Thanks so much Eno & Patricia for the well wishes.
My county had a lucky escape & it wasn't that bad here after all-
We're very used to that kind of wet and windy weather here in the west of Ireland.

It was the first time ever; i seen everything go into lock down with schools closed and public transport cancelled.
The south of the country got hit the worst & sadly 3 people died from falling trees. Our trees don't bend like palm trees do.. so they get rooted up in strong winds.
The roof got ripped off a school's sports hall in Cork, in the South of the country too.

The calm before the storm was actually the most unsettling thing for me; it was
eerie.
The sky in the UK, went weird colours of yellow and orange and the sun went
really red. This was because the storm had thrown up lots of sand from the Sahara dessert into the atmosphere.


I had food all prepared anyway to try to stay on plan-
Mini Quiches w/vegetables and cheese, lots of roasted aubergine, peppers, mushroom, peas and sweetcorn for Rm & a big container of Quinoa.
All of which can be eaten hot/cold.
Am a huge fan of Quinoa now and don't know how i ever lived without it.

Patricia; that slow cooker must be so useful to you; Beef seems to keep you from being hungry for ages; i find.
Eno; That Thai Red Curry sounds so tasty & so healthy too.

You both are always so inventive with your meals and cooking!

Mary, thank you for the update. I like quinoa too, but sadly, like rice and pasta, I want more more of it, so I limit how often I have it.

If I didn't have a way to braise things, I'd have invented it Love sous vide cooking (though I don't do enough of it, practically none at the moment), slow cooker, dutch oven, and instant pot cooking

Have never tried a meal from any of these cooking techniques but
i can imagine the flavours would be extra special somehow with
more time for them to infuse.

I would love to cook something in a Tagine over a fire....i just love the idea of this not having to rely on electricity or anything.
~ a bit random but there there you go!

With the Quinoa, yeah i find i have to measure out 1/2 cup or whatever as it would be easy to get carried away. Its so light.
I try to balance it out with plenty of vegetable too.
A great way to want to eat more vegetables in my opinion.

I like the idea of a Tagine too, and it's one reason I love Dutch Ovens - they can be used over a cook fire too
I love starting a meal with a salad (when I'm off, never eat one...), they taste so good (love mixed baby greens and spring onions) and most of all, fills me up a bit before I get to the "meat and potatoes"..hah..portion of my rm.

Your not going to believe this Patricia; i HAVE a dutch oven in our household but had no clue....
until i just googled what a dutch oven is after reading your post.
Going to hunt down a fire rack now and find a nice recipe to try it out soon.

Including a salad never appeals to me when it comes to my RM-too cold-
But you've really convinced me its worth having now!
I suppose staying focused on the advantages of it is really encouraging too.

Tonight's RM: Breaded haddock fish, carrots,green beans, peas, sweetcorn,
maybe some potato. some tartar sauce to go with the fish too.
I'll put low fat butter on the vegetables too.
(-Probably too much carbs but i'm just trying to construct the CAD structure
at the moment.)
-I'm going to attempt a small salad first to make a start this very day.

I discovered these 'yoomoo' frozen yogurt ice lolly's and i love them.
It would definitely be a healthier substitute because i kind of got 'hooked'
on those Magnum ice-creams...which would definitely pack a hefty calorie and fat punch in comparison.

hello!

It's finally fall weather- low humidity, cold in the morning and crisp days. We're going to the mountains of Virginia to ride bikes on a rail trail. It's about 70 miles one way on the trail, but we'll do a 32 mile roundtrip portion. DH LOVES this- I'm not a great bike rider but this is ok. No cars and since it's a weekday not too many people.

DH wants to get lunch there- I want to pack lunch. We need to leave in a few minutes so we'll see.

RM tonight will be in a place on the way home. We've eaten there before, and my planned RM will be a burger, salad and beer.

later-
E

Awesome - you will love trying the dutch oven I bet. I used to have those magnum as well, but in the mini or snack size.

Had some awesome cod tonight - keep saying this, I should eat more fish, more than the once a week I do fish or another seafood, because I really like it! I have one recipe from an Italian chef named Biba which is fancy but simple - you do the fish in paper with lemon and some veggies, crimp the edges of the paper (I seal with paper clips..lol) and then bake. Rip open the paper when it's done for a very nice presentation, and it is delicious. I need to re-look up that recipe! *not sure if this was the one I was thinking of, but it's from her and the flavors look awesome: Fish in Parchment Paper

hi-
fresh wild caught cod is delish!

Had a really good ride yesterday. For RM had a bbq sandwich without the bread, a big salad with avocado goddess dressing, and a beer for carb.

Tonight will be Italian out with friends. tomorrow I'm grilling a London broil with grilled squash and cauliflower.

later-
E

Sounds great Eno; could do with using my carb for beer this weather too..
Tackling highly stressful issues!
Is there any brand in particular you like? -I tried an Italian beer called 'Peroni'
which i liked and also a dutch one called 'Grolsh'...well i think its dutch.

Relying on green tea for stress relief today though.

Going out to eat tomorrow with my Mum, sister, her husband and two little
tots...Really looking forward to it. We hardly ever do this.

Patricia; i love the simplicity of that way to cook fish;
I did it once upon a time also; but with tinfoil- i also tried to
poach smoked haddock & Cod in milk one time.
It was cooked through really fast.
Having those mini sized magnums are the way to go- wish i thought of that.

Thanks so much for the link to the recipe. Would definitely like try it out.

Enjoy your family meal out. I hope your stress goes down, hate stress, hate it.

My in-laws are here (for the first time since we bought this house just over a year ago), since my husband walked in his college graduation ceremony yesterday. We have eaten out two nights in a row...pretty proud for the most part with how I am doing.

Last night I chose a steak, with a skewer of grilled veggies, and a skewer of grilled mushrooms as my sides. I had two bites of hubby's dessert, none of my own. The too much/not perfect came as I had a drink to celebrate his graduation *and* two rolls. Still, I am happy with my choices for the most part.

Today we are grilling - they brought a couple of racks of ribs (and a turkey breast!!) so we are making those - I made up a favorite cm rub for the ribs(no sugars what so ever and fantastic taste) and we will be grilling zucchini to go with the proteins.

For my carb (hubby is watching also, inlaws are not) I am making my citrus twist mini cheesecakes that are only 111ish calories each and not high in carbs either

hi-

Mary, there is a pretty big local craft beer movement here, and I drink a local draft beer. I'm not a big drinker, so one is all I ever have.

Pat- congratulations on your DH's graduation!

London broil is marinating in the 'juice' from a jar of peppers, bbq sauce with no HFCS, and some soy sauce. Will grill the zucchini and eggplant and not sure what I'll do with the cauliflower.

later-
E

hi-

tonight's planned RM: salad, faux tato potato salad with the cauliflower, and the leftover steak braised in red wine and bbq sauce. I will either have a roll or some apple strudel as my carb.
DH may have both.

later-
E

I find I'm even less tolerant of alcohol that ever but
I actually really enjoy the taste of beer;
Think the alcohol content is just too high in many wines.

It would be awful to be addicted to alcohol; battling with carbs is hard enough.
My country tends to be very 'fond of a pint'.

Bought lots of eggs in my shop this week- so i'll be making eggs in all the various ways this week. Keeping it extra simple. Don't have the mind space for anything complicated.

I love my breakfast casserole or when I make breakfast "muffins". Might be a nice use for some of those eggs

That's exactly what i'm going to do Patricia.
Then there's no excuse for me if its there already made.

Forget to mention that Cheesecake was actually what i got for dessert
when i went out for the dinner! -
It was a lemon one and had some kind of
coolie (I know i'm spelling this wrong! ) stripes of mango and strawberry puree over it. It had a small scoop of ice-cream on the side and a single strawberry in a dab of cream.
Very fancy!

Do you still keep your blog?

I'm always getting co-incidences on here; its a bit extraordinary!