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:

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.  

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.

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'!)

Achna fruit stall, revisited...

Although good friends with abundant lemon trees have been generous in giving us bags of lemons over the past few months, we were just about running out. With our colds and coughs we have been drinking a lot of hot honey and lemon, and I had frozen lots of 'lemon cubes' in ice cube trays, for times when we need just a tablespoon or two of lemon juice and don't have a fresh one handy. 

Richard had almost finished the last bottle of our current batch of lemonade, and although I had frozen some peel and juice, I wanted to keep that for the summer. 

So we took the car to the fruit stall where crates of produce are on offer for low prices.  

We bought 4kg oranges (enough for early morning juice for the next week or so):

3kg potatoes (which should last us a couple of weeks at least):

6kg lemons (which made 3 litres of lemonade, and 48 'lemon cubes', and still left about ten lemons for hot drinks):

3kg bananas (I dehydrated 20 of them on Saturday, as we very much like dried bananas):

and 3kg carrots (which will probably also last us about two weeks):

While I doubt if any of this produce is organic, the fruit is certainly unwaxed and it's all likely to be locally grown.  

The price of the 19kg fruit and veg which we bought? 

 €10. Total. 

(For British and American readers, according to Google that's £8.63 in sterling, or $13 US)

It's not as great value as the fruit we bought there in the Autumn, but it seems pretty reasonable to me. 

Some things are very expensive in Cyprus, but I'm happy that great quality fruit and vegetables are still very affordable. 

Cyprus style Thanksgiving

After I had written yesterday's post about Thanksgiving preparation, I baked the bread rolls - which turned out fine, if a little small - and made something approximating to a Greek salad:

Chopped lettuce and cabbage at the bottom, chopped cucumber and feta in the middle, a sliced tomato around the edge. It could hardly be simpler. 

Then I prepared the french beans, brussels sprouts and cauliflower to cook in my electric steamer:

Unfortunately, although I remembered to plug it in and switch on at the wall at about ten to six, it took another ten minutes before I realised that I hadn't also switched on the appliance itself. And it should really have been earlier still. I use it so rarely at this capacity that I forget just how long it takes to steam three tiers of veggies. I moved the cauliflower to a pan on the stove when I realised it was not going to get cooked in time, and that was fine. The beans were okay, if a little crunchy, and the brussels sprouts were far too hard. Oh well. 

I also cut up mushrooms and tomatoes, sprinkling the latter with garlic and basil, to put in the oven to bake:

Also in the oven went the previously prepared stuffing, mashed potato and some stuffed peppers I'd made and frozen some time beforehand. Carrots went on the stove in a little margarine and brown sugar to steam, sweetcorn with a bit of red pepper in the microwave. 

By 6.30 our guests had arrived and everything was ready (well, other than the brussels sprouts). I'd found a tablecloth that had the right kind of colours on it, and we used our brown Autumnal crockery.  Joan counted sixteen kinds of food in all, including the meat and devilled eggs she had brought:  

When we had all eaten our fill - and there was quite a bit left over - we brought out desserts. Very simple by US standards: just one pie, which Joan had made, using a delicious Dutch apple pie recipe. I had thawed some stewed plums and made some more yogurt, and had also put out a platter of dehydrated fruit - and some Fair Trade 'chocos':

It was, of course, quite a mixture of cultures. The turkey, stuffing, mashed potato and apple pie were certainly typical US fare for Thanksgiving, as was the variety of vegetables, although not necessarily the ones I had chosen; I opted for ones that looked good quality and which were in season. The halloumi and Greek salad were typically Cypriot and I suppose the Cadbury 'chocos' and the stewed plums were typically British (although I didn't add any sugar).  

Mark and Joan were the only Americans present - the only ones for whom Thanksgiving is a deeply ingrained custom. Still, Richard and I did live in the US for a couple of years, back in the early 1990s, and have celebrated this feast several times over the years; we grew up with the slightly outdated concept of harvest festival - a little out of place in cities where nothing much is harvested.  

Thanksgiving pulls together the thankfulness part of harvest festival, and demonstrates the immense bounty of local produce.  The one thing it lacks is giving part of what we have to those in need. I did feel a momentary guilt at having such a loaded table.. we have so much already. But nothing is wasted: we ate leftovers today, and will continue to do so until they're all gone. 

Sunrise on Thanksgiving... and bountiful vegetables

It was almost exactly at 7.00am this morning, on my regular walk with my friend Sheila, that I caught this sunrise: 

7.00am Cyprus time is, as far as we could tell, midnight in the furthest ahead (time-wise) States of the US. So, Thanksgiving was, technically, just starting at that moment. 

After the walk, I went to the fruitaria to pick up a few more fruits and veggies.  We celebrated Thanksgiving for the past two years with our American friends Mark and Joan, but suggested they come to us this year. Along with some other mutual (British) friends.  Joan told me that one of the highlights of Thanksgiving for her was doing at least some cooking, and she's certainly produced a feast in the past... so she asked me if I would please allow her to buy and cook at least one or two items. She then told me she was bringing meat, devilled eggs, and a pie. 

So... all that leaves is, basically, some veggies for me to cook.. right? 

I took a look at the previous years' photos, and saw that there were quite a few veggies. I queried butternut squash, not something I have ever cooked. I might have bought one to experiment, but there were only two pieces at the fruitaria, and they looked very tired and manky... so I didn't. I had bought a few things earlier in the week, but when I piled all the veggies for tonight on the counter, it seemed like a little too much for just six people:

Still, some of the salad veg will be for a salad for tomorrow night's cell group, so I won't use ALL those  items.  

Joan had mentioned that they sometimes have dinner rolls. I'm not entirely sure what those are, but it was easy enough to throw some ingredients into the breadmaker after lunch, and put it on dough setting. I then divided the dough into 24, put it on little muffin pans to shape and rise... and they should be ready to cook around the time I finish this post. 

I saw that Joan made stuffing one year. We usually put stuffing inside a roast bird, but with just six of us, it's turkey breast, and not being cooked here anyway. But I do like our son's mushroom-and-lemon stuffing, so I made a batch and will bake it in the oven later on: 

I couldn't find any fresh cranberries - I suppose they won't appear until about mid-December, but we did have some dried ones. So I found a recipe to make cranberry sauce from those. It won't be quite the same, but I hope it tastes reasonably good: 

In recognition of it being Cyprus,  also bought some halloumi to fry, and some feta to put on the salad: 

I've thawed some frozen stewed plums, and made some fresh yogurt, and put some dried fruit on a platter. 

So, as far as it goes, I'm well prepared. I've made a list, and figured out where everything will go while cooking, but it seems to me that everything's going to happen pretty much in the last hour before our guests arrive.  I did very little this morning, and only about half an hour of preparation in total after lunch. 

I suppose I should go and make the salad, and cut up at least some of the vegetables... 

Buying frozen peas in Cyprus

In general, I buy fresh fruit and vegetables at our local fruitaria. I walk there about three times per week, and we also buy crates of fruit/veg at the fruit stall opposite at weekends, for freezing and/or dehydrating. 

But although local fresh fruit in season is excellent, there are a few things that are - in my view - not worth buying that way. One of them is sweetcorn, which I'm afraid to say I still buy in cans. Frozen sweetcorn just doesn't have the sweet, crunchy flavour that I like so much. And it's not as if we have it very often. We've tried buying corn on the cob in season, but have never found any that we actually like in Cyprus. I don't know why.

The other things which we've tried fresh, but which are costly, time-consuming AND disappointing are broad beans, and peas. I can happily live without broad beans, although I don't mind them occasionally, but Richard loves them. And we're both fond of frozen peas, which are very useful as a quick, second or third vegetable as part of a cooked meal when we've run out of hob space, or time, or both. 

At least, in the UK we were fond of frozen peas. Pretty much any brand could be quickly heated in a pyrex bowl in the microwave, or brought to JUST simmering in a small amount of water, or very lightly steamed until just done. 

We tended to eat them two or three times every week, so when we came to Cyprus, we just picked up the least expensive brand at Metro.

BIG mistake. They were tasteless, almost mushy. Ugh. 

We tried another brand.  

No better.  

Then one day Birds Eye frozen peas were on special offer, two bags for the price of one. That price was still a whole lot more than any of the other brands, but we knew we liked Birds Eye, so we bought some as a special treat. 

And they were very good. We eked them out for as long as we could... and then made the decision that we would only buy Birds Eye peas from then on. Even though they were not cheap, it was pointless buying peas that we disliked, and which we would end up throwing out. 

So, for many years, we have continued buying this brand of peas, not even considering any other, and I had taken for granted that, no matter how much we could economise on other products, it simply wasn't worth it for frozen peas.

Then this week, the ladies who were staying in our guest flat said they had a few bits and pieces from the fridge and freezer, which they were defrosting and leaving open (as no more guests are coming for a few weeks) so they wondered if we'd like to have them, rather than throwing things away. 

One of the items was this brand of frozen peas:

- about a quarter of a bag. I thanked them and shoved it in the freezer, thinking that we probably wouldn't use them and then, in another year or so, they'll be so frosted up that I'll just throw them away.

Except that on Thursday, Richard did the last part of our evening meal. I'd cut up some potato wedges and put them to cook, along with baked tomatoes and stir-fried mushrooms; he said he'd make our cheese omelettes, and microwave some frozen peas. Unbeknown to me, he picked out the bag we'd been given.  I only realised when I saw the empty packet on the work surface. I sighed, and hoped they wouldn't be TOO awful.

To my delighted surprise, they were very good.  Perhaps not quite as crisp and sweet as Birds Eye, but very acceptable. 

I'm not a huge fan of Orphanides, and won't go to the big supermarket. But we have a local Orphanides Express, staffed by very friendly people, and it's extremely convenient if I just want to pop out for something that I can't get at smaller shops. 

So I took a look today. These peas cost €2.49 for 1kg.  The last Birds Eye peas I bought were €5.23 for 900g.  At less than half the cost, I think these will be our choice for the foreseeable future.