Ikaria Experiment: Day 3

For breakfast I had some watermelon juice and my delicious homemade bread with date honey. I forgot to take a picture of it but I did get one of my food for the day:

Horrible image quality but basically this is leftover soufiko (the last of it), mixed nuts, olives, a peach and a baggie of bread. I brought a jar of honey as well and some herbal tea bags to sip on throughout the day. 

My day was hectic and stressful as usual but it felt great to come home. The 1.5 mile walk is so relaxing for me. When I walked into the kitchen I swung open the refrigerator door only to realize I had tons of food and nothing to eat. Everything in my fridge was an ingredient...not a meal. I wasn't starving, just hungry and tired, but oddly this appealed to me. Everything about this challenge kind of wrapped around this moment. I had taken the fast food, the luxury, and convenience out of the equation. 

I got to work putting some beets in the oven, making a new loaf of bread, cleaning and boiling some greens for my 'horta' and chopping veggies for my lunch tomorrow. It was so rewarding. An hour and a half later when my bread was finally done and still cooling on the stove I stole a piece. I swear it was the best tasting bread I'd ever had.

Here is a recipe overhaul from my cooking frenzy yesterday evening:

 

More Bread - this time with stone ground whole grain rye flour... wow. I can't stop eating it.

I also made horta for the first time. 

• First: I tore and soaked some kale leaves in a water/white vinegar mixture. The leaves floated to the top and the grit and dirt sunk to the bottom. 

• Second: I placed the greens in a strainer and washed them off. 
• Third: I added them to a pot of boiling water with salt. I let them sit in there for about 20 minutes (probably longer, until the stems were soft).
• Lastly, when I remove the greens, I strained them to get any excess water out, then salted and olive oiled them. I also added some chopped garlic which made it wonderfullll.

Note: Don't Throw Away The Green Water From Boiling!!!!

  More on this later.

For dinner I paired the horta with some bread with goat cheese and, of course, wine.

 It was simple and delicious.

Later I prepared my lunch for the next day.

 

Beet Salad:

• 2 large beets - baked for 40 minutes on 350
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 large tomato
• red onion - to taste
• 2 heaping tablespoons of goat cheese crumbles or 1 oz, chopped up
• sea salt
• olive oil

Chop everything up and mix together in a bowl. Let it sit in the fridge...the flavors get better with time!

 

It ended up being enough for 2 days of lunches!

My day slowed down with a cup of hot horta water.

It makes for a wonderful tea/soup drink packed with nutrients. I added lemon and a little sage. I thought it was interesting that it kind of tasted like a broth, but was still very "tea-ish". It was different, but wholesome and tasty. 

Day 3 - Loving the inconvenience!