It’s still early days, but the new programme seems to be going well. Better still, it feels as though it could be easy to maintain.
Meatless Mondays
Week two and the weather had gone from hot-damn-hot to warming-stews within a matter of days. My options for our second meat-free day were therefore not restricted by a need to limit oven and stove use. Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible has a range of spicy goodies, but I wanted something one-pot and not coconutty. This led me to re-discover Jane and Jeremy Strode’s Two’s Cooking and I opted for the sweet potato and lentil soup.
The Tiger rice cooker has been idle lately and I’ve been craving rice. I adapted the recipe as suggested to turn the soup into a stew to serve over rice, and I also added some chickpeas to add a bit of variety. This also extended the meatlessness into Tuesday, as there were delicious leftovers to be had.
Fresh Fish Thursdays
As I’ve said before, Lifestyle Food tends to be white noise here. This works out well sometimes, as it did on Wednesday when I caught an episode of The Cook and the Chef. Simon cooked a fish curry and a roasted barramundi. The curry looked tasty, but it was the simple barra dish that caught my eye. The Vic Market fishmongers were well stocked with barra, so that’s what we had – easy and delicious!
No booze weeknights
I’m managing the alcohol free weeknights, although I feel as though a glass of Laurent-Perrier at Pearl with my duck curry followed by a chardonnay was cheating a little bit. Thanks to the twitterfolk who reassured me that lunch was not a night (but, seriously Daniel, your suggestion that “night” was “dark” almost defeated my best intentions!). It’s also easier when it’s not roasting hot. Hopefully February will be as cool as the BOM is predicting, because afternoon G&Ts are hard to resist.
Workout Tuesdays
C was in Sydney on Tuesday night, so I missed my workout (okay, so what I really missed was my Kopitiam Mamak roti and nasi kandar). I made it to the gym on Thursday before the market and I’m wondering whether I’ll make that a regular part of the routine – it was so easy! The early morning crowd had gone by 9.15 and by the time I got to the market, shopping was a breeze.
= = = = = = = =
Side benefits of the new routines:
- Using the cookbook library
- Better planning, therefore shopping more efficiently (budget and time)
- It’s extending into the rest of the week (that is, the set days are minimums and are making it easier to be in a fish/veg frame of mind for the rest of the week)
- Leftovers! (Not so much with the fish, of course)
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Thinking of adopting your routine – I find if I meal plan life is so much easier, and I don’t have the 5.00pm “holy fuck what am I going to cook for dinner” and then having no ingredients for anything but nachos sans guac.
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Nachos sans guac is pretty much what the chick on Come Dine With Me was serving up as her entree (oh, except that was guacamole sans guac!).
My idea of meal planning in Sydney is to eat lunch- dinner at one of the very many different asian restaurants every day for lunch. Usually sri-lankan monday thai tuesday malay wedday golden arches thursday (I’m into TOSH) and indian Friday (then shuffle the order round and add viet and korean to the mix). Its cheaper than cooking at home and saves mrs K having to slave at the stove.
My big worry is that without some extra form of rotation I’m going to end up feeling the same way i did with stock standard chinese which we ate until we got sick of it when it first reached these shores (Girt by C…….I’m into girting!).
Anyway congrats on the booze free nights. I am now on that too but not by choice! Don’t you miss a good shiraz every now and then? Oh dear, gotta go just made myself thirsty. A Warragamba highball will hit the spot
Well done with the new plan. Seems to be going, well, to plan. I too am keen to follow your lead and get into a routine like yours. I like the snappy names! We’re going to go for Red Meat Mondays and Fresh Fish Wednesday (which doesn’t sound very snappy at all. Maybe Watery Wednesday – a bit of a stretch and NOT at all appetising. FFW it is.). I’m also choosing a new recipe to try each week from one of my many cookbooks as well. I went for my morning run today which was great so going to get that up too…I’ll try anyway!
@Sourkraut – I’m not good at taking lunches to work, particularly since there are quite a few good places to buy from nearby. Not quite the variety you have near you, though – I think my nearest Sri Lankan place is in the middle of the city. Will have to suss out others as I’m now hankering after idlis.
Cooking for two is a bit painful, I agree, but I’m finding it more enjoyable now that I’m a bit more enthusiastic (and organised). Last night’s Goan Pork Curry was a winner… I just wish there were leftovers.
Hope the boozelessness is going well for you. I know if I wasn’t doing it by choice I’d be finding it almost impossible. Plus I’m still letting myself drink on weekends (for now – about to have a crack at an alcohol free month. Yikes!).
@teacoffeetea – I hope you enjoy the routineyness! The cookbook reacquaintance is lots of fun. Have a look at Reem’s blog and Penny’s, too – they’re both doing weekly cookbook challenges (and Reem has an page listing her cookbook library, which makes me want to go shopping again!).