Last night was totally laid back but so nice. Shortly after my last post, the Husband came home from work. The roommate was on his way out of town for work for the night so it was just the two of us. I quickly whipped up some Indian food complete with butternut squash basmati rice and na'an of course! No recipe this time, since it's just chicken and veggies in a simmer sauce.
Since the sun doesn't set until 10pm or later, we have decided to take a walk after dinner. There was a park I had seen a few times by the train station so we took a stroll and walked around the Queen Elizabeth Park.
The park was not exactly as I had imagined but we went exploring anyways. It wasn't very populated but so natural.
We found a bench to sit down on and enjoy the dessert we picked up on our way to the park.
Now THAT's a sweet picture.
It was a little pathetic so I gave in.
We also met some friends. The lab just ran up and gave me his stick to throw. I humored him just as much as he humored me. His friend didn't know what was going...he was just chasing the lab.
Then we came across a play ground. Check out the awesome swing!
They even had rock walls. Sadly, we couldn't even go in. Remember the signs that say "children under XX not allowed unless with adult"? This is the opposite , apparently. Check out the last line before the "DO NOT" signs: "No adults unless with children."
This maine coon reminded me of Franklin (Falafel's best friend and former roommate). The owner of the house where we met this guy also has another maine coon.
We made it home dry and called it a night.
This morning, I woke up and made breakfast. On the menu was coffee, plum, and an English muffin with laughing cow cheese, Quorn back (vegetarian) and tomatoes. YUM!
I have learned that England is extremely vegetarian friendly. There's a much wider selection of faux meat products than what I'm used to and all restaurants offer a variety of vegetarian options. I am not a vegetarian but I do love veggies.
Lunch
Around 11:30 I started lunch. I got my inspiration for ratatouille over at Gina's Skinny Recipes. How good do these colors look?
Here's what I used:
1 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 large leek, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (any color, I used orange), chopped
1 large eggplant, chopped
6 small tomatoes
1 zucchini, sliced
Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
salt and pepper
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
The recipe called for two onions. I the onions that I had were small and I had a leek that was on it's last day. Good thing you just peel back the layers to the good part!
In a bit of olive oil, I cooked the onion, leek, 4 cloves of garlic and just one bell pepper (I decided to leave the red one out because they were both good size peppers and the one looked like enough).
Cover it and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the zucchini and cover to simmer for another 10.
I added salt, pepper, basil and parsley and a blend of dried herbs we had on hand. The last step of the recipe calls to add breadcrumbs. The bread crumbs absorb most of the remaining liquid. I did this step but will leave it out in the future as I made some couscous to accompany the ratatouille.
All-in-all, it was very good. It was so nice to have a fresh light meal here since everything is very heavy. If I were at home, I would have added a few more herbs like thyme and rosemary (which are called for in the original), but I'm the only one in the house that would use such ingredients and I'm only here for seven more weeks.
I had the ingredients for a summer salad which looks delish but I was quite satisfied with what I had.
I also got to Skype with my mother today (Hi, Mom). I've been in contact with her but it has been almost a week since I've heard her voice.
I suppose you've had enough of this post by now, so until next time, cheers!
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