WIAW 27 – and Thoughts about Visual Appeal
Another What I Ate Wednesday roundup!
We are finally getting warm (not to mention hot…) and the beans I’ve been eating for breakfast don’t feel right. Silly, I know – beans are a staple in hot countries, and I’m still eating them at dinner – but right now, there I am. So I’m playing with protein shakes again… This one has some protein powder, some cottage cheese (which makes it very creamy!) and some strawberries. I may even try just cottage cheese and fruit another time – I used to eat it for lunch, but that’s no reason not to have it for breakfast! More corn muffins – Now I’m playing with making a mix, so they’re even easier and faster. Because fresh corn muffins in the morning are a definite win! (You’ll hear about that when I’m happy with the proportions – something seems a bit off, now.) And coffee, this time, right in my thermal cup, so I could sip it all morning.
Lunch was my Salad Bar Creation. So easy, so good… I can pull together a meal for both of us with little thought or effort. (I can also point Rich at the kitchen and say Make a salad if I’m in migraine or at a bad stopping point in my work, and he doesn’t need to ask any questions. That has its points…)
Dinner was a split pea and pork concoction over the ubiquitous…. wait… I did not have rice! Oops… Well, we could eat bread if there was any left (I planned to bake the next day,) I can make quinoa in 15 minutes, I can… have a migraine… Rich ran across the street to the deli and got tortilla chips. Then he served dinner – which is the reason the sauted spinach is arranged so nicely around the beans. He’s a much better food stylist than I am – more visual altogether. I was trying to make an effort to make meals more visually appealing even before I started the blog, just because he always did…
He spent some time in Japan when he was young, and I think their approach to food may have influenced him. Japanese food is traditionally arranged to be attractive and visually appealing – in some cases, even to evoke seasons and landscapes. This is a large part of the appeal of bentos – the idea that a carried lunch isn’t just something thrown together, that you eat because it is fast and economical, but rather a pleasure in and of itself, which someone has taken trouble over, and which is appealing to several senses. I have tended to concentrate on just the flavor, but I am trying to pay more attention to the looks of a meal. (I was so sorry that the rhubarb just vanished into the chickpeas when it was cooked – the bright bits of red were so pretty when I first combined them! But the end result looked boring… though it didn’t taste boring.) Meanwhile, I use the egg slicer, instead of just hacking away, and arrange radishes, and… try to be more visual. (I have a garnish set here someplace… you may see carrot curls and radish flowers yet!)
Linking to Jenn
