Hello Dear Reader,
It’s the last day of our staycation and we’re both back at work tomorrow. The weather has been incredible all week and I’m covered today (instead of gardening in a bikini) as I’m nursing sun burn from falling asleep in a sun lounger yesterday. We’re finishing off as much gardening and painting as we can today and even managed a trip to Duchy Nursery to buy some plants………….poor old Charlie needs the money! We treated ourselves to a cup of coffee and Dearly Beloved had some cake (I now eat vicariously and watch other people eat!).
My calorie restricted life has just about driven me away from food and my cooking is certainly not what it was. I have a quick tip to share about minimum cooking which lasts for two days. I had some roasting bags lurking in the back of my pantry and use them to keep washing up to a minimum. I used some of the Maggi mix (lemon and herb casserole mix) that I bought from Approved Food and then added four chicken breasts, eight peeled and chopped carrots, eight small potatoes and one finely chopped onion. I mixed them all together in the roasting bag and cooked them in a medium oven for 45 minutes. In that time, I managed to plant the plants that I’d bought this morning. The big ‘reveal’ will come when the garden in finished but today I planted plants that flower, smell lovely and the bees will love too.
Here’s lunch for today and supper for tomorrow night. Steamed chicken and vegetables and ready to go with only one saucepan, four plates and four sets of cutlery to wash up. Well Dear Reader, do you have days when you just can’t be bothered? In weather like this, I just want to be out in the garden or out walking in the sunshine. In the UK, weather is so uncertain that if the sun shines it really is worth dropping everything and going out and enjoying it.
Finally, I thought I would share my recent food saviour. I love yoghurt but it’s all full of either sugar or aspartame and I don’t eat either if I can help it. Aldi sell this lovely Greek style yogurt which tastes sweet enough to me, they also sell frozen fruit such as raspberries or summer mixed fruit and I just make my own ‘fruit yogurt’ without the sugar or chemicals.
Over to you Dear Reader. Who drops everything when the sun comes out? Who else is on a diet and can’t be bothered to cook or eat? Who else tries to avoid sugar and chemicals? Who else has been in the garden all week? What about readers on the other sides of the world? Is your food polluted needlessly with sugar too? How do you manage to cook and eat in places as hot as Northern Australia or in the heat of the southern states of the US? I’m sure you’ll tell me.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxx
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Froogs
While not in the South, here in New England we are currently in an unprecidented heat wave, with daily temps skirting 90 F and evening temps dipping to the mid 60's. Heat tends to impact my desire to heat up the kitchen as well as everyone's appetite. To combat this, I do double batch cooking, planning ahead as you do. I also use low heat appliances such as my Crock Pot, which is currently baking off a rotisserie style chicken, which is on our dinner menu tonight, the remenants will reappear on Tuesday night in an Italian seasoned “Tuscan” chicken-pasta salad. Lots of fresh salads, home brewed iced tea if not just plain iced water are served.Love the idea of the Aldi's quart Greek with fruit added-while they do sell the individual pots of Greek yogurt here, I have yet to see the larger containers, but will certainly keep an eye out for them. I find that Aldi's new products hit the Europeen market first before coming to the USA.
Carol in CT
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Yoghurt is dead easy to make at home and costs less than a third of the price of supermarket own brand. And you know exactly what's gone into it.
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I'm here in Egypt and the weather is 117 degrees today. I cope with lots of water and salads. Fresh fruit is cheap and in abundance and mostly organic. In my fridge at the moment I have an enormous water melon, canteloupe,plum, mangoes etc. We have lots of fruit trees, fig (hate) mango, guava,banana, papaya, grape vines so we can just go and pick most of our fruit of the tree which is very frugal. Ready meals are non existent here so we tend to eat very “clean” here. Foods in their natural state, chicken breasts with veggies, salads, fruit salads, plain yogurt etc. We have a friend who keeps bees so we get lots of raw honey to which I love to drizzle on yogurt. We grow some of our own veggies. My English runner beans were doing well, now they have literally roasted in the sun.
I have a slow cooker so use that a lot to make casseroles/tagines which means I don't have the oven on and usually get enough to feed us for another day. The least amount of time in the kitchen, the better at the moment. Love the look of your dinner.
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I agree that we just don't cook and eat as much when it's warmer. I'm in the south of the uk and I suppose today is 70 degrees. We've had such a bad spring that this feels hot. I've managed to take my jumper off over this weekend so things must be improving! We just don't really have a cooked meal if it's hot. I would snack on yoghurt and salad and biscuits if I need to fill up a bit. Obviously I'm not on a mission to cut out sugar! My other half will eat once it cools down after about nine o'clock. He might have a quick baked potato in the microwave.
What you think of as a quick and easy meal, Froogs, looks like something really elaborate to us!
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We just don't really cook when it's this warm. I'm in the south of the UK and it is probably 70 degrees here today. That seems hot after such a cold spring. I've taken my jumper off this weekend so it must be warmer!
I would just snack on yoghurt and salad with biscuits if I'm hungry. No sugar worries here! My other half usually eats once it cools down after about nine o'clock. He might have a quick baked potato in the microwave.
What you think of as something quick and easy, Froogs, looks really elaborate to us!
Hope you have a good day back at work. I've had a long weekend so it's going to feel a bit odd back at work, especially with the weather being so nice. Still that won't last long….
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Our weather has been hot but I think it's begun to drop. Everything you buy here has lots of sodium or sugar — or worse HFCS. If you try to get something sugar-free, rather than having no added sweetener, you end up finding stuff with Splenda in it, which I hate. I've taken to mixing things together to dilute the bad stuff — plain plus vanilla yogurt for dessert, wheat and white pasta, etc.
Is Splenda as prevalent in the UK as it is here in the US?
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No housework done here when the sun is shining - well maybe some washing so that it can dry in the sun & wind.
Gardening takes precedence, but spaced out between reading/coffee drinking/dozing in the sun - and throwing a ball for my doggy mate.
Not a lot of cooking going on - well, there's only me to cater for, so I can have strange meals if I want to! Porridge with fruit and honey tonight 'cos I can't be ar$ed to cook!
I buy that Greek Yoghurt too - it's a good substitute for cream and cheaper than Fromage Frais. Currently enjoying it with Apple and Blackberry Compote - Mmmmmm.
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I'm all for avioiding chemicals. I love fruit and natural yogurt. I cheated a bit today. Slow cooker and diced beef, carrots, onion and pots. I used a colmans casserole mix. Not from approved Food, but has been in the back of the cupboard for ages. Very tasty and More time to enjoy sunshine and the garden. 🙂
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Here in the US, the yogurts are usually packed with sugar. I try to find the least amount but I notice that if I buy the plain yogurt and put my own fruit in it, there is very little sugar in it.
If a product has more than 4 or 5 ingredients listed, I don't eat it. I have been doing the same thing as you - trying to cook once and eat it twice. It's very hot here for the last 3 days - temperatures in the 90sF. Very uncomfortable with humidity thrown in. I don't feel like doing anything. It's too hot for gardening. I was out there weeding for 10 minutes and couldn't stand it.
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During our summer when it reached 46 degrees and we had weather up in the mid 40's for nearly 10 days I found the easiest way was to cook outside on the deck. We have a huge verandah which covers us from most of the days heat. I used to have until it died a convection oven and found that it cooked chicken beautifully. So we either had roast chook or something cooked on the bbq, with lots and lots of salad.
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I must admit to using the air conditioning as soon as the humidity rises. I truly feel the heat and live in misery for a lot of our year.
During the hotter months we eat a lot of salads. Plain salads most of the time too as I am allergic to egg yolk. I also belong to the if my grandmother, or in some cases great grandmother, did not know the ingredient avoid it club. So in summer a dinner may be a steak sandwich, or a bought chicken with salad, ham and salad is another favourite. Breakfasts are simple too with cereal being a mainstay. In summer I have to been very careful that I do not over do the calorie laden drinks as guzzling litres of water is boring. Batch cooking is a saving grace as well. As soon as there is a cooler day some cooking takes place as I refuse to heat the house further with an oven.
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I'm in Australia and when it is really hot, a quick BBQ with salads is probably the best bet. No heating up the inside of the house with cooking and it's quick and easy. I also think because we are used to it, the heat doesn't bother us so much. Now if we suddenly had to deal with chilly northern hemisphere winters, it would be a different story.
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I am here in SE Kansas and it can get hot fast. It was a muggy day yesterday but today was cloudy and really cool so I turned the oven on and did a swiss steak and veggies in a baking bag also. I did the Orange Bundt cake at the same time and there is enough steak and potatoes for 2 more meals on top of the one had today. And on really hot days we use the outdoor grill for every thing.
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I always try to keep my dinners to a two dish maximum. So as much as can be cooked in one pot + one pan. In the summer, I try and cook salmon or chicken that can last two meals and make a big salad. Easy! I do try and avoid any additives or artificial sweetners and make 95% of my food from scratch.
Just plain fruit for dessert for me, feijoas, bananas or apples. Last night though I used up some premade custard I had in the fridge.
Julie q
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I recently used an oven bag to cook some chicken breasts and couldn't believe how tender they were. I could cut them with a spoon! I'll be doing more in those bags as clean up is heaps easier.
Cheers - Joolz
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Sometimes there are days when one just can't be bothered. This week, I'm playing grass widow while SO is overseas. I hate cooking for one, so I keep it really simple. I have an emergency stash of canned soups for times like these, and the freezer usually has a good supply of bread or crumpets for accompaniments. I think there is even a single serve apple pie lurking there as well!
For summer, when it can be just too awful to cook in the kitchen, it's salads and cold meats or bbq. Lunches will always be a sandwich or maybe a yoghurt and extra fruit.
Cold tea may help relieve that sunburn of yours. I'm sure you aren't as cooked as I got once in my teens : I managed to burn the soles of my feet. Being fair skinned and eyed, I was not a pretty sight!
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Lots of salad and fruit seems the best thing when the weather is sunny. We are going to eat some of our own salad greens tonight. First harvest this year!
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It's been BBQ and salad week here. Lots of fresh fish straight out of the sea. Lots of sitting in the garden or lounging on the beach. Re the yogurt, Trewithen natural yogurt is as natural and as local as you can get. With some homegrown Cornish strawberries it's a delight. Or make it!
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90 degrees F plus; with high humidity are the norm in Indiana summers. There is always fresh fruit salad in the fridge. Often that alone will be lunch maybe with a slice of cheese. During hot months we cook almost exclusively on the grill. We grill lots of extra veggies and meat to be refrigerated and added to pasta or fresh greens, later in the week. I also, make a bean salsa (black beans and blackeyed peas,corn, tomatoes and other salsa ingredients) and sometimes that with corn chips a slice of melon and dinner or lunch is complete. It's the bread making that I do not do in hot months. Dinners are much later and often we can sit outside and enjoy a late evening meal by candlelight on the deck. The garden is tended during early mornings and sometimes at dusk. Hubby was diagnosed with diabetes about 10 years ago. He does well by watching his diet and we are very aware of sugar, sugar alcohol and carbs. For Christmas; daughter's fiancee bought me a larger crock pot and liners. The liners are nice and clean up is a breeze but I would not have the expense of buying them (though I would be happy to receive a box as a gift). Water is not as expensive here as it is there so I could see how the trade could make a difference. We are not miserable during the summer we just change our schedule around. We limit strenuous work during the hottest part of the day but when we do we have a pool and will kick off our shoes and jump in clothes and all to cool down.
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Here in Florida it's already HOT. At this point I might not turn my oven on again for 5 months or so, except for an occasional double batch of homemade cookies or a birthday cake. From here on out it's all crockpot or stovetop cooking, and salads. I'm roasting a whole chicken in my crockpot today, which may be turned into chicken salad. We'll eat a lot of fruit and smoothies while it's hot. I'm a big fan of plain yogurt too, my favorite is to have it with blueberries, when I can afford them. Sometimes I add a drizzle of honey.
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Ohhh it sounds delightful to be able to go into the garden and have such wonderful fruit to pick 🙂
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Those roasting bags are such a good idea. I didn't even know they existed. I'm a lazy cook and just grab things on the go and not a lot of it healthy at that.
Might just try them out. Thanks for the tip.
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