Continuing to itemise my grocery shopping

 During January, I uploaded photos of most of my grocery shopping, and summarised at the end. I wanted to know how long I could go without buying anything other than fresh fruit and vegetables, and whether I could avoid anything ultra-processed.  The reason was that there's increased awareness of the dangers of eating too many ultra-processed foods. And while there doesn't seem to be any absolute definition of what constitutes an ultra-processed food, the working definition is anything that contains ingredients that one would not normally find in a regular home kitchen. 

I've never bought a lot of ultra-processed products, in part because many added ingredients are migraine triggers for me. What used to be a nuisance turns out to be a blessing, if it's true that artificial nitrites are carcinogenic, and that everyone should avoid additives such as MSG and artificial sweeteners.  Of course there are other problems with the western diet - too much sugar, for instance, and too much red meat. But very often they go together: for instance, deli meats are often from pork, and contain ultra-processed additives. Some sweets have no valuable nutrition, containing nothing other than sugar and additives. 

I continued taking photos of shopping this month, for my own interest, but I won't bore readers with uploads of everything. Suffice it to say I spent rather more, since several things had to be replenished. We did more entertaining in February, too, and I had used up most of the meals that I had prepared previously and frozen. 

I continued mainly buying fresh fruit and vegetables.  But in addition, during the first week of February, I also bought:

800g chicken mince
2 x 800g chicken breast
800g chicken thighs
1kg pangasian frozen fish
4 x 70g pots of tomato paste
1kg Greek yogurt
2 4-packs of toilet paper
2kg wholegrain bread flour
1kg sugar
1kg white cake flour
500g oats

On the first Friday, we went to Lidl, mainly for canned 'wet' cat food.  We were fairly restrained - we didn't need any more chocolate, for instance - and this is what we bought:

In addition to cat food we bought coffee, washing fluid, soap, frozen beans, large lentils, frozen salmon, more frozen pangasius fish (as it was on offer), and - yes - our first possibly ultra-processed product of this year, Alaska pollock fillets in breadcrumbs.  I had read an article online from a reputable source (though I can't now find it) which said that, while we should in general avoid anything highly processed or ultra processed, there are some foods which are beneficial in other ways that we shouldn't boycott. They included jarred pasta sauce (so long as free of nitrites or colourings), wholegrain bread, ideally with seeds, and fishfingers.  We're all supposed to be eating more fish, after all. We don't generally eat fish fingers, but we do like these breadcrumb-coated fillets, and the ingredients list isn't too bad. So they were included in our Lidl shop. 

I did not, however, buy any puff pastry - something which is good value in Lidl - and I experimented with a flaky pastry recipe using hard vegan spread [bought in December], to make spanokopita. Rather more work than using ready-made puff pastry, but I was able to use half wholegrain flour, and it turned out pretty well. 

The following week, as well as lots more fresh fruit and vegetables, I bought some cartons of juice, some small jars of spices to replenish ones we were running low on,  some cartons of passata, a bag of dried red lentils, frozen peas, frozen broad beans, and a box of twelve free-range eggs. 

In the second half of February, I bought another kilogram of Greek yogurt (I do like on my breakfast muesli; it's my one regular dairy product), two 300g tubs of 'planton' vegan yogurt, a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and some coconut oil. 

We went to Metro, for the first time since Christmas, as I wanted to buy some more dry cat food; once again we were mostly quite restrained, and this is what we bought:

Cat treats as well as dry 'Brekkies' food, some white cleaning vinegar, some malt vinegar for cooking, two jars of instant coffee (another thing I have to admit to liking, though I know it's not considered real coffee by many), pineapple chunks, brown basmati rice, a rather large bag of garam masala, but I haven't been able to find it in smaller quantities, two cans of coconut cream with minimal additives... and some mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is processed, maybe ultra-processed, but I haven't been successful in making it, and it's a lot of hassle. And we don't eat a lot of it.

We made another nut shop visit, too, and bought our standard nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc, as described last month.

The following week, as well as yet more fresh fruit and veg, I bought another kilogram of wholewheat bread flour, and one of white bread flour. I also bought a bag of cornflour, and another processed product: a pack of digestive biscuits. I use them from time to time to make various desserts, and don't like to run out. But I'm going to look for recipes, to see if I can make something equivalent to keep in the freezer.

So, rather more 'extra' products this month, but the only ones that might be considered ultra-processed are the breaded fish, the mayonnaise and the digestive biscuits.  Given that reports state that, in most western countries, over 50% of the food eaten is ultra-processed, I'm not too worried. 

Chilly weather, central heating... and yet more about shopping

As I sit here, wearing three warm layers, with a cooling wheat bag on my lap, it seemed like a good idea to mention our current chilly snap in Cyprus. Among other things. 

Central heating

I don't remember, now, when it started to feel cold out. Maybe a week ago, maybe more. When we're in a cold spell, it somehow feels as if it's always been this way, and probably always will. I know, of course, that it will warm up again soon. We don't have long winters here. Summer - which lasts about six months - is much more difficult for me to deal with. So I'm not complaining. Truly. 

We have a large gas canister outside, and have to phone the company when it shows less than 25% full. At least, it appears to be a percentage, but we're not exactly sure what it refers to. We last had it filled in March last year, after a chilly period in February. If we weren't using central heating, it would probably last us several years as a supply of gas for the kitchen hob.

We finally replaced our old, inefficient boiler almost two years ago. The new one has to be serviced annually, ideally before we start using it. Because November was so warm, we hadn't got around to calling the engineer, but in December he came and did a thorough service. It wasn't very cold, but sufficiently cool that we wanted a bit of heating to come on in the evenings. 

We're very thankful that we have central heating. It's not normal here; houses are built for the summer, not for the winter. We have double-glazed windows, too. But with tile floors and quite high ceilings, it's not easy to stay warm when the temperatures outside drop below 15 degrees Celcius, as has been the case for the past week or ten days. It's been down to 5 or 6 degrees, sometimes less, overnight. 

When we checked the gas levels shortly before Christmas, it was still showing 55% full. We used the heating sporadically over the Christmas/New Year period. We kept checking, and it seemed to go down very slowly. It wasn't until about ten days ago that the levels were approaching the 25% level, so Richard got in touch with the company, and the truck came just over a week ago. 

And yes, the sky was blue, and the sun was out, so it didn't feel all that chilly outside. But the clear sky meant that the nights were very cold.  At least, very cold from our perspective, and cold enough that we needed to wear extra layers in the house. Yesterday the heating came on even during the daytime, when it has to be lower than 15C to click on. We haven't checked the level recently, but I expect it will be going down rather more rapidly than it did in December. I'm sure we'll need at least one more gas delivery this year.  Maybe more. 

Shopping, continuing from previous posts

Early in January, I wondered how long we could go without buying anything other than fresh fruit and vegetables. We still had quite a lot of food left from Christmas, several frozen meals from November and earlier December, and plenty of other things in the freezer. I quickly realised we also needed nuts, seeds and dried fruit, as well as packaged fruit juice... so changed to thinking about only buying unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Which is what I prefer anyway. 

However, until the end of last year, I would buy - without really thinking about it - products such as wholewheat pitta bread (from the fruitaria), and I regularly bought commercial coconut milk (both the drink and the canned versions) and oat milk. I wrote about starting to make my nut and oat milks at home again in my last post, as well as vegan 'cheeze'. 

While I mainly use fresh fruit and vegetables, there are some which (in my opinion) are a whole lot better when bought frozen. And we were running low on frozen peas. We have tried many different brands, and have come to the conclusion that it's well worth paying a bit more for the Birds Eye variety. The fruitaria stocks this, in their freezer section, rather less expensively than the supermarkets. 

So this was my fruit shop purchases on Friday: 

And yes, it does look remarkably similar to the previous photos, albeit with the addition of frozen peas.  Taking photos each time has been an interesting exercise, demonstrating that, although we do eat quite a lot of fresh produce, there's not a whole lot of variety from week to week. The large number of carrots is so that I could make carrot soup for guests on Sunday evening. 

Having said that, in the summer there are many more fruit choices than there are now; peaches, plums etc are quite seasonal. And although I've seen some early strawberries, experience tells me that they're usually a bit tasteless at this time of year. 

In addition, we were given a couple of aubergines by a friend. I do occasionally buy them, but don't often think about it. We had one, simply sliced and roasted, a week or two back. With the other, I made ratatouille, something I had not made in many years.

I had noticed that our supply of sweet chili sauce - bottled - was getting lower. This is something we've only discovered fairly recently. There are a few different brands available; obviously I avoid any with chemical-sounding additives. But even the best brands are, essentially, sugar water with a bit of chili and garlic. Surely, I thought, I could make some myself. 

I had browsed many different recipes before finding one that used apple cider vinegar, and which gave the option of using chili flakes or powder rather than small hot chili peppers. This was a good thing, as the fruitaria doesn't have any hot chilis. Cypriot food doesn't tend to be highly spiced, and even supposedly 'hot' food at restaurants or fast food places is, to our tastebuds, quite mild. 

So I experimented. The result was surprisingly good, similar to the bottled variety in texture. I was concerned about making it too hot - chili powder is a bit unpredictable - so erred on the side of caution. Next time I'll use a bit more chili powder. But as it's so quick and inexpensive, I don't suppose we'll buy the bottled variety any more. 

On Saturday I realised that we had run out of wholemeal pitta bread. We usually have that with our weekly curry - and I was still using up curry portions that I had frozen last year. So I decided to make naan bread, something our son used to do regularly when he lived at home.  The breadmaker deals with the mixing and kneading, so all I had to do was divide the dough into eight, rest it for a while, roll it out thinly, and then cook in a pan. 

Last time I made naan, I used a tortilla press instead of rolling, but it was a bit messy. Rolling was quite strenuous, but the dough was stretchy, and I could roll each one as the previous one was cooking. And they were pretty successful. We used two, and froze the rest in twos for future curries.

By Monday morning, I realised that we were getting very low on wholemeal bread flour, and also the lighter wholewheat flour which I use for cakes. I did have some white bread flour, and also white cake flour, but didn't want to have to make fully white bread, though I use a small amount of white flour in bread, and about 50/50 in pastry and cakes. I had started my reserve bottles of both sunflower oil and olive oil, too, and I hated the thought of running out of either. And I was craving Greek yogurt... 

So I before I went to the fruit shop in Monday, I went to the mini-market opposite. And here's the result of Monday's shopping:

Packaged flour and olive oil are 'minimally processed', as I understand it. And Greek yogurt is processed. The only additive is gelatine, which I would prefer to avoid - but this brand is, in my view, much the nicest. It's the only dairy product I have on a regular basis. 

And if anyone's wondering why I have some produce in plastic bags, it's because the fruitaria has a kind of colour code: the green bags are for their best quality products, the blue bags are for their mid-range, and the pink are for the ones which are either in excess, or which need to be used up quickly. I mainly buy blue-bag and pink-bag products (I have taken most of the fruit and veg out of their bags for the photos). And I re-use all the bags, for things like cat litter. So at least they're not 'single-use'. 

Salt Lake, a pot-bellied pig and a continuing shopping challenge.

Yes, it's almost half-way through January. After quite a slow December, and a very leisurely week after Christmas, January seems to be racing by. 

The Salt Lake, rain and a few flamingoes

The Salt Lake, which was empty for many months, started filling up in December when there was more rain than usual. Sadly it made little difference to the reservoirs, but the Salt Lake, which isn't very deep, did eventually look like a lake again:

January started dry, but then we had quite a lot of rain a few days ago, leading to puddles in many of the streets (despite much better drainage than in the past, since the installation of sewers under the roads). 

Greenery, construction... and a challenge for January...

Rather than continuing to recount my days in tedious detail, I decided to take photos every day, at least when I remember to do so, and write about them. Life in Cyprus has become normal to me, but visitors are still surprised at some of the things they see and experience.

Greenery

In many parts of the world, trees and bushes lose their leaves during the autumn months, and have bare branches during the winter. This is useful when there's a lot of snow, but that's not at all likely in the coastal areas of Cyprus.

We particularly liked seeing the citrus trees everywhere when we first arrived. Now we take them for granted, and this year the lemons on the trees look fairly small and sparse. Perhaps that's because there was so little rain until December. 

This, for instance, is a normal sight at this time of year, although usually there are rather more lemons on the local trees:

On Jam-making

Short version (which is hardly worthy of a blog) 

On Monday, I made some strawberry jam, although I had not been planning to do so. 

Long and rambling version

Some of today's children, I'm told, have no idea that cakes or pastries can be made at home 'from scratch' (a phrase we learned when we lived in the United States for a couple of years). Some folk, and not just children apparently, think that tomato sauce for pasta, or various kinds of curry sauces come only from jars. 

Not that there's anything wrong with buying cakes from the bakery, or a jalfrezi sauce from the supermarket. Some modern processed products are excellent and inexpensive, and they can certainly save time. However, when we moved to Cyprus 25 years ago there weren't nearly so many processed or imported products available as there are now, so I had to make everything myself. This despite having a fairly full day home educating and a kitchen that became far too hot for comfort at least three months of the year.

But I digress. I was going to say that, while some of the modern generation thinks most food products are factory-made, I am of a former generation who assumed that almost everything was made at home. As a young child I recall my mother buying provisions at a small grocery shop. She would leave a basket with a list for products such as eggs, flour or sugar, to be packed by the grocer, and then we would go to the greengrocer for fruit and vegetables, and the butcher for meat. 

She did buy sliced (brown or wholemeal) bread, at a bakery, but cakes were always home made, as was pastry for pies (meat or fruit, or perhaps a quiche), and any sauces that went with meat. 

She also made all our jam. I had no idea it could be bought ready-made from a shop. Of course, I was aware that not everybody made their own jam. Our church ran a huge 'autumn market' every year, and my mother would make pan after pan of jam and marmalade to sell to elderly folk who no longer made jam. I wasn't sure quite how old they would have to be, since my mother's mother still made all her jam and she seemed quite old to me. (It's a bit of a shock to realise that, when I was five or six, my grandmother would have been several years younger than I am now...)

I have fond memories of my grandmother making bilberry jam after we'd all been out picking bilberries - or 'blaeberries' as they were known in Scotland - on the nearby hills. I have never had any other jam as delicious as that. She also made strawberry and raspberry jam with fruit from her garden, and that was good too. She would use and re-use random sized jars, topped with wax which she saved when she opened a new pot, and then re-melted to seal fresh jam. 

My mother also made jam with fruit from our garden when I was growing up. She made plum jam as well as strawberry and raspberry jam. When I was a teenager with three younger siblings this was in large quantities. She also made crab-apple jelly and bramble jelly, and probably other kinds of jam too. She wasn't particularly fond of cooking, so I did ask her once why she made so much - far more than we could eat. She replied she didn't like wasting fruit, and she did actually quite enjoy jam-making. 

When I was about 17 or 18 I learned that jam could be bought ready-made at the supermarket. When I was newly married, at 20, I might even have bought some. We didn't have a large garden or any fruit trees, and I had very little free time. But it wasn't as good as home-made, so my mother gave us some of her surplus. 

At some point - I don't recall when - I started making my own jam. Perhaps it started when we had an allotment for a couple of years, where we had huge, rambling and prolific blackberry bushes. Or perhaps my parents gave me some fruit from their garden, and I turned that into jam. It's not as if it's difficult. We had a jam pan as a wedding present - it came to Cyprus with us - and I still have it, though I rarely use it now. 

A couple of decades ago, when we lived at our first (rental) house, with two teenage sons, I made at least 24 pots of jam each year. A lot of it was from fruit trees in our huge back garden. But I would also sometimes buy inexpensive fruit in season and use that. 

Ten years later, both boys had left home and we had bought our own house, with no back garden and no fruit trees. But there's an excellent fruit stall with crates of seasonal fruit that I can buy inexpensively, and I carried on making jam - mainly strawberry and apricot jam, sometimes plum - at the same kind of rate. It somehow felt like a thing I did every summer, and Richard appreciated it even though I was eating very little jam myself. 

But he started cutting down, and one year I realised we had over half the previous year's jam still sitting in the cupboard. So instead of making jam, I lightly stewed and froze fruit, just in case we ran out. We didn't run out, and I determined to cut down to making no more than twelve jars a year. And then eight... sometimes we're given jam, and Richard has been given some excellent honey which he'll eat in preference to jam if he feels like something sweet on bread. 

Last year we had almost run out, so I made four pots of apricot jam and four pots of strawberry. I checked the cupboard a week or so back, there were still two pots of apricot remaining, plus one of strawberry, and some little luxury pots given to use by one of our visitors. There was a jar of raspberry jam bought at Lidl too, for cooking, and half a jar - in the fridge - of mespila jam, bought by one of my sons while out here last month. Raspberries aren't available in Cyprus but the Lidl brand jam is inexpensive, fairly tasty, and doesn't contain nasty additives. I decided we didn't need any more jam this year, and was beginning to wonder whether my jam-making days were over. The thought was quite appealing. 

Then on Monday, when I went to the fruitaria first thing, I saw strawberries at 99 cents for 500g. Three boxes somehow made their way into my basket, and I knew I would make jam out of two of them. I'm not sure quite how I knew this - was it divine guidance? Or just the feeling, perhaps inherited from my mother, that it would be a waste of good strawberries not to turn them into jam? 

I knew I had an extra kilogram of sugar at home so didn't buy any more. And it's a good thing I bought three boxes of strawberries; I had forgotten that my recipe needs 1.15kg strawberries. There were still plenty for us to eat. They were quite small, so I was very thankful for having inherited the kitchen gadget that I always thought of as my grandmother's strawberry-huller (though it was originally intended as tongs for sugar cubes). 

Removing the stalks and leaves was probably the most time-consuming part of the jam-making. I rinsed the strawberries and chopped them roughly, then left them simmering. I did ensure I stayed in the same room, doing other things in the kitchen, as I knew from experience how easy it is to sit down at the computer 'for a few minutes' and completely forget about something simmering on the stove, until the smoke alarm goes off....

I recently read a blog post by someone in the US saying that making things from scratch is only worth it if the savings made, by not buying the product ready-made, are worth the time taken. The example given was tortillas, which this blogger had stopped making because it would take nearly half an hour of her time to produce eight of them, and she could buy a pack of eight for a dollar. She didn't feel that the savings of 50 cents or so was worth half an hour of her time, although she acknowledged that many people love baking and producing things themselves, or prefer the taste of home-made products. So the financial consideration wasn't the only relevant one. 

I thought it an interesting point. It's undoubtedly worthwhile making oat or nut milks; five minute of my time saves at least 1.50 euros per litre. The same is true for bread, since our bread machine makes it very easily, with minimal effort on my part. On the other hand, I make tomato ketchup not because it saves much, but because I find the taste so much nicer than anything we can buy. Similarly with cakes, pastry, Christmas puddings and more. 

But shop-bought jam that's just fruit and sugar is perfectly acceptable, and the Lidl brand costs about 1.70 euros (if I remember correctly). I knew I would be making about four jars of strawberry jam, at a total cost of around 3.70 euros as far as ingredients go, plus the gas. So, less than one euro per jar, and it takes about half an hour of my time, in all. I suspect the blogger mentioned above wouldn't feel it worthwhile, as the savings would be no more than three euros. 

So I don't save a huge amount by making jam, the taste is only marginally better than shop-bought jam, and I don't particularly like jam-making. I suppose the motivation is partly keeping up the tradition of jam-making in the family, and partly a gut feeling that it was the right thing to do, even if I hadn't intended to... 

And there is the bonus of my favourite part of the process: that of testing the jam for setting. Years ago we had a jam thermometer but it wasn't very good, and was tricky to clean. So I rely on the old-fashioned method of dripping jam onto a cold plate, waiting, and then pushing a little to see if it feels set and starts to wrinkle slightly. My mother never quite trusted her thermometer so she used that method too. 

Naturally there have to be several 'tests' done, and the first few will be quite runny. But nothing should be wasted...for some reason these little dabs of not-quite-set jam are extremely tasty. 

Eventually the jam feels more set (though it never seems to wrinkle properly) and it's time to cool, and pot. Here I diverge from tradition. I don't bother to heat up the oven to sterilise my jars and make them warm enough that they won't crack when the jam is poured in. Nor do I use wax on top.  Instead, I put about 2cm water in the bottom of each jar, and heat them in the microwave until the water boils. Then I swill it around, pour some of it into the lids to sterilise those, and shake out as much as I can. 

I then use a wonderful and simple gadget which I bought years ago at Lakeland: a jam funnel. Lakeland is often said to be full of gadgets which we didn't know we needed. Some aren't as useful as one might hope, but this wide jam funnel is one of the most best value things I've ever bought. I sterlise it with some of the boiling water from the microwave, and it makes pouring jam (or chutney) into jars very easy, even from a pan without a spout. 

So, a couple of hours after I started hulling, with no more than half an hour of actual work, I had my four pots of jam ready to be labelled and put away.  

Eating a variety of plant-based foods

 It's fairly easy to eat healthfully in Cyprus. Fruit and vegetables in season are generally inexpensive; I have often bought a crate at the outdoor fruit market, typically two or three kilograms (sometimes more) of tomatoes, plums, peaches or apricots, when they are plentiful, for a couple of euros. I lightly stew and then freeze the ones I don't use immediately in 400g portions, so I have them available at other times of year. 

In the winter, citrus fruit is excellent value. Large, delicious Merlin oranges are currently 79 eurocents per kilogram, for instance. Lemons are even more prolific, and most years someone offers us a large bag of lemons from their tree. If not, a crate of about 15-20 lemons costs around a euro. The juice can be frozen in ice cube trays, or other containers for use all year round.

So it's pretty easy for us to get our 'five-a-day' - usually it's nearer eight or nine portions of fruit and veg - as well as the recommended 30g fibre, much of which is in the fruit and vegetables we eat. I do this not to be virtuous, but because I like fruit and veg, and also because I appreciate the related health benefits. 

What I hadn't come across until recently was a newer recommendation that, in addition to the above guidelines, we should aim for at least 30 different kinds of plant-based foods each week. A friend on Facebook mentioned this and I checked various links; it seems to be from a legitimate study. It's different from the 'five-a-day' principle (which should still be followed) in two significant respects:

(1) We don't just count fruits and vegetables, but other plant-based foods such as nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes. Starchy vegetables like potatoes and corn can also be included.

(2) Each kind of food is only counted once in each week.  

I am aware that being able to do this is a 'first world' privilege. We're fortunate to live in a country that offers a wide selection of high quality produce at affordable prices. In many parts of the world, food products are seriously limited, or highly priced, and it may be impossible to eat more than one or two different kinds of food in a week. 

I have to admit, too, that my first question was whether coffee, cocoa and sugar would count; all are, after all, plant-based. But they're not mentioned in any of the lists I looked at on this topic, so I assume not. Herbs and spices can be included, but each is only worth a quarter of a food 'point' as the quantities are generally so small.

Out of curiosity, I decided to keep a record of a week of typical eating for us, some weeks ago, without making any deliberate adjustments, to see if we reached the goal. 

Sunday

We're rather predictable as far as breakfasts go. I had my typical basic breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice, and home-made muesli, which contains oats, coconut, almond meal, walnuts, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, raisins, dried apricots and dried cranberries.  I had a cup of coffee, too. We don't use dairy milk; instead I make both cashew milk and oat milk. I can't count oats again, but cashews can be added to my list. Oh, and I always eat a brazil nut. 

So that was twelve at the start of the first day, but I couldn't count any of them again for the rest of the week.

Richard, meanwhile, had a glass of orange juice, half an apple, a banana, a pear, a little pot of mixed nuts (brazil, peanuts, walnuts, almonds) and a cup of coffee with the same two plant-based milks.  

So he started the week with ten different plant-based products. 

Sunday is the only day we usually have a cooked lunch. I used a previously made lemon chicken from the freezer (which, in addition to the chicken, contained onions, mushrooms, yellow peppers and lemon juice). We had roast potatoes, carrots and broccoli with it. 

That made seven more plant-based foods to add to our weekly inventory.

Our friends were coming over for an afternoon of games followed by a shared meal.  So I made a couple of loaves of bread in the breadmaker (with wholewheat flour, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds and chia seeds), and soup (which contained onions, tomatoes and courgettes, all pureed together after caramelising with garlic and spices, then simmering). For dessert I made an apricot crisp, which contained previously frozen apricots, some lemon juice, and an oat-based topping with some raisins in it. 

Already we were getting into duplicates which didn't count in the '30-a-week' guideline. but I think that made an extra five for me, and an extra eight for Richard as he didn't have apricots or seeds with his breakfast. 

During the meal, we ate some raw carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and peppers brought by our friends. Only the cucumber is counted as a new food, but in all that made 25 different plant-based foods for me, and I think 26 for Richard on our first day. I decided not to count garlic, herbs or spices at all, just treating those as a bonus. 

Monday 

I went to the fruit shop first thing, to buy the vegetables needed for Tuesday evening, some fruit that we were running low on, and one or two other things. I was pleased to see locally grown strawberries at €1.49 per 500g. They looked and smelled good, so I bought a pack. And since cherry tomatoes were on offer (two for the price of one) I bought some of those too.

Just under nine euros bought me this lot: 

Our breakfasts were the same as Sundays, with the addition of about ten strawberries each. 

For lunch we had some cold turkey and mushroom pie left over from the end of last week, with cherry tomatoes, and the leftover apricot crisp. No new plant-based products there. However we then opened some new dairy-free chocolate from Lidl, with coconut and pecans. Even if the cocoa doesn't count, the nuts do. 

On Monday evenings we usually have something fairly quick to make and vegan. Since I had an avocado which was just right for eating, bought a week earlier, I made some guacamole to eat with black bean fajitas. The tortillas were whole-grain, with rye as well as wheat, and the filling, in addition to the black beans, contained onions, mushrooms and peppers... all of which were included in Sunday's lunch. We also had some tomatoes, cucumber and mixed lettuce and cabbage. 

So we only added seven different plant-based foods on Monday, but if I was counting correctly, it means I had already reached 32 and Richard 33 different plant-based foods in just two days.  

Tuesday 

A pear was an extra plant food for Richard for breakfast, but everything else was the same for both of us. Lunch was leftover bread and soup from Sunday, with more of the coconut and pecan chocolate. 

On Tuesday evenings we usually have some kind of fish, with roasted vegetables. This time I cooked baked salmon with lemon slices and roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves, red peppers and broccoli.  The only one we hadn't eaten earlier in the week was sweet potato, and I decided to add in garlic this time, since we ate four or five roasted cloves each, rather than just using a sprinkling. 

Still trying to keep track, I counted 34 for me by this stage, and 37 for Richard.

Wednesday 

In the morning I cut up the mango I'd bought at the froutaria on Monday, and we had that along with our usual breakfast foods. At lunch we ate leftover fajita filling and salads, so nothing new there. In the evening I made vegan sausages for me, which are mainly chickpeas; Richard had meat sausages, made a few months ago by a friend. We had them with potato wedges, roasted mushrooms and cauliflower,  and some home-made baked beans, which used haricot beans. 

Total plant-based foods so far: 38 for me, 40 for Richard.

Thursday 

We had some more of Monday's strawberries with our breakfasts, and more leftovers at lunch. In the evening I heated up a container of chili con carne which I'd made and frozen a couple of months earlier, along with a few of Wednesday's baked beans. I used the microwave and the air fryer to make jacket potatoes, with carrots and broccoli, also air fried, which worked well. I also microwaved some frozen peas which I thought would be the only additional plant food for Thursday, until I remembered that my chilis always contain a good amount of red lentils. 

So I'd reached 40 plant foods, Richard 42. 

Friday 

I took my trolley to the local fruitaria first thing, and bought this selection of fruit and veg for the next few days - enough to last us until Wednesday:.

That lot came to just over 15 euros.  The most expensive item was the three peppers; there weren't any in the reduced section, so they were full price, and I paid nearly a euro per pepper (about 300g each). Next highest is the pears. The oranges - lovely large, juicy ones - were still just 69 or 79 cents per kilogram and I bought two different kinds. 

Breakfast on Friday was as before, likewise lunch, with the addition of some apple pastries that were on sale at Lidl, where we went later in the morning (and spent rather more than €15 on items such as cat food, canned coconut milk and honey). And while the pastries were not exactly healthful, I realised that I hadn't had any apple so far this week. So that took me to 41. 

I was going to make spanokopitta in the evening but was quite tired, and we'd had pastries at lunch-time anyway. So we decided on our favourite local fast-food, Souvlaki Express. Chicken with salad in a pitta for Richard, falafel for me. I was losing track, but we had both exceeded 40 different fruits and vegetables, without having taken any added herbs and spices into account. 

Saturday 

I made chicken jalfrezi in the slow cooker first thing, then breakfast and lunch as before... Saturday is our curry night, and we had the jalfrezi with wholegrain pittas, raisins, coconut, mango chutney, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, apple and banana. I don't think there was anything 'new' to the week's plant-based foods, other than the banana for me, as I hadn't had one at breakfast.

Having eaten, without any effort, considerably more than the 'ideal' number of different plant foods during the course of a week, my main feeling was an overwhelming thankfulness at living in a place with such an abundance of high quality, inexpensive foods. 

The following week

During that first week, we had eaten some foods that we don't eat every week, such as the strawberries and mango. We don't eat avocado every week, either or black beans (which we had twice), or baked beans... 

So I logged another week, less rigorously. We didn't have a fresh mango, but still had mango chutney with our Saturday curry. No avocado or baked beans, but we had some canned pineapple when I made sweet-and-sour cheese. We also had some brown rice, which is another one (white rice doesn't count - but I never buy it anyway).  

I don't know that we reached forty during the second week, but we ate well over thirty different plant-based foods. It's not as if we're vegans or even vegetarians, although we don't eat meat every day. And we don't eat a huge number of different fruits or vegetables. But the articles I read implied that many people don't even manage twenty different kinds. 

Rather than continue tracking, I decided to list what we eat by different types of plant-based food. 

Typical groceries

I go to the fruitaria at least twice every week, sometimes three times. A couple of typical purchases are shown above. I'm not very adventurous, which makes it easy to shop without making a list. Every week I buy, and we both eat:

Fruit:
Oranges - apples - bananas - pears 

Vegetables:
Potatoes - sweet potatoes - carrots - broccoli - tomatoes - onions - mushrooms - peppers - cucumbers - garlic cloves

Also, we always have and eat at least once:

Frozen:
Peas - french beans

Every six weeks, we go to a lovely little shop that sells nuts and various dried products.  Between €50 and €60 buys us sufficient of the following to last for the next month and a half, mostly eaten at breakfast:

Nuts:
Almonds - brazil nuts - cashew nuts - peanuts - walnuts

Seeds:
Sunflower - flax - chia

Dried fruit:
Raisins - dates - apricots - cranberries 

Also: 
Coconut 

With the addition of wholewheat (in bread) and oats (in milk, and my granola) I make that 31 plant-based products which we both eat almost every week.  I also eat a large courgette each week, and Richard has a portion of broad beans at the same time.  Even if we don't have a fresh mango, we have mango chutney. We always seem to have something containing lemon juice, too, whether used fresh or frozen. 

I could also include quarter portions each of: chili powder, sweet paprika, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ginger, turmeric, parsley and basil, all of which we use pretty much every week - and other herbs and spices less frequently. 

At least once or twice a month we also eat:

cauliflower - spinach - cabbage - lettuce - avocado

brown rice - pineapple (canned) 

chickpeas - lentils - black beans - haricot beans 

And, when they're available in season:

clementines - apricots - peaches - strawberries - plums 

It's not a competition; the only 'prize' for eating lots of plant-based products is an increased chance of longevity, with good health as we age. There are, of course, those who eat almost no fruit and veg and still live to be elderly and free of disease. There are also those who are extremely fit and eat very healthfully, but who still develop serious diseases or life-threatening conditions at a young age.  

But I'm not a fatalist. I'd rather increase my chances of good health even if, in the end, environment or genetics beat lifestyle. I know some people have allergies or specific foods they don't like. But there are many more fruits and vegetables than the 50 or so that I've mentioned. So I'm a bit puzzled how anyone in a developed country with widely available (and reasonably priced) produce could NOT eat thirty or more different plant-based foods in a week.  

Images of Autumn

Autumn didn't arrive until early November this year, after a much warmer than usual October.  But it's still here, two weeks later. It's usually a very short season in Cyprus, sometimes vanishing before we really notice it. By the middle of November we're normally wanting to wear sweaters, at least in the evening, and are thinking about putting the heating on. 

Instead, I'm comfortable in jeans and a tee-shirt, and we've been using just our lightweight duvet for the last couple of weeks, with no need to move to the thicker one.

So here are a few images from the middle of November.  Autumn fruit: 

Clementines are now in season (locally grown) and crisp 'Pink Lady' apples, which have all too short a season. Cyprus-grown bananas have been back for some weeks now, and the conference pears are at their best. I miss the summer fruits - peaches, apricots and strawberries, in particular - but I like the way we mostly eat seasonally here, with locally grown produce as much as possible. 

Here's our side yard, with gently fallen leaves:

Lady Jane has been sleeping in the cat bed again, rather than sprawled on top of a bookcase:

And finally, an Autumn sunset, shortly before 5.00pm:

A glut of soft fruit

One of the things which, on balance, I like about Cyprus is that fruit and vegetables tend to be quite seasonal. Most of what we find at the fruitaria is locally grown; there are imported apples, bananas, and potatoes much of the year, but soft fruit such as peaches and plums, and the huge inexpensive watermelons only appear during the summer months.

Of course, this is how it always used to be all around the world. People used to use the months of plenty to preserve fruit for the leaner winter months. And while I've always made jam using fruit in season when it's good value, it's only in recent years that I've started lightly stewing and freezing soft fruit, which I use instead of cans.

Soft fruit starts appearing in May, but it usually seems to be about the 10th-12th June when there's so much that it's available remarkably inexpensively. I have enough Scottish in me to like a bargain. I thought I might make apricot jam yesterday, before the weather gets too hot even to think about jam-making, so on Friday, when we do our weekly shopping, we made sure that we went to the outside fruit stall around 9.00, before all the best buys had been taken.

Sure enough, there were tubs of apricots, each around 1.5kg according to the woman selling them, marked at two euros. I thought that wasn't bad value, then she told me that they were actually one euro each. I said we would have two, and she gave us a third tub for nothing.  Then I chose a 2kg tub of plums, also at a euro, and then spotted an entire small crate of peaches at the same price - weighing them later, I discovered that there were over 5kg of them, all perfectly ripe.

So we bought around 12kg soft fruit for four euros.

We did the rest of the shopping and then I had the task of trying to fit everything in the fridge. I didn't have time to process the fruit on Friday, and I knew from experience that even one night left out would mean that the fruit would start to go bad.  We have quite a big fridge for two people, but it was a tight squeeze:

On Friday night I stayed up too late, and then woke very early Saturday; I don't do well with only five hours sleep but knew I had to deal with the fruit. So I started with the apricot jam and made nearly eight jars, using 2kg of the apricots:

I counted the other jars I made earlier in the year, and the few left from last Autumn, and there are around twenty so that should be plenty to last until next March when I will make more strawberry jam.

Next thing was to stew the plums. I might have dried them - dehydrated plums are delicious! - but they were the kind that didn't easily give up their stones, so I cut them in half, stuck them in a pan with a little water, and stewed them for about half an hour. Four 450g tubs resulted, and I've labelled them as 'plums with stones'.

Since I couldn't dehydrate the plums, and didn't much like dried peaches when I tried with those a year or two back, my next task was to put another couple of kilograms, or so, of apricots in the dehydrator, which then ran all day:

I don't dry them completely, but freeze them in little pots. The total was about 400g. A large part of any soft fruit is water.

Most of the rest went into another pan to be stewed; since I wanted to make a dessert the following day using stewed apricots, I only froze one tub and put the rest in the fridge overnight.

I did keep a few for eating during the week. I hope to buy more apricots next Friday so I can stew and freeze some more.

Finally the peaches.  Thankfully they were not 'cling' peaches, so it was easy to halve them and remove the stones, and then roughly slice them for stewing. I kept the best ones for eating, and stewed the rest; here are some of the resultant tubs ready for freezing:

Those Flora spread tubs make perfect containers for around 450g stewed fruit, making them a perfect substitute for the (less healthy) canned equivalent, for cakes and puddings and pies.

It took me most of the day, off and on, to do this, but none of it was particularly strenuous and it was most satisfactory to have so much fruit processed and stored for the future. I don't think I had to throw anything away.

Alas for my pride. I had made the decision not to make a batch of granola yesterday, while I was dealing with all the soft fruit. It would be more efficient, I thought, to use the oven which would be on for our Sunday lunch. So I put the oats in about fifteen minutes before our roast potatoes were ready, and turned the oven off while we ate, not wanting anything to scorch.

After lunch, I turned the oven on again, added the seeds, nuts and coconut (etc) to the oats, along with the oil and carob syrup, mixed it up, and put it back in the oven.

Then I saw the vast array of dirty dishes around the kitchen. It felt daunting. Richard and Tim had both had to go out to do other things, so I decided to sit down for ten minutes to check email and one or two other things on my computer.

BIG mistake.

With the warm temperatures, we have lots of windows open and ceiling fans going, so the scent of my over-cooking granola did not reach me in my study, where I remembered something else I needed to do...

.. it was an hour and a half later when I went through to the kitchen with a sigh, knowing I had to sort out the mess. My nose was instantly alerted to the granola, which I had completely forgotten about.

So much for being more efficient with the oven usage. I was particularly annoyed because there's an 'off' timer on my oven, which I could easily have set. It might have been slightly over-done, but it wouldn't have been completely un-rescuable.

It actually looked worse than it does in this picture:

Nothing was edible. If I'd needed charcoal I might have been able to use it.  As it was, I had to wait until it was cool enough to pour into a plastic bag and throw it away.

I hate throwing food away.

So I felt suitably humbled, and made another batch. 

Colourful and inexpensive fruit and veg in Cyprus

It's been a while since I wrote. We've had a very cold spell in Cyprus and, more recently, an unseasonably warm few days. We've had work done on the house, which means there's a lot of cleaning and some repainting to do next week before our next visitors.

There is a great deal that I could write about, and perhaps I will in the next few weeks.  But on Friday, Richard was out for the morning so I did my weekly shopping on foot, using my trolley to transport food home. The main part of what I bought - indeed, the main part of what we eat - was fruit and vegetables.

As I brought it all in, and started unpacking, I realised again what good value fruit and veg are in Cyprus. They're mostly fresh, they taste extremely good, and there are usually slightly older items on sale at even better value than normal.

So here's what I bought on Friday:

Some of the carrots, cauliflower, peppers and courgettes were to take to a shared meal on Friday evening. But other than that, I was only buying for the two of us for the weekend (three on Sunday), and a couple of days next week; I'll buy some more fruit and veg on Wednesday.

We already had some oranges, cucumbers, tomatoes and mushrooms, and also garlic, so I didn't need any of those; just as well, as my trolley was very full, even though, laid out like this, it doesn't look like a lot for five days. We needed some lemons, too, but our good friends have a prolific lemon tree so they gave us a couple of dozen of them this morning.

I've been so long out of the UK that I have no idea what this amount of fruit and veg would cost there. They're not organic - but they're unwaxed, loose, and - mostly - locally grown.  I had thought this would be around €15-18 and was pleased that the total was slightly less than €13.50.  That's about £10.50 in the UK by today's exchange rate (or just over $19 in the US).

Oh, and for those who are concerned about the environment, I did get a lot of small plastic bags (more than are shown in the picture) but I re-use them for cat litter, so they're not wasted. The shop has a system whereby pink bags are the special offer items, green (though they look turquoise in the photo) are the main ones, and the final aisle are blue. Not using bags would make everything more complicated for the checkout people - and I do take my own larger cloth bags to pack them in.

Summer in Cyprus. Again.

It's over a month - almost six weeks - since I wrote about the approach of Summer in Cyprus. It hasn't been the inexorable march that some of us expected; instead, it's been a slow and steady approach. The daytime shade temperature now, as we near the end of June, has been around 28-30C, but that's nowhere near as bad as it sometimes is by this time of year.

Richard was away during most of May and the first week of June; he visited seven different countries for work purposes, and was on a total of sixteen flights, if I remember correctly. I don't mind being on my own for extended periods; I did a few summer-preparation tasks such as washing all the curtains and windows, and cleaning most of the air conditioners. I sorted some cupboards, too, and washed all our winter jackets and fleeces, moving them and other winter clothing to the closets on our upstairs landing.

One thing I like about the approach of summer is the soft fruit that starts to appear in the local fruit shops. I have a Lakeland shopping trolley (a cool one, I'm told) and got in the habit, while Richard was away, of filling it each Friday with enough fruit and veg for the week. I didn't need a lot for just me - here's one week's selection:

Some people claim that it's expensive to eat in Cyprus, but I paid a total of €14.40 (just over £10 sterling by today's exchange rate) for that trolley's worth of fruit and vegetables, and I wasn't being particularly frugal. I included 500g strawberries and a pineapple, which are considered luxuries by many.

Cleo, our 17-year-old cat, who seemed even more frail than usual during the winter, always gets a new lease of life during the summer. She walks better, she sleeps less, and she loves to sit outside in the sunshine.

The kittens Alex and Joan, however, are finding it rather too hot...

On the second Monday of June, the local Christian writing group had our annual potluck lunch after our last meeting before September, with lots of good food:

Great company, too. It's not a big group, but we enjoy our monthly meetings.

A few days later I was privileged to be invited to our small friend E's fifth birthday dinner:

Our grandson in the UK is now a year old. I know it's a terrible cliché, but I really don't know where the years are going.

We've used the air conditioning for an hour or so in the bedroom most nights for about ten days, now. It reduces the humidity and makes it easier to get to sleep; there's a fan that runs all night to circulate the air, and it keeps it cool. The cats are not allowed in the bedroom at night now, after one of them started catching unmentionable large insects outside on the balcony and bringing them into the room.

I've stopped walking in the mornings; without the cats in the bedroom, I'm sleeping longer, and by 6.30 or so it's too hot to walk, despite it being cooler than usual (or so it seems) for the time of year. But although we cleaned the air conditioning in the main part of the house on Friday, we've only used it once, so far; for a couple of hours on Sunday when our friends were here for a game and cold meal.
 

Another month out of Cyprus whizzes by...

I think this has been the longest time I've been out of Cyprus since we moved there. When I eventually return, I will have been away for over two months in all, happy to have missed most of the summer - not to mention the acquisition of two kittens, and Timothy moving out - but most of all thrilled to have been able to spend so much time with my grandson. Those last two words are just beginning to sound natural, although as I only feel about 26 on the inside, it's still a bit surprising to me that my sons are in fact around that age, and that I am now a grandmother...

I have travelled the length of the UK twice since I last posted on this blog - so as I don't want this to be an epic post, I've selected a few photos to illustrate the past five weeks.

We left Carlisle early July, and went to stay with my father in Alcester. While we wanted to see him in any case, the date was chosen to allow us to attend the wedding of one of my longest-standing friends in Birmingham:

It was a wonderful day. A packed church with a moving service, and then a relaxed reception, where we were able to catch up with various people we'd lost touch with. As the minister said, it was a taster of Heaven. 

While in Alcester, we were delighted to discover that we had hit raspberry season, and picked a bowlful like this almost every day: 

This is significant because fresh raspberries are almost impossible to find in Cyprus (and extortionately expensive). 

After a week in Alcester we travelled down to Sussex, on the south coast, to stay with Richard's mother. We spent a lot of time looking at old photos of Richard's ancestors, and went out and about too. But I didn't take any relevant photos that could give a taster.

On July 15th we drove to Gatwick Airport, and returned our rental car. Richard then flew back to Cyprus - with vast amounts of luggage - and I waited around in the airport, reading a Kindle book, until the evening coach [that's a bus to American friends....] to Carlisle. It was a long journey, and although I hoped to sleep it was almost impossible as I didn't have much room on my seat, and when I finally dropped off it was time to stop for a rest-break.

It was wonderful to see Daniel waiting for me at the coach stop in Carlisle at 5am; we walked back to his house (about a mile away) and I had a nap. 

I also had a siesta, knowing that I would not be able to go to bed early; the wonderful Adrian and Bridget Plass were doing a show at the local church, and I was determined to enjoy it. As, indeed, I did; very much: 

Of course the main reason I'm back in Carlisle is to be of some assistance to Daniel and Becky as they struggled with David's nocturnal habits, unpredictable crying and colic. He's a lively, wriggly baby with very little patience, and they would often start the day in a daze of exhaustion. It's astounding how one tiny 10kg person can disrupt the lives of all the adults around him... while also charming us utterly :-) 

When we were in Carlisle at the start of July, we bought a 'Babasling', as recommended by the NCT.  In our absence, Daniel had started to use it when David needed to be carried around, to give him a hand free for other things. David's not the kind of baby who wants to be in a sling all the time; he likes his hands and legs free to wave around, and he's extremely wriggly. But when he's tired, and wants to be held, it's ideal: 

A few days after Richard returned to Cyprus was the date of our 34th wedding anniversary. We had a brief chat online, and I'd almost forgotten about it when this gorgeous bouquet arrived: 

It lasted over a week.

Meanwhile, David has been growing, slowly - on the whole - getting over his colic, and becoming, generally, a more settled baby. I take him out for a walk in his pram most mornings, and he's started sleeping at least slightly more at night than during the daytime. 

He was given a little sunhat, which makes him look a lot older - here he is in his carseat, dressed to go out a few days ago: 

Of course he likes sleeping on people during the daytime; I take my turns willingly: 

Saturday was an extra special day, my father and his wife were in Carlisle for the weekend, and spent several hours here so they could meet David. We made sure to take several four-generational photographs; this is my favourite: 

I leave Carlisle on Saturday morning, and am going to miss this little guy far more than I would have thought possible. 

In praise of Cyprus fruit and vegetables

I could undoubtedly save a great deal of time if I ignored the local fruit stall, and if I was prepared to buy ready-made chutney, ketchup, lemon squash or orange juice. Actually we do buy ready-made lemon squash (for Richard) in the summer when lemons are out of season, and we do buy long-life grape and pineapple juice in packets.

Lemons started re-appearing in the shops in November, I suppose, but my memories of spending hours peeling/juicing lemons in previous years made me reluctant to start that again. I've been getting quite bad backache when I spend too long standing in the kitchen... however, for once my procrastination bore fruit (so to speak) since Richard and Tim - the ones who actually drink home-made lemon squash - offered to deal with them this year.

So about three weeks ago, we bought around 100 lemons (for three euros or so) - not organic, but unwaxed and locally grown.  They spent a couple of evenings washing, peeling and juicing them, producing a batch of lemon squash (three litres), four litres of pure juice plus peeled zest for the freezer for future batches, and about 72 lemon cubes (in ice cube trays) for quick additions to various recipes, or to make hot honey and lemon.

After a couple of weeks we were just thinking we might repeat the process when a local friend called by with two large bags full of lemons, freshly picked from his abundant tree. Here's the contents of one of the bags:

The first bag made another batch of squash, and another litre for the future, and another 24 lemon cubes. The second is still to be dealt with. 

On Friday we bought a crate of oranges - about 80 of them, I suppose - for an extravagant four euros, but they are very nice oranges. There's really nothing like freshly-squeezed orange juice, so I make some every morning. That takes between five and eight oranges for three of us, depending on the size of orange. Quite a few... so 80 last at most ten days. I put as many as I could in the fridge, as they won't necessarily keep for long out in the kitchen - here are the ones I could not fit in: 

And then, there's tomatoes. History repeats itself - just over two years ago I wrote about processing vast quantities of tomatoes to freeze, and to make ketchup and chutney and so on.  Last weekend I bought and used quite a few, making more ketchup and chutney, but who could resist a large crate for just two euros, at the stall yesterday? We certainly couldn't. They looked beautifully ripe; it's hard to tell the size from this photo, but I suppose each one is about 5-6cm (2.5-3 inches) in diameter. 

I was on vegetable duty for our house group last night so I made some baked tomatoes, and also sliced several for one of the children who likes them raw only, sprinkled with garlic and basil. I then put as many as I could fit into a large bowl in the fridge, which left just this many, on a tray:

This morning I cut up about 25 of them for the dehydrator, and they're now nearly dried. I put another couple of kilograms in a saucepan to stew gently, prior to making tomato soup tomorrow. Then I managed to fit the last few, somehow, into the fridge. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with them - probably I'll stew most of them to freeze in 400g portions, as that's what I use for any recipe that calls for canned tomatoes (which I don't use any more).

Except that our freezers - both the top of the fridge and the main upright freezer - are already rather bulging at the seams, and I already have at least five or six tubs of frozen tomatoes...

It would undoubtedly save time if I could resist these bargains - I didn't even mention the smaller crates of carrots and broccoli that I also bought - but I'm sure it saves money, and is a great deal healthier to use fresh, locally grown produce such as these.

(Although, given my current hacking cough, at the end of a cold that has lasted quite a while, it's a little ironic to think of being 'healthy'!)