The Quiet Week — My First Soup and the Return of Vegetables

Hey everyone!

I've just been through a pretty varied week food-wise. There was good and a bit of not-so-good (I'm still trying to cut back on the latter), but overall things are going really well. Along the way I figured out a couple of details about what I can and can't eat, thanks to an "accidental" veggie slip-up. On top of that, I made exactly two dishes this week that I'd never made before — and I'm really proud of that. Other than that, not much happened; it was more of a quiet week.

So let's start with the food:

Grilled chicken breast with sweet potato

The week kicked off with a nice bit of outdoor grilling at my parents' place. Nothing complicated: chicken breast and sweet potato on the grill plate. One of my favorites — sometimes the simplest things are the best. The only extra step was that the chicken breast spent a night in a milk-garlic marinade in the fridge, and got grill seasoning when cooking. It was divine! I love grilling outdoors, honestly — if I could, I'd always cook this way. (Maybe that's part of why outdoor bushcraft appeals to me? :D)

Ramen with egg

I'd had this before — a supposedly Korean instant ramen with two seasoning packets. I souped it up with two eggs. It was totally good. I used to eat this kind of thing more rarely, but I'm starting to get into it.

Salami pizza

This salami pizza is becoming a regular guest, I notice. Maybe I should cut back a bit — write about having it once a month at most. The problem is I just can't get tired of it, it's so good, mainly because of the blue cheese.

Chicken Kiev with sweet potato

This was ordered food, and also a returning favorite of mine. I can't get tired of it. The flavor is so on-point that just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I really should learn to make it at home — not a bad idea, actually.

Baby burgers + ice cream

My wife and I went out to be naughty. We found a newly opened burger place downtown, and those little burgers were so cute that we just had to try them. They come in a box with several tiny burgers — you can order 4, 6, 8, 12, or even 24 of them. The 6-pack was enough for me, the 4-pack for my wife. You could also get fries with cheddar cheese sauce on the side. It was pretty good. But this one stays in the rare category too — not because it isn't tasty... 😀 Oh, and we crowned the whole outing with a couple scoops of ice cream (just lemon).

Vegetable soup

The first soup of my life came together this weekend, and it actually worked out! About ten years ago I once tried making meat broth, but sadly ruined it. Now I gave it another shot, and it came together. I'm really proud of it! And I'm not saying this out of bias, but it genuinely turned out delicious. This one was made from really simple ingredients too: carrot, parsnip, celery root, kohlrabi, potato, green peas, parsley, onion — and that's it. It was perfect. The batch came out a bit big, but I'll eat it over several days. Though there might still be some left over that I can freeze :D

Mediterranean chicken on a bed of vegetables

Another dish I'd never made before, though let's be honest, it's not too complicated. Chicken thighs marinated with chicken seasoning and olive oil, and for the vegetables: sweet potato, zucchini, onion, and bell pepper — also marinated with olive oil and seasoning. Oven, 200°C, 35 minutes, done. Afterward I realized 35 minutes might have been too little: I had to put it back in for at least another 15, because the chicken was more reminiscent of boiled meat. The problem was that meanwhile the vegetables were already done. So I definitely need to optimize this. This batch came out big too, so I'll be eating it for a few days.

Summing up

Let me sum up the meals. One observation: sweet potato showed up three times this week, which I think is a good thing, since it's very healthy and can absolutely be a recurring element several times a week if someone loves it as much as I do. The other thing, which I realized mid-cooking — and later turned out to be fine — is that I sliced up the zucchini and put it in the oven without deseeding it or peeling off the skin. I looked it up, and apparently that's not a problem where diverticulosis is concerned. I'd simply forgotten — though to be fair, I hadn't eaten zucchini since the surgery. Meanwhile I've decided (after doing proper research) that I can eat cucumber skin and seeds freely, just like with zucchini. For tomatoes I'll still skip the seeds, but I'll start trying to eat the skin. For peppers, the seeds are a no-go by default, but the skin is tough, so I'll peel that off. So I can finally eat cucumber the way I used to, like normal people :D and almost tomatoes too. Peeling tomatoes is quite fiddly work, so I'm really glad about this.

This wasn't as defining a week as the last one (gaming PC), but in exchange it was quieter. Though making my first-ever vegetable soup was a pretty defining moment for me :) This week I dove even deeper into the survival bushcraft world. I followed a bunch of channels on YouTube and watched them like my life depended on it. I'm loving it! Of course the usual cooking videos didn't drop off either, they just got supplemented with some new content. One more thing I'd highlight from the week is the baby burger — I really liked it, such a clever little food, I'd never come across it before. And then it also turned out I can eat some vegetables the way I used to after all. Maybe it wasn't such a nothing week after all?

And maybe a week can be defining precisely by quietly, imperceptibly slipping into our lives, in its own "small" but all the stronger way? It doesn't always have to be destructively, stormily cathartic to be defining. Interesting. I'll make a note of that.

PS: I skipped running this week :(

Have a great weekend, and eat well! Vona