There’s been a lot of hype over juicing recently.  ”Everyone’s doing it,” so it seems.  While I can get fresh juice pretty much on any corner here in Kuwait, I wanted to be able to have it in my own home, for a fraction of the cost.

Plus, I was so sick of being sick that I was determined that we would get a juicer to make us healthier.  And so far, I’m glad we got one!

There aren’t a ton of amazing options for juicers here in Kuwait, but I did find a reasonably priced one by Moulinex that seems to do the trick.  It juices up pretty much any fruit or vegetable I want and it’s easy to clean.  Perfect!

We’ve juiced carrots, cucumbers, apricots, mangos, lemons, peaches, apples, and oranges…lots and lots of oranges.

We’ve done various combos of all of the above, but the one we stick to on a daily basis is freshly squeezed orange juice.  Each week we buy enough oranges for the week and while Peter makes our oatmeal I get out the juicer and juice us up some fresh orange juice.

I seriously credit this incredible intake of vitamin C to our increased health in the last week or two.  We’ve probably each consumed 3-4 oranges each day with the juicing and I’m certain that it’s helped us not be so sick.

I haven’t got much more to say, but I would highly recommend getting your hands on a juicer and trying it out. I know we’ve really appreciated it!  And besides, wouldn’t you like to say “Would you like a fresh glass of juice?” to your guests?  I thought so.

Since the first week of arriving in Kuwait I have been obsessed with this lemon mint beverage.  I drink it every time we go out for a special occasion and I’ve never been disappointed.

I’ve known for a while that I wanted to make it, but it was suddenly time when I saw the bundles of fresh mint at my local grocery store.

It’s sweet, yet tangy and oh-so-fresh.  I used only the freshest lemons, mint and some honey for sweetener.  I know this isn’t a “winter” beverage, but I truly think you’d love it even in the dead of winter.  It will remind you that Spring isn’t far away…  Besides, mint and lemon are so wonderful for your health, your body will thank you!!

Lemon Mint:

• 1 cup of fresh lemon juice (this is the juice of approximately 6 lemons)
• 1 cup of fresh mint, well-packed
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 cup of water

Juice your lemons and then add all of the ingredients into your blender and blend on high for 2 minutes until completely smooth and well-blended.  Add more honey if it is too bitter for your tastes.  Makes 2 large glasses of juice.

On vacation, other than relaxing, one of the things that I am most excited about is the food.  Tasting it, smelling it, seeing it… I just love exploring how other cultures eat!  Even if I’ve been there before, there’s still something new to try.

Before diving into our Middle Eastern Cruise with my parents, I’m pausing to do a quick post about the food we ate in Belgium.

Firstly, I had a dynamite hot chocolate the day we traveled to the edge of three countries and went to the Christmas Market. This hot chocolate was insanely delicious, and it was accompanied by the best cookies in the world: speculoos cookies. SO GOOD. Europeans really know how to do up a hot chocolate.

Then there were the desserts we had at Peter’s great Aunt and Uncle’s home: fruit-stuffed waffles and rice pie. Both of these are Verviers specialities. Peter’s mum has attempted to make the rice pie numerous times, and she says that although she’s gotten close she’s never been able to replicate it properly. She said that it has something to do with the water in Verviers. Crazy, right? I love how food can be so specific to regions – it’s amazing!! In any case, if my mother-in-law can’t make this, then I’m not even going to attempt it, because she’s pretty much a genius when it comes to that kind of stuff (and no, I’m not sucking up, because I don’t think she even reads my blog, haha!).

Okay, let’s talk German Christmas Market food.  This is slightly “cheating” because the Market was in Germany…but hopefully you’ll let that go.  Let me just say this: it smells incredible at the market. You can hear food sizzling and simmering all around you!  It was actually super challenging to know what to eat. There were traditional items like sausage, sauerkraut, etc., and tons of non-traditional items like pizza, pasta… We opted to have potato latkes (THE BEST I’ve ever had), and sauerkraut. Now, we don’t eat pork, which is pretty much a sin in Germany, so finding sauerkraut without the pork sausages was a challenge. To the point where although Peter tried to get only sauerkraut, it didn’t happen. So we left them on the side and his dad at them! The sauerkraut was so unique – so fresh, and it had a curry vibe to it. I really loved it!

We didn’t eat any of these homemade cookies this man was making, but it was definitely neat to watch him make them:

Backing up a bit, let’s chat about some of the homemade eats we had. Peter’s mum and dad went ALL out making Peter’s favourites and introducing us to new foods they’ve started to enjoy since moving to Belgium. One of those things was Chervil soup. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d never heard of Chervil before. Apparently it’s a green herb, and it’s common in Europe, but it hasn’t been anywhere else I’ve been. The soup is a veggie soup along with meatballs. It’s super yummy! In fact, we purchased some powdered packets of it to bring back. Of course, it will be nowhere near close to what we had made fresh by Peter’s dad, but c’est la vie.

Also, can I tell you how much I love lunches at Peter’s parents’ house? It’s incredibly European and I love it. Cheeses, crackers, bread, jams, pates, etc…so perfect for the lunchtime nibbler that I am!! Such a treat every time we visit. And this was especially nice because they got some extras since it was Christmas, and of course, because European dairy aisles are GINORMOUS (no joke – I went to many grocery stores in Belgium and the dairy aisleS are insane – in the most amazing way).

Last but not least, it wouldn’t be a trip to Europe without a stop in a Patisserie!  I love how they’re all displayed and each one looks absolutely perfect.  They’re almost too beautiful to eat!

Of course we ate way more than just what I’m telling you, but I thought I’d just hi-light some of the food for you to get a taste of what we ate while we were away!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Chances are you stayed up way too late last night and now you need something sugary to wake you up.  Wait – you had too much sugar during the holidays?  Nonsense.  You can never have too much sugar…

So, everyone’s all over the peppermint chocolate stuff at Christmastime.  Don’t get me wrong, I love peppermint and chocolate as a combo… but there comes a time when it’s overdone.  Over-the-top.  Halas (which means “finished” in Arabic)!

Seeing as it’s now January 1st, and definitely not Christmas anymore, I decided to whip up a hot chocolate that involves roobois tea.  I love tea.  I love chocolate.  Combine them in a drink, and I’m a happy camper!  It’s a good way to start 2013.

Rooibos Hot Chocolate:

• 1 tbsp. rooibos tea (either 1 bag, or in loose leaf form)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/8 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1/2 cup milk (I used rice milk)

Bring water to a boil and steep the tea for 6-8 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan.  Simmer gently, while stirring to combine the ingredients.  Once the tea is finished steeping, pour it into a mug, pour the hot chocolate mix on top, and use your hand frother (or a whisk) to mix them up really well.  Enjoy!  ~Makes 1 serving.

Seriously, how are we half-way through December?  I feel like I say this every month.  Gosh, I wanted to bake Christmas cookies, make some new traditions…but quite frankly we’re just lucky that I get up each morning and stay awake all most of the day!

Even though I haven’t made any new traditions, I’m happy to say that these old ones are pretty fabulous and delicious.  Pound cake and spiced orange juice are two of my husband’s childhood favourites and so being able to make those makes our Christmas just a little more special.

Perhaps if you’re still looking for something new to try you can give these two a whirl!  They’re in the December issue of Faith & Friends magazine that I write recipes for.  Enjoy!

I thought I’d do a brief pause in the midst of these Jordan updates to focus in on some of the food that we had in Jordan. Although it’s still focused on the trip, it’s a little bit of a different vibe, so hopefully it gives your brain a break. :)

We ate some AMAZING food on this trip. And can I just say, I feel like the hummus was served differently everywhere we went!! It gave me a new appreciation for hummus (I already loved it), and I realized that there are so many options for “dressing it up.”

We had bought canned hummus at a roadside convenience store in order to have something when we got to our bedouin camp in Wadi Rum (more details on that here!), and we all just planned scooping the hummus out of the can with the flat bread we had. But I mentioned a few days ago in the end, not only did the Bedouins provide us with a bowl, but they spruced up our hummus too with some zaatar (I love that herb blend!) and served us a plate of cucumber and tomato too!!! How amazingly generous. And delicious!!

At one place we had a bowl of hummus that was topped with minced green chiles, whole chickpeas and the typical olive oil which gave it a wonderfully zesty flavour. I’d never had hummus that way before!

And of course, simply served up with a drizzle of olive oil, and some cucumbers and tomatoes:

Nevertheless, besides hummus we ate the most AMAZING fish in Aqaba. Seafood is apparently “the thing” to eat there, and so we were all determined to eat some. We had a restaurant close by to our hotel called “Floka” that offered up a traditional Jordanian fish and rice dish. We had some other stuff with it too, but let’s be real: the fish was where it was at!! The boys got the full fish on rice, and us girls had a filet of fish on rice. I’m glad I got the filet because the whole fish included the head…teeth and all!!!!! Regardless, it was absolutely amazing and I’m so glad we got it.

Here’s a photo montage of a random sampling of foods we ate as well while on the trip:

We also went to a trendy restaurant called “The Blue Fig” where I ordered my usual lemon mint drink, along with a cheese platter. About a year ago I had one at a restaurant for the first time, and ever since then I’ve vowed to order it off of any menu that offers it since they’re usually so different but so yummy! I’m glad I stuck with my intuition, because this was super good. The two chutneys were not at all what I expected just from seeing them, so that was kind of fun! The reddish one was more of an oniony chutney and the orange one was like a ginger flavouring. I especially loved the candied pecans. They were sweet and spicy which was good.

And aside from the lemon mint beverage I usually ordered, they do some amazing fruit juices. Honestly, you could juice up any fresh fruit and I’d be super happy. But I love pomegranates, and so this juice was fantastic considering we’d hiked through Petra and were really thirsty.

I also had freshly blended strawberry juice one night as well which was totally delicious!!

And, last but not least, what meal would be complete without some fresh mint tea? Always a staple in the middle east, and one that I absolutely love.

*Read previous posts on Jordan here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

You’ve seen what we have been eating around town, but I haven’t told you about what we’re eating in our own home! To be honest, there haven’t been too many huge changes. We typically ate “differently” than most North Americans anyway, so now I think we fit in, haha.

We eat breakfast at 5:00 a.m. each day – well, slightly after that when we get up – and it’s either yogurt (the equivalent to Greek yogurt) and fruit, or oatmeal with raisins (Peter) or oatmeal with peanut butter and date syrup (me!). I know that for myself the oatmeal is fantastic and it tides me over for about 5 hours, which is great, especially since I’m up so early.

As I mentioned in our school post, we don’t have a “lunch time”, so we both eat whenever it’s convenient in our schedules, so we bring munchie food to keep us going. So far this includes, flat bread and hummus, fruit, raw veggies, almonds, 1.5 litres of water each (no joke, it’s so warm that I finish one during each work day). This keeps us going until we get home and then we usually dive into our dates…

There is honestly no better food in the entire world than fresh dates. I’m soooooooo addicted to them. Since coming to Kuwait 2 years ago I’ve been DREAMING of these dates FOREVER, and no that I have them I can’t get enough. SO delicious.

We eat dinner around 5:00 p.m. every day and it’s vegetarian. It’s not that we’re vegetarians, but honestly, the type of meat we like to eat is easily ordered from any restaurant nearby for very cheap, so when we do eat meat, we eat it out. It’s just easier for us this way, and also cheaper. Plus, we don’t eat meat that much. So, we stick to lentils, chickpeas, and I’m experimenting with other legumes that I find locally. This means we eat quite a bit of curry (both “Indian” and “Thai”…and I say that loosely because I’m not an expert in those styles of cooking) and it’s usually a one-dish kind of meal. So rice with a chickpea curry, noodles with coconut milk curry, baked sweet potatoes topped with a sloppy lentil type dish… you get the idea.

Here’s a quick peek into our cupboards and fridge. They might look bare to you, but they’re just full enough for us.

Where do we get our groceries? There’s lots of options throughout the city, but right now, for where we’re living, we use the bakala, which is a small convenience store that sells minimal produce, but lots of spices, legumes, etc. We also use a few larger shopping centres that require a taxi. But essentially there’s nothing we can’t get. If anything there’s lots more here that we want to try than when we were in Canada! Not just that, but the cost of food here is MUCH cheaper, for which we’re grateful.

So there you have it! A little look into our daily food lives.