odds and ends

[taimatsu]

Well, one of my pseudo-resolutions was Eat More Healthily. I just screwed that up - the thing I could be arsed to throw into a cooking appliance turned out to be ready-meal egg fried rice, with a bit of smoked salmon and soy sauce. Not the top of my list of Good Food possibilities. But it tasted good.

Robert has given me dodgy anime, and I am most entertained. I have just this second remembered I have to write thankyou letters. I hope I have enough notecards.

I ate Anatolian food today, and it was great. Actually, it was too filling and I hardly touched my main course. We went to lunch at TAS near the Globe Theatre. Had prawns in tomato sauce with peppers, and chicken with tomato, mushroom and chick peas. Mmmm, chick peas. Have about four cans in the cupboard now. Love my mother.

Please ask me questions. I feel boring and need prodding as to what to write about.

Comments

[wednesday]

Uh, why is egg-fried rice with salmon unhealthy? Did you put lard on it?

[taimatsu]

BEcause it's in a PACKET. With, you know, PLASTIC FILM on top. and it probably has additives and stuff in. And I didn't cook it myself. No, no lard. And anyway, my nother thinks microwaves might be evil. :)

I guess it's not really that bad. It just feels like it might be.

[wednesday]

Oh, microwaves are evil, but not like that. They're evil because you can't thaw meat in them without getting icky grey goop everywhere.

God will forgive you, and bless you for suffering through peas.

[taimatsu]

I *LIKE* peas. They are practically my favourite vegetable (asparagus and very nicely cooked corn on the cob might come higher. Oh, and my dad's steamed organic carrots.)

[wednesday]

But microwaved peas? ><

(My mother, in her more anorexic periods, considered a can of microwaved peas -- not in the can, of course -- to be an appropriate meal. Near as I can tell, the microwave and the peas should not be placed within ten miles of one another.)

[kake]

I suppose it's a little bit better than a less nutrient-dense vegetable, but yeah, it's not much of a meal. And it sounds vile.

Linking back to Lucy's original post; when I was a student I sometimes used to eat a can of chickpeas for lunch if I was in a hurry. Right out of the can. But I do adore chickpeas, and a canful does have a reasonable amount of protein and energy.

[taimatsu]

I still do this sometimes. As a snack, though, which is worse.

[kake]

If you want it to seem more like a meal, take them out of the can and mix them with some chopped fresh tomatoes and a bit of finely-chopped onion. Takes all of five minutes extra, if that. Fresh lemon juice and chopped fresh herbs are optional but nice.

Of course this doesn't work if you're not in a kitchen at the time, which I wasn't most of the times I was eating this.

[taimatsu]

Good plan. Also tuna, for tuna-and-bean-salad-almost. Mmm.

[kake]

I like peas on their own, but not so much in Things; probably because in Things they're overcooked for my taste. Anything much beyond "stuck in boiling water until the water comes back to the boil" is overcooked for my taste, though.

[kake]

No vegetables.

[taimatsu]

Actually, it was egg-fried rice with peas :)

[kake]

Ten or twelve peas don't count as vegetables.

[taimatsu]

Probably closer to 20 peas, but I take your point. I'm now eating cherry tomatoes - does that make it better? Oh, and some plums too.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Fruit. All fruit. Mind you, peas are legumes, and no more vegetables than peanuts are nuts.

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

So what are vegetables then? Surely by that logic, carrots aren't vegetables, because they're roots, and spinach isn't a vegetable because it's leaves.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Carrots are a fruit, as any student of the European Union Jam Regulations (Portuguese Accession Amendment) knows.

Spinach is a plant. Next you be telling me you think mushrooms are vegetables. Cuh.

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that, but you're quite correct.

European Communities (Marketing of Fruit Jams, Jellies, Marmalades and Sweetened Chestnut Purée) Regulation, 2003 (S.I. No. 294 of 2003)

For the purposes of this Directive, tomatoes, the edible parts of rhubarb stalks, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and water-melons are considered as fruit.

(From http://www.fsai.ie/legislation/food/legislation_foodproducts.asp#jamjelly)

I can't quite believe I was bored enough to look that up.

[wednesday]

Stuff doesn't have to have vegetables in it to be healthy. Trust me on this one; I can't eat most of the damn things, 'cause they make me sick.

[kake]

brrm has that problem too. It was "fun" trying to eat together when I was vegan...

[wednesday]

Yeah, I mostly can't eat around people. They get all, "oh, you're *picky*," and then I go home and imagine that I'm kicking them in the ass.

[kake]

We did find a restaurant that suited us both - The Pink Giraffe in Oxford. They do mock meat dishes which we could both eat.

I also had a housemate who couldn't eat anything with much of a fibre content - not just vegetables, but anything. He even had trouble with white bread. I think we worked out the intersection between things that we could both eat was ( "tofu" ).

[taimatsu]

I did him great injustice for years, then, thinking he just didn't *like* vegetables and would only eat big pieces of meat because he was, as weds says, *picky*. Sorry, Art.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Forgiven. :)
I need to get better at daring to ask for them to be left out of e.g. pub grub, though, I think.

[taimatsu]

Aaaah! *jumps back in shock* :)

Am most contrite.

On this note, my mother bought a piece of meat (lamb IIRC) the other day which fills an ENTIRE shelf of the fridge. It's not a small fridge either.

[wednesday]

Not that they'll listen most of the time. Dear Wetherspoons: "no tomato" does not mean "tomato."

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the time I ordered a cheeseburger with "just the meat & cheese" at a drive-in in America. When I got it home, I discovered a pair of bun halves with some ketchup in the middle. Now, if I wanted an empty burger, *why* would I pay more for an empty cheeseburger rather than an empty burger? :-)

[imc.livejournal.com]

Are you not vegan any more?

(I did notice you going on about fish earlier - but you might have just been cooking for housemates. <g>)

[kake]

Yup, that's right; I'm not vegan. I wasn't eating properly or regularly and that's not good for me. I'm still not doing great at it, but I'm doing better.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

All this time, I thought it was Just Me. Have you never eaten them?

[wednesday]

I ate them growing up, but I also spent a lot of time off school with the painful results. My parents basically didn't believe that vegetables were the problem, because Vegetables Are Healthy and Kids Make Things Up. My mother's response was to heavily restrict my meat intake, which made everything worse -- particularly in the wake of screwy blood iron and B complex levels. (I still have to explain to my mother every few months that whether or not I like carrots is not the issue, and that the doctor has not found me a magic-bullet solution.)

When I left home, I dropped vegetables and a number of fruits from the diet completely. The problems didn't recur until I tried reintroducing them a few years later. Doctor won't test for anything, so... eh.

Basically, I can cook with onion, make popcorn and eat crispy potato. Some fruits work, some don't.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Ah, that sort of thing. In my case, it's more of a gag thing in response to the taste and/or texture. Which I guess must make it psychological. I'm not really sure where it comes from, though.

[wednesday]

And if you're in Oxford, I guess this makes some sort of sense -- they had to pull me into Cambridge for a few years so as to be all evenly matched and shit.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

I want to know about the dodgy anime! And have you seen any Read or Dream yet? I saw the first episode and desperately want more!

[taimatsu]

3 DVDs, called 'Alien of Darkness', 'Idol of Darkness' and 'Mission of Darkness'. We think they might all be tentacle porn, but we're not sure yet.

No, no Read or Dream yet. Will get Robert to hunt on naughty filesharing services.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

All right, those do indeed sound dodgy. *gryn*

Read or Dream is most nifty, or at least the first episode was intriguing as heck. Get it with all due speed! (mmmm, naughty filesharing services...)

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

random questions?
er - have you ever had any decorations on your ceiling? if not, what you paint on it, if anything?

[taimatsu]

My ceilings where I live at the moment are mostly plain white. They have no decorations. The one in the bedroom has a black cornice, though.

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

whats a cornice?

i have always wanted to paint lots of things on my ceiling. i have friendly green things hanging, though.