And I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm just coming to terms with my new addiction.
Its totally unlike me! I used to hate vegetables, and anyway, I thought uni was supposed to make you eat junk food, not health food. I've always known I'm really not normal. Just look at this really simple (and delicious!) 'slaw' salad I made the other day.
I'd take this over a takeaway any day!
So I sat down and really thought about where this could possibly have come from and I've narrowed it down to five things.
1. The most likely source is our favourite little ginger Ella. Her mum sends her the most amazing vegetable boxes from Riverford, usually consisting of a mixture of home grown, seasonal, organic veg, which has been grown locally and is sold like this for the pure benefit of the farmers - select customers, better price for the farmer, better produce for the buyer, its fantastic. Anyway, more often than not, there are a few bits and bobs at the bottom of the box starting to go a bit floppy which Ella donates not our house to make sure they get used up, knowing that I can't bear waste and love to cook! This veg has produced some of the tastiest stews I've had in yonks! And best bit? Its good for the environment!
2. My other obsession may have a little (ok, massive) part to play...its my obsession with (blush) Jamie Oliver. I used to finding him incessantly irritating with his 'pukka' terminology...but recently its crept up on me, without me even noticing, and now, all of a sudden, I'm a full blown ADDICT to his way of working/cooking/creating flavours. From Ministry of Food to his latest extravaganza 30 Minute Meals my love has blossomed...so much so that I've been trawling back over the 4OD archives and dug up (no pun intended) Jamie at Home where he grows his own fruit and veg. He literally picks it and cooks it in his garden-side kitchen almost straight away...and everything he touches just looks like it tastes divine!
And (blush) after each ingredient-related episode, I ring my mother and ask her if she has planted any of those seeds yet for this years summer produce haul...and on the answer 'no,' plead with her to give it a go! Yes, I'm thinking Jamie must be to blame!
3. There is one this everyone should know about Mother Marsh...she HATES having her photo taken, which is why I don't have many pictures of her to show. However, the following 'portrait' might explain why she is number three on my hitlist!
Since we moved from the town to the stick when I was 8, my mum has become more and more obsessed with gardening. During the winter months, she becomes restless and stares longingly out the kitchen window (alongside Luie, who is just a plain lazy cat!) plotting in her head where she will plant each and every vegetable. She treats herself to seeds, compostable pots and trays as soon as they appear in the shops in early spring. She obsessively buys 'Grow it!' magazine, throwing a paddy if they don't have it in Asda when she has predicted the new issue is out (I kid you not). She behaves like a kid in a sweetshop around horse manure...and last time I went home from uni found several bags of poo on our doorstep.
...Then comes spring...never an answer when I phone home...because my mother has entered her little land of seeds, growing, gardening, and vegetables...and practically lives in the garden.
There is just no way this hasn't even slightly rubbed off on me. FACT.
4. Ok so I've been a veggie nibbler for a few years now, but never to such an extent that its practically an obsession that creeps into every meal. And I totally put this down to my latest reading fetish. Now, I've never been a big reader as such (I put this down to my dyslexia cos it slows me down and I get bored), but when something grabs my attention, I can plough through them...at my ridiculously slow speed!
And lately, its been nutrition-related books. It started with Belching Out the Devil about Coca Cola (written by Mark Thomas), then Eating Animals, Skinny Bitch, French Women Don't Get Fat, In Defence of Food...and now Fast Food Nation. I just can't seem to get enough of them. I guess they have influenced what I eat, and mostly, how I think about food. Less junk food. Less processed food. Less meat...which is then replaced with vegetables. I may have found the CULPRIT!
5. The bloody calorie counter on every single machine in the gym. Its really hard not to notice the little bugger flashing in front of you as you run/cycle/cross-train/die. And it does put food into perspective.
Imagine the scene...me in my (really) baggy gym clothes on the treadmill. jog. jog. run. run. pant. pant. run. run. pant. 20mins later....crawl. hyperventilate. collapse...look at the calorie count. 110 calories. for 20mins knackering running? THAT'S A SLICE OF BREAD! (just about)
Really makes you think twice before you grab some chocolate because you're peckish.
Really, I think its the combination of all five things occurring at once. And I think its fantastic! I've never enjoyed food so much as I have lately! ...only problem is, it makes me hate supermarkets and their evil mass-prodcued-ness even more.
x
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