Salt

Yes I know too much is bad for us (although my recent Internet wandering suggest this is due to our consumption of sodium chloride, rather than unrefined natural salt). However, we’re suffering from a shortage of table salt in the prettylittle household. I’d added it to the ‘items to buy’ list that resides on an old diary page on the side of the fridge. So Saturday morning I dashed off to our idyllic, 1950s-Ladybird-illustration type high street to do my usual rounds of grocery purchases before heading off to a wedding.

I usually purchase table salt from the Co-op in either a small plastic bag or a cardboard box. Alas they appeared to only have salt in large white dispensers. Dear Heart and I have a ‘retro’ orange salt dispenser that we have been refilling for the last decade or so. Hence the large white container was a no go. Coop was a bit of a dead loss that morning actually as they had no cannelloni or baked beans! I can’t really complain at least they now stock two types of dairy free margarine and are experts when it comes to clear labelling.

However I decided not to be daunted by this. I resolved to make use of the Maldon cooking salt where it was really needed and purchase table salt elsewhere. Well since then I‘ve tried another branch of the Coop, a corner shop and even Tesco. All have table salt in a white container with blue labelling. In fact the similarity between the ‘different’ brands of table salts is astounding.

So what’s going on? Is there a new monopoly on the global salt market that I’ve missed? Am I going to be reduced to searching for ‘salt market news’ on google?

I’d completely forgotten how many things I used it for around the house including cleaning trays from the oven. I might be reduced to trying Marks and Spencer if all else fails. Or Holland and Barrett? Is this a hint that I should reduce my salt consumption? Maybe I won't refill and see how long it is before Dear Heart notices.

Gone too quickly

Today has flown by. I almost forgot to blog. My Monday post seems a lifetime ago and I'm sure Monday morning will be here again in the blink of an eye.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'm going to have a couple of beers tonight and turn my failed cupcakes into truffles.

Saturday I have my usual walk and visit to the local deli and bakers scheduled. Then I'm spending the rest of the day over at my sister's place and my parents are coming up from Somerset. I haven't seen my folks for more then ten minutes since Christmas so I am quite looking forward to it.

Sunday a spot of allotmenting and preparing for the week ahead.

If time goes quickly I think it must mean that you are living in the moment?

The five a day diet

Back in 2005 the Guardian did a focus on healthy living (although I have no doubt that they've looked at the subject since). One piece challenged 3 volunteers to eat nine a day and see how they got on. Amit's comment really sums it up for me

"To fit in nine portions, you have to have breakfast, otherwise you end up with too much to eat later in the day. You have to drop the junk snacks, which I am fond of. You can't even think about a nice bag of crisps when you've still got an apple or a banana to eat on top of your lunchtime sandwich. "

Fitting in five a day has been on my mind recently. I was really very keen on a few years back when I looked at my (then vegetarian) diet and realised that I wasn't consuming much in the way of fruit and veg. After a few months I had gotten into the habit and stopped worrying abut it. However, I recently purchased Glamour (just for the Benefit lip gloss - this was before the days of The make up diet) and it had an article about five a day.

I realised to my horror that I had slipped. This was mainly due to eating more than five on some days and rather less on others. I got to work on making a few alterations to my diet and discovered that if you are eating your quota you don't have room for much else.

The problems of what a portion was has continued to plague me. I have a handy portion guide on the side of my fridge. However what do you do when you have a bunch of 18 radishes and (according to the chart) a portion in 10? Do you eat 9 on each occasion? Or 10 in one go and 8 later? Eat all 18? Buy more radishes? What exactly does a bowl of salad look like and how does a bowl translate into the square, deep container that I am putting my lunch in?

After faffing around with bowls and the like a simple solution presented itself. I would just weigh the stuff. My 8 radishes that I prepared as a snack for today turned out to be well over the required 80g. I rather suspect that yesterday's carrots were a great deal more than 80g.

So I'll carry on using the scales, work at that 5 a day and maybe (very unsure about this) try 6 a day at some point in the future. I do agree with Helen in the article though - eating this takes some planning! But do Iahve anything that much better to do???

Twitter

I have signed up to Twitter and you can find me at http://twitter.com/midorigreen

I have mixed feelings about whether this was actually a good idea. On the one hand it's a like the best bit of Facebook with any annoying applications. However, I'm rather uncertain as too why anyone would actually be interested in odd statements confirming that I'm eating lunch or listening to music or have just seen someone in a pink hat.

Is this the shape of things to come? Will we all sit in our houses in years to come (apart from some kind of service class who will be actually doing stuff like growing food and removing waste) just updating our activities moment by moment?

I do hope that doesn't sound too depressive. I iced the cupcakes last night and consumed quite a bit of icing while trying to get the correct consistency. I don't usually eat much sugar so I think it might have disturbed my equilibrium today. Note to self: do not consume cupcakes (even if vegan and homemade) for breakfast.

Leftover carrots

What to do with leftover cooked carrots? Soup would have been the obvious answer, but since I'd just made a huge pot of rustic lentil and tomato from The garden of Vegan (only minus the pasta and blended so that Dear Heart would eat it), I needed something else!


Dozens of food/vegan blogs later I came across this post.

http://www.shespillsthebeans.com/kitchen/2006/05/chard_fritters.html


Inspiration struck. I had a go with carrots and ate them zapped in the microwave for lunch with a little tub of vegan mayo. Very nice. I was thrilled when a co-worker spied them on my desk and commented on how delicious they looked! She probably didn't know that they were carrots dressed up to look fancy! I should have taken a photo, but I'm sure this won't the last time I make this.

Great to have something go well today. I went to renew my bus pass and realised that I had forgotten my photo card. Then I went to the market to begin purchasing items for this weekends Thanksgiving themed brunch club. As I got close to the vegetable stall I realised that my carefully drawn up shopping list (highlighted and all) was still sitting on my desk.

Think I need an early night.

Pure

What's going on with Pure margarine? I used to buy it from Holland and Barrett every week or two depending on how much baking I was doing. A couple of times they were out of stock, but it was the end of the day so I didn't think much of it.

I'm now struggling to recall the last time I saw it actually on the shelf. The Coop don't stock it (not sure if they ever did). The only alternative with no dairy is Vitalite (which only some Coops stock)

When did marg become a rare and exotic item that needed to be carefully sourced?

I resisted!

I've always liked things in shops that have been marked down from their full price. When Racing Green still existed I filled my wardrobe with cut price garments from their website. I linger around the reduced shelves in Boots picking up hair dye in odd colours (although they all look much the same once on my hair). I always look at the reduced produce section in supermarkets.

Yesterday I popped out to the Co-op to buy a loaf of bread. It was the only thing we needed. When I go there I discovered lots of marked down things. Happily the bread was reduced, but so were lots of other goodies. I was about to go and get a basket so that I could indulge in this bargains when I questioned if I really needed some blueberries from Peru or Strawberries (in February!) from Chile.

I'd done the usual round of food shopping on Friday. I'd planned my menus for the week and purchased the necessary ingredients. I'd even been to the market to buy fruit and vegetables in brown paper bags. Did I really need to buy lots more food in plastic wrappings?

I left the store several minutes later having bought just the loaf of bread required. A lesson learnt. Just because you can buy it doesn't mean you should.