The times…
They are a changing!
Well, well; I remember a time not too long ago where I craved Nando’ (in fact, I do believe that I mentioned it here during Ramadan?), fish & chips, fried chicken and delicious crusty white bread (with that delectable soft middle) topped with butter (gosh I like butter; in fact I would go so far to say that I would actually be eating a slice of butter with bit of bread rather than the other way round!). What about creamy pasta laden with cheese and oozing comfort food? Oh be still my heart…
And then the sun started peeking out through the clouds….
And then I start to see the winter clothing move towards the back of the store as the trans-seasonal clothing comes out…
What have I done? I have satisfyingly eaten black forest Tim Tams, baked cake after cake under the guise of keeping Mr A and his dad happy (when we ALL know I was baking for the love of frosting!); sat in the house with a good book cookies or chocolates (sometimes both) while it rained outside… and now I am kicking myself!!!!!
WHY? Because its getting to a point where the day’s muffin(top) is me! Because it’s getting warmer… and I can see the backyard pool calling my name… and the bikini in my top drawer is mocking me as I may not be able to fit into it this summer. And so the pressure is on!
How does this happen? But I have a plan… I don’t know if its working yet but a plan is there nonetheless!
But today I realised something that I am AMAZED about….
Gob smacked; I have realised that I am LOVING the taste of salad!!!!!
Me? Me who normally turns my nose at salad unless its drenched in dressing! Me who normally could not fathom BUYING salad… now I am yearning the stuff! Me? Yearning salad? With little to no dressing…. Who on earth would have thought?
Oh how the times are a changing!
PS: I am still baking BUT I have enforced (upon myself) a limit of 1 self baked cake per week!
Watch it with that butter and those cakes. I used to do that too – until I had a major cholesterol scare involving a 40 point jump in the wrong direction in a mere three months. I had to make some serious changes in my eating habits at that point, but it was worth it, because the cholesterol went right back down almost to where it was before…
wow.. can you share the secret of loving salad? I like it too – when it has meat in it!
I have managed to do this without eating salad until very recently, believe it or not – though I have been a vegetarian for years. What I have been doing recently is, for example, limiting my consumption of yogurt (a lot less fattening and cholesterol bearing than sour cream) to half a pint a day, and mixing it with, for example, apples and raisins (nice with cinnamon), or some cucumber and tomato (with some cumin and paprika for flavor – like an Indian raita).
And yesterday and today I had a wonderful salad with pears, dried cranberries, walnuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a little bleu cheese (not the dressing, the actual cheese). I am planning to have a salad with avocado, tomato, fresh spinach and a sauce containing (among other things) lime juice and radishes, when I get hold of the spinach. Later in the week, I plan to have a salad containing corn and cherry tomatoes, with a sauce containing (among other things) lime juice and chili peppers. In the future, I will have a salad with mandarin oranges, black olives, fresh garlic, oil and vinegar. I think things like bleu cheese, walnuts, cherry tomatoes, avocado are substantial, and strong flavorings of all kinds can add substance as well. The combination of sweet and savory is particularly substantial.
Chick peas are also wonderful for adding substance. Almost every main dish I make contains them. For that matter, a really substantial meal can be made of a few little open-faced sandwiches with hummus on whole wheat bread with tomato slices, and then a carrot with some hummus to dip it in. Who would have thought, but it’s really filling (and I am 1.85 m tall and weigh 80 kg, so it takes quite a bit to feed me). To go with the sweet and savory theme, one can do a tagine-like dish with chick peas, plenty of onions, dried apricots and prunes, and a tad of curry thrown in. Or a sauce with lemon, mushroom, tomato, dill, garlic and a bit of yogurt.
And drinking fresh-squeezed citrus juice (with all the pulp thrown in) with your meal is also a great solution. And water with a slice of lemon thrown in is helpful for efficient digestion.
Tell you what – I am going to start a food blog some time in the next month God willing. I plan to call it Caraboska’s Real Food Blog. I’ll post a link here when it’s ready for viewing
It will have a daily menu, as well as a list of my favorite cookbooks.
Haleem: At first it was a case of “fake it till you make it” but then stragenly enough i discovered that i seriously do enjoy it! Go figure – totday i had the yummiest lentil, beetroot and feta salad; it was odd. in fact just writing that is odd! but i am presently enjoying it – i think the fact that i dead set KEEN to lose some weight may aid the love of salad! PLUS i tell myself that i have salad for lunch that i am ALLOWED to have a small slice of cake!