My new favourite way to eat eggs

I first saw this idea on the Two Men and a Little Farm blog last December. I immediately thought it sounded delicious and wanted to try it out but as these things go, it's has taken me a while to get around to it. I've seen mention of similar recipes a few times since. I'm not sure if it's just doing the rounds or if it's a case of becoming aware of something and starting to see it everywhere. The latest mention was just a few days ago, when Dani's Simple Tomato Supper and today the stars aligned and my new favourite way to eat eggs was brought to light.

I took a ziploc bag out of the freezer this morning, which had tomatoes, courgette and onion in it from last summer. I was actually having a fasting day today so it suited me to have something substantial but simple for a lunch. As things turned out I got caught up doing a few things and since I wasn't feeling particularly hungry I just kept going. So it ended up being an early dinner at around six o'clock.

I put the tomato sauce into a pot and brought it to a boil, reducing the heat after that so that it was simmering. I then popped two slices of bread into the toaster and slipped the two eggs, which I had already broken into a cup, in to the tomato sauce. I put the lid on the pot and started to put away the few dishes still on the draining board. When the toast was ready, I buttered that and then I scooped out the eggs into a bowl and added plenty of tomato sauce. I had forgotten about adding cheese, which both of the recipes above do, but in my opinion, it didn't need it at all. Poached eggs are a favourite of mine anyway although I've never been successful at cooking them so it tends to be something I have to wait for someone else to cook for me. But this method is the business. And having the veg to eat, too, just makes it even better. I actually thought I had overcooked the eggs and that they were going to be hard inside but when I cut in to them, they were just perfect. I didn't get a picture of that - too busy scoffing the lot. I was very full when I was finished, I have to admit. And how wonderful to eat an almost entirely local meal at this time of year - tomatoes, courgettes and onions from the market last summer, eggs from the same market just yesterday, bread from the baker next door. I think only the butter wasn't local.

Eggs poached in tomatoes, courgette and onion - it tasted far better than it looks in the picture

There is still some of the sauce left - I may be having this for breakfast in the morning again!

Food for the week and beyond

I'm sabotaging myself a bit and I should know better than to set myself difficult goals because they make me freak out a bit and then I seem to go out of my way to do everything possible to not achieve what I've set out to. It's funny, it was only when commenting yesterday on Jen's post about keeping track of goals that I realised I've been doing exactly what I was trying to say I never do. I know strict goals don't work for me so why do I keep trying to follow the generally accepted wisdom that it's important? My budget was pretty tight for this month but there was enough money for each week. Because it occurred to me that if I managed to not spend quite everything and then have the same kind of month next month I would be able to clear my debt fully, did that make me even more determined to not buy anything that wasn't strictly needed? Well, yes. For about half a second. And then somehow I managed to spend just about every cent I have for this month in a week. You're selling raffle tickets? Of course I'll take a few. It's for a good cause (but hang on, I'm my own best cause, what the hell am I thinking of!!!) At least I did manage to bring lunch almost every day this week - thanks to the pulled pork I made in the slow cooker last week. It was far too much though - I forgot that I meant to freeze some of it when it was done so by yesterday I was a bit sick of it. The first three days of wraps were fabulous though. Fresh oakleaf lettuce from the market last week with some pork on top of that. Yum.

These are the spices (and the sugar) that I used for the pork last week, 2 teaspoons of each spice except the 5-spice, which I only used 1 teaspoon of. For the liquid I used a jar of my runny tomato ketchup, couple of spoonfuls of honey, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar and vegetable stock.

It was a very stressful week in work though and I worked far too much and did not get half enough sleep, which meant that I also ended up spending money on taxis to get to work slightly less late a couple of mornings. So I need to be careful to get to bed at a decent hour every day this week.

Let's just call today the start of a new week and see how it goes from there. No big goals. But plenty of food in the house to see me through the week and beyond. I went to the market this morning and bought potatoes, a couple of leeks, lettuce and eggs. That was 8.50. Then I stopped at the Reformhaus to buy vinegar (the clear cider vinegar that I use for my hair) and while I was there remembered that I wanted to get some vitamin C. I started to feel a sore throat on two days this week and I really don't want to get sick again so I thought I'd try out the old trick of high vitamin C dosage for a while. Then, when I looked in one of the big drugstore chains, there was no simple vitamin C to be found, just mixes, almost all of them with vitamin D, which I already take in a very high dosage on prescription. Anyway, I found some this morning at the Reformhaus and I'm glad I got it, even if that was 9.50 I hadn't really been planning on (yeah, why is it I have no money again?).

I resisted the temptation to go somewhere for lunch or to buy a pizza, came home and had some toast. Much better. As I was sitting here running through the cupboards in my mind's eye and thinking that I really should do a proper meal plan, I realised that having one or two other things on hand would be very useful to round off what was already there. So off I went again, this time round the corner to Aldi with a decision to see what I could get for 10 euro. Really, what I wanted was to make sure I got a couple of jars of olives - these are my saving grace when I arrive home ravenous, I can eat a few while getting something heated up or cooked. I spent just over 11 euro, as I decided to buy some hard Italian cheese (just as good as parmesan) and that was 3.30. I also got two jars of olives, three tins of kidney beans, 1kg of flour, baking powder, a big packet of fish fingers, a tin of tuna, a tin of sardines, some quark and some grated cheese. Along with what I already have on hand I'm fairly well set now, I think.

Next Saturday I shouldn't need to get more than lettuce, apples and milk. I'm also going to start following the fast diet principles again and tomorrow will be my first fast day. I'm actually looking forward to it.

So glad to live a local type life - but seriously need to get fit!

Really seriously need to start walking more again. I was fairly good at walking home from work once or twice a week over the few months before christmas but haven't done it as much since then (what with being sick and taking ages to shake off the cold, then the bronchitis). It takes me about 35-40 minutes so it's really not a very long walk (a bit more than 2.5 km and add in some time for waiting at traffic lights).

Yesterday and today there have been strikes here so there were no trams or trains running and only one or two buses. So, up early to walk to work yesterday and that was kind of pleasant. The weather, at least, has been great - bright and not raining but cool enough to make walking really nice. Then yesterday evening was the big walk as I needed to get to choir, which is a bit further away (about 5.3km) - managed that, although my feet were starting to hurt a bit by the end of the hour and fifteen minutes it took me. No blisters but I do need to get new orthotics I think. So that left me feeling pretty good about myself, even if I was a bit stiff and very glad that someone offered me a lift home afterwards.

This morning was a bit of a different story though. The walk into work wasn't quite so pleasant - I was really tired and it didn't take long for my feet to start feeling a bit sore again. I was able to get a bus to the evening class I go to so then all I had to do was get home after that. It's about 3 km and I decided to just take it slowly. It occurred to me about halfway home that if zombies started to chase me I wouldn't have an ounce of extra to even make a token effort to get away. I'm shattered and it took me nearly 50 minutes to get home - I even took my shoes off before walking up the stairs to my apartment, just couldn't stand the thought of having shoes on for one second longer than I had to.

I need to try and keep it up now after such an enforced good start, though. Won't walk tomorrow but I'm thinking of bringing my togs into work with me so that I can head for a swim straight after work tomorrow. Then next week, I'll see about walking in a few mornings too. Need to do it now as often as possible before the weather gets too hot to make it feasible.

Freaked out by debt - but is that a bad thing?

I thought when payday came around this month I'd be heaving a big sigh of relief. The last two months have seen quite a few biggish expenses so I haven't been able to send very much to clearing the overdraft on my Irish bank account. That meant I was eagerly anticipating being able to knock a big chunk off it this month, as I have no large anticipated expenses in April. Got paid today, transferred a very big chunk of change and, thanks to the new SEPA (single European payment area) systems that finally seem to be working properly, it even hit my Irish bank account by the end of the afternoon.

But you know what? Even though I am pleased to see the total on that overdraft coming down, I am not feeling at all relaxed about it. I'm very close to clearing my overdraft, with this payment I'm well away from the 2,000 mark, even if I haven't quite managed to break the 1,000 yet. And I feel just as freaked out as I did last week. So although I know it's getting there and I'd kind of like to be feeling a bit more comfortable at the moment, I actually think it may be a good thing that I'm not. I feel like I've finally gotten to that stage when any debt is just unacceptable.  Long may the feeling last because it might be the only thing that stops be ever doing it again!

Being patient is difficult but I just have to try and have another month of keeping my head down and just getting on with things. It'll be easter towards the end of April, which means a nice four-day weekend. I have a couple of social things planned but none of them are particularly expensive. There'll be a meal for book club but I'll do what I did last time and not have any alcohol to drink and try and order something cheap from the menu - not every single meal out has to be a three-course extravaganza. Myself and a friend finally made it to the table quiz in the Irish pub last Sunday evening, which was a lot of fun. We plan on going again in a couple of weeks but at 10 euro per team plus whatever you drink, that can be a very cheap night out, too. And I plan to start making full use of the ArtCard that I bought. It cost 54 euro and gives me entrance to just about all of the museums and art galleries in town for a whole year. Along with the lengthening of the days, I should have plenty to keep me occupied. I shouldn't be wishing my life away but I just really want to get to the end of April as quickly as possible so that I can finally see my debt dip into the hundreds. But best of all at the moment for me is the fact that I've booked a Tupperware party at the end of May. I am ridiculously excited about that - it has been so long since I've had one, I'd say at least 7 or 8 years. Oh how I do love my Tupperware. Sigh.

Butternut squash lasagne

I bought a butternut squash before going to Halle in February and then didn't do anything with it since I ended up getting sick. Since I finally feel like I can't possibly put off getting back to eating and cooking properly (helped enourmously by going to a friend's for dinner last night for two delicious vegetarian dishes from the Ottolenghi book) I took the herby quark I bought at the same time and put into the freezer back out yesterday to defrost. I actually starting the day feeling like I was going to have another unproductive day but when I went into the kitchen just before one to get myself a very late bowl of cornflakes for breakfast I ended up turning on the oven, preparing the butternut squash and putting it in to cook. I actually hadn't found the recipe for lasagne again yet so forgot that they just saute the butternut squash in cubes - still, roasted with garlic and a red onion gives me just about the same, cooked squash that doesn't even need any more mashing or pureeing to use it in the recipe. The recipe doesn't call for it to be mixed with cheese or quark either - I think I was just mixing it up with the stuffed butternut squash recipe I often do. And hey, garlicky, herby, creamy butternut squash has to work at least as well as just mashed butternut, don't you think?

Since it's now cooked I thought I'd better just find the recipe and check I remembered it quickly. And of course I had completely forgotten about the white sauce part of things. No problem to whip up a quick white sauce though, right? I even have milk, not always a guaranteed thing. The one thing I don't have, however, is flour. I ran out in February and have completely forgotten to get some more in. So frustrating. So I could upset my day's planning to try and get out now to find a small shop open on a Sunday (there's a general Sunday shopping ban here for most instances, only touristy things are allowed open except for a couple of times a year - small tobacco selling type kiosks can open sometimes, too and some of them stock some basic groceries, too). Or just try it without the white sauce and sprinkle a bit more cheese between each layer. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Edited to add the photo I had forgotten I took:

How can I be happy?

Nice video narrated by Stephen Fry - just getting in before the end of this International Day of Happiness!

Starting over

I'm still not completely better, this cough won't go away and I have very little energy. I think that partly comes from the slight shortness of breath - I can't really do anything normal, even walking up the stairs leaves me far more winded than it usually would.

Nonetheless, I feel the need for a fresh start. Today was a holiday here so despite a busy start to the weekend, with dinner at a friends on Friday (tastiest duck I have ever eaten, from Silver Hills Farms) and then a lie-in on Saturday followed by a beer-tasting with some people from choir in the afternoon which turned into sitting around chatting until after eleven, I still had two days with nothing planned. I gave myself a day in bed yesterday, only moving to the couch in the late afternoon and was going to get some stuff done today. And then today I decided the rest was more important than getting stuff done. And I am very glad to have had another day of taking it easy. It makes the possibility of a new start seem more realistic now somehow.

So, small steps to start with. I did the washing up. The last load of washing in just out of the machine and hung to dry. And I made a pastryless quiche for dinner, which is really pretty good. I've started reading some weight loss blogs and following a WeightWatchers thread on an Irish discussion forum, which is really helping to focus my mind a bit more and get me on track again. Normally being sick throws me really off when it comes to healthy eating but this time round hasn't been so bad as I almost completely lost my appetite. Very strange for me and it has come back but still isn't quite what it usually is. I'm trying to look on the bright side and appreciate it for now because it's not just healthy food I'm not in the mood for, it's junk, too. Gotta take your silver linings where you find them!