I Am Trying To Do What Is Right...

Yesterday, I made the effort to be good and return to eating more fruit and fibre as I had been doing for most of the last year or two. Oh, I eat well, everything in moderation, we avoid adding too much salt to anything that is homemade and the same is true of prepared meals when we shop at the supermarket where possible but I have been avoiding eating salads and fruit. I have been buying it...but its been left in the fridge and often having past it's sell by date had to be thrown out. Having a blender has helped recently. It's not that I have been eating something else instead just that I have been eating the main course and not necessarily having a second course.

I managed a small portion of porridge(I say small)it was a cereal bowlful and though it's perhaps lazy, each portion is measured out in an individual sachet which also allows you the correct amount of liquid(milk or water)to be added. I also added to the porridge as it cooked some blueberries. Tomorrow, I may add to them some banana and/or strawberries. It is another of the recommended daily portion of fruit and porridge oats is good at reducing cholesterol...so it is said.

At lunchtime I made another of my soups using some of the fresh vegetables I have in the fridge (a chicken stock cube and added potato, leek and carrot)

In the evening, chicken and vegetable pie(ok, I cheated on that this time it was a Birds Eye product)but with that was new potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and leek. Followed by honeydew melon which was in a container already cut into chunks. I discovered that I had eaten the equivalent of two portions of fruit.

So I think that is a reasonably healthy diet.

I am hoping in the next day or two to attempt to make my own pies. There are so many combinations open to me with or without pastry. I have in mind leeks but I can add mushrooms and some kind of sauce possibly more vegetables and/or add chicken or ham. I can avoid too much pastry by putting a crust on the dish and decide whether it is short crust or puff pastry.

I may post a picture of my efforts depending on which recipe I choose and a link in case you wish to follow it too. Cooking is as difficult or as simple as you wish. I proved that tonight, I was ready to do something special(It's Mum's birthday) but we settled for scrambled eggs(with some garlic added)baked beans and some sliced pork. Followed by apple pie and ice cream. I may have some fruit later on...

I'm still looking at ways to get more fruit and veg into Mum's diet. In general I'm doing reasonably well...the smoothie maker helps. I've not succeeded yet but I am going to attempt to see if I can get her to eat a small portion of porridge some day soon. She has never fancied it, I'm not sure if she had any when she was a child. If she did perhaps it was more the rough type of oats and the smooth may be more acceptable.

I'm amazed that I have managed to get garlic into some dishes successfully.

If you are not into all the preparation and eat smaller portions buying items ready done is not really that expensive but another way around the problem is to use frozen vegetables. You really can stretch them and make them last a long time. And if buying ready prepared is costly, fresh vegetables that need some trimming can be less expensive.

Fresh items can take some getting through if you have one big shop. In days past you would probably call in at your local greengrocer's and buy what was required daily. Or grow your own.

But again, I do not always believe that eating something slightly over the date on the packet will harm you or lose the goodness. I have a book that suggests how long items can be kept for before discarding them.

And if you have access to a blender or smoothie maker you can always drink fruit and vegetables and in doing so you can take in more than you might if it was in a dish or on a plate.

Not the most exciting blog entry I'll grant you but I guess you get an insight into what I am eating and what kind of meals are eaten in the UK, granted I'll give you it's reasonably traditional fare rather than taking the influence of the diversity of who lives here these days.