Mindful menu Plan and Dinner Dilemmas

Good morning!
That was a rather quiet weekend with the girls away from home!
As from Friday and for the next ten days or so we shall have C's parents staying with us. Since both my in-laws are meat eaters, we are going to follow a menu of both meat, dairy and vegetable dishes.
We shall have meat on Tuesday and Thursday, vegetables on Wednesday and Friday, as these are days of fasting for the Greek Orthodox, though we shall be eating olive oil, and dairy the rest of the week.

Monday-the girls will be back from their school trip. We shall make spaghetti bolognaise, using spam-type corned beef.
Here is how I cook it:
Saute onion in a little olive oil until tender. Add the corned beef and turn until light brown. Then a little cup of wine. Let it evaporate. Add tomato sauce, salt and pepper, a couple of cinnamon and pink sticks. Let the sauce simmer and serve on spaghetti with grated parmesan cheese.

Tuesday-I shall stay at home to clean up the in-laws quarters, so I shall make something fast, I shall make a salad nicoise with two kinds of lettuce, onion in circles, tuna, gouda cubes, tomato and capers.

Wednesday-I shall again stay at home to cook and freeze food for the week ahead. I am making a pastitsio (pasta with mince meat and bechamel cream sauce baked in the oven) and a cheese pie to freeze and stuffed tomatoes and peppers that I shall put in the fridge and bake on Thursday evening.

Thursday-the most busy day of the week. We shall probably order a pizza!
Friday-In-laws arrive. Rice stuffed veggies.

Saturday-Fish in the oven served with Greek salad (tomatoes, onion, green pepper, olives and olive oil)

Sunday-BBQ and green salad.

As for dessert...hmm! I am sharing with you the photos of some italian sweets, photographed in Rome during our trip for Easter.

In this lovely little cafe we had these little sweets and a coffee that said Happy Easter. How cute is that?

Wishing you a peaceful, flavorful week! More Menus here.

Also linking for the first time to





which focuses on healthy, real food.
Also linked to Dinner Dilemmas. The question this week is:


What is Your Favorite Easy Meal to Make?

 This is close between spaghetti and omelette. But to pick one, it will have to be spaghetti. We like our spaghetti al dente.After boiling in plenty of water and sea salt, we heat some olive oil in a pan and turn in the pasta for a whilen so that oile goes everywhere. Serve hot, draining most of the extra olive oil. Add grated parmesan. Hmm, pasta for the soul!

Come aboard!

Hello dear friends,
The post on Greece that I told you about in my previous post is up here. Please stop by and let me give you the tour on places, people and objects that I like. I promise it will be fun!

Wordless Wednesday-Druid's Rock

Rome, April 2010
Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I shall stop by and say Hello! , too! More Wordless Wednesdays at the WW HQs and at 5 minutes for mom.

Skywatch Friday-Under the Roman Sky

Hello, dear friends,
Glad to be skywatching again.

I took he picture above while touring the streets of Rome during our Easter vacation.
I hope your skies are blue.
More great Skywatching here.

Our trip in quest of snow

Many people think of Greece as a tropical island complex, like, say, the Bahamas. Far from the truth. Greece has a varied landscape, ranging from the sunny and light flooded Aegean, with the famous islands of Santorini and Myconos, the lush vegetation of the Ionian islands, such as Corfu, to the misty hights of the mountainous mainland.That is where we actually live, although we vacation on the Ionian Sea shores. Today we are going to take a trip to the Wild West of the Greek mainland.

As you may recall, last weekend we had planned to stay overnight at a mountain shelter.So, after closing the shop for the week end, we picked our luggage and our kids, and off we went to the unknown. We had travelled toward that direction some years ago, to do the lovely house of a customer. Thankfully, for that unspoilt part of Greece, very little has changed. Equally thankfully, this time we drove a 4X4!

The road winds up through the mountain. 

  

 

The earth formations are spectacular. Can you spot the little waterfall among the rocks?

  

Modern time settlements date from the 15th century. People found refuge to the mountains to escape islamisation from the turkish occupants that we got rid of in the 20th century. Since the land had very little to offer, they mainly lived off their goats. Being great-grandchildren of cunny Odysseus, they soon developped skills that made them world famous. In the18th and 19th century, they excelled as silversmiths and purveyors of woolen capes to Napoleon's army!

  

Back to the road. Quite a few obstacles, like these stones falling off the slopes.

 

There were some more unexpected meetings on our way! Or were we the ones to intrude? 

 

A local chucrch, fully adapted to the environment.

  

A village emporium. Shop downstairs, home upstairs. You may view similar shop interiors here.

  

Then up we went, and snow made its glorious appearance.

"Rooms" were quite basic. 

 

Quite basic but tasty Bolognaise sauce spaghetti.

Once inside, we stayed inside, as it was getting late, and it began snowing again.

But in the morning...

  

  

Time to play!

  

We liked it so much, that God decided to keep us a little longer. As we drove off, we got stuck on one side of the road.

Thankfully, we rang the shelter on our mobile, and they rang people from the village who came and pulled usback to the road. Which gave me time for some more shots of Mother Nature (although mountains in Greek language are usually male).

 

  

  

We promised to visit again in the Spring!

Body-mind connection

Hi!
I have had some quite challenging days. I am just beginning to emmerge. Physical discomfort from several parts of my body, ringing bells of alarm.
I usually don't realise it until I am way into stress. 10 hour worjking days. Housework. Extra work for the company, translating the company's corporatre DVD (for free!), translating the corporate website into French (for free). Trying to fit in some "me" time, usually collapsing in front of the TV with a pack of snacks. I thought I had no reason to worry, that I could take anything in my stride. Well, body alarm hit 'hello! did you take me into consideration?" Nope, I did not. So, I was made to slow down, feeling very guilty for staying at home on health reasons. How pathetic is that?
Anyway. Reading from my prayer book in the evening was the day's most relaxing moment. I am back to work tonight. C is planning to take us to the mountains tomorrow. That sounds quite stressful to me already. I did that journey some five years ago and I was so scared. But he says the mountain refuge is lovely and the kids will love the snow. So, I am following along, although for the second time this year, I was more looking forward to a trip to Athens. Quite funny of me. Oh well. I shall take pictures to show you how our little mountain escape will look like.

I haven't been to a mountain refuge since I was in the Venture Scouts. That's more than twenty years ago. Who knows? I may like it.
Meanwhile I searched for my Holosync Cds that I cannot find. And if I do, my CD player is out of order. Perhaps the girls will be able to turn the CDs into mp3s-if I find the CDs, that is. And then I can close my eyes during the trip at the gorge's edge and open them again when we arrive.
Here is a Holosync demo, if you are not familiar with it already. Some say it's beneficial, some not. I say "Nothing in excess" as the Ancient Greeks said.



Piano music is quite relaxing, too. I must get C to search through the hundreds of Cds he has been archiving in his office for some piano music. Gosh, I've missed Classical music! Classical music is really good for you. This time though, I want to delve deep, read the little booklets, follow as if I were to the Vienna opera house.



I guess that's all for now, folks. I hope to be back on Monday with our mountain expedition. Wish us the best. I wish all the best to you, too.

Our trip to Athens I

I rarely like travelling to Athens these days. I like to keep in mind the image of the bright, clean, beautiful city of my youth. There are a few places that remind me of the real Athens. Fortunately, Kifissia, a leafy suburb to the North of the city is one of them.
I remember the dances at the Theoxenia hotel, the summer evenings that seemed so exotic.

Part of the hotel's ground floor now houses Haagen-Dazs. We payed an early morning visit.

 

And yes, we did have a lovely cheesecake and ice cream for breakfast!

The hotel overlooks Kefalari square with the landmark church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, and memories of family functions and teenaged confidences.

This is such a typical Athenian landscape. The tall pines, the church at the center of the suburb, the color of the building even, underlined with white around the windows. On the square, the statue of Pavlos Melas (1870-1904), a young army officer who organised the Greek struggle for the liberation of Macedonia from its Bulgarian and Turkish oppressors.

 

Here is another look around the square with its famous cafes and Greek and foreign press news stands, offering, by the way, delicious chocolates.

Further north, a cinema. It remains just the same as I remember it. It is called "Asteria" (Stars) and has been the meeting point of many Sunday afternoons. Notice the advertising boards for "Nine" and "Petit Nicolas" ("Little Nicolas"). They are not prints. They are actually painted as was the custom in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s...

 

Right across the street, there is one of the most famous Greek patisseries...I'll show you in my next post.

Skywatch Friday-Shelter in the church

(Click to view larger)

 ^" O God, listen to my cry!
      Hear my prayer!
  From the ends of the earth,
      I cry to you for help
      when my heart is overwhelmed.
   Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
     for you are my safe refuge,
      a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.
  Let me live forever in your sanctuary,
      safe beneath the shelter of your wings!"

(Psalm 61, NLT)

All His beautiful creatures under the wide sheltering sky.

Thank you for stopping by! Do leave a message and I shall stop bya nd say hello.
With extra thanks to the Skywatch people!

Some take it on their hair

Some take it on their hair. Some go to the gym. I would certainly benefit from either or both. For the time being I take it on my blog. Not the one still untouched, as designed by the talented Tara, but this one, that has seen more changes than my hair color.
I now have a new look, more orangey, more like it's Autumn time. Which I like. What I like most is the text background. Pleasant to my eyes. It does feel cozy to me. I hope it is pleasant for you, too, because you do know how much it means to me seeing you here, don't you?
Today it is fresh. I like fresh air. I am starving for the open air. I must get back to my morning walks.

We woke up in speaking terms, thanks to last night's televised debate between six party leaders, five from the national parliament and one from the European parliament. C went to Village cinemas and came with pop corn and m'mallows. I had a terrible headache and spent most of the afternoon in bed.
I did some planting and I have some extras to plant today. So that is my excuse. I also need to make a warm lunch. Something with rice, probably, that is called a risotto. I also want to make a lentil soup that we all enjoy, and we can have it tomorrow which is a Wednesday meat-dairy free. Good for us, today is the final debate between the two future Prime Ministers, Karamanlis and Papandreou. That, my friends means either pita kebabs or most likely pizzas. And beer. So my dinner dilemas are solved.
I have an even more important thing to do. This weekend is the bi-annual company conference. After last week's events I decided I might as well do a bit of maintenance, so I am planning a visit to the hairdresser's on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we leave for Volos. Dinner. Sleep in fabulous beds. Then the company conference in the morning. In which I am to deliver a 10 min speech on the following subject:
"Entrepreneurship: Motives and Ethics".
I have to work on that before 2.30 p.m. when C and J will be back home and e-mail it to the company for translation.
We shall leave Volos at c.4p.m. on Sunday. Then on Monday afternoon we are hosting a party at the shop to celebrate our 12th anniversary. The company owner will come and deliver a speech, accompanied by a dozen Spanish entrepreneurs who have bought the master Franchise for Spain, and want to see how we do it. There is obviously alot to be done and arranged from catering to sending invites, to summoning the town's best.
There, that's the plan, God willing.
Wait! Do I smell apple pie? Gosh, I've missed home made apple pie. C wants me to make home made creme caramel. I must look for a recipe.
Fisr things first. I am making green tea and go planting!
Love you all alot.

Wordless Wednesday-Donald Duck in Florence

That explains it!
Hi there!
Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I'll make sure I stop by, too! More WW pictures and people, here and here. Happy WW!