food for thought | squid

On Monday I went out for lunch and chose a squid salad because Will was nowhere in sight.  Had he been around, he would have cringed, pulled faces and made disgruntled remarks about how gross it was - and I wouldn't have enjoyed my yummy meal at all.   Yet as I sat at that WholeFoods table alone, with Will's repulsion in my mind's eye, I started wondering if people around me were having similarly disgusted reactions and felt very self-conscious.  Many people are grossed out by squid tentacles and as I became increasingly paranoid, I subtly glanced around to ensure no one was dry-reaching or holding their noses and pointing at me!    

It seems funny now, in the comfort of home, but it is quite a self-conscious scenario.  Australians and Americas alike are not the most polite when it comes to food etiquette: happy to openly reject something new, without trying it, and more than happy to belittle the eater!  I would have felt just as under-the-spotlight if I had suddenly reacted on a compulsion to strip down to my jocks and start dancing on the table!  As it was, I sat there trying to take big mouth fulls - desperately trying to avoid that dreaded tentacle-sticking-out-of-mouth scenario!  And I wished I had my very confident, very loud Greek friend beside me, eating her own squid salad and name-calling the haters!  Most European countries eat squid without flinching and it seems silly to care about the opinions of others... 

Eventually I did feel foolish and cursed Will for making me feel so paranoid about my choice in lunch.  I looked down at my delicious meal with the squishy, chewy texture I love so much and considered a world in which I cared so much about what others thought that I never ate squid again!  Nope - not worth it.  Sure, it has tentacles, which feel weird on your tongue.  Sure it's rubbery and takes a little work to break down... but to me it's worth it because the trade off is the taste of the very ocean!  Meaty, salty goodness: so high in protein, so low in anything bad!

My name is Lena.  And I lurve squid.  Deal with it. 

In its raw form: squid (purple, with tentacles) and
calamari (white tubes without tentacles)

food for thought | the new canned soup

Ok, hold your horses!  I know that typically thinking of canned soup leads us health freaks to negative associations.  Yes, traditionally they're packed full of preservatives, modified food starches, sugars, sodium and plenty of other reasons not to go near them, but I have just discovered a canned soup that is sooooo unlike that!

Introducing The Soup, La Courtisane!  A lunch-time revolution with at least four reasons to try it:
- Firstly, this soup is more of a juice and the can it comes in is are more of a metal bottle!
- Secondly, it's made in France using only 100% fresh and natural ingredients, like vegetables, fruits, berries, herbs, salt and pepper for spice.
- Third, the entire range is completely free of complex carbohydrates and refined sugars!
- Lastly, the above reasons combined make this soup guilt-free, nutritious and soooo convenient for you!  Without needing a can opener or spoon, you can throw it into a handbag and drink it straight from the container at your office table or on the go!

Some of the flavours - like cucumber & mint - actually taste better chilled, so the only thing that makes this soup in fact a soup and not a juice, is that the ingredients have been cooked before hand!  Personally, with the calorie count per can (or bottle?) ranging between 12 - 109 (average of 40 calories per can): I prefer to drink mine as a juice with my lunch, or have the one that's always in my handbag now as a pick-me-up between meals.  

celebrate the small things | Aug 8

Once again, this week I am joining the blog-hop gang in celebrating all the small things!  As July came to an end, I hit a period of contemplation which sparked the need within for accountability, led to several reflective posts and ultimately to this week - which has been one of inner peace, gratitude and, well, celebrating!

The best way I know of to celebrate is by implementing the four F's: friends, food, fruity-cocktails and flowers!  All these combined equal FUN and there's been a lot of that this week:

I owe most of my new-found inner peace to a fabulous book I've begun reading, called 'Sacred Contracts' by Caroline Myss.  I often feel that in my quest for spirituality, the right messages find me and this has been no exception.  At a time when I felt somewhat lost - my friend Susanna recommended it to me and it's truly filled the void, so thank you Susanna and thank you universe!  

There's nothing like getting out of a little rutt to gain new perspective, motivation and a lease on life.  This week I'm back to feeling young, rich, free and very grateful!  Thank you to all of VikLit's crew for sharing in my celebration and I wish you all much happiness as we commence a new week and look for new reasons to celebrate!

food for thought | okra

There's a little Guatemalan vegetable called okra that I discovered when I moved to America and very quickly became obsessed with!  It's kind of a cucumber, kind of a zucchini, kind of a capsicum (green pepper), but not really any one of those.

It's prevalent in Southern-style cooking where it's added to stir-fries, pickled or mixed into the famous Gumbo stew.  But my favourite okra dish is simply having it coated in a batter and deep fried.  Mmmm. Delicious!  There was a restaurant in Atlanta just down the street from where I lived, that used to serve deep fried okra as an appetizer.  It came with a type of aoli dipping sauce and I don't think I'm lying when I say that I went there and ate it every other day for the first six months I lived in America!

While I definitely don't eat it that much anymore, I'm still not sick of okra.  Here in America's south, it's an easy choice as a side dish to many meals and I get it as often as I can.  If you're thinking of visiting America and want to try something new that's not too outrageous - I strongly recommend okra!  

this week's tip | eat veggies for breakfast

Ok, we're all super busy: working, travelling, taking care of our families (whatever shape they may take), trying to stay fit and meet personal goals as well!  There often just aren't enough hours in the day to fit everything and if you're like me, you're also plagued by that little voice in the back of your head telling you that you need to eat better while relaying your vegetable count for the day!

I used to feel the pressure every night having to fit the 7 vegetable/ 2 cup count into dinner because I ate oatmeal in the mornings and a variation of either a quick-snack, or nothing at all lunch!  Sometimes (especially in a rush) it was impossible to come up with a meal idea that incorporated veggies AND didn't take long to prepare, so I would cave and make a pasta dish without any veggies at all!  (spaghetti bolognese anyone?).  After a few close calls with my  head almost exploding, I decided to start my day with vegetables - making my usual quick-snack lunch easier to forgive and taking the pressure off dinner.

It's actually quite easy to eat veggies for breakfast. There are so many highly nutritional, quick and simple breakfast ideas around that keep you as full as oatmeal.  Here are a few:

1. an omelette: you can mix just about any vegetable into an omelette.  My faves are asparagus, zucchini, capsicum (red pepper), spinach and mushrooms!  
2. avocado toast: I like to lightly sprinkle mine with salt and pepper, yum yum yum! 
• It's easy to add more veggies to this - I like green capsicum (peppers), watercress and tomatoes (although technically not a veg).    
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3. hash browns: these don't have to be oily and horrible!  Shred some potatoes (or sweet potatoes) into a frying pan of coconut oil, fry until brown and enjoy a healthy, guilt-free, trans-fat free treat!  One that you probably haven't had in ages! 
4. mushroom melt: if you work from home, or give yourself plenty of time to get ready in the mornings, you'll lurve this one!  It takes about half an hour to prepare but it's worth it.  I like to make this as a weekend breakfast for Will and I: it keeps us FULL! 
• You just need to preheat the oven, prep the mushroom (wash it, remove the stalk), fill it with whatever veggies (ham or other meat) you like, crack a small egg into it, sprinkle with cheese (opional) and bake for 15-20 mins. 
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5. veggie smoothie: no better way to get all 7 veggies and two cups straight away than mixing a juice or smoothie.  The one pictured with this post is the Citrus Veggie Smoothie  from Santa Cruz Organic, where you can find many more delicious recipes! 
• Of course, smoothies don't keep you full very long so make sure to put a nut bar into your handbag on your way out of the door!

If you don't like the idea of being nontraditional, why not try a savoury oatmeal? Just grate in some carrots, cucumbers and add some nuts instead of the usual sweet cinnamon and fruit or whatever.  It's very tasty and you can find plenty of recipes online!

food for thought | canary melon

On a recent visit to Wholefoods, I was taken with an elaborate display of canary melons, something I'd never tried or even heard of.  Feeling adventurous (and somewhat guilty for neglecting my food for thought segment for a while), I decided to give one a try and I'm so glad that I did!

Honestly, I haven't yet found a variety of melon I didn't like: but both Will and I loved the sweetness and texture of the canary melon, which really is (as everyone who's tasted one claims) a perfect cross between a rockmelon (cantaloupe) and a honeydew.  It's perfect for this time of year: refreshing, sweet and beautiful on a fruit platter since there aren't too many other fruits that are bright yellow!

food for thought | pâté

To recommence my regular blog segments, I thought I'd start with the horribly neglected food for thought.  This week I wanted to talk about pâté, but first a little back story:

Russians, like so many other ancient cultures, believe in consuming as much of an animal that's been slaughtered for food, as possible.  For this reason, eating liver was never a big deal at my place growing up - I just knew better than to tell any of my squeamish Australian friends about it!  Americans are similar in this regard, one mention of eating liver will send them running for the hills, but since I've seen first-hand how liver is washed and treated: I've never been afraid of it.  In fact, it's often been said in my family that a medium-rare piece of steak has more bacteria than a (correctly prepared) liver dish.

Pâté (pat-ay) is a meat spread that's made almost entirely of liver (either chicken, duck or pork) and it's very popular all over Europe and Russia.  Perhaps it's the Russian in me - or perhaps it's simply because I've tasted it before (pardon me when I say that no one who tries it dislikes it) - but I love pâté!

It wasn't something I never noticed on the menus in Atlanta but here in Austin, almost every trendy restaurant I've been to around town features pâté on its menu.  This surprised me because, as I mentioned, Americans don't typically eat liver... perhaps ignorance is bliss!  Case and point: Will loved pâté when he first tried it and I know that if the main ingredient had never been mentioned; he'd still be eating it to this day!  There are few things better than a slice of rye bread with brie and a smear of pâté on top. Yum yum!

k is for Krispy Kreme

My letter 'k' on the topic America from an outsiders' perspective HAS to be about Krispy Kreme donuts! (correctly spelled doughnuts).  Sure America is big on donuts and you'll find them everywhere you go but nothing beats a glazed Krispy Kreme straight out of the oven - most shops actually make them fresh on sight.

Despite trying hard to maintain a carb-free, sugar-free, organic paleo diet - I reward myself with junk food every now and then and at only (yeah right!) 200 calories per (plain) donut, Krispy Kreme is usually my choice.  A short post today but I thought I'd let the pictures speak for themselves! X

The gates to Heaven!

how to choose?

these look SO good

dang it, so do these!

what's this? a FREE sample?
ok, seriously... is it possible to taste God? 

I wonder which ones I chose...

mmmhhm.  simply glazed!

mmmmmmmmm doughnuts. 

j is jelly vs jam

Originally I wanted to write a 'J' post on jurisdiction - the laws and police are very different in America, but it's Friday and if you're anything like me, your mind is already on the weekend so I thought a post that was more fun and didn't require that much brain power was in order.  Hence, jam vs jelly.

If you look the word jam up in an American dictionary (or simply on American Google) it is defined as: a verb for the action of squeezing or packing tightly; another for becoming stuck; a noun synonymous with 'paper jams' in a machine or a gathering of musicians who improvise together.

While we also use all those definitions, the most common jam noun in Australia is defined as a sweet preserve made from fruit and sugar boiled to a thick consistency.  To an American, this would simply be called a preserve or (very logically) fruit spread.

mmmm chunky and spreadable

 Americans also have something called jelly: this is a type of jam/ preserve/ fruit spread that has a smooth consistency, free of any chunks whatsoever.  I don't know that there is an Aussie word for this... or even if it exists!  Perhaps it's a blasphemous concept?  Does everyone like the fruit chunks in Australia?  Hmmm...  Maybe it's like ying and yang... can't have one without the other/ can't have jam without fruit chunks!

can't spread it on bread so just eat it with a spoon,
but mmmm... so smooth

Moving on, in Australia jelly is a flavoured gelatin dessert, most commonly fruit flavoured.  And that's what Americans call Jello.  I seriously can't talk about jelly vs jello without thinking of the iconic JELLY ad in Australia (one that every Aussie kid knows at least as well as the Happy Little Vegemite ad).

Ahh memories!  Well I'm off, hope  you enjoyed this little bit of nonsense and hope you have a great weekend!

Russian for dinner

Without doubt my fave restaurant in Austin is the Russian House. Its fabulous, traditional dishes coupled with its eclectic decor collection of all things Soviet and imperialist Russia: make me feel strangely comforted and at home.  Whenever I'm there, I feel a part of me awakening that's usually buried and dormant in everyday (westernized) life.  Maybe it's the complimentary shot of vodka you receive as soon as you're seated, the classic Russian movies that play on the big screen TV in the dining area that I watched to death as a kid or the enormous variety of infused vodka that I always feel compelled to sample but for me, eating at the Russian House is like therapy and dinner all at once.  That's why when Will asked me where I wanted to go for dinner before he left town for the weekend, my choice was obvious.