Fighting my sweet tooth

Well, I still haven't eaten any chocolate.

I gave up last month and I still haven't touched any. Sure, I've been cranky as hell but at least my headaches have stopped. Well, guess what - I've now gone even further and given up all sugar too. I don't mean carbohydrates, but refined sugars like good ol' white sugar, fructose syrup, dextrose, glucose and all those sneaky ingredients that make their way into our shop bought meals without us realising.

So yeah, now I'm even crankier (as if that's possible) and feeling mean as hell, but I am feeling healthier and sleeping well. I've also been putting in more time at the gym with at least half an hour of cardio then an hour in the swimming pool. See, i don't just go to the gym to get cruised! ;o)

The eleven best foods you should be eating

Tara Parker Pope has enlisted the help of Dr. Bowden, author of The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth to compile an updated list of the eleven best foods you aren't eating in the ever-helpful New York Times. Here's the full list with the addition of some of my own ever-helpful comments:


1 - Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.

OMG I love beetroot. I've eaten it since I was a kid since it was always my favourite part of having a salad and my Mom had to keep a jar of it in the fridge for me. Even today, I'll sometimes buy a serving from the deli counter and just eat it on its own. Delicious.

2 - Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.

Now, cabbage is one of those foods that I know I'm supposed to eat, but I find it utterly indigestible and all it does is make my stomach bloat and I end up farting like an old dog. My Mom served it a couple of times a week and my brother and sister love it, but I'm not a fan. I like to keep my farts to a minimum.


3 - Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.

Swiss chard is my favourite leafy green. It's often quite hard to find in the shops here so my sister grows it for me in her vegetable garden. Actually, my brother-in-law gave me my own plant this year and it's growing on the balcony here. It's like spinach, but sweeter and it doesn't make your teeth squeak.

4 - Cinnamon: Helps control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.

5 - Pomegranate juice: Lowers blood pressure and loaded with vitamin C and other antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it.

6 - Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.

The only problem I have with dried plums is that I like them so much. They're moreish, but you can't eat too many as they have so much fibre in them. I found this out the hard way many years ago when I lived in France. They're not as keen on sweets and chocolate in France as the English are, so the only sweet thing I found in the larder one day was this bag of dried plums. Unfortunately, I ate the lot in one sitting as they were so nice and then spent the entire night sitting on the toilet, pissing out liquid poo from my bottom. Not my proudest moment. It wasn't pretty.

7 - Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.

Pumpkin seeds are easily my favourite seeds to snack on. I also use them sprinkled on fresh pears and that's absolutely delicious.


8 - Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.'’ They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.

Tinned sardines are what stopped me from being vegetarian. I hadn't eaten any fish for many years and didn't miss it at all, but one day I was visiting my parents and my Dad was having some sardines for lunch and sharing them with the cat. The smell overwhelmed me and I just got this craving for cheap tinned sardines in brine.

9 - Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,'’ it has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.

10 - Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.

11 - Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Canned pumpkin? That must be an American thing. It's a little bland, don't you think? I don't mind some pumpkin soup, but I prefer butternut squash.

Hmm, looking at that list I reckon that I'm not doing too badly as I regularly eat quite a few of those "best foods" so I'm feeling nice and smug right now. How about you? ;o)

McDonald's Oreo McFlurry with toffee sauce

Ok, so McDonald's isn't my usual choice of "restaurant", but it was really hot today and when I was out and about all I wanted was a nice cold ice cream. Passing McDonald's, I thought I'd look in a see if there was a queue (I don't know why they call it fast food, it always takes bloody ages to get your order in these damn places) but it was surprisingly empty for once.

Anyway, I usually get the Crunchie McFlurry but I saw to my delight that they had a new one and it sounded like a humdinger - Oreo cookie with toffee sauce!! Oh, be still my beating heart. This sounded dreamy so I duly ordered one. I don't think that the staff like people who order McFlurrys though as they can't supersize you. There's just one size for 99 pence thankfully, otherwise I'd sure as hell get a bucket of the stuff.

Oh, and look, I even managed to hold off eating it so I could take a photograph. Mmm, it was sheer heaven. Yeah, so I know that it probably contains ground horses hooves and mushed up cow vagina, but I don't care. How bad can an ice cream from McD's be? It was gorgeous, I love Oreo cookies and I buy them myself and crumble them into plain vanilla ice cream to make my own Cookies 'n Cream. I'm not sure what the toffee sauce was doing in there, but it worked.

My only complaint is the lid you get with it - removed for the photo. How the heck are you meant to get enough ice cream to shove down your throat when you've only got a narrow opening to stick your spoon through? And I always thought that McDonald's made it easy to get fat.

Super cute Pikachu Pokemon pizza!

ZOMG, I know what I want to dinner tonight - some super cute Pokemon pizza! I wonder if it comes with actual Pikachu topping, oh that would be just too dreamy.


Courtesy of Kotaku

Men's Pocky for the intelligent connoisseur who enjoys the finer points in life.

Men's Pocky: "'Crispy pretzel dipped in dark chocolate for the intelligent connoisseur who enjoys the finer points in life."

I went to the Health Food Store today to stock up on supplies and since I have to pass the Japanese food store on the way, I just had to pop in there too and stock up on some Japanese treats as well. I love my Pocky and I was amused to see this Men's Pocky. It's got bittersweet chocolate and apparently offers a more "mature" taste.

Are you man enough for Men's Pocky?

Scallops grilled with garlic and ginger

I've spent the day in best "resting" today as I went out last night for a friend's birthday and it was a long night with more Malibu and Pineapples than I can remember. What I do remember was this fabulous Japanese restaurant that we went to first. I've never been to one quite like this before but they way the seating was laid out was that each eating area had two chefs on hand to cook your food as you watched them on the hot plates. I started off with mackerel sushi, followed by big fat scallops grilled with garlic and ginger and it was marvellous.

You know, it was actually quite entertaining too as the two chefs knew they were putting on a show and they juggled and threw about their cooking utensils like Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown in Cocktail. They also did this funny thing where they picked up sliced cooked potato with their spatula then fipped it towards each diner in turn and you had to catch in with just your mouth, like you're a performing Seal or something. Despite already being quite juiced up, I managed to catch mine first time, so I was well chuffed with that. I must be particularly dexterous with my mouth, or something..!

Oh, and one of the chefs clearly fancied himself as a bit of a comedian. Someone had ordered some stuffed meat dish but when he put it on the hot plate it looked just like a great big cock. The chef obviously clocked that he was at a table of gay guys so he added to eggs to the base of the "cock", then as if that wasn't bad enough, he squirted some oil to drip out of the tip. My, how we all laughed! It doesn't take much to amuse the gays, I find that a reference to cock usually does the trick.

By the way, that's not us in these photos. My mate did take some photos, but he hasn't emailed them to me yet as he's spending the day in bed getting his birthday "gift" from his hot new boyfriend, lucky bastard. I'm totally feeling his priorities, so I've taken these ones from the restaurant's website just to give you an illustration of the place.

Found in a Japanese restaurant - Pocky!

Oh, look what I found in the Japanese supermarket today - Pocky! There's this tiny little Japanese shop in the basement of a Japanese restaurant in town (I forget the name as usual, I only ever know how to get there) and they have the best imported biscuits and sweets.

I'm not a huge fan of biscuits as I prefer just to have chocolate and get straight to the good stuff rather than waste my time with wheaty biscuits, but of all the ones I've ever had my all-time favourite biscuit is definitely the Pocky. I first found them when I lived in France where they're known as Mikado biscuits (not to be confused with the Irish marshmallow and jam biscuit of the same name). I used to be able to get Mikado when I lived in London at my local Sainsbury's in Chiswick but they haven't had them for years so imagine my joy when I found some Pocky!

I wasn't quite so happy when I saw the price though - £1.95 for a little packet of biscuits. They're yummy but even so, they're pricey plus you get a big carbon footprint to feel guilty about. Anyway, in case you've never had them, they're a sweet thin breadstick coated in chocolate apart from the top which allows you to handle it without getting your fingers messy.

You can get different versions whatever your preference: milk chocolate; dark chocolate; white chocolate; hazlenut; almond; strawberry etc. My favourite is the chocolate and hazlenut one. Oh my, now that one is heavenly..

The sheer nasty evil of Coriander

Right, I settled down to have dinner tonight just before The Brits started and I'd bought some nice salads from Marks & Spencer. You know the ones, they're those fancy little ones with all sorts of good things in them. I'd chosen the sweet potato, quinoa and lentil salad, then the butter bean, mushroom and roasted tomato one. All good stuff.

Anyway, I didn't pay too much to the ingredients as I figured that since we're not in Germany they wouldn't have managed to smuggle any meat in there, so I was surprised to get this really odd taste. It was kinda like soap, just really horrible. You've probably already realised from this post's heading that I found my horror that it was the evil that is coriander! Who the hell ever thought it would be a good idea to add this vile weed to add flavour food?

Oh, I do hope you're not one of those people who like coriander and think that my palate simply needs educating. I've got a perfectly fine palate thank you very much, my taste buds are just fine and dandy. Hell, I even like olives. No, coriander is quite simply a leafy clump of disgusting soapy tasting poo and I had to pick the whole damn lot out of my bean salad and even then the nasty flavour lingered. You know all those nut-free foods you can get? How about offering some coriander-free deli food next time?

Ok, rant over. Let's watch The Brits!

Barack Obama's "Cherries for Change"?

Now this one tickled me. Radar has an article about Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Barack Obama scored the coveted frozen treat endorsement yesterday when Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield—better known as Ben & Jerry—announced a new ice cream in his honor. The rather uninspired name: "Cherries for Change." Not surprisingly, some writers at conservative-leaning blogs are kindly offering up alternative names for Obama's flavor, with ideas ranging from amusing to outright offensive ...

• "Chocolate Promise"
• "Cherries Messiah"
• "Commie Crunch"
• "Lefty Licorice"
• "Trotsky Ice-Picnic"
• "Mocha Fluff"
• "Ice Cream Dream"
• "Nihili-Vanilli"
• "Nut 'n Substantial"
• "Chocful o' Hopee"
• "Obamanana Split"
• "Marx Bar Crunch"
• "ChocoNilla Swirl"
• "Barracky Road"
• "NeoPolitician"

My particular favourite is Obamanana Split. Well, it's the only one that isn't racist for a start, plus it's a funny play on his name and banana ice cream is absolute heaven. Um, I was trying to think of a name myself, but all I could come up with was Coconut Waffle. Sounds yummy doesn't it?

Love me, love my food

This article in the New York Times about eating habits and relationships caught my eye:

"Sharing meals has always been an important courtship ritual and a metaphor for love. But in an age when many people define themselves by what they will eat and what they won’t, dietary differences can put a strain on a romantic relationship. The culinary camps have become so balkanized that some factions consider interdietary dating taboo.

No-holds-barred carnivores, for example, may share the view of Anthony Bourdain, who wrote in his book “Kitchen Confidential” that “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”

Returning the compliment, many vegetarians say they cannot date anyone who eats meat. Vegans, who avoid eating not just animals but animal-derived products, take it further, shivering at the thought of kissing someone who has even sipped honey-sweetened tea."

I'm not a proper vegetarian as I will have fish or seafood from time to time (it gets boring just being offered mushroom risotto in restaurants..), but I haven't eaten any meat since I was a teenager. There's no morality about it, I just never liked meat and rarely agreed to eat it, much to my Mom's annoyance. The poor thing always had to prepare a separate dish for me for dinner. Bless.

Anyway, thinking about it, I haven't been in a relationship with a fellow non-meat eater. In fact, it's not something that I would ever even bother to ask someone at that awkward early dating stage when you're silently appraising your future partner and ticking off all those boxes in your head. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to kiss someone with a mouth full of burger, but as long as they brush their teeth after eating, I'm good to go. That's not too fussy, right?

Apparently, there's a term for those vegetarians or vegans who don't enter into relationships with meat-eaters. They are being called vegansexual. They believe in “cruelty-free sex” which means that they refuse to have sex with anyone who eats meat. Oh, I don't know about all this. I'm all for saving the planet and being environmentally friendly and all, but I kinda think that anyone who practices vegansexuality probably has more issues to deal with that the fact that their partner ate a pork chop for dinner!

Pacman cupcakes!

See, if I had a boyfriend and he loved me, this is how he would show his love - with some Pacman cupcakes!

If I got these delightful fancies I'd sure be in the mood to give some good loving. Heck, I'd even move. Just a little bit though, I'm classy.

Source

Pikachu's tasty bean paste cake slices!

Oh, these are the most darlin' things I've seen all week! I wish we had goodies like these at my local food store. These Pikachu head bean paste cakes would be perfect for my lunch box at work. I don't eat animals and all, but biting into a ready sliced Pokemon would be all right wouldn't it? I mean, Pikachu's already been chopped up and beheaded, he wouldn't feel a thing..

Source

The end of the main meal

This article in the New York Times caught my eye. Its' reporting on the trend for restaurant diners to abandon the idea of having a small starter, followed by a main meal.

"THE entree, long the undisputed centerpiece of an American restaurant meal, is dead.

O.K., so maybe it’s not quite time to write the entree’s obituary. But in many major dining cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago, the main course is under attack.

Although the entree’s ills were first diagnosed in the late 1990s, when the rise of small plates kicked off the tapafication of American menus, the attacks have become more serious lately.

Upstarts like the snack menu, with its little offerings of polpettine and deviled eggs, are encroaching from the flank. Crudi, salumi plates and cheese boards have piled on. The appetizer, once a loyal lieutenant, is demanding more attention on menus. Side dishes and salads, fortified by seasonal ingredients and innovative preparations, are announcing their presence with new authority.

But the gravest threat may be the dining public, which seems to have lost interest in big, protein-laden main dishes."

I do this all the time. I don't like meat (I mean, who really wants to eat a pig's ass?) so although choosing a starter is easy enough, choosing an appropriate main meal is often tricky in a restaurant. There's only so much mushroom risotto you can eat in a lifetime. Oh, and tagliatelle pasta with mushrooms. I forgot about that one.

My trick is always to pick one starter along with everyone else, then ask for a further two (or three!) to come together as my main. Friends roll their eyes, but when my picky bites arrive they all ooh and aah at the various colours and textures and ask themselves why they didn't do the same thing as they look down at their huge lump of sweaty brown meat.

It's just food, it's not a lifestyle!

I love the stuff at the health food store. I don't like going there, but I do love the food. You get things that you just can't get anywhere else. The reason I don't enjoy shopping there is the attitude of the staff. The best one in Manchester is called the Eighth Day and it's right across the city centre so it's an effort for me to get there. However, it's the only place in town that stocks the most delicious avocado humous and Longley Farm yoghurts so I go as often as I can face it.

Now, what I don't like about it is the attitude of the staff. I mean, you better not go there wearing a leather jacket or anything as they will just treat you like dirt. I went today as I got off work early and, stupidly, I was wearing a suede jacket. The girl behind the counter just glared at me when I went to pay for my humous and yoghurts. You know the sort of girl who works in a health food store: no make-up; home made knitwear; dry, matted hair that could do with some deep intensive conditioner; and a general air of superiority and condension.

Sometimes I feel like telling 'em: "It's just food, it's not a lifestyle!" but I'm probably wrong about that. Some people really embrace this health food sh*t. Me? I just like the taste but I can sure do without the high moral tone!

Which breakfast are you?

For his breakfast project, photographer Jon Huck chronicled the eating habits of more than a hundred of his friends by photographing both them and their food at the beginning of their days and collating them into a large collection of images. It's surprising what some people eat. I didn't even recognise some of the stuff on their plate, like this guy above. What the heck is that? I love the fact that some of the them just have a slice of pizza or some pie for their breakfast, dirty skanks! Anyway, which breakfast represents you? Go through the list, judge everybody (because that's the most fun part) then let me know which one matches your breakfast choice.

My breakfast choice? I don't have any of that rubbish. I'm on a health kick at the moment so I have Dr Kousmine's Budwig Creme. The recipe is on her foundation's website but if you don't understand French, I'll give the recipe here:

Get a bowl and add four spoons of low fat fromage frais, yoghurt (or dairy-free alternative if you're intolerant or Vegan). Just make sure that it's natural and doesn't have any sugar or fruit added.

Mix in two tablespoons of linseed (or flax) oil or, if you can't find this or it's too expensive, use some cold pressed Sunflower oil. It must be cold pressed though, any cooking oil will be useless. Beat it all up until it mixes in completely as it will lose its taste and becomes easily assimilable. Add the juice of a half-lemon or a whole lime and mix in. You'll find that the juice will help the oil to mix in. Add a crushed ripe banana, or honey and mix in again.

Add two tablespoons of coldly ground complete cereal. You grind this in a coffee grinder, though it's best if you have a coffee just for this purpose. Whole grain brown rice is my choice, but you can use any as long you keep an eye on any food intolerances. Mix in two teaspoons of nuts or seeds, again ground in a coffee grinder. You can use any, but I like Linseed in mine as it adds texture to the Creme.

Finally, add any chopped up fresh fruit that you fancy, although I'd avoid citrus fruits: Oranges, Pineapple, Grapefruit etc. as they're a bit too acid for the morning. As you can see, I used Kiwi fruit this morning. My absolute favourite is Mango or Papaya but I also love fresh Fig or berries.


And that's it, you can now sit back and enjoy your Budwig Creme. It'll fill you up and give you all the nutrients and energy that you for the morning. Plus, it's better than eating some dumb animal's ass!