The good things I have been eating

 
I’ve been getting a lot of strange food cravings lately.

A tuna sandwich.

A carrot muffin.

French fries.

These are intense cravings that hit me suddenly in the middle of the day. No, I’m not pregnant (friends, do you really think I would let you know via my blog? Come on). I’m craving these things because I can’t eat them right now.

(To be technical, I could eat the sandwich and the muffin. It would just take some work.)

I’m on my second week of a five-week cleanse diet. I’m doing it to see if I have any food intolerances that are affecting my health, and in particular, my migraine headaches. The diet was recommended by a naturopath I visited, and there are a myriad number of things I am not supposed to eat. Rather than list all of them, let’s concentrate on the good things I have been eating: lots of fruits and vegetables, grains, beans, almond butter, fish …

I’m aware that looks like a lot of asparagus for one person – but believe me, you have to eat a lot of vegetables to feel full.  

The big plus to this diet (besides the hopeful health benefits) is that I am eating a lot of foods that I haven’t had in months because of our eat-local habits. Suddenly, bananas, avocados and mushrooms are the most wonderful foods in the world! This really helps to make the diet seem less monotonous.

But I have been sticking local with a lot of foods: Edgar Farms asparagus, chicken, cucumber, greens, wild trout, apples, rhubarb, and radishes.

I’m living on my own for the summer while my husband is going to music festivals and programs back East, so that combined with this new diet has really changed my eating habits. It’s much more of an effort to actually make supper for myself when I get home from work, so I try to keep it simple. A lot of steamed or sauteed veggies with beans and rice. To add flavour, the little container of flaky Maldon sea salt that I picked up at the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto (hopefully more on that place still to come!) has been my saviour. It is delicious sprinkled over everything.

I wanted to share with you two dishes I ate today. They seem to me like perfect foods for spring – or nearly summer.

Quinoa with chickpeas and avocado

I cooked a big pot of quinoa the other night that I figured I could turn into various meals, and this one is great. All you do is mix some cooked quinoa with cooked chickpeas, slice some avocado over the top, sprinkle on as much lime juice as you want, and season with salt and pepper. The result is an earthy mixture of toothsome and creamy with just a hint of tart juice. I love it.

Christmas Salad for Spring

I bought a bunch of radishes at the downtown market last week from Sundog Organics, just because they looked so pretty. But I haven’t radishes for years, and I find them too spicy to crunch on raw. So I turned to the internet … and it tossed up a couple of radish salad recipes that I derived this one from.

Slice a small bunch of radishes and about half a cucumber very thinly. Chop up about 1/4 cup of cilantro. Mix all together and add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

I’m surprised by how much I like this salad – I thought the lime juice might make it too sour, but it actually softens the spiciness of the radishes and creates a fresh, beautiful flavour. I think this would be really good with some fresh or dried chiles as well.

P.S. – I think I’ll be a bit late with my photo set this week because later today I’m taking my computer to get fixed. It’s been acting weird in lots of ways for a long time and something must be done. So if you don’t see me here for a few days, that’s why. Happy weekend!