Left over alchemy

I love my food. I find food brings people together to cook and eat and share in one of life’s pleasures. It’s enjoyable for those who cook together and it’s a way to share love. It’s a way to discover so much about a person and create together. However, when suddenly the flavours change between those that created them and the chefs in the kitchen sever that part in which gave them that tasty connection, it can leave a bland taste in your mouth, or leave you being a take away addict and or very hungry.

There was a point when during separating, where I couldn’t eat much as my companion in gastronomical creation soured. I found it hard to get the energy to cook or to spend time creating recipes that we once loved together. It wasn’t a good time I soon realised to go without food, and the lack of it really only fed my anxiety, as the starvation added a new sensation of muscular jitters that saw me twitching and shaking, all over my body. I needed sustenance to get me through, and just because it would be dinner for one, didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy it. There was too much happening to my body as it was, so I turned to my comfort food. Food became that strong arm that supporting me when I needed it most, it held me in the night, it lite up my face as I removed the lid slowly and with anticipation smelt the aroma steaming from my pot, food was there for me, I just had to put a different wrap on it.

I prided myself on the fact that I could cook one meal in multiple different ways and I found I had such an ability to make something from nothing. I turned into quite a bachelorette and a little bit of a sloth at times and shopping really wasn’t on my agenda much if I could avoid it. I didn’t like the crowds, nor did I enjoy washing up. So, for nights on end, I survived on what was existing in my cupboard or fridge, or what I had frozen and I enjoyed cooking from the one pot.

My Ratatouille soup, needing only those bits and pieces from my fridge became a staple, it was healthy, and it was a good example of its constant shapeshifting into something different, one night it was ratatouille, the next a lamb stew, then a lamb stew with olives, so exotic, then lamb ragu with pasta or a lamb curry with rice, only if I hadn’t added the olives. The added bonus was this all happened in the one pot. I really found I embraced this new freedom of not having to cook or to think of a different meal every night. I felt such pride, when I could transform my left overs. It gave me time and space to ponder, the time and space it gave me and how fortunate I was, to have this time and space, and that was what I needed.

For me I realised it was best to stay as healthy as I could during this time in my life. But I also knew I had to be kind to myself, because my body was under stress and I didn’t have any space to place it under any more stress by worrying about my diet. I thought that was a healthy decision for me anyway. So, if I had take-away, burgers, chocolate, and pasta, whatever my comfort taster stipulated, I just ate it, and smiled. My body told me what it needed and it told me also when it was time to re-emerge and eat more greens.

Fortunately, when I separated, I was well equipped with tips from the retreat I managed about health and how to make it easy. Soups were meals we cooked for our guests, because of the ease and health that is contained within one pot and you can make it from so many single bits of veggie in the fridge. So, I naturally found this to be helpful in giving me the right fill of veggie. Plus, they created the perfect left overs I needed for my leftover change-ups. But wait there’s still more, you could freeze the soup and my favourite soup the Ratatouille was an easy base for my alchemical creations once defrosted.

My Ratatouille – Gluten Free if not served with pasta

· Onion

· Leak

· Garlic

· Mixed herbs

· Bay leaf

· Potato

· Zucchini

· Egg Plant

· Carrot

· Celery

· Tinned Tomatoes

Dice all vegetables, add the Onion, Leak, Garlic, Carrot, Celery, mixed Herbs and Bay Leaf to a pot with olive oil and salt and cook until soft, add then the Egg Plant and cook until soft, then the potato. When you have softened the Egg Plant add tinned tomatoes and boiling water from the kettle, this just makes boiling quicker. Don’t add the zucchini until the end just to soften otherwise it turns to mush. You can serve this with crusty bread, parmesan cheese, or olives and parsley, or spinach, of silver-beet. Toppings can make such a difference.

Note: I followed most of my evenings with a couple of squares of chocolate 70% dark, organic and also vegan is my favourite. It was decadent and rich and I figured I deserved every square to let me know, how much I loved me. Wrapped up in a nice blanket, Uhtred on TV 'The Last Kingdom', sipping on a cup of herbal deep sleep tea (my own creation) I think that I successfully created a different 'wrap' on my once shared evenings.