So life is back to normal, since I have my camera back.
It was a shock when I had it in my arms for the first time in weeks. I was nervous. Very nervous. A bit like the first time seeing a friend after many years apart. There is the excitement, the joy but the anxiety too – do you look good, will you still have a lot in common, can you have an engaging conversation lasting more than a minute? Many questions and no answers till the very minute you meet again, and eyes connect. A hug, kisses exchanged, a joke cracked and the ice is broken, laughter flowing freely. And all of a sudden, things are back to normal, like they were 5 years ago. You slip into comfortable silence punctuated by bursts of memories and rapids of words and in a way, it’s as though a new relationship is born, building on the old yet fresh and inspiring.
And so when I picked up my camera form the shop, I looked it over very well, unsure that it was mine. It had all the hallmarks of ‘good’ use – illegible serial number, a chip off one corner, scratches here and there, all familiar. It also looked surprisingly new, the black almost glowing at me. I immediately reached to turn it on…and then remembered I’d left the battery and card at home, so back it went into its bubble wrap and off home we went.
The next day, all kitted up, I decided to see if we were still a team. Crouching by some lavender bushes, I snapped away, trying to adjust the colour balance and macro. Wondering if I’d learnt anything new in all the time I hadn’t had practise. It still felt very strange, as though it was the first time I’d played with a camera.
Later that evening, I made a delightful fresh corn salsa and by the time I was done with the photos, I heaved a heavy sigh of relief. My baby was back!
I have to say though, I am glad I was without it for weeks for it let me focus on old posts, on eating without fuss, on doing a good job of cataloging our meals and it saved me many hours hunched behind the computer.
Those days are gone now……….
And the recipe for the fresh corn salsa follows…….
But first, here is what we ate this week: Its been a great one, forget parking tickets, forget me driving over my son’s wooden bike and breaking it to pieces, forget my son pushing my bike down and denting my neighbour’s car, forget all those, it has been a great week!
I’ve exercised with all my heart and enjoyed it, starting my mornings off jumping on the trampoline before breakfast and work, and ending the evenings with bike rides. In between, I’ve snuck in a few walks. However, ladies & gentlemen, I’m not impressed with what I see on the scales. I know, I know, muscle weighs more than fat…and all that…. I know but that does nothing to comfort me. I originally started out saying I wouldn’t let the scales drive me or control me and they don’t. I don’t obsess by weighing myself daily, what I’m more interested and how I will measure my success is if I can fit into my 4 pairs of trousers, 3 dresses, 2 straight skirts and a load of brand new shirts.
I know I am making the right food choices and learning a lot about food. Like, our bodies can only convert carotene (from vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes) to Vitamin A in the presence of bile salts. Because of this, it is important to eat these veggies with butter, cream or egg yolks as these fats stimulate the body to secrete bile and aid the conversion of carotene to vitamin A (Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon).
Anyway, it is unreasonable to expect to lose 3 years weight (especially the bit I’ve put on in this last year of intensive eating and blogging :-)) in 3 weeks.
I’ll be patient….it will come.
This is what we ate this week:
| Week 3 | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
| Sunday |
Bread adapted from Elana’s pantry, Eggs & homemade almond butter with watermelon juice |
Salad @ Ikea! |
Patiala swordfish with dhal, coriander chutney and fresh corn salsa, adapted from my red delicious 2004 |
| Monday | Fruit | Greek Salad |
Garlic mashed sweet potatoes adapted from my Wholefoods cookbook, – Tilapia, Tomato sauce |
| Tuesday |
Cherry Berry crumble, adapted from Elana’s Pantry |
Salad of fennel and kumquats |
BNS gnocchi with steamed spinach and chicken curry, adapted from Trotski & Ash |
| Wednesday |
Bread, Eggs & homemade almond butter |
Green salad |
Roast chicken with kumquats, adapted from Elana’s pantry and baked fennel |
| Thursday |
Fruit juice & Mint tea |
Chicken sandwich with almond mayo, adapted from Elana’s pantry |
Stuffed eggy rolls, adapted from my Wholefoods cookbook |
| Friday | Fruit |
Lentil salad |
Homemade lamb burgers, with lettuce for buns, fresh corn salsa and guacamole |
| Saturday |
Boiled yam and stew |
We had brunch! |
Yam and brown -eyed peas with tomato sauce |
And here is the recipe for Fresh Corn salsa.
Simple and stunning. I love the fresh flavours this recipe delivers and the vibrant colours too. Be warned though, don’t attempt it without fresh corn – you will miss the va va voom…….and that’s not what you want. You could always vary the herb combination and add/take away . This has been this weeks, staple, a bit like BNS was a few short weeks ago!
I love the fact that it is easily adaptable , a dish that can be served with grilled fish, burgers and rice – you name it. This recipe was adapted from my ‘red delicious’ mag recipe though their version was made with a lot of oil, chickpeas and a combination of mint and parsley.
Fresh Corn Salsa
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 ears of fresh corn on the cob, shucked and ready to go 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 shallots, finely chopped up 1 fresh red chili pepper, finely chopped up 1/2 red paprika, finely chopped up Finely grated zest and juice of a lime 1 -2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, finely chopped A handful fresh basil, finely chopped Optional – green scallions to garnish and basil leavesHow to
Heat up a grill pan on medium . When hot, brush on some oil and place corn on. Let cook lightly and turn around after 30 seconds, till the corn changes colour from yellow to just golden – you know what I mean, about 3 -4 minutes.
Remove from pan and using a sharp knife, strip the cobs of their kernels, cutting as close to the cob as possible, without getting the cob itself!
Heat up remaining oil in another pan (sorry) and gently cook the shallots, chili pepper, paprika, lime zest for a couple of minutes till soft but not coloured.
Add the corn kernels, stir well and take off the heat. Stir in the chili sauce and herbs.
Season to taste, and serve!
I leave you with some photos I took yesterday, wondering round The Hague. A bit of Dutch ‘orange’ in hope of a World Cup Final. We shall see….as the match is on right now! Spain won! The first European country to win the World Cup outside Europe! Congratulations!!!!!!1
[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Week 3: What we ate – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]
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Hi there,
Please don’t take my comment as an insult, but looking at your diet menu, I can not believe that anyone would consider that a diet. I’m from a small country in Europe and this is almost a regular menu that most people eat (so not people on diet) with one big exception – we don’t eat that much in the evening. We eat something light for breakfast, the lunch is the biggest meal (things that you eat for dinner) and dinner is something lighter (like your lunch)… so, maybe you could try with switching lunch for dinner and dinner for lunch…
Think of it this way – if you eat more for lunch, you have time to spend those calories until evening, and than you just have a small snack in the evening and go to sleep…
With eating small during the day, it’s harder to keep up with the diet, and eating a lot in the evening only makes your body stuff more fat during sleep cause it has no where to spend it…
Again, please don’t be insulted or anything, just trying to help… If I wasn’t clear enough about anything, feel free to e-mail me… Good luck with diet 😉
Hi Marina, thanks. Its interesting you don’t consider this a ‘diet’ but when I say diet I think of it in terms of eating balanced – including all the food groups in the right proportion. And to be honest, compared to how I ate before, this is a vast improvement :-).
But I take your point very well about swapping lunch for dinner and vice-versa and it is a brilliant idea. I’m going to do my best (with husband’s blessings) to rearrange them cause like you said – I can expend the calories from the heavy dinner turned lunch than the other way round! Thank you – see, sometimes when we’re so close to something, we lose perspective!
Lovely corn salsa
back together and doing amazing work! corn is one of my favorite veggies and you’ve successfully made it look lovely! 🙂
Ozoz – you’ll get there eventually. I know when I’ve had to take a break from running and then get back into it, it always seems like you start out with a step back before you show any real progress. I bet you have more energy now than before you started and that has got to feel good.
So glad your camera is back as you have such a wonderful way of capturing so much with your images.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo before I embark on this plan you have to tell me did it work for you guys????
I need to see proof…start taking pictures and email them NOW..
I noticed that the corn is now big enough to be plucked in the garden; was looking for a recipe beyond just boiling or roasting the corn; this salsa sounds delicious especially with the citrus flavor added in.
Thanks for all your comments. Yes, my lover boy camera is back in my arms….and our initial nervous moments are over!
The corn salad looks delectable.
Yep, sometimes it’s great to take a break from the camera and picture taking routine but once you have it back, well – that another whole bucket of fun! Great pics.
Oz, I’m glad to hear that the team is back together. I love the idea of writing up your meals. I’m listening…
P. S. That photo of the orange fountain is faboo!
Kate dear, writing the meals down helps me remember what I’ve made, focuses my eyes on the winners, so they can be repeated!
i’m so glad you have your old friend back, i love mine dearly, baggage oh baggage , great corn salsa,
sweetlife
I’m glad to hear you reunited with your camera. It must be such a relief! Your pictures are beautiful. I like the spicy combination of flavors in the corn salsa.
The motivation may be hard to keep up at times but don’t give up, Ozoz! Esp not when you have trusty camera in hand to document what you eat =)
Corn salsa! Love it, thanks for the recipe, Oz. Hope the post WC hasn’t been too traumatic over there…
I must admit that spirits were a bit dampened, even though the Dutch team never expected to get that far it was still disappointing! I however, am not a footie fan so….I was fine 🙂
The fresh corn season is just upon us in Japan too, and love your salsa! I happen to keep a steamed corn in fridge, so try this recipe. Thanks for sharing 🙂
“Reunited because it feels so good”, couldn’t help but think of the song by Peaches and Herb, with your camera back. Hang in there, it took awhile to get the baggage, it will take awhile to leave it behind:)
Yea! You got your camera back! I am just waiting for mine to die…it makes all sorts of noises and half the things on it don’t work anymore. It’s REALLY old!
I’m working on that three year accumulation of calories too, Ozoz! Been dieting all month!
Love your corn salsa and the photos are fabulous!
Hooray that you got your camera back (its twin says welcome back:). Do you use lights for your night shots? That salsa looks amazing! And again, i am so impressed with your weekly menu, everything sounds delicious and interesting.
No shaz, I don’t use lights, I position myself by my kitchen windows, set my camera to the widest aperture and then use the spot metering to help. The fact that I used a black glossy plate (from Ikea) also helped. Thanks. I am considering buying lowel ego lights for the winter though, but only if I get a DSLR!
The excesss baggage is so hard to dea And congratulations on getting your “partner” back! You must be so relieved! 😀
I’m with you all the way… I have 3 years worth of baggage to ditch myself. The salsa looks great, I must see if I can find some proper corn rather than having to resort to tins.