a colorful mix of vegetable deliciousness

when it is hot an humid outside i tend to stop cooking altogether. cooking always means turning on my stove, and during summer i am clearly moving towards fruits and raw vegetables.

i just can not bring myself to eat something hot or even warm so dinner for one could easily come to a complete halt during a heatwave because tossing salad does not really qualify as cooking in my (narrow?) humble opinion. or at least it does not seem like something worth putting on a foodblog. most of my cold food is awfully simple and quick and putting something like a dip or spread on dinner for one almost seems like an insult to those aspiring chefs out there that are dropping by my little corner of the www.

so, cold food.

nothing wrong with that! as a cook i should really be more openminded here, huh?

what about all those marvellous salads that take ages to chop and prepare?
what about gazpacho and antipasti?

i thought a cold and yummie noodle salad might just be the thing to make and wrap up in another blogpost during those hot hot hot days. it is not fancy, i did not even go shopping for this salad - all i did was i raided my fridge.

but beware! this recipe clearly does not qualify as "for one". i just know i will dine on this for at least 3 days ...

750 g penne rigate (cooked)
100 g carrots
100 g green bell pepper
100 g cucumber
100 g cherry tomatoes
125 g mozzarella
1 big tbsp capers
2 big tbsp mayonnaise

1. cook the penne and rinse under cold water. set aside
2. dice 'em, slice 'em, chop 'em - just make your veggies as small as possible. you actually could throw in every vegetable you can find in your fridge
   
   
   
3. tear or cut the mozzarella into tiny little pieces
   
   
   
4. in a bowl combine the pasta with the veggies and the mozzarella
   
   
5. sprinkle over one big tbsp of capers and two tbsp of mayonnaise. my capers are marinated in white wine vinegar which adds a lovely and subtle note to the salad
   
   
   
6. mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
   
   
7. let rest for at least two hours in your frigde or preferably even overnight
   

there you go - a delicious vegetarian salad that tames my growling belly! i don't even eat big servings at once, i just take my tiny little bowl, go back for seconds and munch away while i take a siesta and hide from the heat.

in other news ...

i have to admit that i am an impulsive person.

right now i am really angry about what is going on over at flickr. have you heard? at the moment there's a pretty heated discussion going on about my (formerly) beloved flickr cowardly giving in to yahoo's weird policies ... i just knew that something was up in the air when they anounced that flickr was now part of yahoo a while back ...

please watch this and tell me what you think:


while i am impulsive i am not a stubborn person that wants to be in a riot as a matter of principle. i really think that it is an easy way out to blame all this censorship on "law and legal matters", because it is simply not true that you're not allowed to show a little skin in germany, austria and switzerland (i am not sure about singapore, hong kong or korea).

"If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea, you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service, and therefore won’t be able to turn off SafeSearch."

i thought of withdrawing from flickr alltogether but then i figured: "wait a minute. i used to loooooove flickr! and i paid good money for that account, i might as well use it." so i want to add my 2 cent to this debate. as long as it may take.


this picture does not even qualify for a "dinner for one" post. it was a "lunch and dinner for four to six people" - thing *g*. we had a lovely little bbq out on the neighbour's deck yesterday and i can feed on all the leftovers for a couple of days now. as a quick lunch i opted for "halloumified chicken breasts on a bed of vegetables".

there you go. this is what my pictures will look like from now on. as long as it might take.

yummie pictures might not look that yummie anymore, but this matter is really important to me. i want to do everything to make the censorship visible and to raise awareness. and hey, deep down in my heart i am still a rrriot girl!

i hope you understand my point of view and maybe support me a little ...

veggie patty thingies

man, i tell you: the amount of information regarding healthy life with ms is overwhelming! i am sure 80 percent of what i read and researched already is utter bullshit, but it seems that almost all physicians agree on the importance of diet and nutrition to maintain a balanced lifestyle with multiple sclerosis.

i discovered some interesting facts about the occurrence of ms. it seems that countries where butter and meat are a staple food ms is four to eight times higher than in regions with mainly fish and olive oil - and japan does aparently have only 29 documented cases, can you believe that?! along the equator are less cases documented. colder countries seem to have more cases. the disease seems to have a lot to do with our modern way of living. processed food, canned goods, long work hours, stress and too little sunlight seem to be a factor as well.

who honestly believes crouching in a cubicle for 8 hours a day can be healthy?
raise your hands please!

allright, you might not get ms by working long hours, but it seems to be a fact that once you are diagnosed with it you can steer in a healthy direction and slow down the disease by simply changing your lifestyle.

simply.
we will see about that ...

well, i don't want to bug you too much with all this stuff, i just want to tell you this: the sooner you take countermeasures, start a healthy lifestyle with lots of sunshine and vitamins and good food that is preferably not processed at all, the slower the disease will apparently progress and the longer you can live without being bugged by that stupid malady.

right now i am reading an interesting book by christine wagener-thile about alternative therapies. i am not at all against orthodox medicine, after all this is what will slow down the progress of my disease.

but hey, when i can help to slow it down even more - why shouldn't i?

people who stick to a certain diet religiously can live up to 36 years without any troubeling symphtoms. now, that sounds promising! having my next attack at 76 would be pretty cool, huh? though i have to admit it seems unlikely ... i am a weak person, i am sure i will not be able to obey the strict regime of a certain diet. i am still smoking. my belly is too big. i don't work out at all.

the good thing: you should think about changing your lifestyle after the first attack and not just two years later when another attack hits you. since i am at the very beginning of my life with multiple sclerosis i should really be able to implement some changes that help me with my wellbeing.

so let's talk about a recipe now, shall we? shunning preprocessed food should be an easy task. i just make the burgers myself. all vegetables of course!

grate a zucchini (250 g) and a few small carrots (100 g). put them in a bowl and set them aside.


in a pan, heat a tbsp of vegetable oil and fry a diced onion, a clove of garlic and some chopped parsley. dice a bell pepper (100 g) and throw it in the pan too. add 50 g rolled oats to the pan and keep stirring. when the oats start to brown, add 150 ml of vegetable stock and let the mixture simmer for a while. once the oats have absorbed all the liquid let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes.


pour over the grated zucchini and carrots and mix very well. add one whole egg.


the mixture is rather runny now and to compensate that add three tablespoons of flour and three tablespoons of breadcrumbs. you might need a little more / a little less.

season to taste.

heat a knob of butter in a pan and make litte patties with your spoon. fry them for about 3 minutes on each side.

serve the veggie-thingies on green salad or stick them in a burger-bun.

yes, i like that!

now, if i only could quit smoking and loose 10 kilos this second.