fresh veggie delivery

Tags

beets, cooking, food, food delievery, Green Earth Organics, health, healthy, healthy eating, organic food, organic vegetables, potatoes, vegetables

Recently I decided to try out something new and ordered vegetables online. The whole thing started when Green Earth Organics popped up in a conversation I was part of on a facebook networking page and because I liked what they said I decided to check out their website.

I loved the idea of a box of seasonal, organically grown vegetables delivered straight to my door and their prices were reasonable too. The boxes on offer come in different sizes and different contents: large ones for families, ones picked for juicers, one with purely Irish produce,  and one filled with favourites. They even have bags of fruit and an array of other healthy products.

Since I live on my own I opted for a small box for the test run and this morning a white van pulled up outside my door delivering a box filled with freshly picked vegetables:leeks, beets, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, onions and parsnips. Green Earth Organics even added a handwritten note and recipe to help inspire their customers what to cook.

Now I can’t wait to cook the vegetables and find out if they taste as good as they look. So tonight I’ll be enjoying some fresh beetroot and I see some yummy vegetable soup over the weekend.

I can’t believe how excited I am about this but I have to say I am impressed how easy and efficient my online vegetable shopping experience has been. So I’ll possibly be seeing more of the friendly carrot Green Earth Organics has on their logo as I think I may become a regular customer: fresh vegetables delivered directly to my door is just to good to pass up on.

a box filled with healthy vegetables

to be honest

Tags

breakfast, food, honesty, poppy-seed honesty, smiles, stuck between my teeth, teaching

Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, it gives you energy for the day and kick-starts your metabolism into gear, helping you break down those mean calories. Because of this I always make sure to start my day with a large cup of tea and a bite to eat. Normally it’s a slice of toast, a bowl of muesli or now, with the cold season knocking on the door I mostly opt for porridge.

But yesterday I had a poppy-seed bagel, lightly toasted and with some lovely chocolate spread to sweeten the deal. I thoroughly enjoy it and had a happy smile on my face as I left for work. I hurried to the bus, grinned at the bus-driver and flashed my teeth at the handsome chap on my right.

Then I stood in front of my students and tried to impart wisdom in a lively and interesting fashion, smiling, grinning and talking all the time. But when the students left and I went to wash my hands I caught a glimpse at myself in the mirror. I was horrified, right there for the whole world to see was a big, black poppy-seed stuck in between the gap right next to my two front teeth.

Suddenly my whole morning flashed before my eyes, the many smiles, grins and teeth-flashing making me cringe with embarrassment. But then I got angry with all those people I had met, strangers and students alike, after all WHY had no one told me? Where was the poppy-seed honesty that I thought was an unspoken rule of life?

I started thinking about how we always uphold honesty as a pillar of society and hate it when people lie to us. But funnily enough the only time I ever hear “to be honest” it is always followed with some sort of critic or negative statement. But simple honest interaction seems to be not the done thing, sadly and it leaves us all running around with seeds stuck in our teeth, our skirts tucked into our pants, tomato sauce stains on our shirts and toilet paper stuck to our shoes. Not a pretty sight!

So please the next time you see me with a bugger in my nose, something stuck in my hair or lipstick on my tooth please tell me and I promise I will practice poppy-seed honesty when ever I can too!

 

pea soup comfort

Tags

autumn, comfort food, cooking, food, healthy, home made, pea soup, recipe, soup, stew, vegtable

There is nothing better than a hot plate of soup when it’s cold and wet outside, and when the soup is thick and stewy it is just pure bliss.

Since I live on my own I often just buy a tub of fresh soup as I don’t want to be eating the same dish all week long. While they mostly are yummy and filled with vegetablely goodness they do tend to be more on the slurpy side, lacking that little bit of bite and substance.

So yesterday I took the wooden spoon into my own hands and stirred up a batch of pea soup, one of my favourites. Since I didn’t have a recipe, and I was too lazy to google it I decided to make it up as I went along and was delighted with the result.

I chopped up some onions, added a handful of cubed bacon and braised them in the pot. Once they had simmered nicely and the onions where clear I took the mixture out of the pot and put it to the side. Then it was time for the peas.

I bought a large glass of fresh peas in my local shop, added some broth, a bit of salt, a tad of pepper, some garlic and a good handful of a soup mix (lentils, split peas and barley) and let it cook.

While the soup was bubbling away I chopped up two carrots. After about ten minutes my hand blender blended everything together while still having a stewy consistency. Finally I added the onions, the bacon and the carrots and let the soup simmer away for a little while (until the carrots were soft).

Once all was done I poured myself a large bowl of soup and enjoyed every comforting spoonful and I am delighted that I made enough to enjoy more of the scrumptious soup today.

taking myself out for lunch

Tags

cannoli, Da Mimmo, Dublin, eating, food, Italian, Italian food, pasta, photography, photos

The grey weather isn’t budging, whenever i look out the window it really looks grim so to cheer myself up I took myself out for some lunch.

There is a wonderful little Italian down the road called Da Mimmo – great food, wonderful service and only a few minutes walk away. And since they have a great lunch menu I grabbed my book and took a stroll across the road.

Da Mimmo’s recently opened up their new venue, a few doors down from their original home, so it was the perfect time to try it out. The food is still as tasty as ever, but I have to admit I missed the cluttered old-fashioned look they sacrificed for more of a  ‘hipster-feel’.

I had bruschetta for starters (comes with the lunch deal), and I have to say I have never had better, the fresh bread laden with tomatoes and herbs had me licking my fingers. Then I had the pasta of the day, yummy and creamy, the perfect comfort food for such a miserable day, and I treated myself to some cannoli and coffee. And while the mixture of cream cheese (I think it’s goats and ricotta), pistachios and pastry was truly define, I was too full to eat both … so I took one home with me – a treat for tomorrow!

waiting for my lunch

yummy pasta

mmmhh – a rare treat, Cannoli

fruit envy and greengrocers

Tags

food, fruit, fruit envy, greengrocers, healthy, oranges, pears, snacks

Sitting across from my colleague I was faced with a new sensation when she pulled out a beautiful pink grapefruit: fruit envy! It was just past twelve and lunch was still a bit away so the sight of a juicy ripe piece of fruity yummyness literally made my mouth water.

After watching her for a while I decided I really wanted some fruit too. So I popped down to the lovely greengrocers across the road and stocked up on some fruity goodness.

Now the greengrocer is an experience in it self – it is one of those garage style places with an open front and just boxes and crates filled with fruit and veg in all their shapes and sizes. The owner listens to loud music that tends to vary somewhere between jazz, musicals and the occasional opera. He is full of banter and smiles, sings along to what ever is playing (loud and off-key) and loves a bit of a flirt.

Of course I ended up buying more than I needed, I just couldn’t resist the pale pink South African pears or the succulent clementines, and the owner even popped in an extra pear and an extra banana into my bag too – must have been my willingness to flirt right back and laugh at his jokes.

Back in the office another colleague noticed my bag of fruit and I realized – fruit envy is contagious. So I offered him some of my extra goodies. As we all sat an munched on our fruit I was delighted at how healthy we all were.

I just hope she doesn’t pull out a bar of chocolate today – chocolate envy is way to bad for me!

healthy snack before lunch

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dinnertime

Tags

community garden, cooking, Dinnertime, food, mudisland, onions, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge: Dinnertime

I have a thing for onions – and I do believe that most dishes are better with them in it. The best onions I have eaten in recent years are the ones we harvested in the community garden Mudisland. They were  a little bit sweet and just full of flavour. Sadly it’s still a long way off until we can harvest this years onions – but at least it’s something I can look forward to!

late night cake

Tags

birthday, blueberry muffin, cake, cupcake, donut, food, late night snack, muffins, tastes

It was my birthday yesterday and somehow I managed to spend the whole day without eating any cake – no birthday cake, no celebration cupcake, no ta-da donut – nothing, Nada.

So, on my way home from my late night lecture – I try to keep my students awake and involved every Monday from 8-9.30pm – I decided it was time for a muffin, a little bit of sweet to end my birthday on.

But when I got home the phone kept ringing, the minutes flew by and my muffin sat uneaten on a plate, neglected. Then I needed to do the washing-up, pack my bag for today and make sure I had all my printouts ready to go. By the time I finally got to sit down and read the few last pages for class the clock had struck twelve and it wasn’t my birthday anymore.

The blueberry muffin still sat uneaten on the kitchen table and I had spent my entire birthday without cake. I was unhappy with this, and so was my tummy – dinner had been a long six hours ago and the noisy rumbling wouldn’t let me forget it.  So, to my tummy’s satisfaction, I decided that since I hadn’t gone to bed yet it was still my birthday and I enjoyed some late night cake as a last birthday treat.

orange thoughts

Tags

autumn, colour, colours, communication, food, Orange, photography, spontaneity., thoughts

We may be having a bit of an Indian summer here in Dublin but autumn is well and truly here. If you don’t believe just look up and see how the leaves are now all turning a from vivid orange and look around to see the bright orange Halloween decorations appearing on windowsills.

As our world turns orange, even if only for a short while, I was amazed to find out two very interesting facts about this vivid colour.

The first was that it has been proven that bright orange physically improves the oxygen supply to the brain, which in turn improves mental awareness and stimulation. This basically means that the colour orange helps you concentrate and possibly makes you somewhat smarter.

The second interesting fact is that orange also stimulates your appetite. Maybe this is because lots of home grown foods turn a vivid shade of orange when the are ripe – just think of carrots, pumpkins and nectarines – or maybe it has to do with needing more food in the colder months. But either way it is the reason why many restaurants choose an orange hue in their decor.

An added bonus is of course, for both people and restaurants alike, is that orange is widely know to improve communication and spontaneity.

lunchboxes and sandwiches

Tags

college, food, lunch, lunchbox, lunchboxes, masters, sandwiches, school, snacks

Going back to college has meant going back to making sandwiches in the morning. And while carving out those precious few minutes to prepare some satisfying food has been tricky, the reward is great when that grumbling tummy rears it’s hungry head.

But with making sandwiches comes the problem of transport. How does one get the painfully prepared food whole and not mushy to school? Well, my lovely and generous friend C. has now solved that problem in the form of a multipurpose plastic box.

Not only can I now safely transport my sandwich I can add a few other snacks as well – some yummy bites to tide me over until I can enjoy dinner at home. An added bonus, this folding box is green, my favourite colour.

Today it will have its first outing and I hope that it works out the way it should. After all no one likes soggy falling apart sandwiches.

my cube of food

folded out, carrots, apples and yogurt covered cranberries

and the final lid open to reveal my sandwich

creating kale chips

Tags

baking, carb-free, cheat, cooking, eating, food, healthy eating, kale, kale chips, vitamins

Even the busiest person has to eat and since eating alone can been alone can be a little lonely I decided to invite my wonderful artist friend Dragana over for dinner last night.

A roast chicken and some salad was the obvious choice for me. After all, while the chicken happily cooks in the oven you can do other things, only a bit of basting now and then. As a salad lover (and knowing that Dragana always loves my homemade dressing) chopping up, dicing and mixing whatever salady stuff I find in my fridge into a concoction of healthyness is something I do most nights anyway.

However my guest has decided to go carb-free for a while, so any rice, pasta, potato or even carrot side serving was out. Not wanting to give up on something a little crispy I decided to make some kale chips, something I haven’t done in a while but always find yummy.

An additional bonus – kale is one of those super foods that is high in vitamin K, A & C followed by lots of manganese, fiber, calcium and a whole slue of other healthy qualities. And while of course it’s always best to steam vegetables, drizzling them with oil, salt and spices and letting them bake in the oven isn’t a bad option either.

So, if you want to try it yourself, just make sure you tear up the kale leaves into manageable sizes (cooks more evenly), get rid of any big stems (they end up tasting like sticks) and wash them. Once dry (I lie them out on a towel and dab to make sure all the water is gone), sprinkle with oil and spice (I put oil, about a tablespoon full, into my hand and massage the oil into the leaves, I do the same with the spices), put into the oven for about 10 at 150 degrees, toss once, back in for another 5-10 minutes.

The results are crispy, not burnt and really yummy!

before the oven

yummy crispiness after the oven