This week in brief
Our cats are so spoilt – I wish I had their life. Food, sun, naps, and belly rubs. What could be better? No belly rubs or naps for me, but I still had a pretty good week.
Most of the time at work I make a big salad for lunch. I start with a mixture of baby spinach and rocket, and normally toss in another vegetable (either carrot, cucumber or beetroot made an appearance this week). I sprinkle on pepitas, add some protein (normally chicken or tuna), dress it with olive oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper and voila! Lunch! Since I normally put in as many greens as I can stomach (we’re talking handfuls and handfuls here) my salads always look insanely massive. But they are so good – salad rocks. (Really.)
This is a big call, but 100% almond spread is BETTER than peanut butter. I also bought a jar of Almond, Brazil and Cashew spread this week, which I ate as a snack with celery. I prefer the 100% almond one, but the ABC version still edges out peanut butter.
PS: yes, it does look a bit like spew…
One night this week after work, I headed straight to the kitchen as soon as I walked in the door. Fifteen minutes later I had curry paste for chicken tikka masala, from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food. Not quite as easy as opening a jar, but 100 times more delicious.
The end product doesn’t look so good, but omg… it tasted incredible! Here it is on cauliflower rice (the boys had normal rice) and green beans. I had leftovers for lunch and it was even more amazing – so spicy and fragrant.
On Wednesday I went to the Tasti D-Lite launch, which has just opened on Chapel Street – the first store in Australia. Tasti D-Lite started in New York and have stores all through America, but I have to admit that I didn’t know about it before the launch. They sell frozen dairy dessert – it’s not ice cream, it’s not fro-yo – it’s kind of marketed as a healthier alternative to soft serve, at 70-100 calories per serve.
They have something like 100 flavours, and I tried strawberry, nutella, tart n-tasti (that mimics fro-yo), and peanut butter. I did quite like the peanut butter one and went back for another serving, but thought the other flavours were just okay and not as satisfying as ice cream. I don’t think I’m the target market though – since I rarely eat dairy now and I have no problems eating fat, I’d rather have proper ice cream very occasionally. But I’m pretty sure that they’ll do well in that location.
And then yesterday I went to a bloggers’ lunch at Taxi to try their high end bento. I hadn’t been to Taxi before, so I was a wee bit excited. We started with sashimi…
Had some pork belly…
And to finish there were three superb sorbets – mandarin, green tea and coconut and passionfruit. A more detailed post to come, but it was such a good lunch. There was also a fab salmon miso soup that I didn’t instagram, which was made from salmon bones – delicious.
And finally, last night I cooked up a curried mince and broccoli mixture – very spicy, with lots of toasted cumin seeds, coriander seeds and curry powder, finished off with a dash of coconut milk. We ate the mince in good ole iceberg lettuce – like a curried san choi bao. Lettuce wraps are THE BEST – I love the cold crunchy iceberg with the hot mince. Iceberg lettuce is so underrated. I don’t like it so much in salad, but as a wrap it can’t be beat.
Well that was most of my eats this week. Et vous?
leaf (the indolent cook)
October 16, 2011 @ 11:38 pm
Wow – that’s a great food week! The curry chicken looks amazing. Also, adorable cat. xx
Agnes
October 18, 2011 @ 10:09 pm
Hehee, it was a pretty good food week π
Hannah
October 17, 2011 @ 11:10 am
Love love love the look of the broccoli mince wrap! And yes, iceberg is unbeatable in that situation π I love how much I love your eats these days, wheee! I too prefer the 100% almond to the ABC spread, and one day hoep to splurge on the 100% pistachio one (or make my own… didn’t you link me to a recipe once?)
I think I’d still prefer a froyo place to Tasti D-Lite, but I’d take anything of the ilk in Canberra right now.
Also, I’ve restrained myself from offering to give you a belly rub. Aren’t you proud of me?
Agnes
October 18, 2011 @ 10:10 pm
Oh crap, I feel like I’m doing something wrong if you’re liking my eats π
100% pistachio one? Now you’re talking! And yes, I did send you a link to make your own. Nudge nudge.
Canberra surely must have at least one froyo place?!
Bianca @ The Cooking Capers
October 18, 2011 @ 11:48 am
I love these posts! I always find what other people do in their day to day life so interesting, even if all you did is eat food… Haha I’m just kidding π
I can’t wait to meet your cats! How adorable π I would love to be a cat, also. So lazy (although maybe sometimes I come close.. Oops)! And for about the third time, that chicken tikka masala looked amaaaaaazing! The curry paste looks good enough to eat on its own, too.
Agnes
October 18, 2011 @ 10:12 pm
Hahaha, hey! It’s not all food, cats and rainbows – just that the other stuff is BORING. π
Winston
October 18, 2011 @ 10:29 pm
Wow what a fantastic week! First of all, your kitty is cute as anything. And I totally agree with almond butter being waaay better than peanut! I got mine from an organic food store in NZ 2 yrs ago but haven’t been able to find some since I’ve been back to Melb! Mind me asking where you got yours? I really miss the taste =( I remembered salivating from your tweet of your curry chicken dinner. Looks fantastic! Hope you have more and if not, even better, foodie weeks like these! WEE! =D
Agnes
October 18, 2011 @ 10:47 pm
I found the almond butter (and the almond, brazil and cashew one) in Coles (of all places) – in the health food aisle.
Hope you have a good eating week too! π
msihua
October 18, 2011 @ 10:35 pm
Oh wow… I’M SO EXCITED FOR CURRY NIGHT!!!!!
Agnes
October 18, 2011 @ 10:47 pm
Bring on the CURRY π
Rita (mademoiselle dΓ©licieuse)
October 19, 2011 @ 1:22 pm
A serious week of eats! I’m intrigued by the frozen dairy desserts – any idea what they’re made of? Reminds me of things like Yogo which are self-described as chilled dairy snacks.
Agnes
October 22, 2011 @ 9:56 pm
Yes! Here’s the ingredients taken from their website –
Vanilla dairy base made with all-natural ingredients: water, nonfat milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, guar gum, locust bean gum, carrageenan, vanilla, lactase.
Chocolate dairy base made with all-natural ingredients: water, nonfat milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, cocoa (processed with alkali), guar gum, locust bean gum, carrageenan, lactase.