocados are one of the few luxuries I indulge myself with every now and then when it comes to food; I know their carbon footprint is horrendous, but I hope not having a car makes up for that :-)
      Red peppers taste "fuller" than the others, the yellow ones are sweeter, and the green ones are the most zesty ones. I think I'll try and do a blind taste test next time I have some, to see if I'm right!

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    2. I agree with your assesment of the peppers. I like your idea of a blind taste test. I have no doubts about recognising the yellow but will the other two be as obvious as I think they are?

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    3. When I do that test, of course I will post here about it.

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  2. 'Nothing would stay with me' is an elegant way of putting it - I shall remember that! Hope you're feeling better now.

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    1. Much, much better, Karen, it was a few weeks ago and thankfully, was over as quickly as it had come; I didn't even need to see my GP and get pills for it.

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  3. Hello Meike:
    Yes, the sunny warm weather we are having in Budapest at the moment really does make one's mind turn to fresh, appetizing salads. Such a difference from the hearty 'comfort' foods which one craves throughout the winter months.

    Your salad looks so attractive and, we are sure, tasted delicious too.

    We do so hope that you are feeling more yourself now. How kind of your parents to come round and spoil you! Just what one needs when one is under the weather.

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    1. Thank you, Jane and Lance, I am perfectly alright now, this happened already a few weeks ago, which is why I thought I really should do something about that rusk (I know one can store rusk for a long time, I just don't like having such food stuffs around for a long time).

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  4. Dear Meike,
    I thought it was only a "Southern" thing to have Coca-Cola for a tummy upset! Coke is from Atlanta, you know, and I swear was much nicer then, we only had it in very small portions and not very often at all. It became some kind of marketing nightmare and people started drinking it like water, much to the dismay of those looking to the health of all Americans!
    Your salad looks lovely and I love the sound of that goat cheese!
    I notice that you mentioned a blind taste test. Did you see that I did that with my cakes with my son recently? I used to do that all the time with him when he was a little boy!

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    1. Yes, Kay, I saw that you did a blind taste test with the cakes :-) A few months ago, I did one with water (tap water v. bottled water) with RJ. He did indeed recognize the bottled water he prefers to the tap water I always drink.
      Sometimes I'll have a glass of coke (either the diet or the zero variety; I just don't like the sugary, sticky stuff) when I'm out with friends and want a refreshment and they don't have ginger ale at the bar or restaurant, but I never buy it for myself.

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  5. Love salads, and avacado even more.....I didn't know about their carbon footprint...I'll have to check that out....I am so glad that you are better now, and also agree that working from home makes such dire circumstances a little bit easier to manage....Here's to good health for all!

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    1. Kristi, their carbon footprint of course depends on where you live. In my country, they do not grow naturally, so they are all imported, I think the ones I find at my supermarket come all the way from Chile. If you live in an area where they grow, you are doing well in eating them. I'd love to eat only locally grown food, but it would mean missing out on a lot of fruit and vegetables, I'm afraid...

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  6. Glad to read you are feeling better. That salad looks delicious! :-)

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