Trying out new things: Lindt

The experience: Lindt Chocolate Boutique

The location: Canal Walk, Cape Town

The situation: The title is a bit misleading, since of course I have had Lindt chocolate far too many times in my life. However, this was chocolate bought from the boutique, with the dude prancing around there in his chef hat. It was lunchtime and I was overwhelmed by the amount of chocolate.

The test: A mixed bag – Cappuccino, Almond, Citrus, Hazelnut

The analysis: The cappuccino tastes like cappuccino. The almond is wack – it tastes like almond essence, thrown in with a heavy hand. The hazelnut is nice. The citrus is ah-mazing.

The verdict: Of course I will go back, it’s chocolate. Also, since I can no longer stand the normal chocolate bars (things aren’t what they used to be…), when I do have chocolate once in a while, it will be a few Lindor balls and nothing else.

Trying out new things: KFC

The experience: KFC

The location: Shell Garage, Stellenbosch

The situation: We were leaving Stellenbosch disappointed because our favourite sushi chef was not working that night. Rahul was moaning about wanting KFC and I was too hungry to care.

The test: The 6-piece family treat. Sides: 2 snack burgers, zinger wings, mash & gravy. Extra: 2 Krushers (Pina colada and strawberry lemonade).

The analysis: I feel like I need to give some background. Rahul comes from a tiny ass village in the Eastern Cape, and his parents were very frugal. The few times a year they got takeout, it would be KFC (since there were no other options). As such, he associated KFC with fun times. On the other hand, being a city girl, I had repeated exposure to multiple fast food chains my whole life. This allowed me to pick favourites. KFC was not one of them. The chicken was oily and gross about 75% of the time. We did discover on our August holiday that the one in Malmesbury is top notch, but it’s not like we’re going back to Malmesbury anytime soon.

So I was super annoyed when I agreed to KFC that night in Stellenbosch. We decided to eat on the patio there because the weather was nice. My word. It was amazing. I am not one to rant about fast food, but that chicken was insane. No extra oil, nice sized pieces, chips fried correctly, mash and gravy nice and hot…and that pina colada krusher was the perfect mix of drink during the meal, and dessert for after.

The verdict: 

SRIRACHA!!!!!!!!!!

I never understood The Oatmeal comics about Sriracha, because we didn’t used to get those products here. A few weeks ago, Rahul brought a bottle of the sauce home from Checkers. It is amazing.

Last week, we were aimlessly wandering around out local Checkers, as we are inclined to do on Sunday mornings, when I went to the salt section (which I never do). It was here that I discovered Sriracha salt. I would be lying if I said we have not had a meal this week without it. Anything that requires normal salt now gets Sriracha salt instead.

 

Trying out new things: Pizza Hut

The experience: Pizza Hut

The location: Zevenwacht Mall, Cape Town

The situation: A week and a half ago we were picking up someone at the mall and I was like, huh, there’s a Pizza Hut. We found out that they would be opening the following Tuesday and after a false start (the oven wouldn’t work or something?), they opened last Wednesday.

The test: The Triple threat – any two medium pizzas (we took the sweet chilli chicken feta and some meat thing with olives because that is what happens when you let the husband choose flavours) and a chocolate dessert pizza.

The analysis: So I know this series of posts is about trying out new things, but it is not going well. The pizzas were OK. The ratio of filling to base to sauce was good, there was minimal oil and the crust was fine. The taste? Meh. It just tasted OK. Certainly not worth “I’m bookmarking some calories especially for this”.

The chocolate pizza was the best out of the batch, but, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this, it had too much chocolate spread. We had to split it across 3 days. I should never have to do that with chocolate anything.

The verdict: Similar to my Dunkin’ Donuts verdict, this also isn’t our scene. We have pizza so rarely that if we do have it, we want to go all the way. By that, I mean go all the way to Stellenbosch because the Dominos there is the best.

Trying out new things: Dunkin’ Donuts

This is the first part in a series of posts I will entitle “Trying out new things”.

The experience: Dunkin’ Donuts

The location: N1 City, Cape Town

The situation: Two weeks ago on a Friday I stood in a relatively short line – 25 minutes – to buy a dozen Dunkin’ Donuts. While that would normally violate two of my rules (“I don’t waste time on bullshit” and “No processed food. At all.”), I had time to kill waiting for the SO to finish work, so why not?

The test: A dozen mixed donuts – star with chocolate inside, red iced, blue iced, lemon iced, chocolate, some other stuff

The analysis: A doughnut is a doughnut. I was never a particularly huge fan of these deep fried lumps, and I still am not. If I’m going to throw away calories on something, it will be sushi. I feel that the R6 chocolate doughnuts I bought at our local Kwikspar one Saturday before the SO left for late shift was better than these R14 ones.

I will give them this though – those doughnuts were consistent. Each one was perfectly formed, with no extra visible fat on the box, unlike your typical supermarket fare.

The verdict: While the doughnuts are good, it’s not our scene. In line with our personal lifestyle choices, we won’t be back.

Maximising the protein to carb ratio

I have done extensive research – theoretical and practical – to determine the most bang-for-your-buck sources of protein.

• Canned tuna in water
• Canned pilchards
• Ostrich
• Venison
• Chicken breast
• Soybeans Chickpeas
• Eggs
• Cottage cheese

What the SO and I do every two weeks or so is prepare a batch of these protein sources and freeze it in portions for easy extraction during the week. Examples include

• Tuna fish cakes with pilchards
• Ostrich mince
• Meatballs (ostrich/venison/beef/pork mince)
• Homemade chicken bites

All of the above are combined with ground chickpeas (to make it go further and to add some carbs), ground biltong powder and various spices/chillies/fresh herbs so we don’t feel like running to Mcds for a disgusting, filthy, addictive cheeseburger.

I still have to order some bulk whey protein isolate, which will be added to the afternoon smoothie. Currently we are finishing up some flavoured protein we bought on daily deal.

A best-of-both exercise & food programme: Part 1

Now that I’m finally back into the swing of exercising at home again, the programme I’ve decided on is drastically simpler. The first three weeks of each month is Training, while the last week of the month is Maintenance.

My husband and I now have preparing meals for the week down to an artform. On Saturday, I take the protein out of the freezer to defrost. This will be roughly 1.5kg of chicken breast, mutton, beef or pork. We also purchase 1kg of butternut and 1kg of sweet potatoes, in those ready made cubes (available at our local hyper for R10 per 500g). These are our carbs.

On Sunday, I get up and start microwaving the carbs in their bags. At the same time, my husband cuts the protein into chunks and I add it to the slow cooker, with spices, chilli powder, lime juice and mushrooms or chickpeas. Once the carbs are done, my husband mashes them together while I microwave 1kg of mixed veg and 250g garden mix in a clay pot.

My husband weighs out 150g veg and 200g carb for him, and 100g veg and 100g carbs for me. His food is weighed first in case the fluctuating water content leaves a smaller total amount available, in which case I will get less.

While he is busy weighing, I’m preparing the protein bars. I’ll post the recipe when I remember to take some good pics of the bars after I’ve cut them in the tray. Once they’re partially baked, I remove them from the oven and I bake the Snowflake easymix seed loaf bread. I package the bars into small plastic bags.

Once the protein is done, my husband measures out 150g for him, and 100g for me. He divides anything extra across his bowls, as I can always make do with less food. I take out a pack of booster muffins and protein muffins (made and frozen previously, will post recipes) and package into bowls for the next day.

That’s our food for the week. Breakfast is a sandwich and two protein muffins for him, one protein muffin muffin. Mid morning snack is the protein bar, and lunch is the food described above. Pre-workout snack is the booster muffin, and supper is a smoothie (will post recipe). The only exception is Monday evening, when we take turns to make something fabulous, like spicy burritos, or chilli chicken with sticky rice. Weekends are also chilled.

Paaper Bites

On Friday, I had a dire, extreme craving for the Alibaba Paaper Bites of my youth. The irregularly shaped, thick bits of samoosa pastry deep fried in oil, smothered in flavour and packaged into foil packets.

I drove my husband crazy, making him drive around the Northern suburbs looking for some. I found some at N1 City yesterday afternoon, but only me second favourite flavour: Bombay Chilli. I also bought Salted and Cheese & Onion just to have a standby until I could locate my ultimate: Secret Flavour. I found it this morning in the tuckshop next to my workplace.

The problem, of course, which affects Paaper Bites and most other snack products today, is that over the years, the recipes have been tweaked and pruned until the snack bears only a passing resemblance to what it once was. Yes, many of the changes made to Paaper Bites are good – virtually no oil residue, smaller and regular shaped pieces, and just enough flavour.

I am not eating Paaper Bites because I want a healthy snack. I eat Paaper Bites because they are terrible for you, but taste so good. I could buy one packet and and get lost in it. Now, I settle for this watered-down version.

My husband has offered to make them from scratch, which he could easily do, and the results will be delicious, no doubt. Yet Alibaba Paaper Bites takes me back to primary school, to a simpler time when I had to stand on tiptoes to reach the counter of the tuck shop to point out the flavour I wanted. Now that I know I have a source literally metres away from me…

Zapper aka the reason I’ll never use a card at a restaurant again

On Saturday, the SO and I decided to try Dros, since we have never gone there in our lives and never thought we would, due to the association we have to it from university days.

The experience was pleasant enough, although the food wasn’t as great as I thought it would be. This was particularly irritating to me, being on my epic revamp, so any time we eat out has to be totally fantastic. This is why I frequent a certain Food Lovers Market cafe, as the food is healthily made at a good price, and tastes fantastic.

When we got the bill and I saw the Zapper sign, I was excited that now I would be able to test it. I scanned the code, selected my card, hit pay, done.

It was amazing. No scratching around in my bag for my card, watching the waitress with hawk eyes with the card machine, trying to check if the machine is not a fake…Just super easy, and super convenient.

So naturally, we had to wait for ten minutes at the front desk because the Zapper machine was broken and could not print the slip, and the waitress had to find the manager whose email address was linked to the Zapper account to check if my proof of payment had come through.

Other than that, everything went smoothly and I will definitely be using the app wherever I can. The R25 for the first transaction was cool, as is the fact that it’s picked up on my account as an online shopping transaction, which means eBucks at the highest rate.

Doesn’t really fit here, but hey, cat.

It’s hard enough as it is

When one is trying to achieve a certain goal (lifelong health and fitness), it can be quite problematic when:

1. One works an 8 hour job that is desk bound
2. One thoroughly enjoys aforementioned desk job, therefore one may be tempted to work through hour lunch break to research
3. One’s idea of fun when getting home at night is to sit in front of the computer for the rest of the night
4. One enjoys food, has always enjoyed food, comes from a family where food is used to celebrate everything, is surrounded by food at all times

Despite this, one has made some excellent headway this year, having shed 10kg, and kept it off for >6 months, even though one has slacked off a bit in the last 6 weeks. I’m going to stop referring to myself as one now. My point is, it has been fairly rough getting here, including changing my mindset to accept that exercise is a part of life, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about today.

I would like to mention something that I’ve noticed about the menu at the canteen at my work. In particular, the menu for this week, which made me go “?!?!”. We are offered a health choice as an alternative to the main meal of the day. The main meal is normally a “traditional” meal, usually some stew/curry with rice, or pie with veg, that sort of thing. The health choice seems to be “vegetarian who longs for the days of meat and flavour”. The majority of the health choice meals are vegetables covered in cheese, or something bizarre.

Example – one of the meals is a surprise quiche. When it comes to health, I don’t really want to be surprised by what is in my meal. If I am taking the health choice, I want to know exactly what ingredients are in there so that I can allocate my calorie budget accordingly. For all I know, those could be the leftovers from last week’s main meals. Or it could be, just, all the cheese, which is not good (not cheese is not good, cheese is always good, but adding cheese to a health choice, not good).

Another example is tempura vegetables with tartar sauce. What part of that is healthy? Just including the word “vegetable” in something does not automatically make it healthy. Now, this is not me hating on being vegetarian – in fact, I have been actively eating less red meat than before, and would only eat chicken, ostrich and fish with vegetables if I could (and eggs!). The fact that we can’t trust the fat content in our chicken makes me sad.

Labelling these meals as vegetarian would make more sense, as they do not contain meat, but they are not really “healthy”.