Thursday, 20 November 2014

A Varied Diet

A few years ago , somebody or other recommended eating 40 different foods a week and I remember trying , and discovering that it was perfectly possible but a bit of a nuisance , really . Dozens of boxes of grains , seeds , cereals , nuts and pulses filled the cupboards and made me feel oddly guilty . And did a handful of capers and some chopped parsley really count as two separate items ?
Every now and then I'm prompted to try it again , so  when I saw Quaker's Multi Grain on the supermarket shelf  it seemed worth widening my porridge-bound breakfast horizons . Oats , rye and barley !


If you've not yet tried it  ..... in a word , DON'T.
If you really must have a go , ignore the cooking instructions entirely . Instead , unless you're smaller than a Borrower , mix  two  sachets of the stuff with extra water and bring to the boil , stirring ... you're aiming for the consistency of runny honey ... cook for 4-5 minutes , only letting it thicken/solidify at the end . Eat with lots of cream . Or , better still , throw it away and keep the cream for something nice .
I'll go back to making porridge my grandmother's way , soaking the oats overnight in water and then cooking slowly with a pinch of salt . A ham on rye sandwich for lunch and chicken soup with pot barley for supper will provide me with all three grains digestibly .

But I inadvertently discovered an instant answer to the 40 A Week quest when I grabbed a tuna and tomato sandwich at a station buffet on Tuesday . It tasted unremarkable if rather mayonnaise-y  . BUT , when I read the list of contents I was astonished to see that it had 53 ingredients ! To be fair , 4 were water and 5 were E numbers but even so ... one of these a week and I could give up the whole attempt to include amaranth and goji berries in normal meals .

Anyway , if I'm in need of a change , our local supermarket has just started stocking chocolate covered grasshoppers ...

 
though the reviews are mixed .



10 comments:

materfamilias said...

Chuckling here across the sea. . . my diet includes considerable variety, but I've no idea if I make it up to 40 ingredients. If not, I'm not adding grasshoppers anytime soon . . .

Friko said...

come onnnnnnn!
You’re pulling my leg. That many grains and ingredients? What a palaver.

Now, those grasshoppers in chocolate, they’re quite another matter.

mary said...

I'd recommend avoiding Dorset Cereals porridge , too. The raspberry one - with pumpkin seeds, yuck - is particularly disgusting. What warped mind thought that up? The other flavours are horrible, too.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Raspberry flavoured porridge might be a step too far for my 95 year-old uncle ,who follows his porridge with a kipper every morning and looks fighting fit on it .

rachel said...

40 different foods a week sounds interesting, if challenging. I suspectThe Gardener would just make it 40 cheeses....

Marcheline said...

I'm all for increasing the number of types of food that go into my mouth... so long as they're all popcorn!

Annie Cholewa said...

Does chocolate count as at least 3 of your 40 do you think? With each added flavour a fourth? Now there's a challenge I'd accept, although the grasshopper might not be among the 37 flavours I tried!

Mise said...

Oh the lengths one must go to when the puffed wheat has gone.

Fran Hill said...

Are you serious about the grasshoppers?....

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

I have never heard of the idea of the 40 ingredients. I am pretty sure I would struggle with that even though I think I eat a varied diet.