Live For Food

I only started eating couscous a few years ago – I expect that’s the same for a lot of people.  It was only after I’d had it a few times that I started wondering exactly what it was.  Obviously it’s some kind of starchy carbohydrate, but it didn’t quite seem like anything else I’d had – rice or pasta say.

However a little bit of research tells me that couscous is made from semolina and durum wheat flour.  Semolina is the hard part of the durum wheat kernel. The semolina grains are combined with water, and then rolled in the flour to keep them separate.

Durum wheat is ground into durum flour and is used to make pasta, which is why couscous is generally considered as part of the pasta family.  It’s traditionally made in North Africa, hence today we tend to think of couscous as being Moroccan. 

Couscous is great because it’s so easy to cook – you basically soak it in boiling water for 5 minutes and its done.

I found this nice stock photo of a lady making couscous in the traditional way.

So I thought I was sorted – until I bought a pasta salad dish from the supermarket which contained what I dubbed “big couscous”.   I couldn’t see where to buy packets of it dried, and wondered what on earth it was.

Apparently this couscous is Israeli couscous and in Israel itself its called Ptitim.  Again its a type of pasta shaped into small balls.  I’ve only ever seen it in one or two supermarket ready made salads but its very nice.

I’d like to have a go at making big couscous for myself – hopefully its as easy to cook as the small kind, but I haven’t yet seen it on the supermarket shelves so that’s something to look out for.

Intuitive eating promises to hold the answers to dieting and weight maintenance.  In a nutshell you can learn to listen to the hunger signals your body gives you, and you will then eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full, eat exactly what your body tells you to eat, and enjoy everything you put in your mouth.

If you are on any diet where you have to calorie count or keep a food diary, or you just suffer periods of hunger where you are watching the clock until the next meal time, it probably sounds like an unobtainable dream. Yet some people manage to make this way of eating a reality.

I’ve dabbled in intuitive eating myself as it seemed the ideal path to take towards weight maintenance for life. Generally I need a food diary to keep myself on track if my weight starts to creep upwards but it can be a bit tedious to keep long term.

So in the quest for intuitive eating success I’ve read Paul McKenna’s book “I Can Make You Thin”, Geneen Roth’s “Women, Food and God”, and Sophie and Audrey Boss’s “Beyond Chocolate“. The best one in my opinion was Beyond Chocolate but I know many intuitive eating devotees swear by the many books Geneen Roth has written.  I found any other Geneen Roth’s difficult to get hold of via my local library however.

The general rule with intuitive eating is to analyse your hunger signals to determine when you need to eat using some kind of hunger scale.  Your body should tell you exactly what it feels like eating, and that is what you should eat, until you stop feeling hungry.  Rinse and repeat.  In the process one tries to detach from emotional eating and rely purely on physical hunger cues.

Personally I failed at intuitive eating each time I tried it – I suppose about four times.  Not a catastrophic failure but I can outline the problems I have with this system as follows:

• I hate feeling hungry and so would eat too early on the hunger scale.
• I hate leaving food on my plate. It seemed silly to leave a few mouthfuls of dinner only to get hungry an hour later and have to faff around heating it up.
• I was always full after a main meal. This meant technically I could never ever have dessert after dinner.
• My meal times are often preset by my working hours and those of my family. This became very awkward to fit round the eat when you are hungry rule.
• My intuition is not the best. It tells me I want muffins for breakfast and cookies for lunch. I really don’t think my intuition would ever get so fed up of cake that it would only tell me to eat it once a week.
• A general lack of rules makes me less accountable. I would cheat on intuitive eating, i.e. eating when not really hungry, and then happily forget about it. I suppose its the converse to why a food diary does work for me.
• I got cross that I didn’t get hungry often enough!

The upshot was that each time I tried intuitive eating my weight started creeping upwards again. I have concluded that in its original incarnation its not for me. The problem I think is with me and not the principles behind the system.  

I would definitely recommend giving it a go if you are about to embark on weight maintenance – it might be just what you are looking for.  Even if its not, reading around the subject certainly makes you focus on how detached we are from our physical hunger cues.  I felt it was a valuable experiment, despite the failure.

Has intuitive eating worked for you?  Would you recommend it as a weight maintenance strategy?

I was looking for a recipe that involves avocado and smoked salmon, but I wanted something that was a bit more impressive than chopping them up and putting them on a plate.  I came across this recipe from BBC Good Food for Smoked Salmon and Avocado Terrines and decided to give it a go.

I had some brie in so I decided to use that instead of the goats cheese, and I was only doing 2 rather than 8.  So here are my revised ingredients:

Ingredients (serves 2):
Frylight, for greasing
140g pack thinly sliced smoked salmon
60g brie cheese, chopped into small pieces
1 tsp dried chives
3/4 of a large ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
sweet chilli sauce, for drizzling
salad leaves and vinaigrette, to serve

I followed the method as per the website, although I did use Frylight for greasing not sunflower oil.  I think its far easier to use a spray oil for greasing and then wipe it round a bit with a paper towel to ensure coverage.

Method:

Lightly oil 2 small ramekins using the Frylight

Line with cling film, then with the salmon (either 1 large or 2 smaller slices), allowing plenty of overhang.

Gently mix together the cheese, chives and avocado with the lemon juice and plenty of seasoning.

Spoon into the salmon-lined ramekins, press down, fold over the overlapping salmon, then cling film to seal in the mixture.

Can be made the night before, but if making on the day they should be chilled for at least 4 hrs.

On the day, gently lift the terrines out of the ramekins using the cling film, then remove the film.

Place the terrines on plates with some baby salad leaves tossed in a little vinaigrette.

Drizzle the terrine and plate with sweet chilli sauce.

Serve on their own or with toast.

Verdict:

This was tasty, but it didn’t really taste any different to making a smoked salmon and avocado salad.  But then given the ingredients, I suppose that’s not a surprise.

Where this wins is that it looks impressive, but its not really very difficult.  So definitely recommended for dinner parties.  I felt the serving size was quite large, and would be tempted to serve half portions with a slice of melba toast or something, especially if there are two courses to follow.  I do try to keep my portion sizes down though anyway.

I’m sure you’ve heard that to get all our vitamins and minerals we should ensure we are eating fruit and vegetables of many different colors.  So here’s my suggestion of a day’s food that includes all the colors of the rainbow in fruit and veg:

Breakfast:

Branflakes with greek yoghurt and chopped strawberries

Photo: arki

Snack:

A banana

Photo: ssbmf

Lunch:

Have a salad with your sandwich – include iceberg lettuce, and watercress for two different greens, as well as tomatoes, and sweetcorn kernels

Photo: sontran

Followed by a small bunch of purple grapes

Snack:

Celery and carrot sticks with hummus

Dinner:

Chicken stir-fry including mange-tout and a bell pepper of any color

Dessert:

Blueberries and icecream

I almost always eat breakfast in the office.  I don’t really have time at home in the morning, and I catch a train to work so my early morning schedule is unforgiving.  I find it easier to get to work half an hour early and fit breakfast into that half an hour.  Plus if I eat breakfast too early I get hungry way before elevenses.

But then the problem arises – what can I take for breakfast that’s fairly quick and easy, doesn’t take too much cooking, and can be eaten with the minimum use of cutlery and crockery at my desk.  Available equipment – one microwave, one kettle.

I have eaten various weird and wonderful things for breakfast in the office over the years, in the name of finding something convenient and tasty to eat that isn’t too unhealthy, and have made a list of my favorites below.  Some of them involve more preparation than others, and some involve more cooking once you have arrived at the office than others but there should be something that suits you!

• Cereal and yogurt – take the yogurt in a plastic box and the cereal in a zip-lock bag.  In the office, tip the cereal into the yogurt.  If you add the cereal before you leave the house it will probably go soggy.  Variations: add some fresh berries to the yogurt – strawberries, raspberries or blueberries, or some chopped papaya or pineapple.

• Any amount of fresh fruit or smoothies, either pre-prepared or make your own the night before, together with a hard boiled egg for some protein.

• A sandwich – more of a lunch food perhaps but nice once you get used to it.  Try cottage cheese and smoked ham, or bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT).  Use granary bread so it fills you up for the morning.

• Porridge.  Take a plastic box with the oats and sugar in.  Take a plastic bottle with the right amount of milk in (an old smoothie bottle is good).  In the office, pour the milk into the oats, in the box, and cook it in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes until it’s the desired consistency.  Do keep an eye on it – you don’t want exploding porridge all over the office microwave.

• Scrambled egg – can be made easily in the office microwave.  Take two eggs to work and then use a bit of the office milk as well. Take a wholemeal pitta with you to serve it in as this reduces any mess involved.

• Leftovers from the night before – a frittata or omelette will go down nicely for breakfast and can be reheated in the microwave or eaten cold.

• Soup of some kind.  I appreciate this is not to everyone’s taste, but a warm meat and vegetable soup first thing on a cold morning is great.  Either take in a thermos flask or heat in the microwave.  Or do a cup a soup using the kettle.

• A bread roll and a banana.  For some reason this was my standard breakfast for years.  I pass a supermarket and would walk in, grab a roll and a banana, and be on my way in 2 minutes.  Sometimes I would substitute a seeded bagel for the bread roll.

• A muffin from Starbucks.  Not too often though.  They do a nice morning bran muffin with dried fruit and pine nuts which although is still quite high in sugar, probably compares favorably to some breakfast cereals.

• A cereal bar, a Muller light yogurt, and a piece of fruit.  Another breakfast that is easy to grab from the shop on the way to work.

And just to finish off – things not to eat in the office for breakfast:

• Anything where the smell will permeate the office after you’ve heated it up – fish pie or kedgeree is a prime example.
• Leftover cake from the office kitchen.  Really, not a good habit to get into.
• Fast food – KFC or McDonalds say.  Again, everyone else will smell it and want some, and it’s a bad habit to cultivate!

What are your top tips for a quick and easy breakfast on the go?

Cereal and yogurt