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Breakfast: Peppermint tea

In a strange turn of habit, I did NOT start my day with Bircher muesli. Not only was I still full from last night’s pizza and cake, but I was also still in Colchester, miles away from London and my stash of oats, raisins, apricots and nuts. On the plus side, I think last night’s food fest, paired with lots of water before bed, helped stave off a hangover. This was good, because I had to get back to London in time for breakfast with Ruth at 10:30am. On the train, I nourished myself with peppermint tea and a bottle of water while I watched the country roll by. As much as I didn’t have a hangover, I was still pretty tired and not really feeling up to reading or being productive.

Brunch: Best poached eggs ever

Back in London, I cycled home via the Newington Green Grocer and Belle Epoque, the bad ass French bakery nearby, for a loaf of Pain de Champagne and a sourdough rye. Then I made my way to the farmer’s market for fresh eggs and this week’s greens and things. There I ran into Ruth, who helped Tim buy bacon while I focussed on the kale, carrots and apples.

We had a phenomenal breakfast. Tim’s poached eggs were the best he’s made in a while. This we credit to the freshness of the eggs and Tim’s liberal use of vinegar in the poaching water. Tim is a superstar when it comes to poached eggs. They are one of my favorite all time foods.

To my frustration, I was still not very hungry, so I opted against toast and instead had my poached egg on some steamed spinach. On the side, I baked some tomatoes and mushrooms with oregano, mixed herbs, salt, pepper and lots of olive oil. The tomatoes were outstanding - organic English tomatoes from “Newington Green man” (our pet name for the guy who runs the Newington Green Grocer). Sweet and delicious. I’m tempted to go buy some more tomorrow for a nice pasta sauce.

Dinner: Pea and sympathy

In between breakfast and dinner I drank copious amounts of black tea plus a snack of leftover steamed spinach sprinkled with some black sesame seeds. Nothing could revive me, and I feel like I spent much of the afternoon waiting around for dinner.

I made soup. Comforting, pureed yellow split pea soup with kale and thyme, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika. Seemed like the perfect antidote to my sleepiness and this dreary cold day. The kale part was inspired by Susan’s Yellow Split-Pea Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Kale while the oil and paprika comes from Heidi’s Vegetarian Split Pea Soup. This was very yummy, though next time I might leave out the kale in favor of a simpler, smoother soup.

I ate this with some Belle Epoque bread and a salad.

Speaking of soup, Cassie just posted this awesome looking recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Lentil Soup with Pomegranate Molasses. I love the idea of pumpkin in lentil soup and I actually have pomegranate molasses on hand.

Any other soup lovers out there? Send me your recipes. Winter is here and I’m on a soup kick!

The older I get, the more of a lightweight I become. Thursday night’s Guinness managed to affect a Friday morning headache, so I started the day right with a few ibuprofen, a bowl of Bircher muesli, and a bit of hot black tea with milk. It would seem I am back on the caffeine, or at least, back on the tea. I like it, but I don’t think I’m sleeping as well as I was without it.

Friday afternoon I was off on a train to Colchester for a friend’s baby shower. I got there early and we had a lunch combining the best of English culinary cuisine with the veg-obsessed tendencies of a vegetarian: baked beans on toast with a salad of cucumber, tomato, avocado, red onion and winter greens. Delicious!

We spent the rest of the afternoon baking a chocolate cake and catching up while we waited for guests to arrive. Dinner was pizza, champagne and beer.

Dessert was our homemade chocolate cake which was scrumptious. The cake was made of only three ingredients - eggs, sugar and cocoa. No flour! But to our amazement, it turned out moist and crumbly like a good cake should and negated any prior cravings for Halloween candy.

Breakfast: Bircher Muesli

Lunch: Leftovers galore.

I made a taco with yesterday’s leftover fajitas and a little scrambled tofu, plus a mixed salad on the side (some of which ended up in the taco!).

Snack: Half of a grapefruit

Dinner: More leftovers

Scrambled tofu, roasted cabbage (see recipe below), and a small slice of chive/corn bread.

Not Shown: One Pint of Guiness and a Few Sips of Becks

After dinner I went to the Water Poet to catch up with some former workmates. It was weird mingling with bankers again, and it felt good to not be one of them. Nothing against THEM, it was just that >>I<< am happier and it was nice hanging out with them and feeling happy rather than grumpy about work and the credit crunch.

I was also in a good mood because I managed to nurse my one pint of Guinness for most of the night and then drank water the rest of the time. What was truly astounding was that this didn't bother me at all and I didn't feel like I was missing out. I usually feel pressure to say "yes" whenever someone is buying a round, but last night I felt immune from the pressure. Part of this is thanks to my wonderful former colleagues who are totally chill about drinking and don't seem to share the "everyone must get drunk" mentality that many English people seem to have at pub situations. I apologize to any Brits in the audience because I don't mean to generalize. But this has been one of the hardest things about living in London for me - learning to be moderate with my alcohol intake while living in a culture that takes pride in it's LACK of moderation.

Right. I must now try not to overanalyze the situation and instead just be happy for having a great night out with friends.

Bonus Recipe: Roasted Cabbage with Onion and Caraway Seeds

This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy cabbage.

In a roasting tray, combine:

1 Savoy Cabbage, thinly slice
1 onion, thinly sliced into rounds
1 pinch of sugar
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Toss everything together then add a little water at the bottom of the tray. Roast at 350 F / 180 C for about 45 minutes, until cabbage is cooked and slightly crispy, checking occasionally and adding more water if needed.

I started my morning in the usual way with a cup of lemon and honey tea. This ritual is such a nice way to start the day, and I just learned from Susan at Grounded Fitness that morning lemon tea is thought to be “healing” according to Ayurveda:

A very soothing Ayurvedic practice is drinking a glass of warm water with a slice of lemon or lime. The warm water wakes up your intestines and tummy. The lemons and limes are high in vitamins and minerals, which can help loosen the toxins in your digestive tract.

According to the post, Ayurveda also recommends a two other rituals that I already practice: get up before the sun rises and eat lightly. My Bircher muesli is fairly light, consisting mostly of fruit and raw nuts. I also don’t stuff my face with mass quantities of it.

As you can see, I haven’t quite given up on consuming fluids (rooibos tea) with food. But I have been trying to sip my tea more slowly while I eat instead of gulping it down as soon as it’s cool enough to do so. That’s where having a teapot comes in handy. I can poor a little bit of tea at a time, keeping it hot in the pot.

In the late morning, I worked up an appetite by doing a “core” workout, a new thing for me - I am still recuperating from shin splints and am starting to feel a little soft around the edges for lack of walking and swimming. For lunch I made a massive batch of scrambled tofu made with onion, garlic, peas, carrot, broccoli (stems, too), tomato, oregano, and fresh parsley. Tofu scramble is one of my favorite things. I had it with a piece of emergency chive/corn bread and a little extra broccoli on the side.

Having just harvested our second batch of mushrooms from the mushroom log, I decided to make mushroom fajitas. I sauteed the mushroom with onion, garlic, bell pepper, cumin seed, and ground cumin, then added lime and cilantro at the end. They were pretty tasty, especially topped with fresh guacamole and served in a homemade tortilla. I also had a bit of mixed salad on the side.

I forgot to take a picture of the grapefruit I ate after dinner. It was very tart and may have pushed me over the edge because I felt really full after dinner and EXHAUSTED. Another day of food, complete.

I am fighting a strong urge to go sleep at the moment, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Breakfast: Good ol’ reliable Bircher muesli.

Lunch: Black beans; corn on the cob; kale with caramelized onion, garlic and chili.

Dinner: Tofu “neatballs” with broccoli and marinara sauce.

Dessert: A trip to the ballet, entitled “Three Short Works”. It was a little much for our two short attention spans - Tim and I left after the second “act”. Not that it was bad. It was just kind of, well, boring. But a good experience nonetheless. I enjoyed a glass of Royal Opera House Sauvignon Blanc before the performance. The Royal Opera House has a very nice Champaign Bar!

Forgive the shameless self promotion, but I’m too excited not to share. I just got my copy of the December 2008 issue of VegNews Magazine featuring my article (!!!) about veggie travel in London! I’ve been waiting for months to see this in print and am not disappointed by the result.

You can check out the article by clicking on the thumbnails below, visiting my portfolio or better yet, by picking up a copy of VegNews!

VegEscapes: London Calling

I woke up at the absurd hour of 5:30am with a headache and a thirst (I guess I drank too much wine the night before). I had my tea and an ibuprofen, pottered around a bit, and then went back to bed until 7am. I still had a headache when emerged for breakfast but that didn’t stop me from enjoying my morning’s Bircher just the same. It was particularly good - moister than usual, and somehow creamier.

I still had a headache and a hunger a couple of hours later. I was also incredibly tired. (”How pathetic,” I thought, “a small beer, two-ish glasses of wine, a big roast dinner, lots of water, and I’m still hungover.”) There was nothing to do but have a smoothie and some tea.

Tim introduced me to the idea of putting cocoa powder in my protein smoothie. I made the smoothie with whey protein powder, banana, flax meal, water, cocoa and lots of ice. It was incredibly good and didn’t even require extra sugar (though I’ve been told that my sweet tooth is much more subdued that other people’s, and I have a particular liking for bitter dark chocolate).

The tea and smoothie did wonders for my disposition. The headache vanished, I woke up, and was able to get on with some work.

I’m usually ravenously hungry by noon, but the smoothie was very filling, so I had a small lunch. I made a salad with mixed leaves, carrot, cucumber, tomato and red onion, dressed lightly with balsamic vinaigrette, with a slice of Heidi’s yeast-raised cornbread smeared with avocado.

I’ve mentioned the cornbread before, and its notable un-corniness and strong flavor of chives. This was, at first, kind of annoying (I was after CORN bread, after all) and I wasn’t so sure I liked it so I delegated the bread to the freezer for emergencies. But every time I dip in for a slice I find I like it more and more. The bread is very light and nice out of the toaster. I think I may use the remainder for a stuffing this Thanksgiving. The vegetarian stuffing at the bakingsheet blog looks yummy.

That reminds me, I must get my hand on a Tofurkey before the end of November. I’m not usually one for fake meat, but I actually really like those weird Tofurkeys. Plus, my dad (a carnivore) LOVES them and he is coming to visit us in London for Thanksgiving. I’ve been trying to get a hold of one through Fresh & Wild (London’s Whole Foods owned hippy store) but so far they haven’t come through. Any ideas? (By the way, leftover Tofurkey makes great veggie reuben sandwiches!)

I had a meeting at 2:30pm, which was just as well because I was VERY tempted for another slice of bread with avocado. My meeting went much longer than expected and I didn’t get home til after 6pm. The cycle ride revved up my appetite for dinner and my constant craving for Indian food. I made FatFreeVegan’s Red Lentil Dal with Panch Phoran with basmati rice and cabbage salad.

The cabbage salad is something I made up a while ago but I keep coming back to because it’s simple and refreshing. First, I slice the cabbage thinly and mix it with some fresh chopped cilantro. Then I heat up some olive oil in a pan, add equal parts cumin seed, coriander seed and mustard seed, plus 10-20 curry leaves. When the seeds pop, I pour it over the cabbage and toss with some lemon juice and a good pinch of salt. Finally, I sprinkle some coconut flakes over the top.

The Indian food hit the spot but I managed not to stuff myself silly (the nice thing about cabbage salad is that it takes some time to chew so it’s hard to overfill).

As I often do, I finished the day with a grapefruit.

I made up for the wet and cold Sunday with lots of hot and delicious food. The exception was my breakfast Bircher muesli, which wasn’t hot but was delicious as always. I had my lemon and honey tea WITH breakfast this time, followed by my Rooibos. Yes, I seem to drink a lot of fluid with my breakfast. This leads me to a question:

Is consuming liquids with a meal bad for digestion?

I’ve read that drinking too much liquid with meals interferes with the digestive process by diluting the concentration of hydrochloric acid and enzymes needed for proper digestion. Ayurvedic, India’s system of traditional medicine, recommends sipping warm or room temperature liquids during a meal but cautions against ice cold liquids and foods.

I have noticed that I’ve been experiencing a slightly sour stomach after breakfast recently. For no logical reason whatsoever I attributed this to the milk in my tea or the sugary muesli (I don’t add sugar, mind you, but he apple, raisins and apricots pack their own sweet punch). I think I will try having my tea AFTER breakfast for a while and see how that goes.

So far, my attempts to avoid snacking have been somewhat dismal. I don’t really like “filling up” with my meals - this tends to make me feel gross and tired. And there is much to be said for eating frequently throughout the day. As long as I control my snacking without overdoing it, I should be fine. And really, when my mid-morning snack consists of a crisp Egremeont russet apple and a single Brazil nut, should I really worry?

(Random book-blogging and shameless self promotion: the book in the picture is Jenna Glatzer’s Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer which I was referred to while writing my latest blog post at Writer’s Residence: Writing Samples Demystified. If there are any freelance writers in the audience, you might find it interesting!)

This food diary is all about honesty, and so I cannot lie to you folks: I had another cup of caffeinated tea. I don’t feel bad about it. Hot Black Tea With Milk is NICE, and for me, one of the main detractors of veganism (that along with parmesan cheese and honey). I still won’t touch coffee though, unless it’s decaf (which I know isn’t really caffeine-free but really, how anal should one really be about these things?).

By the time lunch rolled around I was SO looking forward to some leftover soup. We made some rotini noodles on the side and poured the soup over the noodles. Pasta e fagioli! Sort of.

The soup liquid kind of filtered down over the noodles leaving lots of beans and veggies on top, looking more like a stew than soup. It was good though, and reminded me of chili mac, which in turn reminded me of the Texas Chili Parlor, which does a phenomenal five-bean veggie chili, served with crackers, onions and pickled jalapenos. I thought they did chili mac, but now that I look at their menu, I see I was confusing chili mac with Frito pie, another one of those awesome comfort foods that almost excuses all the bad things you could say about Fritos.

I also had a simple salad with my soup, consisting of mixed leaves, tomato, cucumber, red onion, parsley, and balsamic vinaigrette. The salad was nice, but I should have left out the tomato and used less vinaigrette. That combined with the soup was a bit too tangy for my taste buds, and I felt very sour in the mouth by the time I was done.

Snack attack hit at around 4pm, and I made do with a carrot and a kiwi fruit. It sounds like the most pathetic snack in the world but I adore simple foods like these. It occurs to me now how much raw food I eat. Up until dinner, everything I ate except for the soup had been raw. This isn’t unusual. I crave vegetables, especially raw ones. The other day Tim and I were talking about lunch and he said he could make do with toast and peanut butter. Don’t get me wrong, toast and PB is one of life’s simple pleasures, but I don’t really see a meal as complete unless it comes with a lot of vegetables.

Despite my propensity for raw veggies, I also adore vegetables prepared at the other end of the spectrum: roasted for ages with olive oil! And so dinner approached with great anticipation, as Rory invited us over for a roast. I don’t eat meat, but roast dinners always promise lots of delicious veggies. I was not disappointed.

The roasted veggies consisted of onion, carrot, parsnips, squash and rosemary. They rocked my world! As did the kale, which Rory prepared with lemon and sesame seeds - a novel idea courtesy of the Tesco packet.

I also got my raw food fix with some cucumber and tomato salad, as well as some tasty couscous made with lemon, apricot, prunes and pine nuts.

The meat eaters enjoyed their couscous straight out of the chicken, which I did not eat, but chicken-fans in the audience may find the couscous “stuffing” to be a novel idea.

Despite looking very serious about all of this, I was very happy with the food (and the wine, not pictured). But I cannot say the same for my friend, the bird.

Saturday morning. Woke up to another cuppa lemon & honey tea (not shown) followed by my reliable Bircher muesli. I think I need to cut back on the apple I put in my muesli. It tends to overpower the nice nutty flavor of the oat and flax.

Lunch was highly anticipated, as there were leftover roasted veggies to consume. I heated them up in the oven and served them on top of some rocket leaves with a few cannelini beans for extra sustenance. The beans did a nice job of sopping up the juicy eggplant, tomato, red romano peppers and whole hot red chilies. I seemed to have received a comparatively large amount of chilies with my helping, which Tim dared me to eat all in one bite. I love spicy food so this was not a problem.

Roasted veggies are great, and so versatile. They’re good in a sandwich, on a salad, with pasta. Next time I have leftovers, I’d like to try them on a pizza.

I’m trying to avoid snacking in between meals. TRYING. But I firmly believe that letting oneself go starving-hungry is bad for the body and bad for the soul, so I caved in before dinner and had a small snack of carrot sticks with a bit of impromptu cannelini bean mush: beans, olive oil, salt and rosemary, pulverized with the underside of a fork. I’d do this again.

Dinner was a simple affair: I made soup. Think pasta fagioli without the pasta. In other words, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, tinned tomato, kale, parsley, veggie stock, cannelini beans, and the magic ingredient: parmesan rinds. Next time you finish a wedge of parmesan, save those rinds for your next soup. It adds such a wonderfully rich flavor. I had a bit of the No Knead bread with my soup, but neglected to take a photo. So here is a photo of the loaf (again).

Someday I will write at length about my love of bread, but not now. I am tired, and am also trying to psych myself up for some non-wheat-based grain intake. It’s good to mix up the diet, I reckon. I sense a polenta kick coming on.

Even though I work from home now, I still love Fridays! I started my day as I usually do: bright and early with a cup of lemon and honey tea. I am usually too tired and groggy to bother with a photo of my tea, but Friday I somehow had the will. I started drinking lemon and honey teas when I went off caffeine. I’ve discovered that I really like strong-flavoured honeys. This “Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey” is very earthy and aromatic. It wakes me up!

After tea and a bit of email catch-up, it was Bircher breakfast time (and some more Dickens, of course). Things felt a little rushed because Tim and I were signed up to take a “Becoming Self Employed” course at the Home Office. I almost left the house without flipping the No Knead Loaf that I had started the night before!

With the dough flipped we were off to learn about bookkeeping and taxes from 10am to 1pm. I had a few nuts and some water at about noon to tie me over til lunch. By the time we got home at 2ish, I was ravenous! Luckily, leftovers were close at hand. It took me about three minutes to assemble this salad of mixed leaves, blanched broccoli, leftover red rice salad and chickpeas.

All the while I baked a loaf of bread. This is our stock 100% Whole Wheat No Knead Bread with a seeded crust. I’ve been adding olive oil to the baking pot which results in a nice crispy crust. Inside, the crumb was moist and light. Another success!

I’m now seeing what a food-obsessed day Friday was. After lunch and bread, I took a quick trip to our local green grocer for part of our week’s groceries (the stuff we can’t get at the farmer’s market). This is about five day’s worth of food for two people - corn, tomatoes, bananas, cucumber, onions, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, lemons, kiwi, grapefruit, rocket/arugula, chilies. I will acquire all of my greens, salad leaves and apples at the farmer’s market. Yes, we eat a lot of veggies! (Life of a vegetarian!) For reference, this pile of food cost £15.

Shortly after 5pm we went to our local pub for a Friday pint before dinner. I had my usual, a half pint of Hoegaarden, while Tim had his usual, a pint of Staropramen. It felt like ages since we went out for a quiet beer together. It was nice!

We usually go out to dinner of Friday but I had sort of blown my eating out wad at Rasa on Wednesday, so I cooked The Roast Veggie Meal. Basically, eggplant, red romano peppers, garlic, chillies, green tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, lots of olive oil and thyme, roasted for a good long time. We ate this with bread and rocket. And a little red wine. SO good.