Cry For Help

So, since my first ever blog post, I have been to the supposed (I say supposed as I have been to no less than three and have on Thursday been invited to a fourth) opening of the new Marco Pierre White restaurant at The Cube, met MPW himself and have pondered the best way to devour some delicious venison sausages purchased at the Harborne Farmer’s Market. Two very bloggable subjects, I do believe. So, which one am I going to write about today, I hear you cry in your thousands? *cough* Neither. I am instead going to turn this blog post into an urgent appeal for help over the sad state of affairs that is my daily lunch.

Now, I consider myself to be acceptably handy in the kitchen. Hell, I even got through to the final round of auditions for Masterchef this year (take that Miss Quinn, Year 7 Home Economics teacher). I have a good understanding of what flavours go together and which absolutely, categorically do not, I can’t think of any food that I will not eat, I have a knack for knowing when things are cooked just right, and I have the good fortune to eat out fairly often and can therefore be inspired by some wonderful professionals. This all dictates that I must have a carb-free, healthy lunch Monday to Friday so as not to turn into a bed-ridden whale of a woman in a shockingly short time period. But, it therefore should also dictate that my daily salad consists of something slightly more creative that the continual bore of:

-         Bagged lettuce. Mainly spinach, sometimes lambs lettuce, occasionally pea shoots. Crazy town right there…

-         Chopped red pepper. Have a slight phobia (yes a phobia) of green peppers so will only venture as far down the colour spectrum as yellow

-         Halved baby tomatoes

-         Sliced cucumber

-         Pumpkin seeds. New addition for 2012 after reading a Men’s Health magazine about how they are, like, totally and utterly brilliant for building muscle and stuff if you are a big burly bloke. I’m a 27.5 year old girl but guessing that the principle is the same. This is why I am manically sprinkling chilli powder on my salad too. Totally speeds up your metabolism if you consume about a kilo of the red stuff, per day.

-         Some protein in the form of egg, sardines or chicken

-         Avocado

-         Drizzle of hemp oil.

This is not exactly going to win Britain’s Best Dish any time soon and it’s not like I don’t have Ottolenghi’s cookbook on my counter top for some high-end, vegetable-related inspiration. I just seem to have a real physical and mental incapability to create anything remotely inspiring within the confines of my Lock & Lock box.

They say that the first step to solving a problem is to admit that you need help. I NEED HELP. Now, any ideas on where to start?

My first ever blog post. *Gulp*

Being box fresh to this food blogging/tweeting phenomenon, I hope I can be forgiven for posting whilst not having a mind-blowing, gastronomic revelation. I am currently sat at my work desk, soul slowly being destroyed, chewing on Wrigleys sugar-free peppermint gum and sipping green tea with ginger. El Bulli it ain’t. But, given that I have my very first subscriber to my blog (who is a real-life foodie and can not even be remotely classed as my mother, a friend, a relative or someone on the payroll) I thought I had better write something. Anything.

My starting of this blog was in direct response to 2012 New Year’s Resolutions number 9 – Start A Food Blog. You might think this means that there are 8 resolutions that I rate more highly than the blog. Wrong. I like to start with some achievable slow-burners – growing my hair longer whilst eliminating split ends comes in at number 3. Number 4, however, is to cook as many things as I possibly can from my new Heston Blumenthal at Home cookbook. If I’m going to go to that much trouble, I feel that I should bore a far wider circle of people about my efforts. Number 12 (yeah I like to spread myself thin and wide) was basically to devote more time to the exploration of the foodie offerings available on my doorstep. If the New York Times rates the gastronomic experiences of Birmingham higher than the prospect of visiting SPACE in the list of things to do in 2012 (sorry Brian Cox), then so should I. Wouldn’t it be great if the national press did too, as – sit down for this one – people that live outside of the M25 like good food too. Sometimes we provincials make it, sometimes we buy it from a restaurant and increasingly, we are writing about it, too.