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.