SMASH!

Smash! Delicious but I've sadly given it up in my quest to regain my previous body (thank you,
it is not going well). The Norwegians have a thing for salty/sweet mixes and this is one of them - corn chips coated in chocolate. Yum! No really, it works. However I agree with those of you at home who have tried my samples sent back and said that the chocolate is a bit overpowering. Emily have you tried this at home yet? Would be interested to see how it works.

Also comes in a bar variety, which is not as good.

Hooray for salty and sweet.

Swamp Peas

Tonight I cooked Swamp Peas (or Erstetuing) with tofu sausages, miscellaneous frozen vegetables and some cherry tomatos.

Roxane discovered this culinary delight, although she ate it on its own which I think a tad strange. ;-)

This is a simple just-add-water dehydrated pea dish but it also has a sort of dehydrated potato sauce to it, hard to describe really. Anyway it's quite good, lovely with tofu sausages although for some reason Helios has stopped stocking the kind that I like and these were a bit different. Oh well, no pigs' scrotums so can't complain.

Kremet Spinatsuppe

I have a cold. :-( Yes that's right. After spending a lovley Christmas day and Boxing day in a town whose name I don't know how to spell somewhere toward Sweden, I returned home suddenly without someone to cook for me which is a bit sad.

Fortunately though as the Last Aussie Standing I inherited all sorts of things, including a toaster( thanks Ewan!), LOTS of tea (thanks everyone!) and various other things including this packet of cream of spinach soup, which I treated myself to on this occassion. It was a 'just add water and milk' deal but I also sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it which was enjoyable.

Highly recommended.

Clementiner

They're not called mandarines here, they're Clementines! Just thought I'd share.

Moroccan-style veggie stew - my Best Meal Ever

No really I'm not exaggerating. I'm so proud of this meal that I created entirely without a recipe. It's really healthy, really easy. Only problem is it like sweet potato and I keep having trouble finding it here - it doesn't help that I buy my veggies from street stalls in Grunnerlokka in the dark and keep coming home with yaro (?) But anyway.

Method
- Fry garlic and onion, and maybe a bit of chilli
- Add a tin of tomatos - or you can add a bit of a tin of pasta sauce; and some veggie stock
- Add chopped veggies - I suggest sweet potato and carrot at this point
- When the hard veggies are cooked add any other veggies you fancy (spinach, obviously, probably some egg plant, zuccini etc); and some chopped dates
- Season with garam masala, salt, pepper, whatever you feel like
- MASH - not to death, but just enough to get a good consistency going.
- Serve on a bed of cous cous (cook it in stock, then add some butter)

Yum!

Kaffebrenneriet

A chain of cafes around Oslo - one of which is next to Bjorknes where our classes were - ah such fond memories of the mid-class dash for a $7 coffee. *sigh*

To the right is my cappuccino and blueberry muffin (with lots of cinnamon, yum!) and Sara's cookie and Americana (sans milk, ew) coffee from our coffee t'other day at the Aker Brygge Kaffebrenneriet.

With thanks to caffeine and guarana

Well the semester is over and I celebrated by returning 30 or so bottles and cans of caffeine/guarana products that helped me through to the supermarket - they have a refund system here but unlike in Adelaide it's not just homeless people who get involved.

So thank you caffeine, it was a great semester.

The King's not dead

Found a GREAT vego restaurant in Bergen - it's a good job it's not in Oslo or I'd be spending way too much time there!

It's called Viva Las Vegis and has a lime green/Elvis/LSD inspired Jesus sort of theme. Which is interesting. Had a burger, it was FANTASTIC, and came with the best wedges in the world, they had like, this sauce, and seeds and stuff on them! YUM!

Outraged at US vegemite ban

The US have gone too far this time. I have put up with unnecessary wars and obnoxious Americans (not all of them, obviously, but many...) and the dreadful movies and music they're producing. But they've banned vegemite. WTF???

I mean the upside is it's more vegemite for us, but it's the principle!

Why ban vegemite? Apparently because it has folic acid in it. (see http://au.news.yahoo.com/061022/23/110ep.html for information).

I kinda thought that folic acid was in the B vitamin family and hence, good for you, especially pregnant women. Wikipedia seems to support this view (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folic_acid).

Are the US pursuing a 'less vitamins, more hotdogs' health policy? [it wouldn't be the least logical of their policies]


(image from www.vegemite.com.au)

Brown Cheese and Potato Bread

Hello,

What would an Ozwegian food blog be without Brown Cheese and Potato Bread (lomper? i think it's called lomper - pron "loomper" or something similar).

Brown cheese is basically, as I understand it, a bi-product of cheese - the bit that everyone except Norwegians disgard but the Norwegians have turned into a delicacy. However it works surprisingly well. It's sort of sweet, sort of strong... hard to describe but nowhere near as unpleasant as it looks.

For a quick and easy snack, grab some lomper, add some brown cheese (it comes conveniently pre-sliced for such a purpose), roll and eat. Et voila!

It's Dahl (/dal/daal/dhal), Darl!

Mmm, dahl. If you're on Weight Watchers and you want to eat Indian, it's the pick for you (but steer clear of the samosas! And best not to have naan... oh how i love naan)

So, this vegetarian dream dish is one of my favourites and it's also cheap and easy to prepare. Here's how I created this one (purists may wish to stop reading here).

Method
1. Fry onions and garlic until browned, set aside.
2. Rinse red lentils (you can of course use yellow ones or brown ones, i believe brown ones should be pre-soaked but red and yellow ones don't?), cover with water and bring to the boil.
3. Simmer, stir, watch until reasonably well cooked (you may need to add more water, don't let it burn!)
4. Add a tin of tomatos, some spinach (always add spinach to everything, is a general rule of thumb), any veggies you like (I added chick peas and eggplant to this one i think). Simmer as long as you feel is necessary.
5. Season to taste (and add back in your onion and garlic) - I just use Garam Masala cos it's all I have here but you might consider tumeric, cumin, paprika... , also salt and pepper.
6. Serve with rice and yoghurt, or as your heart desires.

Stir Fry is Better with Noodles

Just thought I'd share this gem of wisdom. I like Mr Lee's noodles - they come in individual portions and you just add them to the stir fry, no need to precook.

Here's one I prepared earlier.

Method
Fry garlic and onion in oil. Add veggies, tofu, soy sauce and sweet chilli. Et voila - easy!

Note - if you add enough negative calorie foods (green beans, carrots, zucchini, spinach), this meal eats itself!

Oh how i love thee, green curry

Just thinking about curry makes me happy. Here's one i created earlier. Oh, the memories.

Method
Heat oil in pan. Fry up one clove chopped garlic and some onion. Add green curry paste (you didn't think I was going to cook it from scratch did you?), stir for about a minute. Add coconut milk, and vegetables (most cooking time first).
Here I used sweet potato, carrot, baby spinach and chick peas, by the looks of it.
Serve with rice, plain yoghurt, and banana with coconut. Have tissues nearby, it's firey!

Procrastination

1. Tidy room, including cupboards
2. Read every opinion peace in the Sydney Morning Herald
3. Read several other papers online (recommend http://www.newmatilda.com/)
4. Check email. Again.
5. Make a cup of tea
6. Make popcorn!
7. Do readings for next week instead of essay
8. Create blog post in celebration of popcorn.

Popcorn
Apparently a healthy snack, although i believe you're meant to air pop it in the microwave, but as i don't have one i am forced to use olive oil. But that's not a sin, is it? See http://www.popcorn.org/index.cfm for recipes (American site, American measurements, note that some recipes may cause chronic obesity just by looking at them...) Here's my new snack of choice:

Method
Heat oil in pan. Add minced chilli and popcorn. Stir. Once it's bubbling along nicely add some garam masala (add it too soon and it will burn). Continue stirring. When first kernel pops, add lid. Once popping stops, shake the pot and then remove lid. Serve with salt (optional but recommended).

Anyway, I'm off for a walk... (then dinner, then watch the news... maybe test drive some chocolate...)

Why is everything so complicated?

On Sunday night I made a devastating discovery. A HOLE in one of my teeth. A HOLE!! A visible, massive yellow hole in one of my molars. One of my favourite chewing teeth!

So I panicked. It looked like i needed a painful filling in my teeth, until now practically perfect, in every way (ok they're a bit yellow... but no fillings!). I took drastic, immediate action, cutting my morning coffee down from two sugars to one (and resolving to cut it out altogether in stages); but then devoured a fruit and nut chocolate bar to cheer me from my deep depression.

Today I went to the dentist [on Stortingsgaten - I highly recommend if anyone needs a dentist here] and my fears were allayed - it's not a hole, it's erosion, it's not unusual, it's okay. She sealed it up and I'm glad to say, no pain. :D

However now i'm experiencing a secondary panic. We discussed causes and her first guess was softdrink - but really, I hardly ever have softdrinks (I've had it twice since I've been here, and it's only because I've given up alcohol and need a substitute!! [ironically perhaps, beer is low ph and recommended!). So, she suggests acidic fruit.

Oh no. Grapefruit! It's my favourite. I'm devastated. Happily filling free, but devastated. You try to be healthy and eat fruit, and it turns on you and eats your teeth. Oh cruel fate!

So, this is just a food-related community service announcement.

Fruit is NOT YOUR FRIEND!

It's so complicated - get this - clean your teeth ASAP after eating bad things like chocolate (ok, can do), but WAIT AT LEAST AN HOUR before cleaning your teeth after eating acidic things inc fruit! So I've worked out what's killing me - it's my morning OJ - I thought I was getting a vitamin hit but i was eroding my teeth by cleaning them shortly afterwards!

She recommended chewing sugar-free gum after high acid foods to bring your ph back to neutral.

So I just thought I'd share. The good news is that chocolate is not enemy #1 - as long as you clean your teeth after.