kerravonsen | Entries tagged with food

...and that are difficult or impossible to source from elsewhere.

I can't remember the name of the chocolate bar, but it had crunchy toffee in it. Haven't found its like elsewhere.

USA

Triscuits: crunchy salty shredded wheat crackers. Nice enough to nibble on their own.
Soft pretzels, warm and fresh. Sometimes, from time to time there have been shops selling these here, but they don't endure.
Cinnamon-flavoured sugarless chewing gum. And cinnamon-flavoured things in general, nobody else seems to want to make things cinnamon-flavoured (or at least very few things). About the only cinnamon-flavoured thing one can get here is donuts.
Grape Nuts. Tiny crunchy whole-wheat cereal, which for being so whole-wheat and low-sugar strangely manages not to go completely soggy, I am amazed at them. Delicious with a handful of dried currants.

New Zealand

"Berry Berry Bubbles" and "Berry Berry Flakes" cereal: puffed or flaked cereal covered with mixed berry puree and dried. There was a short period when my local supermarket imported it. Really yummy.

Israel

We spent a month in Israel when I was six. And this is what I remember: freshly baked flatbread warm from the oven. It was lovely, especially with mashed banana. We called it "Arab bread" then. Sure, we can get "Pita bread" here, but I don't know any bakeries where one can get it freshly baked; it's all pre-packaged.

Holland

Ginger loaf. When I was there as a teenager, the place we were staying had that as part of the breakfast selection. This wasn't bread, more like cake; think "banana bread" for comparison. Ginger loaf with Swiss cheese is a lovely flavour combination.

Australia

Home grown victuals that I would miss if I couldn't get them.

Tim-Tams. Sorry, but everyone else's chocolate-cream chocolate on chocolate biscuits are also-rans. My favourite flavour is the double-dipped chocolate ones.
Cheese Twisties. Cheese-flavoured knobbly crunchy nibbles.
Sesame Vita-Weat Crackers. A whole-wheat cracker that is solid and robust, but not stodgy. And the sesame flavour adds that little extra.

And I suppose I take for granted the huge variety of fresh fruit and veggies I can get here.

But I am a traitor to my country because I like neither football nor Vegimite.

What are your favourite difficult-to-source foods? Or your favourite foods from your own country that other places don't have?

Current Mood: awake

If you had to decide between the existence of coffee beans and the existence of cacao beans, which would you choose?

Me, I'd choose theobroma.

Current Mood: calm

I felt like rambling about my favourite easy-to-prepare meal for one person: my one-pan stir-fry. It isn't so much a recipe as a template, where things can be substituted. It makes enough for 2-3 meals for one person. Not because I always want to cook in bulk, but basically because predefined packet sizes lead towards that amount of food. This is NOT a "from scratch" stir-fry. Doing that is just not worthwhile for a single person. This has a number of short-cuts in it.

If you say "it is a waste of money to buy pre-prepared food", consider that in a single-person household,

it is more wasteful to buy a half cabbage and throw half of it away
the motivation to cook healthy food is much lower, so anything which helps that is good
I'm creating jobs!

If you say "it is lazy to buy pre-prepared food", then I invite you stop being a hypocrite, quit your job, take up farming, and harvest your own damn cabbages.

( Read more... )

I hope that's been helpful for at least some of you.

Current Mood: cold

Which I am eating right now... Yes, a little late for lunch (if you look at the posting time where I am -- can one do that?) but that is why I needed something quick to prepare. Because hungry. I tend to lose track of time when I'm concentrating on stuff.

( cut for recipe )

So you have vegetables for fibre, egg for protein, noodles for carbohydrate and stock for tasty salty flavour. The vegetables need to be the kind that it is okay to eat raw; the water will heat them up, but depending on the vegetable, they may still be crispy. I like them that way, so it's all good.

I pre-cook the egg because the boiling water isn't quite enough to cook the egg. While egg cooked in the microwave is horrible, because the cooked egg is soaking in the stock, that makes it palatable. It's still wise to try not to over-cook the egg, though. Pre-cooking the egg also makes this recipe suitable for those who live in countries where the chickens are infected with salmonella (e.g. USA).

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: https://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1169984.html

It is safe to eat raw eggs in Australia, because Australian chickens don't have Salmonella.
Add vanilla + sugar + natural Greek yoghurt to your cream before you whip it. Makes it taste like cheesecake! Yum.

Current Mood: awake

I came back from the doctor's appointment after eleven, turned on the heater, and the temperature inside according to its thermostat, was 10C. Which is COLD for an Aussie. And though I pottered around and had lunch after that, I was still hankering for a warm and filling drink, something which wasn't cocoa or tea or soup or coffee. So I made a warmshake (which is a hot/warm milkshake).

Bananaloaf Warmshake

(no actual banana-loaves were harmed in this experiment)

Ingredients:

100ml quick-oats
300ml milk
1-2 bananas (depending on size of bananas - I used 2 small ones)
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 whole cloves (because I didn't have any ground cloves; if you have ground cloves, add a pinch)
sweetener to taste (optional -- depends on how ripe your bananas are)

Instructions:

Put the oats and the milk in a microwave-safe container and cook in microwave for 3-4 minutes, or until it just starts to boil over (that is, it hasn't boiled over yet, but it is nearly there). This isn't my carelessness, this is the test I use for cooking porridge, and since this is a super-milky porridge, I figured that would do.
Put the banana and the milk mixture and the spices into a tall milkshake-sized container and puree with a stick blender (or put into a conventional blender and puree with that)
Taste-test, and add sweetener if desired.
Drink and enjoy!

I call it a "bananaloaf" warmshake because the oats make it loaf-like, more filling, and probably better for you.

Current Mood: cold
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1091948.html

Ingredients:

a punnet of fresh strawberries
1 tsp sweetener
handful of frozen strawberries
vanilla yoghurt
milk

Instructions:

Take one punnet of strawberries and chop them up.
Put one half into a milkshake-suitable container (e.g. a beer stein)
Put the second half in a microwave-safe jug (e.g. Pyrex) with 1 tsp of your favourite sweetener (e.g. Natvia) and microwave on high for 60 - 90 seconds, until the strawberries are reduced to a heaving, bubbling mass. This intensifies the flavour.
Put the cooked strawberries on top of the raw strawberries.
Add a handful of frozen strawberries.
Add three tablespoonfulls of your favourite vanilla yoghurt (e.g. Jalna Creamy Vanilla)
Top up with milk.
Take your stick-blender (Bamix) and pulverize the mixture.

Drink and enjoy.

Current Mood: pleased
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1078188.html

Stumbled across this on Pinterest, have already experimented with it, too.

Sugarless, Flourless, Three-ingredient Mug Cake

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
1 egg
3 tablespoons of cocoa (NOT drink mix, just plain cocoa)

Instructions: Puree/blend/mix ingredients together in microwave-proof container, until it forms a thick batter. Scrape down the sides and even out the top of the batter. Microwave on high for 1 minute.

What you get is a moist chocolate pudding, really, rather than a cake. But yummy. Very nice with ice-cream, too (if one wishes to indulge).

The taste may vary a bit, depending on the ripeness and size of the banana.

Variant #1: as well as the cocoa, add a tablespoon of cinnamon. Also yummy.

I also want to try one using solely "Christmas spices" - cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves. But I haven't figured out the amounts yet.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1070602.html

Didn't have time to puree my smoothie this morning, so I had it for dinner.

* quick oats
* 1 leaf of kale
* fresh mint leaves
* boiling water
* honey
* Greek yoghurt
* low-fat milk
* Splenda

The kale was a mistake. It didn't really blend. Unlike cucumber. And of course I couldn't tell which of the green flecks were mint and which were kale. Still, it was sweet and frothy, not horrible.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1062896.html

Chocolate + Molasses + Banana is good.

Current Mood: pleased
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1062000.html

Finally, the thing I have been failing to attempt has been attempted! (evil mad scientist laugh)

( Igor, the Basil! No, not the hotelier, the herb! )

Current Mood: frustrated
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1061583.html

* quick oats
* Greek Yoghurt
* 1 Lebanese cucumber, chopped into chunks
* fresh basil leaves
* fresh mint leaves
* honey
* low-fat milk

Prompted by me getting mint & basil leaves to attempt the elusive Mint + Basil Frozen Yoghurt. This smoothie was a bit oaty at first taste, so I added some Splenda to sweeten it a bit more. This was not bad, but I think next time, if there is a next time, I will add more yoghurt and less milk. I say "more yoghurt" because the taste of the frozen yoghurt mix (it is churning away right now) was more yohurty (no milk in it at all) and that is what makes it taste so fab. Whereas my breakfast smoothie was very milky and didn't have that sharpness. Nice, but not fabulous.

I think one of the tricks with these breakfast smoothies is to pick flavours that will go with or even be enhanced by the oatiness, flavours that are used in cakes and biscuits: Christmas spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves), chocolate, banana, date, apple, berries.... what else? Any ideas, people?

Current Mood: groggy
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1061289.html

* quick oats
* one chopped-up apple (Red Delicious)
* Greek Yoghurt
* 1 raw egg
* molasses
* cinnamon

The most notable thing about today's smoothie is the texture. I'm not sure how to describe it, "fluffy" is the first word that springs to mind. And I let it stand too long after I'd pureed it, because all the cinnamon decided to sink to the bottom.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1060993.html

Ingredients:
* quick-oats (just poured out from my new container of quick-oats... which ended up being more than what would be in a sachet)
* dried apricots
* apricot jam
* 1 raw egg
* Greek Yoghurt
* maple syrup
* low-fat milk

I'll class this one as a fail. It wasn't inedible, it just wasn't good. A combination of too many oats and the dried apricots meant that the drink... needed to be chewed. It wasn't smooth at all. Oh well.

Current Mood: disappointed
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1060782.html

* 1 banana
* 4 dates
* Greek Yoghurt
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* low fat milk

Very nutmeggy.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1060518.html

Attempting to get a "gingerbread" flavoured smoothie this time, inspired by one of the recipes I came across.

* 1 sachet Apple-Honey quick oats
* 1 banana
* 4 fresh dates (carefully de-pitted by hand)
* Greek Yoghurt
* 1 raw egg
* 1 tsp ginger
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp cloves
* low-fat milk

Well, the ginger drowned out all the other flavours! Still nice though.

Current Mood: cheerful
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1060284.html

* 1 sachet Apple-and-Honey quick-oats
* 1 banana
* Greek Yoghurt
* 1 raw egg (Aussie hens are apparently free of the strain of Salmonella which can infect eggs before they're laid, so the eggs are okay to eat raw as long as they aren't damaged)
* Peach Jam
* low-fat milk

The flavour was mainly banana, with an undertone of peach.

Current Mood: calm
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/1059692.html

On Wednesday morning, I groaned, "I'm going to have to eat porridge." In the interests of having a breakfast which was more solid and sustaining and able to suppress hunger pangs for a longer time, so I could survive until lunch-time. Not that I loathe porridge, it can be quite yummy, but it can also be like eating glue, so my heart sank at the thought.

On Wednesday afternoon, I stumbled across a pin on Pinterest that declared itself to be a recipe for a "Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Smoothie". This was odd, because I was perusing "Hobbies & Crafts" at the time. Mind you, while most of the things in the "Hobbies & Crafts" section are, indeed, hobbies and crafts, there is a certain percentage which have wandered out of their appropriate categories and into this one. Recipes, escaped from "Food & Drink"; party games and party plans (Celebrations & Events); wedding decorations, plans and dresses (Weddings); tattoos (Tattoos - yes, there is a section on Pinterest dedicated solely to tattoos); how to pack for college, decorate your dorm room, pay off your student loans (Education); faaaabulous makeup tips and hairstyles (Hair & Beauty); exercises which will flatten your belly, give you great abs, help you sleep, and home-made remedies to cure everything (Health & Fitness); how to control your screaming toddler, entertain your kids, and what to eat when you're breastfeeding (Kids & Parenting); the best shortcuts on your smartphone, cool gadgets (Technology); gun porn (Sports); and some things which don't really have a category, such as "How To Make $1000 A Month As A Stay At Home Mom"...

Anyway, so I looked at the breakfast smoothie recipe, because, hey, who wouldn't like a smoothie that tasted like a cinnamon roll? And I found that it not only had cinnamon in it, but rolled oats (and yoghurt, and banana, and pecan nuts, and almond milk, and brown sugar...). Could this be a way of having my porridge without having to have porridge? So I then searched for more cinnamon breakfast smoothies to see if there was a recipe which didn't have nuts in it, and there were a few, and I figured the general pattern of the recipes enough that I reckoned I could give it a go without having to slavishly follow one particular recipe. The idea for many of the recipes is to toss rolled oats, natural yoghurt, some sort of fruit, some sort of milk, and optional other things into a container and put it in the fridge overnight, and then blend it together into a smoothie the next morning, and drink it for breakfast. The soaking overnight is presumably to soften up the oats so that it isn't like eating sawdust.

So that very night, I made up my first overnight smoothie, and had it on Thursday morning. It was yummy. So I did it again. Today is the third day, and it seems to be going nicely. Hereby follows the ingredients I chucked in my lidded jug for my smoothies on each day. Amounts? You expect me to remember amounts? Nope.

( here be ingredients )