"Spag Bog"

The above is what my friend used to call spaghetti bolognese, my much dreaded dinner for tonight (actually last night due to stupid technology).  It's not that I don't like it; in fact I think I make a very good 'Spag Bog'.  It's just I never want it and so after putting it off for several months, and having given a range of alternatives all day to my boyfriend (from meatballs to lasagne to chinese takeaway), I finally admitted defeat and cooked the damn thing.

Spaghetti Bolognese

It was pretty good, especially with all the Tabasco I added, but I'm still not in love with it.  Hopefully that's the last we see of that dish for another few months.  Does anyone else call it 'Spag Bog' by the way?  I'm pretty sure the shortened version is 'Spag Bol'.  Any food with 'Bog' in the name does not appeal...

The rest of my ingestions included:

Bacon and Egg Sandwich

I cut the fat off the bacon and poached the egg in order to try and lessen the guilt.  It worked!

Tesco's Pea and Ham Soup with a Cheddar and Leek Muffin

Alright.

Steak and Al Pie Walkers Crisps

These were even worse than Frank Skinner's offering.  Taste a little bit of steak crisps with a weird sweetness (I presume the ale) after.  Yuck.  Is the joke on the people that buy these crisps?

The Last Piece of Blueberry Pie

This pie looked better than in tasted but it did the job.



That Saturday Feeling...

So entitled because after a few glasses of red I got caught up in Take Me Out and Benidorm (highbrow I know) and couldn't drag myself to the computer to update my blog.  So in order to avoid watching the tennis I shall do it now.

Breakfast was the most disappointing of my meals yesterday.  I was still on the Egyptian food tip and was planning to have a dish called Pastirma.  This is claimed by many mediterranean countries as theirs and has loads of different spellings and probably different ways of serving but that's how I know it.  It's something we always had as a breakfast dish and is basically beef cured with different spices.  We normally cut it up and cook with eggs to make a kind of spicy bacon and eggs.  We normally have it with the flat bread that I had on Friday.

On this occasion however, they had run out at the Turkish supermarket.  Disaster!  So instead we resorted to buying 'Cypriot pastirma sausages' (this was under duress-I knew they would disappoint).  And disappoint they did:

Pastirma Sausages and Egg

It tasted as good as it looks.  Nothing like the normal pastirma.   The sausages were a lot more like chorizo.  Not good for breakfast.

Lunch was:

Rainbow Sushi Selection from Wasabi

Shared this quickly before going to the cinema.  Look how colourful and healthy it looks!  So unlike me!  It doesn't matter how many times I try or how many times people try to teach me, I still can't use chopsticks.  I have developed my own primitive way of holding them which does the job but it often involves a lot of spillage.  I saw on Saturday Kitchen yesterday that it's bad luck to stab your food with chopsticks.  That explains a lot...

Hugely Overpriced Sweet Popcorn and Diet Coke

That's the official name for the above.  Almost £8! Daylight robbery.  

Malaysian Beef Curry

This was a recipe from Atul Kochhar in Delicious Magazine.  Looked lovely in the pictures but as soon as I see I need to buy a hundred spices to make a recipe I'm out.  Luckily my friend is not so easily deterred and made up a load of spice mix and gave me some.  Winner.  So we made the curry yesterday and it was delicious.  Probably the best curry I've ever had at home that hasn't been delivered.  Highly recommend (if you have a friend to make the spice mix).

Blueberry Tart

Naughty treat from Tesco.  I only had half a slice so that made me feel better about myself.  

Culture Clash

Today I worked from home.  This meant that I had an opportunity to cook up something tasty and interesting at lunchtime.  Sadly not the case.  For some reason, whenever I buy bread it always gets thrown away having eaten only 2 slices.  I started getting the 'Little Big Loaves' and that just meant throwing slightly less away.  We just don't eat much bread in our house.  However, whenever I do want bread it's always mouldy!!!  A cruel trick by Kingsmill etc.  So I have to 'make do' (who'd have thought I'd crave a canteen polystyrene box?!) with whatever I can find in the fridge and cupboards.  So for breakfast I had:

Toasted Tiger Bread with Marmite (right) and Bon Maman Raspberry Jam

Yes this is bread but this is 6 day old, and therefore stale, bread.  Revived by a light toasting.  My rule is if it's not mouldy it's edible (although I have been known to pick off the mould in times of desperation).  Perhaps I should have had cereal...

I decided after this that the stale Tiger bread was probably not going to feature in my lunch menu so I needed to find an alternative.  I left it too late to put on a jacket potato (and I don't have a microwave) so decided to go back to my roots (well half of them) and have something Egyptian.  Normally I'm quite vocal in rejecting this part of my culture as I feel that I'm very English but I do like some of the food from my youth; the food that I hated when I was young because everyone else was eating sausage and mash and Turkey Twizzlers.  Now most of the stuff that I was embarrassed to eat in front of my friends (and often didn't like the taste of) I actually enjoy.  So for lunch I had:

Foul with pitta

If you look at the picture and the name of this dish you may find my lunch repulsive but actually it's really nice. It's basically just fava beans warmed through and squished to make a kind of dip.  You add cumin, lime and olive oil (and some add salad but my fridge was bare) to your taste and eat with flat bread, preferably sitting on the floor (I sat on the sofa as I'm no traditionalist).  We always knew the bread pictured as pitta but it isn't.  I'm not sure what it's really called but you can get it in mediterranean supermarkets.  Foul may look gross but I like it and not a spot of mould in sight! Foul was followed by:

The rest of last night's melon.  I'm in trouble for finishing this off.

I got the baking bug at about 5.30 so I made:

Leek and Cheddar Muffins

Couldn't resist having one of these fresh from the oven.   They tasted good and were made with random ingredients I could scrape together from my bare cupboards.  Might freeze the rest to have at work with soup.

Finally, to balance out my Egyptian lunch, for dinner I had:

Traditional English Fish and Chips

A naughty Friday night treat (as if I've been a food saint for the rest of the week!) with half a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (not English but definitely not Egyptian).  I'm sure fish and chips used to be the cheapest of the takeaways but it seems quite expensive now and we have to go and pick it up!  No delivery! We then have to wait for 30 minutes while they cook it!  They really make you work for it nowadays so maybe I don't need to feel so guilty about eating it...

No Comic Relief crisps today (I think I've had enough saturated fat).  Maybe tomorrow.

Day 2 of Crispgate

I actually hate it when people put 'gate' after a word to make it sound like an event or a scandal.  In this case it doesn't actually make sense.  It implies that someone has stolen my crisps or that I've found half a dead mouse in my packet.  In fact I just ate bag two of the Comic Relief Walkers flavours.  Today's flavour was:

Stephen Fry Up

When I first saw this flavour I thought it was slightly lazy work of Walkers as they had a Builders' Breakfast flavour previously but actually these are slightly different.  This time the prevailing flavour is egg. It's a bit like eating a Willy Wonka gobstopper where the flavours come to you gradually.  First there is the fried egg which I love.  I find this surprising as normally if anything other than egg is associated with the smell or taste of egg it is probably off.  After egg you get a hint of smoky bacon topped with the sharp tang of tomato ketchup.  Impressive for a mere potato chip.  Stephen Fry Up is currently in the top spot.

The rest of today's intake included:

Be Good to Yourself Hot Crossed Bun-again

Prawn Noodle Soup.  My friend gets me these Japanese stock sachets (we think they're fish but can't read the packets so it's anyone's guess) which make awesome soup when you add chilli, garlic, ginger, prawns, veg and noodles (normally Udon but Sainsbury's let us down yet again so today was rubbish rice noodles-not so satisfying).  Really quick to make-favourite healthy lunch.

Muller Greek Style Yoghurt-again

Ryvita. These are the sweet version that you're supposed to have instead of biscuits and dunk in your tea.  Sometimes they're good to fill a hole but essentially they're sweet cardboard and do not dunk well in Jasmine tea.  Be warned.

I was looking back over my previous dinner posts and realised that they all look the same.  I decided to use the flash tonight for my carbonara and it's a little better but I think I need to work on my presentation skills.  It was very tasty and I like using the green tagliatelle to make it less of a beige dish.  It doesn't taste any different.  I did discover green lasagne is cheaper than normal though-top money saving tip!

Melon.  This may be the first glimpse of anything that would count towards my 5-a-day but I have had a banana and a pear this week too. 3 out of 20 ain't bad...

Crisp Connoisseur

Is there such a thing?  If there is, can I earn money doing it?  I think it would be one of my dream jobs because I love crisps.  If I had to choose between no more chocolate or no more crisps I'd have to keep hold of the crisps.  After all, chocolate and beer/cider do not work well and chocolate does not taste good in a tuna mayo sandwich.

The reason for my potato snack(wheat and maize also included) ramblings is the launch of the new Walkers flavours.  These are in aid of Comic Relief and four comedians have been given their own flavour.  I believe there is some kind of vote for the best flavour and it's all for a very worthy cause but, to be frank, the charity element is a side note in my quest for crispy perfection.  It's all about the crisp eating for me and, as I have done for previous Walker's flavour promotions, I've bought a packet of each to decide which is my favourite.  So night one (I'm limiting myself to one a night):

Frank Skinner Roast Dinner

Now I like Frank Skinner and I like roast dinners so this should have been a match made in heaven, but like a gloomy Sunday at a West Bromwich Albion game (as if I've ever experienced this-I'm trying to set a Frank Skinner influenced scene) these crisps were bland.  They basically taste like roast chicken crisps but less salty.  Disappointed.  Unless the other flavours are really awful, Frank won't be getting my vote.

The rest of my eatings today were:

Another canteen breakfast of Tomatoes on Toast.  I think if you put a Michelin starred meal in one of the boxes from our canteen, no matter how much dry ice it contained, it would still make it look bland and miserable.  This is how I start my days so is it any wonder the clock watching starts at 9am?

 A friend bought these yummy homemade cookies in to work.  Thank heavens for small mercies.

Boots Meal Deal.  This is the lunch I have when I'm either broke or in a rush.  Today it was the latter and I ate the egg mayo sandwich on a bus.  Got egg all down my chin.  Uninspiring lunchtime.

This looks a bit like yesterdays haggis relived but it's actually a lovely home made Chilli Con Carne.  The photo really doesn't do it justice because it was nice.  My only regret is that I didn't put a jacket in the oven early as rice just doesn't do it for me.

Looking back, this was an inspiring day of eats.  Must try harder.

'A Wee Dram on Burns Night'

This is the phrase I've been using to practice my Scottish accent for the past few days ready for tonight.  To be honest, I have no idea what a dram is. Is it a sip?  A kind of glass or cup? Whatever it is, I know it's something to do with whiskey and Scotland.  Anyway I've not been very successful with my Scottish accent (I'm not very good at any accent) and apparently I say 'A Wee Dram etc' like the Count from Sesame Street.

Plan B for my Burns Night celebration of all things Scottish was to eat like a Scot.  The only thing for it was haggis with neeps and tatties.  Lo and behold Sainsbury's was sold out of the swede needed for the neeps part.  Sold out of swede?!?!?  Surely there aren't that many people celebrating this Scottish occasion in the depths of South East London.

As a substitute we had haggis with mashed potato (I think this constitutes as 'tatties') and leeks (the Welsh national symbol).

Now I had tried haggis before and I think I thought it was ok but I couldn't eat much of it (so maybe slightly below ok) but I thought I should give it another go.  It turned out to be quite nice with a bit of gravy; like dried out, spicier, oatier black pudding.  Not bad but the one negative for me is that I do not like the smell.  It really smells bad.  Oh and if you're thinking of trying it and you have a slightly weaker stomach than most, DON'T READ THE INGREDIENTS!

So that was where my Burns Night tribute began and ended.  Didn't even have a wee dram...

To stay in keeping with the theme of the blog, here's a selection of the other things I've eaten today (minus lunch-as it was the same as yesterday-and a few Maoam that were still on my desk from yesterday which gave me a headache):

 'Be Good to Yourself' Hot Crossed Bun (Breakfast)

Chicken and Noodle Slim-A-Soup (my colleague described the smell of this as stale cigarette smoke and meaty farts-delicious!)

Toast with Marmite

It's Getting Tough

On day two of my food blog I realised that it's really difficult to remember to take photos of my food when there's a plate or item of food in front of me.  This is for two reasons:
1) If the food looks/smells/tastes good I am likely to gobble it down at record speed
2) I look like a tit taking photos of my food in public

Thank God for the iPhone (or whatever camera phone you happen to possess).  Yesterday when I was out for my roast with some friends I realised that to get my phone out and take a picture of my food would look both weird and rude. It was then I realised that I could turn the sound and flash off and take a picture without them knowing.  It just looked like I was checking my phone for more interesting conversation...I'll go for rude over weird any day!

Back to the important information.  Yesterday I ate:

Most of the below roast beef dinner at the Railway pub in Blackheath before I took a picture (for aforementioned reason 2). It was pretty good but the amazing looking Yorkshire was cold when it got to me (I ate it before I took the picture), I could have done with more gravy and the roast potatoes were slightly undercooked and just a bit weird.  I don't want skin on them and I want them to be very crispy (heard of goose fat?!).

After the roast I shared a sticky toffee pudding.  My share was so minuscule that I didn't bother to take a picture and yet again I forgot...

In the evening I had a fish finger sandwich with salad cream.  I forgot to take a picture again (this blog might fail) but to represent the fish fingers I ate:

Creepy Birdseye Bear

Due to all my excuses above I'll be brief with today's consumption:

Beans on Toast from work canteen

Jerk Chicken Salad made by my own fair hand last night

Muller Greek Style Yoghurt with Honey Apricot-not a yoghurt fan but love these

I wanted Fruit Salads but my friend said they didn't have them and bought Maoam instead.  Not the same but a couple of these alleviated the afternoon slump (and gave me a bit of a headache).

This was duck breast, potato gratin (bought as it was weekly shop tonight) and stir fried cabbage with garlic and chilli.

Two segments of Popping Candy Chocolate Orange left over from Christmas.

Phew!  That's enough for today.  Let's see how I do tomorrow...

The Morning After

As promised an update of food from Dogs night.

This was purchased at the Dogs:

This wasn't really mine but I did eat half a chicken nugget and a few chips.  Note the blurriness of the photo which reflects my physical state at the time.

My actual dinner was on the way home.  After being refused entry to the McDonald's Drive Thru on foot (surely it makes little difference as long as we pay for our food!) we were forced to have Morleys instead.  Here it is:

It tasted good although there was way too much mayo.  I am moderately disappointed in myself but only because a Big Mac was really the order of the day here.  Maybe next time.

Finally, my breakfast this morning. A toasted Taste the Diffference Cheddar and Black Pepper Muffin with Marmite and a pot of Earl Grey:

This looks lame in the photo but it's actually swiftly becoming a breakfast fave.  These muffins are no longer reserved for Christmas Day!

Off for a roast now.  I'll hopefully remember to take a picture and fingers crossed there's some veggies happening.  They're distinctly lacking from my photos so far.  Oh well it's the weekend.

First Post

This is my first ever blog post so bear with me (if anyone's reading this).  The aim of this blog is to record all I eat in a day and hopefully post some lovely pictures of it to tempt/entertain/repulse you.  I'm pretty sure other people have done this but mine will definitely be better than theirs.

I've already forgotten to take pictures of a few things today (good start) so I may have to fill in the gaps with descriptions (of the literary masterpiece kind), drawings and clipart.

So far I have eaten:

A boiled egg with soldiers or, as I prefer to call it, a 'dipping egg'.   Timed to perfection with the Jamie Oliver '30 Minute Menu'  iPhone app.  Lovely and runny (for the record-a hard boiled egg ain't an egg unless it's eaten in a picnic on the beach and is covered in sand as well as salt).

Scallops and rustic guacomole on toasted Tiger bread.  Keeping with the Jamie Oliver theme, we saw him make this with squid on the telly the other day and have been craving it ever since however there is NO SQUID IN THE SHOPS.  To be fair I only tried Sainsburys and Tescos (hardly Billingsgate) but I'm thinking it's either out of season (are there squid seasons?) or every other bugger saw that episode too.  Anyway we substituted the squid with scallops and it was bloody lovely!  

My picture makes it look like an open Subway sandwich but it tasted better than it looked. Must work on the photos...

A cinnamon whirl.  Completely unnecessary and forgot to take a picture in my hasty greed.  You can just picture it in your head.

Tonight I'm going to the dogs and will try to remember to take pics of any food that might be consumed there.  Should be interesting...