What's in my lunchbox this week? Desktop dining

My weekend - how does one relax?

I made a real effort to try and get some time to relax, kick back and stop chasing my tail this weekend. I kept my job list to a minimum and put relax at the end of it. So a little walk in the country, a spot of grocery shopping, codecademy lessons and paying a couple of bills - how long could that lot take? I'm inclined to think that work does expand to fill the available time!

Perhaps getting out of the house is a better idea. A day in London ensures that I can't do any cupboard clear outs, offers a train journey to read on on, plenty of people to observe and a nice dose of art and culture.

Other weekend antics - *reading Into the Wild (make that devouring) *phone chats with parents *resisting the urge to start refashioning my recent vintage purposes (but definitely making plans and trying on) *enchinacea tea to ward off a sore throat.

Things I Love Thursday - awesome food, bad science and little and often

Amazing food - yesterday I had a meeting in London and took the opportunity to visit Planet Organic, Whole Foods and Chinatown. Then filled with inspiration I had dinner at Moaz. Result? I just want to buy stacks of fresh fruit and vegetables and cook up amazing things.

Little and often - despite various hectic, unavoidable activities going on in my life I'm applying the little and often principle where I can.

Bad Science - Ben Goldacre's book has really made me look at things in a different way. Previously I'd read various websites with health and nutrition advice and then been slightly surprised when they would suddenly come out with some wacky suggestion. On reflection I can see that I should have seen the warming signs and checked the reliability of the information.

Other stuff - *what I earn, I deserve *the smell of spring in the air *50% sales in vintage stores *cups of tea *Plans for relaxation

 

What's in my lunchbox this week? The good for me edition

I seem to have been eating a lot of junk over the last few weeks so I made a real effort to make this week's lunchbox full of good things.

Clockwise from top right:

• Buck wheat or Pearl Barley? I can't recall which one I bought or even if there is a difference.
• Slightly over steamed Brocolli - I need to eat this stuff more (and cook it ever so slightly less).
• My take on VWAV's Tofu and potatoes in miso gravy. Replace tofu with TVP. Be too lazy to add potatoes but pop in chopped up Brocolli stalk for want of anything better to do with it. It's rather good actually. I guess Miso gravy makes up for everything.
• A pear.

My Weekend - brunch and learning to take it easy

Like a lot of people my first thought when faced with a three day weekend is how much stuff I want to cram in because I need to catch up! So my entire weekend followed the pattern of me doing lots of things and then feeling horribly tired. You see I've been so excited about excited about life and all the things I can fill it with that I've gotten carried away and I'm doing too many things.

Hence I've come to the conclusion I need slow down. So I'm going to back to doing one bit of each task every day. Instead of trying to complete several sewing projects on a weekend I'm going to work on one and consider any progress good. 40 minutes of bass a day is better than fretting I haven't managed an hour. A few minutes of yoga a day is adding up nicely.

We've started doing Sunday brunch at home this year and it's very good so far. It creates a centre point to Sunday, means a decent meal is consumed and provides an opportunity to read the weekend papers (or part of them). Plus I've rediscovered potato waffles. And discovered that Whole Earth baked beans are perfect with an extra spoonful of tomato purée.

Other weekend stuff *brisk and bright allotment mornings *vegeburgers with peanut butter and pickles *lots of naps *collecting a stash of books from the library *dancing along to Burlesque the film while complaining about the plot line (it could have been so much better) *face pack Friday

Things I Love Thursday - LVD and the grace of nature

Once again the awesome London Vegan Drinks has pushed back Things I Love Thursday to become Things I Love Friday. And once again I'm feeling totally inspired by the food at Tibits pictured above. I've got to scour the veg stalls for kale and find out how they make their roasted veg taste so amazing.

 

And isn't nature just amazing and, quoting Ben Goldacre, graceful. I took this photo of ice crystals while I was out walking last weekend. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. A flat surface of snow with crystals on top. It was almost like moss.

Other stuff - *afternoon naps *cat stroking while blogging *codecademy *looking at hotels in Rome *thermal underwear *green lace gloves

What's in my lunchbox this week? Small but perfectly formed

I've a couple of evenings this week when I'm heading out to something straight after work. Although I'll likely turn up with bags galore anyway I am trying to reduce the amount of junk I carry round with. So this week's lunch needed to be packed up so that remains and bulky empty containers were at a minimum.

 So above you'll see a small container of steamed Brussels Sprouts, an apple, a purple silicon cake case filled with homemade vegan chocolate fudge and some vol-au-vent cases filled with carrot and sunflower seed dip (that stuff goes a long way...). 

It's a nice combination of tastes and textures but I think some heartier fare might be coming on in he weeks ahead. Plus I might need to accept that there are vegetables beyond Brussels Sprouts!