We got very lucky in Edinburgh and found an awesome Turkish Cafe for breakfast. Cafe Truva had an assortment of breakfast options, which works really well for a picky eater like me, and excellent coffee. I fully admit to being a coffee snob so when I find a place that makes a really good mocha (with melted, good quality chocolate) I’m a fan. On our last day there, we had limited time and decided, rather than see the palace, we would find a cheese shop. The gentleman running the cafe told us about a good cheese shop near the grass market, but it was not walking distance in the time we had. (well, not to get there, find said cheese shop, get back to the hotel, check out and get to the airport). We decided to check out and catch a cab to the grass market area and try to find the shop. We did (thanks to a great cab driver who knew about where it was) and we ended up with five different cheeses that we carried back to the US. Needless to say the last couple of days have been filled with cheese dishes. We did the above picture with home made bread, a tomato and cheese crust less quiche (not pretty enough to post a picture of) and a summer salad with shaved cheese.

Part of this comes from Bob deciding that he wants to loose weight. I’m not sure why as I think he is just about perfect as is, but it is his body and comfort level so ok. However, when he started talking about eliminating all kinds of food that I love … well … I we needed to talk. Before we left for our trip we talked about it, and now that we are back, I’m making an effort to support his effort. He wants to go to something called “slow carb” eating, but when I look at what you can’t have on it, my brain and stomach yell “nooooooo”.

So we look for a compromise. I’ll eliminate a lot of the grains, and processed foods (which includes soda which will be hard for Bob). I’m ok with limiting the grains and starches, but I’m not ok with eliminating so many foods that I pretty much can’t eat. (and since I do the cooking, I’m going to cook things I can eat.). We’ll start slow and see how that goes. I’ll get my dessert fixes out or when he isn’t around, and cook with lean meats and more vegetables. I even had a whole day of no meat and he didn’t care – really, goat cheese quiche and summer salad is not a bad way to eat. And I now have some lovely Scottish and English cheeses to work with for the next few weeks so we should both be happy.

This weeks menus includes chicken with braised kale, pork chops with kohlrabi and apple slaw, baked goat cheese salad and quinoa strawberry “salad”. If any of them turn out picture worthy, (and tasty) I’ll post pictures and recipes.

Until then! Hope everyone has a great week.