For the Foodies

For the foodies among us, here's a few snapshot of the prettier meals we eat. Burritos. Homemade salsa from our little garden with Doug's homemade tortillas.

The FM version for me which was also delicious. Later I rebuked the pickled cucumbers (also from our garden!) from the ok list to my chagrine, but I still put the wonderful brine on for some good flavor.  Its easier to find Vinegar substitute around here which is acetic acid and the stuff that says vinegar on the contents list is more expensive for some reason. Haven't had much luck with getting my dill seeds to come up. Still trying.

Our daily bread, or should I say vegetable. Chard and sukuma (kale) from the garden. 

Our two favorite sodas (made blessedly with cane sugar and not fructose syrup so they work better for FM) and popcorn made with sunflower oil for extra flavor. The sodas are a common treat when we get into Nairobi 1-3x per month and the popcorn is an evening meal substitute when we are not so hungry or too tired to cook.

Because instant breakfasts are expensive and less common for us- this is a great pancake recipe Doug's perfected. The FM diet takes passion fruit and plain yogurt instead of Doug's homemade syrup with imported maple flavoring for a taste of home.  I've given up wheat free due to convenience and it seems mostly ok. I do stick with white flour due to the fructans in the whole grains, though.

One last note on food- We don't have a microwave and we've found the thing we like most about the thing we don't have is that they take less dishes! Heating leftovers on the stove is no problem, its all the pans that are required at every meal.
Also with less use of instant foods (especially for breakfast), more dishes are required to make things from scratch.  Having two different diets to work with, Doug's eat everything and my FM, that increases the dishes, too. Needless to say we spend a lot of time on daily dishes.
Thanks to a pump that Doug's put in, we now flip a switch in the dining room to make water flow out of the faucet any time we want (as long as the tank outside is full!). Still so much less work than the ladies next door have with carrying water for their daily lives.