My favourite snack that I have not yet had

I love thinly-sliced biscotti with lots of nuts. If only I could buy it dipped in chocolate. That would be my most favourite, most perfect snack. Dipped in fondue. Dipped in Nutella. Dipped in ganache. Yum!

Wonder-ginger.

Ginger is one of the BEST ingredients to totally zing things up. Whoever invented ginger in fresh juice is my hero. I have now discovered ginger honey. It was expensive in the honey shop but surely you can make it. I've googled and there are several recipes. Basically you put lots of slivers of ginger in honey, either cook for 10 min at a low heat or just don't bother, and then leave it for about 5 days to infuse. Then you have a couple of weeks to eat it. It's nice in tea, on fancy bread and cheese, general gourmet dribbling.

I heard some devastating news on the radio this week though. Honey shortage in Australia. Bees are starving. I forget why, maybe the warm winter means less pollen or something. That's a shame. So stock up now.

Myths about snacking.

The thing is, I feel lied to by The World. EVERYONE out there is pro-snack. All the TV doctors and personal trainers, including Jillian, tell you why to snack and how to snack. Now I've done some googling and found other points of view, and I've lived without snacks, I feel like I've discovered THE TRUTH. I'm an obsessed conspiracy theorist type crazy person now, evangelizing everyone to the better way: Nacking.

These are the things I used to believe:  

If you feel hungry it means your body is going into starvation mode and you're storing fat for times of famine! Seriously, 3 hours is a famine? Only in the first world.

And then you'll be so crazed with hunger at your next meal you'll overeat uncontrollably! This is just false. You'll just eat whatever you put on your plate. What's more likely is that if you snack you won't remember to eat LESS at your next meal, and eat whatever you put on your plate regardless of your supposedly controlled appetite.

Your blood sugar will drop and you'll lose concentration! Um, unless you are diabetic or borderline,  your blood sugar probably just returns to normal, and if you snack it goes temporarily high again. Normal blood sugar would probably be a better thing. And I haven't felt sleepy. Except yesterday when I had a massive lunch. Which suggests that a FULL stomach decreases alertness.

I'll run out of Nacking rants soon.

No snacking update.

I'm really enjoying no snacking. Nacking for short. The things everyone says about eating every 3 hours or your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism slows down seem to be a bit of a lie. Humans have survived fine without snacking for a long long time.

Benefits:

• The desire to eat between meals has been reduced.
• Hunger pangs, when they DO come—usually after I've walked to work or something that used up my breakfast energy—are just something I acknowledge and ignore until lunchtime. You don't starve to death in an hour.
• Money saved by not buying nuts and biscuits.
• NIGHT CRAVES GONE! I don't have that overpowering desire to gobble sweets after dinner anymore, I just eat a biscuit or two with some tea and that's it. This is unexpected and I don't know how it's related to nacking or if it even is related, but it's great. I'm less likely to eat after 8pm now, which is supposed to be good.
• Teeth stay clean for longer than a couple of hours.
• Overall calorie intake is probably lower, although I'm not counting. But the fact that I haven't eaten from the packet of bickies in my drawer for about 3 weeks is pretty good evidence.

If you are a snacker and try to stop, it is a significant physical and mental adjustment. Your body has to change the way it uses energy, and stop relying on constant sugar input. Your mind has to break the mental habits of boredom = food or whatever. It's been a positive experiment. Even on holidays I rarely snacked, because I just enjoy nacking now.

Obsessed with lemongrass.

I really want to grow lemongrass. This is the take-home application from my holiday… I really like tea made from ginger and lemongrass.

http://www.growingherbsforbeginners.com/how-to-grow-lemon-grass/

And mint.

I think these herbs are pretty hardy/weedy, so I could probably grow them in pots in my own kitchen which hasn't got ideal gardening conditions, and then I could have my own supply of fresh tea.

One dessert a week rule

Jess loves rules and habits. I think habits are great, and rules are only good if they serve you in achieving goals (rather make you want to do the thing you're not supposed to).

I have a friend who lives at college and gets fed three meals a day plus snacks and dessert. He told me about his "one dessert a week" rule, to keep his diet healthy. I think this is great rule, especially for me. Even though I don't live at college, I do eat out a lot and I do like dessert. So this is a rule I'd be happy to implement. But often, there are treats and cakes at work, and some of those things are equivalent to dessert, so hmmoooooooo.

An alternative dessert rule is: all desserts must be shared, so that helps with spreading the richness of dessert.

Snacks at work.

I'm a big fan of snacks at work. I have a banana, some almonds, maybe a biscuit or 2, each day. Sometimes there's chocolate or muffins or something in the kitchen to share, but when there hasn't been junk food for a while I get a bit bored of banana, almonds, biscuit. And of course cups of tea.

I've added Miso soup to the mix. Cheap, compact, easy to make, salty broth. Sachets are in the Asian section of the supermarket. Add boiling water. Tasty savoury alternative to tea and biscuits.

Jipped of my full-cream

I reached the end of my full-cream milk this morning. As I opened the carton to flatten it for recycling, I realised all the cream had clung to the sides of the carton. I was deprived of the full-cream! In future, when I reach the end of my carton of full-cream milk, I will scrape out the cream and have a super-creamy porridge.

'Sup 'sup

Jelssie is into gut health, and I am especially so, after my lovely two week bout of gastritis. As a result, I'm now taking a couple of supplements daily.

I'm taking a probiotic (Nutrition Care Polybac 8). This brand is not as widely available as Inner Health Plus.

Image from http://www.vitalityandwellness.com.au/images/products/Nutritional%20Supplements/Polybac-8-web.jpg

I haven't done my research, but two different supplement sales people recommended this one, so I'll stick with it for the time being. Cheapest I've seen it at so far is at Mr Vitamins in Chatswood.

I'm also eating yoghurt with breakfast during weekdays, because it contains cultures that are beneficial to gut health. My favourite is Gippsland Dairy Organic Natural Yoghurt. It's really tasty, has no sugar and is relatively low in energy compared to other full-fat (or even lite) yoghurts.

Image from http://www.gippslanddairy.com.au/products_yogurt_5.html

As much as I love it, it's quite pricey where I live, so I'm eating ALDI's Just Organic Natural Yoghurt instead. ALDI's one is pretty good and has more energy per 100g than Gippsland Diary.

Image from http://aldi.com.au/au/media/product_range/ALC5020_Dairy_PD_9_Just_Organic_Natural_Yogurt.jpg

Finally, I'm taking liquid chlorophyll, which apparently is great for digestion and your skin. Is it really? I don't really know and I don't know how to judge how effective it is. I'm currently taking Swisse Liquid Chlorophyll, but will try an organic one at my local supplement store next (costs nearly half the price I paid for Swisse!). If you want to buy the Swisse one cheaply, try Priceline when they have a sale. It was nearly half the price I paid for mine -_-.

Taking these supplements makes me feel like a hippy.

(Also, I know yoghurt isn't a supplement, but I included it in here because we are talking about gut health :) )

A lesson on pain and change

My tummy has been giving me extreme grief of late. It's turned temperamental quite suddenly. I used to eat whatever I liked, including junk, oily/fried and spicy food, and not suffer from too many consequences (except for weight gain). Now my tummy is so sensitive that I will be in a world of pain for hours after if I eat certain foods. I often wake up in the middle of the night because of the pain (hence this 3am post while I wait for the painkillers to kick in).

You'd think after a couple of times, I'd learn to steer clear of certain foods to avoid the crippling pain. But no, I keep on making the same mistakes. My new strategy now, is to eat like a lady: super small portions, eat more frequently, eat very slowly, take small bites and avoid pain-inducing food (e.g. junk, oily/fried, spicy). But it's really hard to do if you've been used to eating like a piggy: eating whatever and whenever you want, eating bigger portions and wolfing down your food.

Some things are easy for me to avoid (e.g. alcohol and coffee), and I'm proud of myself for avoiding chilli (even though I miss it terribly), but others are plain hard.

Instead of berating myself each time I stuff up, I remind myself that change is hard, I'm only human and I am getting better at working out which foods make my tummy happy and which ones make it churn eight hours later. This is practising self-compassion; one of my current life lessons.

The people who really suffer are my colleagues and close friends because I am constantly whinging about the pain and asking them to pray for me.

I am also enlisting their help in another way. For example, on Friday, I will have a yum cha lunch with colleagues. I have asked a particular one to sit next to me, and I will only eat food she puts in my bowl (she's experienced with tummy troubles!). I've also asked them to help me say no, to say no to me, and remind me of the consequences.

I've been very thankful for the support of others during this tummy trouble time.

Alternative storage solution

My mushrooms came in a plastic container.

You're supposed to store mushrooms in brown paper bags on the lowest shelf in the fridge. I didn't have said paper bag, so I made an origami paper box and a lid to go with it (lid not pictured).

That's practically the same as a brown paper bag, right?

The jessenomics of food waste.

I think it's something like a quarter or a third of groceries are spoiled and wasted. Australian stats. I think it's often good intentions and bad planning—people want to buy fresh food, but they don't have the lifestyle suited to cooking and eating it. All it takes is shopping for what you realistically WILL eat, and giving up the idol of freshness—tins and frozen food don't waste as easily. Cooking shows make such a big deal about fresh food, perhaps because the supermarkets pay for the ads and get the most benefit from food you buy and don't eat.

Waste is against my nature anyway. I just can't allow it happen, if I can possibly help it. I feel like a moral failure if I throw anything out. For me, a waste of food is both a waste of money and a waste of effort, because of carting it home from the shops on foot and unpacking it into the fridge only to fill up the kitchen bin and carry it out to the wheelie bin. So there's the jessenomics of it, 10 minutes each week of thinking properly about what to buy and cook can save your money, and effort, and the environment. Apparently it's bad for the environment because it's a waste of water and fuel and landfill—not wasting food is the easiest way to reduce "food miles" and all that footprint stuff, it's just not so trendy a "solution". A "solution" has to involve a farmer's market or a veggie patch or something.

Flake, Twirl, Twix

I like Cadbury's Flake Chocolate Bar, except that it's quite messy to eat. I recently rediscovered Twirl Bar, which is like a Flake encased in a chocolate shell. That makes it the perfect way to eat a Flake neatly. I also get Twirl and Twix mixed up because they both start with "twi", even though they're different chocolate bars and have different packaging.

Fish markets.

A very Sydney thing was done on the weekend. I went to the Sydney Fish Markets for lunch. They are famous and somewhat trendy, actually they are a tourist attraction. I've always wanted to see what they are like. Long time passer-by, first time visitor.

Firstly, Saturday lunch is a rubbish time to get parking anywhere, let alone Pyrmont, let alone the fish markets. But it can be done.

Secondly, Saturday lunch is also a rubbish time to get seating there. It's kind of stressful figuring out what to get and then where to take it.

But once those hurdles are crossed, the fish was affordable, and tasty, although no lemon slices were provided. No lemon? From Doyles at the SFM? I expected more.

I personally wouldn't go back to eat there for Saturday lunch, cos it's just a grotty fishy food court on the water. Amazing that so many people in Audis want to go there, maybe they want to feel gritty. Although I don't think it should ever go fancy, because then it would be a luxury parody of a fish market. Like the "farmers markets" all over the place. They are the total opposite of the Newcastle fruit and veg markets my mum got our food from when I was young, which was a dark and scary warehouse with concrete floors, palettes of cardboard boxes, squashed fruit underfoot. I didn't like it much. But I say keep it authentic, fishy and grotty, and I won't go and eat there. I'll go to proper cafes and stuff. However, aside from a place to eat I would rather recommend it as a place to shop, to buy really fresh fish and produce in a bustling nonColes/Woolies marketplace to take home and cook. Personally, I'll shop closer to home, but if I lived near the fish markets I'd shop there.

In praise of canned soup

I cannot praise canned soup enough! In the past, I've made my own soups, but if you want a quick and easy dinner, canned soups are tops. The other night, I had a can of chicken noodle soup and I added shredded, poached chicken thigh fillet, steamed asparagus and lots of cracked black pepper. Perfect for a winter's night.

How to save money in a food court.

Does the world need this post? Aren't food courts already cheap? Well yes, but compared to home food they are still expensive, and thinking like this is first nature to me, I can't help it. In fact a colleague asked me to find the cheapest lunch near our office. I have not got a definite answer yet, but this post is a good start.

1. Order something small. Most things are too big and calorie-rich in terms of what a woman who sits at a computer actually NEEDS to eat, especially if you are like me, and eat snacks regularly.

2. Don't get a meal deal. The chips and the drinks are a waste of money. Carry a drink bottle. That will bring a lunch under $10 straight away.

3. Don't order something hot. Ready made sandwiches and wraps are a few dollars cheaper than a plate of noodles or fish and chips.

4. Share the order with a friend where there are quantity discounts or large portions. Like 1 wrap for $4.50 or 2 for $8 (you can get quantity deals on sushi rolls a lot). Or a big gourmet sandwich for $9, cut in half.

5. Wait for AFTER the rush. A lot of food gets marked down mid afternoon or when they are closing.

Quick food #3.

This one uses the george foreman grill I love. One meat (suggest a chorizo, or a lamb or chicken skewer) and 2 vegetables (a carrot and a zucchini for example, although eggplant slices and sweet potato and other stuff is good too). Obviously put 3+ cloves of garlic on as well.

The trick is to put things on the grill in the order of how long they need to cook, so it depends on what you have. Carrots take ages, meat goes on next usually, zucchini or eggplant is pretty quick. Whole meal will cook in about 15 minutes.

I like to go MUFA with this one, and eat it with whatever I have in the way of olive oil, olives, avocado, cheese and some maybe sort of fancy bread. The cooked garlic is like a soft garlic paste, yum. It's nice without a meat, if you have enough cheese and olives and stuff to make the vegetables more friendly.

Quick food #2.

I am surrounded by asian supermarkets and I am not afraid to use them.

Another meal using only one pot and 3 ingredients. The ingredients: carrots, frozen beans and a packet of frozen dumplings. You get about 20 I think, in a packet for less than $5.

Put chopped carrots in a pot with shallow water and bring to the boil. When boiling, put in beans and then dumplings on top, the water level should not cover the dumplings completely so that when you boil for another 5 or 10 minutes the dumplings are actually steamed. For flavour, roughly chop a few cloves of garlic and boil them in it too, and any sort of stir-fry or soy sauce you have handy.

I purchased a dumpling folder from Bec's garage sale, which I intend to use one day so that I can make dumplings with identifiable fillings.

Westerners at yum cha

Had yum cha recently with a group that were majority Westerners. As we sat down to the table, waiter says to head honcho waitress in Cantonese, "Hey, what kind of tea do these guys want?"

She replies, "Don't be silly! They're Westerners!" Can't remember what she said, it might have been, "Offer them drinks [ie alcohol and soft drinks]."

I've even seen drinks trolleys at yum cha now - something I never saw in my childhood.

So that's the difference between Westerners and Chinese people at yum cha: Westerners drink drinks, the Chinese drink tea.

My Baking School.

If you would like to learn how to bake bread, I would love to teach you! Because I think it would be fun. Free lesson, free lunch, probably with some free games of Rummikub while the bread rises and bakes and cools. Must be on Saturday or Sunday. Ask me about it, and I will invite you over.