how am I supposed to cook anything in this temperatures?

[ratcreature]

I still haven't had any dinner, because it's clear that the Spanish custom to have dinner really late around ten or so in the evening, is the only sensible one in this this kind of heat. Any earlier is simply too hot to have any substantial appetite.

And this awful weather sucks for my food budget. In reaction to the intolerable temperatures I'm mostly subsisting on chilled yogurt and fruit and the like, which I'm sure is healthy and everything, but even in season fruits are expensive. Also, ultimately while tasty not all that satisfying.

I'm hungry, I have plenty of food at home, but I'm too sticky and lethargic to cook myself anything.

Comments

[omens]

This is the story of my week! It finally cooled down here enough today for me to make a big pan of chicken chunks to dole out on caesar salads.. those are quick and easy and filling... I could live on popsicles, though.

[ratcreature]

I mentioned this in a comment on the LJ version of this post, that I think my dissatisfaction comes from eating less protein than usual. I'm vegetarian and aside from dairy I get that obviously from plain legumes and grains, which make up the bulk of protein of my food (I'm not a tofu product person). And I sometimes put canned beans in cold salads, but I don't find that very tasty, and for other more tasty cold bean things (dips, hummus and such) you need to do some cooking first. And and aside from bread I didn't have much grain stuff on these hot days either.

[omens]

Oh, yeah - that is tricky! Crockpot bean dishes might be good? At least the crockpot doesn't heat the entire house.

[ratcreature]

Heh. I don't own any such fancy kitchen implements. I don't even have a microwave. For tonight I've pulled myself together enough to fry a cut up zucchini with some onions and a scrambled egg, and cooked some pasta to go with it. So a mix of not really a proper omelet, nor a proper pasta dish, but it didn't take more time than the pasta needed to cook.

[shadowvalkyrie]

Same here! And since I don't eat late at night (because if I do, I can't sleep), my only time to eat substantially is early in the morning, which is a problem in that my banging with pots and pans at 6 am wakes the roommate. (And it's not like the mornings are all that cool, either. I feel like I'm withering.)

I've been subsisting on mainly yoghurt, ice-cream, and buttermilk (and some crisps, to get in salt) for weeks, except when invited somewhere. I like dairy products a lot, but it's really getting to much. I'm quasi on a liquid diet and I miss my solid foodstuffs, damn it!

At least my budget takes it well, thanks to my aversion against fruit.

[ratcreature]

Yes, it totally is like some kind of enforced fad diet that crosses out three fourths of the foods off from the menu.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

How do you feel about cold salads that aren't lettuce-variation based? I don't know your vegetable preferences, but especially when we're at the beach or on long hot weekends, we used to keep bowls of cooked or raw vegetables premixed in the refrigerator and then add dressing/mayonaisse/whatever to them to make dinner. (And sometimes leftover chicken/lunch meats/sliced meats on hand.)

Carrot salad is really good and I have no idea why. I'm not even sure it's called carrot salad, but it's basically grated carrots and like, raisins or something.

...now I"m really hungry.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I do eat something like that sometimes. Not the meat part though, being vegetarian. I think my feeling of dissatisfaction with this cold food thing may be that I'm eating less protein than usual because aside from dairy I get that obviously from legumes and grains, which make up the bulk of protein of my food (I'm not a tofu product person). And I sometimes put canned beans in cold salads, but I don't find that very tasty, and and aside from bread I didn't have much grain stuff on these hot days either.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest bean salad, but that would take a lot of cooking; otoh, it's kind of low supervision cooking where you just leave it there for hours, but if you use the same basic recipe or mix as the five or seven bean soups (if you like those), those are amazing.

I'm trying to think of what else I make during July and August in Texas that would qualify vegetarian/vegan--potato salad, pea salad (very good, with mushrooms, can make in five minutes), and cold potato soup (though again, cooking first before the chilling, which still hits the dear god it's five thousand degrees and I'm in the kitchen limit).

*sends support*

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Never move to Australia!

I make summer rolls which are delicious and involve very little cooking, apart from one pot of boiling water to quickly cook the rice noodles and dip the rice paper wrappers. This site (http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2008/08/01/thai-vietnamese-summer-salad-rolls/) has a really good roundup and wrapping instructions! You can include any ingredients you want - avocado is awesome. Sometimes I fry up some mushrooms to put in them, but usually not. On the other hand, Australia does have relatively cheap fruit and vegies all year, which helps.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I suspect Australia and me would be a very bad match, climate-wise. I feel miserable as soon as temperatures rise above 25°C.

But such rolls might be tasty, with the only inconvenience that I don't have an East Asian store really nearby.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I don't have any East Asian stores either - it's just regular supermarket food here, even out where I live. I expect the different immigration patterns to Germany result in different supermarket stocking, though!

[ratcreature]

The fancier supermarkets with deli sections also have all kinds of "ethnic" foods though usually more expensive than buying it in an Asian or Middle Eastern grocery store, or the like. The supermarket across the street where I buy most stuff is of the discount type, that has mostly a no-frills approach to shopping in that you get no name staples stacked on palettes,. The lack of extras (such as stacking a gazillion different brands of the same type all prettily onto shelves, rather than having a palette with one kind of flour, one kind of sugar etc in the store) makes the basics cheap (so cheap actually that Wal-Mart failed establishing itself in Germany because they just could not match the prices with their store model that has all kinds of extras like stacking stuff and employing service people and such), but the selection of specialty foods is limited. Mine has soy sauce and rice noodles, and canned bamboo and some other Asian stuff, but I've haven't seen rice paper wrappers.