05/11/2009 by D.

fruit: cox apples, clementines, plums, conference pears, bananas
veg: savoy cabbage, leek, delicata squash, parsnips, carrots, onions, mushrooms, ambo potatoes, chillis

The thick, green leaves of the Savoy cabbage mesmerized the children this morning, and I must say it was a beautiful sight.  The fruit bag is defintely going to provide enough for an autumn crumble with custard to ward off the increasingly wintry nights.  We’ve been having quite a bit of rich food in the last few weeks; a direct reaction to the darker skies and colder days, but now it is time to turn to more robust (and less fattening) fare.   My favourite winter comfort food, which is quick to make, filling but low in fat, is soup.   Its perfect whilst I adjust to the shorter evenings, and makes supper easy for us when we get home in the dark and want to eat something warm and filling straight away.  I like to make batches of the pureed soups and put them in rinsed out milk cartons in the fridge.  Then I just pour the amount I need to heat straight into the pan.  It is also a fantastic weaning food.

Thus the carrots will become a carrot, cardamom and lemon soup, the parsnips transformed into a thick, but light parsnip and apple soup (for some reason I’ve never been a fan of curried parsnip soup), and the cabbage will be used in a filling minestrone, which is actually more of a stew the way I make it.  The mushrooms, potatoes, chilli and squash will be curried and served with dahl, raita, fresh corriander and some steamed basmati.

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13/10/2009 by D.

The season of colds is upon us, so I decided to go and do a bit of research about why the lemon is so good for fighting colds.

It is a natural remedy for a number of reasons. The juice of 1 lemon apparently contains 80% of the RDA of Vitamin C. Vitamin C boosts the immune system, creating more white blood cells to fight infection and cutting short the life span of the virus. Lemon juice also decreases the toxicity of the virus in the body, which in turn reduces the symptoms and shortens the duration of the cold.  You can use a fork to get more juice out of your lemon if you don’t have a squeezer at work.

The honey doesn’t only sweeten…it soothes the throat and can also reduce the length of your cold, though researchers are still not completely sure why…

If you have your honey and lemon with an iron rich snack like dried apricots, oats, or cashews, you will further boost your chances of fighting colds as you’ll increase the iron absorbtion and therefore boost your immunity further.  So don’t break out the lemsip, visit your local shop!

Do try not to drink it followed by a tea or coffee which reduces vitamin C uptake…

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26/09/2009 by D.

I’ve just been told the neatest way of getting rid of the pesky flies.  You get a jar or beaker and add some vinegar, sugar and a drop of washing up liquid.  Leave near your fruit.  Works like a dream as they all get attracted, then can’t fly off as the washing up liquid breaks the surface tension.

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