Tag: food

  • Photo Post

    Nipped out to a local cafe for brunch before returning to our cave to cower from the sun. ☀️

    Nipped out to a local cafe for brunch before returning to our cave to cower from the sun. ☀️

  • Photo Post

    Afternoon snack! Summer may be over, but the stonefruit is still excellent… ❤️🍑

    Afternoon snack! Summer may be over, but the stonefruit is still excellent… ❤️🍑

  • Photo Post

    Garlicky white beans with spinach, poached eggs, and toast. #yummy 🍳

    Garlicky white beans with spinach, poached eggs, and toast. #yummy 🍳

  • Photo Post

    Sous vide lamb rump, pumpkin mash, and garlic green beans. (His sous vide machine is still on the boat from Germany, so he had to get creative.) 😂☕️ #cookinghacks

    Sous vide lamb rump, pumpkin mash, and garlic green beans. (His sous vide machine is still on the boat from Germany, so he had to get creative.) 😂☕️ #cookinghacks

    Sous vide lamb rump, pumpkin mash, and garlic green beans. (His sous vide machine is still on the boat from Germany, so he had to get creative.) 😂☕️ #cookinghacks

  • Photo Post

    The Snook welcomed me home with a lovely dinner: pork loin, salad, and homemade rosemary-garlic potato chips. 😍

    The Snook welcomed me home with a lovely dinner: pork loin, salad, and homemade rosemary-garlic potato chips. 😍

  • Photo Post

    LOL – my “eat 30 plants a week” goal is really being tested in Singapore. They call this a “Wurst Waffle.” 😂 🧇

    LOL - my “eat 30 plants a week” goal is really being tested in Singapore. They call this a “Wurst Waffle.” 😂 🧇

  • Photo Post

    Picanha steak with homemade chimmichurri, green beans, and baked sweet potato. ❤️ He feeds us so well!

    Picanha steak with homemade chimmichurri, green beans, and baked sweet potato. ❤️ He feeds us so well!

  • The Great Fruit and Veg Experiment – and app!

    The Great Fruit and Veg Experiment – and app!

    Photo by Iñigo De la Maza on Unsplash

    A few months back, I read an article about how to be healthier that suggested you should eat 30 different plants (fruits and veg) a week. It’s not just about the vitamins you get from the food itself, but also about encouraging a healthy gut biome. “Holy moly,” I said. “I reckon 30 in a week would be tough.” Rodd was hyperbolic in his skepticism. “I don’t think there are 30 different plants in the world!” he joked.

    I kept seeing this advice over and over though, along with shocking stats like this one from a recent Guardian article:

    Of the 6,000 plant species humans have eaten over time, the world now mostly grows and consumes only nine, of which just three – rice, wheat and maize – provide about 50% of all calories humans consume. Add potato, barley, palm oil, soy and sugar to the mix, and you have 75% of all the calories.

    Well, this simply wouldn’t do. I made a New Year’s Resolution to start tracking the variety of plants I eat each week, and I began jotting them down in a Note on my phone. I set a few rules: the item has to be relatively unprocessed (no counting cocoa beans in a chocolate bar!), and there needs to be a decent mouthful of it (no tiny amounts of spices). To my surprise, getting 30 a week wasn’t as hard as I feared.

    A few things have helped. We’ve begun getting a box delivered from Box Fresh each week, which includes a wide variety of fruit and veg. So far we’ve been happy with the quality, though it does mean you have to plan your meals and eat at home so you get through it all. I’ve also been making a point of going into the office a couple days each week, and there’s always fruit there for a healthy snack. Overall we’ve been a lot more aware about getting variety, and I’ve consciously chosen options (like salad for lunch) that maximise my chance of getting new items for my weekly tally.

    Fruit and Veg appI’ve also moved on from the simple Note for tracking, and I’ve built myself a pretty spiffy app that uses a Google Form to collect data in a spreadsheet. That sheet automatically keeps track of the overall variety and the breakdown per week. It also creates the chart you see above, which should continue to update throughout the year as I add more items.

    So far this year I’ve eaten 79 different plants, and here’s a peek at the ones I’ve eaten most frequently:

    Plants I’ve eaten every week this year: Cabbage, Coffee, Lettuce, Rice, Tomatoes. (I’ve lumped all lettuce into one category, but I’ve actually had several different varieties in there.)

    Plants I’ve had nearly every week this year: Avocado, Capsicum, Carrot, Coriander, Cucumber, Potatoes, Red onion

    Let me know if you’re interested in setting up something similar for yourself! I’d be happy to share my Sheet with you so you can set up your own tracking form.

  • My new ceramic grater

    I’ve seen these ceramic graters being sold at every market and festival in Germany for the past year, and yesterday I finally got one.

    Red squarish ceramic dish with raised grooves on the bottom, with a clove of garlic

    It mushified a clove of garlic nicely, though getting it out again took some finessing. Rodd worked it out – you have to hold the grater on an angle and use the bristles of the brush to push down the plane of it.

    I used it in my homemade ranch salad dressing alongside the Snook’s spicy baked chicken strips. (He used toban djan instead of the curry.) It was delicious!

  • Brussels Sprouts

    I never ate Brussels Sprouts growing up; they were just never a thing that my Mom cooked. It may well be that the first time I ever had them was ten years ago at Porteño in Sydney. (They were were charred and tossed with bacon and they were the most delicious thing I’d ever had.) But apparently Brussels sprouts really were a lot more bitter 20+ years ago, before scientists figured out how to get high yields from less bitter heritage varieties. Huh. So if you think you don’t like them, you should give them another try.

    A couple recipes I particularly like: