Intuitive eats

This was my birthday week, so I made sure to enjoy some favourite foods. I blogged recently about just eating what I want but only when I'm really hungry and to stop before I got full. The interesting thing I found was that I wasn't tempted to overeat even though I was much hungrier and it was food I loved. I've actually been eating mostly seasonally too.

This was a rather yummy autumn combo- roasted turnip, chestnuts and leeks and brussel sprouts with a little soya cream and chilli. I ate it with black rice noodles.


The rest of the soya cream was gently heated with a little vanilla and served with an Eve's pudding (apple topped with sponge).

My birthday was a bit weird foodwise, I got a bowl of granola and soya milk, then spent the day meeting up with family and friends and going to the hairdressers, so I didn't eat anything all day, except some jitter inducing coffee. When I got home, I was far too zonked to cook but I didn't want to go out, so I got takeaway spring rolls and noodles and some delicious South African Viognier! It's not something I do very often, because I do love cooking so much. But sometimes, especially on one's birthday, a day off doesn't go amiss:) I didn't photograph the yummy but unphotogenic noodles. Here's the lovely flowers the table was set with:

As I wasn't in the mood to cook, I didn't make a birthday cake until the next day. I didn't fancy a traditional sugary heavy cake. Instead I wanted some seasonal fruit. So I made a wholemeal cake topped with caramelized pear.


Delicious with some plain soya yogurt to balance the sweetness (although it was much less sweet than a 'traditional' cake)

To aid me in my quest to rediscover pleasurable eating, I bought this book with a book voucher my brother got me as a get well soon present. Thanks bro!


I really like Nigel Slater's approach to cooking and enjoyment of food. His books are always beautifully presented. I urge you to check him out if you haven't already.
I sat outside in the sun, although it was cold, so I wore a big warm coat so I could enjoy the last of summer in the garden.











As I'll be fasting half of next week for an examination, I had cake again this evening:

Yum. Banana bread with orange/ginger chocolate chunks, served with soya custard and frozen raspberries.
I've got a col, which sucks, but hopefully it won't be too miserable, my week is already going to be a bit unpleasant! I hope you all had a lovely weekend:)

Flirting with Macrobiotics

Over the last few days, I have experimented again with macrobiotics. The main change was that I waited until I was really hungry for breakfast and ate a cooked whole grain, steamed veggies and miso broth. I also chewed really well and ate less in general. One day my lunch took me nearly an hour to eat! I found really chewing my food helps with wind. But I also found my tummy behaves best when I eat so little that I'm hungry most of the time, but I'm also experiencing a real lack of desire to eat i the last few weeks, and when I am . Obviously, that's not ideal either, because I know if I kept that up, I'd lose weight. Also, it can be quite miserable to be hungry so often, even if your tummy is much improved. However, the spell broke today and I got really bloated again. I think I ate my lunch a bit quicker today, or it could just be . The other benefit, aside from the tummy, was that the relative lack of sugar in a macrobiotic diet left my energy levels stable and my mood very calm and content (although I do usually feel more upbeat at the full moon).
I haven't been strict about one aspect- nightshade veggies. I've had tomatoes, peppers and potatoes:


I baked new (small) potatoes for my boyfriend one evening, so I had one with steamfried greens. This was a really small dinner because I just wasn't hungry, even though I hadn't eaten much all day.


I had a better appetite the next evening, I went for a brisk 4 mile walk to wake it up. This was scrambled tofu (tofu mashed with nutritional yeast, turmeric and pesto), the leftover baked potatoes chopped up, collard greens, leek and red pepper. You could make this strictly macro with baked squash chunks instead of potato and leave out the pepper (I just chucked in all the veg that needed used up).

I don't have any photos of my more macrobiotics meals (because they were eaten while at work)- it was mostly cooked brown rice or cooked oat groats, miso broth and steamed leeks, brussel sprouts and dulse sprinkled with mirin. I sprinkled on some toasted pumpkin seeds. I basically cooked a grain and veggies in the morning and nibbled on some when I got hungry mid-morning, then had more of the same for lunch.

In conclusion, eating macro-style does seem to agree with my tum and energy levels, but I find it very restrictive, and for my dry skin I find the fat content of the diet a little too low. However, I'm going to loosely follow the main principles, as eating no sugar (including fruit) in the morning and during the working day is good for keeping energy on an even keel.

Healthy Mondays

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After yesterday's chocolate indulgence, I was a little off kilter today. Weird appetites- I woke up ravenous, which only happens when I eat something sugary, and I didn't want coffee AT ALL- I made peppermint tea and had some granola. Then my tummy was upset most of the day, I knew it would be awful if I ate anything much, so I just nibbled on fruit and a scoop of hummus at lunchtime to keep me from gnawing my monitor. I drank plenty of water to try to calm my tum down. I was craving something simple when I got home, so I had made some brown rice, mmm! I had it with steamed collards and onions and a nut patty. I really enjoyed I did have chocolate brownie again tonight, without the soy ice-cream though. It was too sugary for me, and I just feel weird after. I am craving savoury things, like greens and brown rice. I'm tempted to give macrobiotics another shot, but more emphasis on adding macro food to my diet rather than take away i.e. I'm not going to make a conscious effort to eat less nightshade veggies or fruit, however I am going to do my very best to cut out caffeine and sugar.
For that reason, Maggie's article on cutting out sugar today was very timely. She also is a macro flirt and has some good ideas for healthy food that doesn't play havoc with tummies or metabolism.

Although the temperature has dropped a fair bit here, when I got home from work, I threw on my warm running gear (including my No Meat Athlete t-shirt!) and headed out the moment I got home. It was windy and started raining heavily, but I felt great! I didn't try to run to any tempo or for any distance or length of time, my only aim was to meet my boyfriend coming out of work. After running for about half an hour, we met and started walking. About ten minutes from home, I ran again to get in and out of the shower before he got home and then put the rice on for dinner. It felt so good running again, especially just for the pure enjoyment of it. I was bouncing along grinning like an idiot! I don't feel like I've lost any fitness and while I had no aims for speed or distance, I did as well as when I'd be pushing myself. I'm thinking I'll probably run this way through the winter- just set out to get my blood pumping and be outdoors. Although I really need to get back in the pool! That's this week challenge...

Indulgent Sunday

After such a nutritious evening meal, I woke up to coffee (after a big glass of water had made its way down). Oh well, it's sunday. I added a little naughty to this, a teaspoon of drinking chocolate mix (basically sugar and cocoa powder). I sipped on it and while bashing up some pre-soaked brown rice for porridge.


I stirred in a sliced banana and cinnamon sugar, and topped it with plain soya yogurt. I thought apples and raisins would have been healthier, but I was craving the creamy sweetness of banana and some cinnamon set it off wonderfully.




After a nice walk this afternoon, I called into the offlicense (liquor store) at the top of my street, The Vineyard. A colleague in work gets me to pick up Sierra Navada. Unfortunately, they were out, it's very popular because they're the only stockists in Northern Ireland. While there, I couldn't help picking up these:



I'm keeping the spiced cider for my birthday, but I had the banana bread beer tonight. It wasn't bananey at all, but it was nice beer anyway. It was a barley based beer.

After such low fat and relatively low protein meals (miso soup and rice), I was in the mood for some fat. I made some tofu scramble with a big scoop of homemade pesto to fatten it up. I added in some mixed spice seasoning, turmeric and 1/4 cup nutritional yeast to a block of silken tofu, mashed it up in a bowl, and added to the pan.







Mmm. I was naughty and had more bread. This is quite nice bread, it's choc full of flax seeds. I think gluten twice a week shouldn't do me much harm, but I can take it or leave it. It's nice to have the freedom though.

While my super hot dinner was cooling, a did a little cheaty gluten free baking. I'm still a bit unsure about gluten free flours, as vegan baking is a minefield big enough, so I tried out this Hale & Hearty brownie mix. There are instructions on the back for a vegan version, but I veganised the ordinary recipe with Orgran No Egg, sunflower margarine and soya milk. I added frozen black cherries in to the mix.


These turned out so good! Very light, no funkiness from the gluten free flours. There were little flakes of chocolate in the mix that melted completely. I topped it off with vanilla Swedish Glace and some chocolate sauce (syrup and cocoa powder and a little soya milk heated up)


I really enjoyed my food this weekend, for the first time in ages! My tummy is a bit bubbly after all that food and beer this evening, compared to after the soup last night that sat with me perfectly. But I think the pleasure of the richer food is worth the little bit of bloat it causes, as long as it's an occasional treat. Sensory/mental stimulation isn't the main point of food (that's the problem with emotional eating) but getting enjoyment out of food is deeply human, it affirms we're beings with more than just a physical experience.
All in all, it's been a very relaxing, enjoyable weekend, leaving me ready to face the week ahead!

Autumn Afternoon Walk

I haven't worked out much since early September (2 runs, a couple of walks, a hike). I haven't really felt like it, I guess it's my body's way of telling me to take it easy before I put the stress of regular high intensity workouts on my body again. Today I went for a lovely walk in the late afternoon with my sister. At the moment, that's the exercise I prefer, no goal in mind, just getting out into nature.


By the canal near my parent's house

Field with a pheasant (that you won't be able to make out, probably)

Newly ploughed field

My pet rabbit in camoflague

I was really hungry after this walk! But I was craving something brothy and healing. I made black rice noodle, nori and collard miso soup (with onion, celery and LOADS of ginger). I used King Soba noodles, they are great! Such a fab selection, I would love to try the pumpkin and ginger brown rice and the millet and brown rice but I haven't found them in a store near me. Hurry up and sell direct from the website! I would buy loads, they're a convenience food I'd happily buy and eat.

Anyway, here's my soup. It's a bit murky because I used quite dark brown rice miso and I cooked the noodles in the broth rather than boiling separately, rinsing and adding to the broth. I want the starch in the noodles to thicken the soup, which they did. The nori broke down a lot making the soup a bit cloudy. But it was really tasty, comforting and nourishing.

I finished up the day with a slug of Floravital (the gluten and yeast free Floradix). I find it quite enjoyable:)

Resurrect the Foodie

It's a beautiful saturday lunchtime in mid-October, candy blue sky, golden light on the last of the roses. There's nothing left to do in the vegetable gardening but weeding, because I didn't plan ahead for a winter supply, kale, hardy salads and the like. Since I'm putting off the weeding to the afternoon, I'm inside with a heap of my favourite cookery books. I haven't opened some of them for quite a while. That's because the devoted foodie in me hasn't been given much liberty to enjoy herself.


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Confession- I used to be a cheese snob. Blue goat's cheese, Cornish yarg, real Roquefort, dulse-spiked cheddar. Unfortunately it's off the menu, even if I wasn't vegan, because I finally got my milk allergy test done, and it was positive. This makes sense, because I had a Starbuck's milk poisoning a while back, a few sips of what was supposed to be a soy misto, and I thought I was getting the cold.
There's nothing like IBS and pancreatitis to kill your desire to eat. And yet I love food, or at least I did, and I want to get that back. Noticing my neglected cookbooks on the shelf when I was packing my Floradix, brown rice miso, rice and nori to stay at my parent's for the weekend, I thought, what? I realised I have stopped eating food because I love it, and more because it won't give me pain. Granted, I still eat hummus and dark chocolate, and all manner of fruit and vegetables. But something must have gone wrong when I opened the miso jar (I hate the smell) instead of a Nigel Slater cookbook. So along with all my socially exclusive foods, I packed six of my favourite cookbooks. I mightn't make anything, although I brought them to find something to make for my mum, as it's her birthday today. However, I reckoned I definitely needed a break from poring over nutrition books. I need to let the foodie out, and begin to enjoy eating again. I'm sick of functional eating, because no-one wants to join in, it's lonely. And that only stresses me out more. I know I posted an IBS management strategy this week, but I'm beginning to wonder if switching the emphasis to enjoyment might help (getting plenty of fluids, exercise and taking a probiotic won't interfere with that I think). It's high time I started reading my cookbooks, making tasty winter dishes in my Le Creuset, baking cakes and visiting my local farmer's market more often- even if that means catching myself looking longingly at the cheese stall...

Getting up in the dark:(

Even though my birthday is in October, I don't really enjoy the month, for one reason- it's really dark in the morning. In fact, I was in work a good half an hour before I saw the street lights go off. Does anyone else find getting up in the dark a challenge? I know I do, because in the summer I wake at 5, wide awake, and can't wait to get the day started. In winter, anything before 8 seems cruel.

I have been working through my IBS list. This is the water bottle I use. I fill it twice a day, first shortly after I get into work, and then again about midday or lunchtime. When I get home from work, I drink another half litre worth of teas (usually peppermint or black tea).


Not that it seems to do a huge amount to ease my constipation. But I reckon being well hydrated certainly won't make it worse.


Look at my creepy dead person's hand(!) I really ought to get some Floradix. As you see, I wear warm jumpers (sweaters) in work. I get really cold sitting at a desk!

Today was the first day since last winter that I pulled my chair up against the radiator in the evening. The temperature has dived noticeably in the last two days! I'll soon be taking hot water bottles to bed.
In the search for warmth and comfort, I had a bowl of mash for dinner last night:

Yum. I boiled the potatoes and stirred in some parsley and (toasted) pumpkin seed pesto made with hemp oil and a heap of nutritional yeast. I poured a little heated tomato puree over the top. I'm trying to eat less complicated dinners, although I don't want to keep this up too much, otherwise I might sacrifice good nutritional balance. I guess I should try to concentrate on different major nutrients at different meals.

I can't wait for the weekend! The dark mornings make me so tired.