Cuke salad and rainy weather

A while since last post... summers gone and grey weather here in Stockholm... A good time to plan a trip to warmer countries! Most probably Thailand in a few months time :)

Favorite salad right now: cucumber salad! Ingredients:

Cucumber, fennel, celery, persimmons and maybe some avo if your havin an avocado day.

Grate the cucumber and celery and finely chop the fennel. Mix it all together. If your havin some avo, mix in with the salad. Chop persimmons in smaller pieces and place on top of salad or eat as they are first. Then have salad! Soooo nice. And sweet persimmons are easy to find right now - so enjoy as many as you like!

Sweet fruity blessings /A

Best Banana Combo

I´ve pretty much been having the same lunch last month or so, chopped bananas mixed with chopped tomatoes and maybe some greens and sometimes some pineapple. All jammed into my lunch box (a BIG lunch box). And it is truly amazing - this is just THE BEST combination EVER (or, at least right now)! Instead of getting tired of the same food every day - I just want more of it!! I´m looking forward to lunch break actually - so that I can eat my banana-tomato-combo. And, it´s getting worse, I can now feel cravings for this combo IN THE EVENINGS as well. So that I find myself eating banana-tomato for lunch, and then, banana-tomato for dinner. :)

Another great combo is banana-cucumber, or, to make it more funky, mashed super ripe bananas (or mixed) as a soupe base, mixed with chopped tomatoes and MAYBE some fresh basil... soooo nice.

Now this is real interesting. You know in the world out there - people are having so much trouble planning or figuring out what to eat, for dinner or for lunch. It seems to be a REAL issue for alot of folks. Well, not for me. Not right now anyway - I think I could eat banana-tomatoes ALL DAY, no problems. Maybe some melon for breakfast... but usually when preparing my lunch in the morning - I just have to snack on some of my lunch... so I could probably have it in the morning as well... It just doesn´t get boring. My cravings for this combo has instead INCREASED. And the best thing - it´s just so simple and easy to prepare and to eat - just beautiful.

Did a quick Hemoglobin test the other day - 150 gr/L!! Not too bad.... the lady doing the test said that if you´re doing a skiing competition and you´re a female, you are not allowed to participate if your Hb is 160 or above... they will think you´ve done the Epo-thing. Now, I´m not a professional cross country skier... but it´s interesting I´m almost doing illegal blood counts -- ON EATING ONLY FRUITS. One of my test results were actually up to 155 gr/L... Doing some new blood work next week, will be very interesting to see...

Talk to ya´ll then - hope you had a beautiful weekend :)
/Alex

On sleep

Went to bed late last night... by late meaning at ten pm. That is late for me. I really need to be in bed at EIGHT pm - or, at the latest, between eight and nine pm. That is, I would need to be in bed at eight when I choose to work the way I do right now - having to be at work at eight in the morning and having at least a thirty minutes drive to work. That means I would want to get up at five in the morning - or between five and six. Often I wake up at four though - being light as it is now during the summer.

Point is - I truly belive people are not getting enough sleep, and what people acctually view as "normal" amounts of sleep, or "normal" bed time, does not work for me. If I can fall a sleep at eight pm, I feel rested if I get up at five. So that would make up a total of nine hours of sleep. If I fall a sleep at nine and get up at five, I would also feel quite good, or, I would feel ok, but would rather stay in bed for another hour. So, for me to feel good throughout the day, I would definitely need between eight to nine hours of sleep. To feel super though, I think I would need up to ten hours of sleep every night. Or, is there a limit? But as it is, I am having trouble fitting in more sleep then about nine hours every night.

Last night - I think I slept about seven hours. And - I did not feel rested in the morning. Now in the afternoon - I feel like having a nap.... which I normally do not feel like. And I´m day dreaming about getting back into bed this evening... which I also almost never dream about... so, I really notice the one hour shortage of sleep.

Now, if I would say to people that I´d rather go to bed at eight pm, that would not be considered... hm, should I say, "normal". People don´t seem to be prioritizing getting enough sleep. Or even knowing that they would need more sleep every night to feel the best. And I am still learning how much sleep I would need each night to function optimal each day!

Anyways... just wanted to say that getting enough sleep is really important for me...
Don´t you agree?

All the best :) /Alex

So many mangos...

How many mangos can a gal eat in one day? How many can one eat for lunch? And how many Pakistanian mangos can you eat for dessert, after having mangos as main course??
Those are the questions I was tryin to find answers for yesterday... when the shop next door to work had stacked up a huge pile of mangos for a real good price :)
I had mangos all day - and today, I can still have more. I miss them already. Had one for breakfast, along with my watermelon, just because I could. And now - I can only think about the three remainders waitin for me at home... I might make some nice pasta sauce tonight... maybe mango-tomato sauce? Mango-basil? I know mango-garlic might be nice...

My foods yesterday:
Breakfast: Watermelon. Snack before lunch: Bananas. Lunch: Cherries and mangos. And later: mangos. And in the evening: watermelon and mangos... or did I have some tomatoes?... I do remember savin the nectarines for today.

Will try my new runners tonight - that means more bananas before leavin work, and then I think I´ll finish off the mangos from yesterday :) -oh what a bliss!

Have the best Monday! /Alex

Cherries for lunch..

Best ever summer lunch - cherries... mmmm. Found some mangos in the shop as well!! Real ripe ones, will be good for dinner tonight... melon soup for starter and then throw some in the pasta sauce :) - will post some phots later.

I´m happy - hope ya´ll have a beautiful weekend /Alex