Day 1

On the bus home yesterday, I got a message from D: "Are you dying from sweet potato yet?" I could not have put it better myself.

We had both taken some roast sweet potato as the base of our lunch, reasoning that it would be the most filling option (apart from lamb, which we planned to save for dinners). D is not a fan of sweet potato at the best of times. I am, but as I reluctantly stuffed forkfull after forkfull of it into my mouth at lunch, I quickly realised that it's a "small doses" food for me. Do you have any friends or acquaintances like that? People who you're happy to spend time with, but then after hours (minutes?), you are thorougly sick of them and your smile becomes a grimace as you restrain yourself from exploding in a frustrated outburst? Yeah, you know the people. If sweet potato was an acquaintance of mine he/she it would fall firmly in this category. Great as little chips with spinach and fetta in a salad, ok as a piece of roast veg nestled amongst a good quantity of potatoes, but pretty much intolerable on it's own with only sea salt to disguise it.

We are going to be totally hypersaline by the end of this diet. I'm not an auto-condimenter (to steal a term from the wonderful Terry Pratchett). I don't subscribe to the theory that salt improves the taste of everything. But quite frankly, when there are no spices, no cooking oil, no butter, no nothing, then salt does improve the taste of most things.

We've had a couple of great recipe tips that we might try out later in the week. My friend J bravely had dinner with us last night - lamb chops (yummy just fried in their own fat), cabbage (with extra lamb juice and salt), beans, and sweet potato for J (we were sick of it already). She suggested poaching apples and pears together for a delicious desert or breaky. My sister S also suggested a yummy desert with maple syrup and apples or pears. J also recommended a lamb/cabbage rolled roast or similar. I might need to pull out one of these speccy suggestions tomorrow, for a little tradition we call Wednesday Night Dinner.