Food For Thought (Oct-14)

While living with a host family my diet was pretty dependent on what my host mom bought and cooked. I could have been pickier and more demanding, but that’s not me. I was always well feed, so who was I to complain.

Since moving to my own place in Swakopmund the game has changed. I now buy the food and cook my own meals. Sometimes myself and the other Swakopteers, Swakopmund volunteers, (I just came up with that) get together and one might cook for all or we might cook as a group. This is always a nice occurrence, but for the majority of my meals, I cook for myself.

Some examples of what I have been cooking/eating:

Breakfast (nothing crazy, just quick and easy stuff)

•  Eggs, toast, and fruit. This is pretty standard. I’ll scramble the eggs, cook them over easy, hardboil them, or maybe put them in a hat.
  
•  The other main breakfast I have is yogurt with granola. Simple, easy, delicious.   
• Oh and of course I may just throw together a PB&J. Always a winner.

Lunch (even easier than breakfast)

• Leftovers from the night before.
• PB&J…
  

Dinner (keeping it simple to save $, but getting creative when I can)

• Rice or lentils with beans. Yep, that’s what we got to do on our Peace Corps budget. I usually add in things like onions, carrots, dice tomatoes, or frozen vegetables. Sauce packets and spices help add flavor as well.
• A pretty good one pot dish I made was chickpeas and sausage cooked with chicken broth, onions, diced tomatoes, and garlic.
• I made chili, just like mom makes it back home. The only thing missing from the recipe was bacon because I can’t afford to use mince (ground beef) and bacon in the same dish. It’s a shame I know.

Snacks & Desserts (not much to say here)

• The popular snack recently has been popcorn. No microwave, but who needs one when you have a pot and stove.
• The only sweets I’ve made so far has been sugar cookies, but I’ll be baking up some more sweets for sure.