My Daily Foods In Winter.

I’m not a big winter fan. I don’t like snow. I don’t like wearing a million layers to stay warm. I am baffled by how crazy grocery and present shopping gets in December. Oh, and there is something in my auditory brain regions that makes me violently reject any Christmas song, especially Mariah Carey’s.

But, you gotta work with reality (some of the time anyway), and so I try to make at least a couple of my million layers fashionable, think lots of happy thoughts when shopping and I have declared Adele and Lana Del Rey perfectly acceptable alternatives to Christmas music.

Anyway. Winter is weird on me when it comes to what I (want to) eat. I’m eating like a trucker at the moment and my appetite and cravings are all over the place. I still eat some foods from my daily foods list but there is lots of new, extra cravings. Salads are a distant memory; I eat lots of bread, preferably right from the oven. I want warm things. Preferably spicy and rich and with a million calories.

Oh well. Another thing I have to try to work with, so let’s do it. There is lots of hot and healthy options that taste great, after all. Suggestions are very welcome, because I have a lot less variety than I would like.

Before I go into my food as it’s been the past month, I’m going to mention the whole cooling versus warming foods. This is according to Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine teachings but it’s also very common sense. I mean, really.

In summer to stay cool, you should eat foods like cucumber, lemon, mint and apple, have lots of salads. For winter, it’s good to eat less salads and eat more cooked foods. It’s also better to eat and drink things with warming qualities: Foods like beets, (sweet) potatoes, carrots, but also bananas and avocados, and herbs like ginger, cinnamon and cumin too.  ‘Warm’ stuff. I’m not too strict with it, but this is how I try to incorporate that in my daily diet:

  • Green Juice: I can’t not drink it. I love the taste and the easy way of getting energy and nutrients. This is my green juice that I’m more in the mood for in winter: Beet, carrot, spinach, broccoli stem, celery with orange juice and ginger.
  • Tea: I drink cinnamon tea, the Yogi Tea classic, orange peel tea and Lipton’s Russian Earl Grey. I drink Lipton’s Green Tea with jasmine. And I still put ginger in the garlic press to mix with raw honey and a little lemon juice every morning too.
  • Breakfast: What I do most mornings is chop some banana and kaki fruit, cook some buckwheat or quinoa and add some chia seeds and almonds. I drink orange juice or aforementioned green juice with that grain-concoction.
  • Fruit: Thanks to Manfred, I’ve been on a real tangerine kick for the past month and I eat kaki fruit (vitamin C!) and bananas in between meals. I also snack on dates with my tea. That’s definitely new. It’s the almond-situation all over again.
  • Lunch: I only have a salad once a week with these temperatures, and when I do I add cooked grains (quinoa) or vegetables (broccoli). Most of the time though, I have some home-made soup or eat bread with avocado and sprouts or goat cheese. I occasionally change my sandwiches up with tuna salad or peanut butter.
  • Dinner: I make curries (veggie or salmon) pretty much every other night. I also cook a lot with pumpkin and sweet potato, with lots of spicy stuff. I am personally responsible for the curry paste shortage in my supermarket and there is a mean-looking adjuma pepper that I use teenytiny bits of for most of my cooking. Nice and spicy.

How about you guys? Any new foods you eat more of now that it’s winter — I bet the tangerine kick is familiar? Recipes you make now that it’s this cold outside? Let me know because I’m guessing I’m going to need some more recipes to make it through winter. Now, I’ve put on Family Guy, using our new Nespresso machine (LOVE IT) and enjoying the smell of our Christmas tree. Have a lovely Sunday, pretties.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

16 comments

  1. That’s funny, I haven’t noticed any change in my cravings! And I don’t really change my diet when seasons change, apart from, obviously, the season specialities. But I’m also always hungry during the summer 😉

  2. Yes! Cinnamon on EVERYTHING. 🙂 My yoghurt, my fruit, my sweets.

    And I really seem to need more carbs. Really noticed it today. Ate my salad. Still hungry. Ate my fruit. Still hungry. Ate my nuts. STILL hungry. And in the cantine at work there are muffins, donuts, cheesecakes and brownies everywhere. Dangerous, very very dangerous.

  3. Mijn favoriete ontbijt in de winter is wat ik noem ‘bananenkots’. Het ziet er dus ranzig uit, maar het is zó lekker! Gooi 1 of 2 bananen in de blender. Handje oatmeal erbij, eetlepel pindakaas, wat water om het iets vloeibaarder te maken en blenden. Ondertussen een klein handje rozijnen wellen in warm water en 3-6 walnoten pellen. Dan gooi je je bananenpapje in een schaaltje, je strooit er kaneel over en dan gooi je het schaaltje verder vol met de rozijnen en walnoten. Dit is vooral voor het visuele effect trouwens, je kan het er ook gewoon doorroeren maar dan is het écht net kots. Eventueel nog een paar seconden in de magnetron, dan is het nog warm ook. Heerlijk!