Good morning ladies! Well, at least, it’s morning for me, for a lot of ya’ll in the states it’s the middle of the night. Soon enough I’ll be back on East Coast time, I only have 2 full days (!) left in Belgium.
Thanks so much for your comments on the last post! Luckily, when I feel like I’ve been out of balance I’m more than happy to get back to lost of fresh fruit and veg as I do love them so. Few things make me happier than a big bowl of cherries or watermelon, as you’ll see later!
I went to the market in the morning–though I can go to farmers’ markets in the U.S. I’ll miss the bantering in French! The vendor today bragged about his Wépion strawberry prices (Tu vas à la rue de Wépion et tu achetes une mignonne boîte de fraises pour le même prix que les deux grosses boîtes que j’ai ici!). PS I’ve tried the strawberry beer they mention in the link, loved it! I picked up some strawberries, canteloupe, bananas, cheries, and flat peaches at the market. Afterwards I breakfasted on a bowl of Swiss Oats which included one of the few non-clean aspects of yesterday’s eats. I got the European version of Light and Fit yogurt because it was about to expire in the store and they reduced the price. I love the vanilla flavor in my overnight oats, but try and ignore the ingredient list! This bowl included the vanilla gunk yogurt, chopped Brazil nuts, medjool dates, strawberries, and diced banana.
Hope you like the stray oat flakes hanging out on the rim of the bowl.
Then I had a few errands to run, including a trip to town hall. I had to inform them of my departure this weekendand do so some other official shiz. I was a little worried because I no longer have my Belgian identity card–my wallet was stolen on a trip to London. I heard from other exchange students that they were informed that if you don’t have your card they send you to Atlanta or something crazy like that to go to the U.S. embassy (why it wouldn’t be to D.C. I’m not sure) and I was just a tad concerned. No problem at my town hall though! The lady just told me I should have gotten a new card (yeah, and pay 35 euros when I only had 3 months left in Belgium and the card itself takes a month and a half to develop? Not thanks) to which I shrugged my shoulders. When she gave me the papers I needed at the end without a problem I wanted to kiss her, but refrained. I dropped off some books at the Granville house that they let me borrow way back when and delivered cookeis to them.
Lunch was this gorgeous salad:
I combined 1/4 of an avocado in the blender with some creamy herb dressing. Loved it! I love avocado and its creaminess and dicing it just isn’t the same for me. The avocado dressing was perfect! I tossed the dressing in lettuce and spinach leaves and added red pepper, tomato, cucumber, meatless meatballs, grated raw beets to my salad. Raw grated beets are delicioso, and apparently you keep all the vitamins usually lost when boiling beets.
Plus you get that awesome beet color.
I then made my second trip of the day to Belgium’s answer to Walmart, Traffic. It was my second trip because I went before lunch at 12:30 only to find that they closed for an hour between 12:30 and 1:30. Oh Europeans and their leisurely lunches. The trip to the store is a half hour round trip walk, x2 in my case. I bought a binder and those clear page protector covers. I kept a lot of random papers from school, trips, letters, trains, concerts etc, and I organized them semi chronologically in the binder. It’s the lazy girl’s answer to a scrap book.
I then caught up with the crazy kids in NYC Prep. Wtf Taylor, news flash, being a philosopher isn’t a profession, but nice idea. That Sebastian is one playa. Afterwards I had to catch up with Weeds, there is never enough Silas (and specifically shirtless Silas) for my taste.
I had another fruit orgy, of which I didn’t take pictures, but know that it included watermelon, frozen grapes, and red currants.
I finished the little packing that was left, and it’s so bizarre to have an empty room, but beautiful at the same time, because it reminds me that I will soon be in my own room sweet room in Maryland!
Dinner included a feat for me–using the pressure cooker for my dried black beans. Granted, I didn’t cook them long enough, but I tackled that pressure cooker and survived, which is a big step in my book. I cooked the black beans in onion, garlic, red pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, cumin, and veggie broth until I liked the consistency. If any of you guys use tomato paste, freeze the open can and then dip the can in hot water to release the frozen chunk of tomato paste. Then pop the rest in a bag and stick it in the freezer–whenever you need tomato paste just chop some off the block. It’s great because I don’t use tomato paste often enough and if I store it in the fridge it’ll go bad. My bible, Cook’s Illustrated, taught me this trick.
Anyway! I topped a baked sweet potato with the black beans and added chopped avocado on top.
I maybe took a few bites before I remembered I should take a picture!
I then felt antsy and anxious, so I grabbed Harry Potter and went on a two hour walk. I didn’t intend for it to be so long but I was loving the nice weather. I walked maybe about seven miles or more. Harry came back to Hogwarts and sh!t is about to hit the fan with Voldemort.
Host mama MC and I caught up on life afterwards–she’s been working a ton because she hopes to change jobs and I commiserated. I feasted on this bowl o fruit:
Cherries, canteloupe, and strawberries topped with a little of both strawberry and blood orange sorbet. I love ice cream/sherbert/sorbet over fruit salads, you don’t need a lot and the melted frozen treats make a great sauce for the fruit. My grandpa always makes this in the summer, so it’s also kind of comforting for me. I ate this beauty while catching up in blogworld.
My day of vitamins made me very, very happy!
It looks like today and tomorrow will be busy, I’ll catch up with you hopefully by Saturday morning at the latest.
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A toute à l’heure!
Maya
