#MY SALAD WAS SOUTHWEST | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

copperbadge · 2 years ago

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You know, I had thought that the old jokes about bad airline food, which were very common in the 1990s, had stopped mainly because airline food had gotten better. It had to have, right? As food technology and chemistry improved, we must have fixed that. I just couldn't know, because mostly I fly Southwest and rarely take a flight longer than about four hours, and Southwest just doesn't do meals.

But now I think probably it's just that airline food is much rarer. Even flights that would have had food twenty-five years ago (pre-9/11) now mostly don't. So it's not that the food is better, it's just rarer. The comedy is less relatable.

I will say that the mushroom tortellini I got in my "lunch" on this flight home was pretty edible, but when the tray was set in front of me I looked at the hardtack bread roll, the very basic salad with its little pot of bland yogurt dressing, and the tortellini in very scant tomato sauce, and I thought, I bet I can hack this. (It's kind of a conference trick of mine -- I have startled many a stranger at a conference breakfast buffet by producing from seeming nowhere a breakfast sandwich, and then informing them that they, too, can take a croissant from the pastry rack, eggs and sausage from the chafing dishes, and jam from the condiments, and make a breakfast sandwich fit for a king.)

Then I decided to write some fanfic of my own damn novels because Eddie Rambler has definitely done this, and if anyone can fix airline food it's him, and if anyone's going to be a willing accomplice, it's Noah "self-propelled trouble magnet and food garbage disposal" Deimos.

"Hey there, friends and fans and everyone keeping it new out there!" Eddie Rambler said, but unlike his usual Photogram openings, his voice was hushed -- not subdued, but much quieter than usual. "I'm coming to you from somewhere over the arctic, and pretty much everyone else is asleep, so I'm trying to keep quiet, which as everyone knows is for me quite an effort. And if you're wondering why I'm not my normal golden well-lit self, it's because I'm filming this in the first-class cabin of an airplane using ambient light and a phone flashlight for a spot."

He leaned back, so that his face wasn't filling the camera anymore, and the rest of the room came into view: a tiny nook with a reclining airline seat. The arm was lifted, and Eddie was sitting sideways on the cushion; on the reclined back of the seat, next to him, Noah was perched, grinning impishly.

"Now, I couldn't sleep so Gregory kicked me out of our two-person cabin, and Noah here had a cabin to himself because his folks are sharing one and he's the odd man out, so he let me come in here to film. Friend of the gram Noah Deimos of course, NoahTheTerror -- " Eddie and Noah both pointed at the same empty space, where a link would later go to Noah's Photogram, "and I are both flying first-class for only the second time in our lives. When I traveled with Truly Tasty I was always on the bus because we had a lot of equipment, and Noah used to be a peasant -- "

"I'm still a peasant," Noah said.

"You're a prince, kiddo."

"I'm a peasant prince," Noah insisted.

"I could kick you back to Economy," Eddie said, grinning at him.

"Well, princehood has perks," Noah allowed.

"Anyway," Eddie said, slinging an arm around Noah and ruffling his hair, "the two of us decided to stay up and get into mischief, which is why we're filming at thirty five thousand feet. We were just going to play cards, but we got to comparing notes about airline food, and about five minutes in I said, whoa, this is content, let's not waste it. So, young prince, tell me what you were saying about airline food before we started filming."

Noah nodded. "First class food is okay. It helps that you're eating it in a really fancy seat and you know how much you paid for that fancy seat. But it's still kinda..." he stuck out his tongue, waggling his head. "It's just served in fancier dishes. And outside of first class...I mean, I'll eat it, but I won't like it."

"It's difficult to make good airline food. There are a lot of requirements," Eddie said. "It has to be mass-produced, it has to keep for reasonably long periods of time, some of it has to be reheatable on an airplane, and I don't know if you know this -- I don't know if YOU know this," he added, turning to Noah, "but our tastebuds literally change when we're on an airplane. Something to do with altitude and pressurized cabins. That's why bloody marys are such a popular cocktail. Tomato juice tastes better on an airplane."

"That's nuts," Noah said.

"So do nuts, actually," Eddie told him. "So you end up with some issues. Bread doesn't keep well or reheat well and the texture gets super weird, that's why you don't get good pastry and your bread roll is dry even in first class. Meat is hard to cook at scale or reheat. Sauces tend to separate -- cream sauce is the worst. Vegetables do okay because you can make a whole bunch of salad at once and it'll stay relatively crisp, and protein in sauce is still the most easily reheatable form of food, but stuff like eggs or breakfast meat has to be pretty greasy to reheat well. And then it's just, you know, greasy."

"So, chef, what's the solution?" Noah asked, clearly feeding Eddie a line, grinning as he did so.

"I am so glad you asked," Eddie replied, just as faux-rehearsed. "I managed to weasel two economy-class dinner meals out of the flight attendants -- don't worry, there were spares, nobody went hungry because of this -- and we're going to hack you an airline meal that's both edible and reasonably nutritious. Ready?"

"Ready!"

Eddie pulled up a tray table that had been folded flat against the wall, and reached in the other direction to bring two trays of food into the camera's view. "So we've got two meals that each have a salad, a little cup of dressing, a roll with butter, and chocolate bites for dessert. This one is a chicken curry noodle bowl with some mango chutney stir-in over here on the side -- I'm using 'curry' and 'chutney' both very loosely, as does the airline -- and this one is mushroom tortellini in pesto. That's actually pretty good, stuffed pasta does well in this kind of situation and I like a pesto, the bright notes really flare. What's the dressing that comes with the salads, Noah?"

Noah checked one of the little bottles, squinting. "Yogurt dill."

"Pretty good. Probably pretty bland. Oh, we also have salt and pepper. Okay, so what we're going to do is take the worst parts of the meal and add a little bit of the best part and basically make you a two-entree meal that's superior to a single entree with sides. Pop open that bread and give our friends a demo."

Noah tore open the plastic surrounding the bread roll, which was oblong, slightly smaller than a hoagie bun. He tapped it on the tray and it clattered stiffly. He broke off one end and crumbs went everywhere; the inside looked dry when he held it up to the camera.

"This is not a good bread roll," Eddie said. "Butter will make it edible, but we can make it better. We have the technology. We have...the dressing. We're going to just get this bread to a nicer texture by adding some of the dressing..."

He split the roll with a knife carefully while Noah opened the dressing, then poured a generous dollop onto the bread, spreading it with the knife. "Let that sink in a minute, let's pick out the best lettuce and tomatoes for the sandwich, here we go...all right. You want a spicy chicken curry sandwich or a veggie sandwich?"

"Curry," Noah said.

"Good call, the dill dressing's going to go nicely with that. All right, we are going to really stir up this chicken in sauce -- it's okay if the noodles get mixed in, that's what we in the biz call texture -- and make sure everything's blended. This mango chutney's going on the other half of the bread to moisten it, and this is -- this is going to get me yelled at by my culinary school teachers," he told Noah, "but we're going to throw that pepper right on the mangos there. It'll add kick to the curry and the hope is that you won't actually get much flavor other than spice. We'll see how it goes. So you got dill dressing with lettuce and tomato, mango chutney with pepper, all that is making the bread nice and soft, and we're going to take some of the chicken curry and slather that right on top."

Noah used a fork and spoon like tongs to scoop curry onto the roll, sitting open on the plate, and then Eddie closed it carefully. Noah reached for it, but Eddie held up a hand.

"Not yet. Finishing is important," he told the teenager. "You have to let the flavors and textures settle a little, and this is also going to ensure it isn't as messy as it could be to eat, because we're classy assholes."

"Nobody classier," Noah agreed.

"The bread needs time to absorb more liquid. So now we take this paper tray liner and just..." Eddie wrapped the sandwich up in the paper, ignoring where the curry stained it yellow, folded the ends under, and tucked them into a complicated pleat that kept the paper tightly wrapped around the sandwich. "Just let that sit for a second -- if we were actually hacking this meal in economy, now's when you'd eat the rest of the curry, while the sandwich settles. What we're going to do is make a veggie sandwich with this other one. Guess how."

Noah frowned. "Well, there's the other salad, and the dressing, and I guess the pesto..."

"Sure, but where's most of this meal's bulk?"

"The pasta -- are you gonna put tortellini on bread?" Noah asked.

"Carb on carb can be delicious but we're going to be more delicate than that -- we're going to open up this tortellini and get that awesome mushroom filling out of it and use that like a pate spread," Eddie said.

"Can I change my order? I want the mushroom pesto sandwich," Noah said. Eddie laughed.

"All right, you're the kid, you get your pick. Let's get this tortellini unfolded," he said, and set to work.

-----

Six hours into their ten hour flight, after Eddie used the first-class wifi to post the video, there was a knock on the door and Gregory put his head in.

"Hey, you're up!" Eddie said, looking up from his book. Noah gave Gregory a wave from where he was playing video games opposite Eddie. "Am I unbanished from our suite?"

"You are in so much trouble," Gregory said affectionately.

"For what? Noah and I have been super duper quiet, we didn't wake you up or bug Michaelis and Jes or anything."

Gregory held up his phone. "Hacking Bad Airline Food With NoahTheTerror," he read from the screen.

"That mushroom sandwich was choice," Noah said, without looking up from his game.

"Curry wasn't bad. Pepper might have been a mistake. I'll workshop it," Eddie said. "Why?"

"Eddie. I love you, but we are literally on a plane owned by a company whose food you just called terrible and hacked so it would be better. Half the internet wants an encore when we get served breakfast, and meanwhile the airline seems torn between promising to upgrade their food offerings and suing you for slander."

"Libel, surely," Eddie said. "I did it in the public record."

"It's libel if it's written down, all you did was talk," Gregory said. "Technically slander."

"Oh, is that all I did?" Eddie asked innocently.

"I blame you," Gregory said to Noah. "You were supervising."

"I'm an innocent child," Noah said, still not looking up from his game. "Easily led astray. Sounds to me like I came under the sway of a bad influence."

"Anyway it's not libel OR slander if it's true," Eddie said. "They won't sue me, if they do I'll bring one of their awful bread rolls to court and make the judge eat it. Nobody would rule against me after eating one of those."

"The dressing helped, but dressing can only do so much," Noah added loyally. Eddie held his hand out for a fistbump and Noah bumped it, finally setting his game aside.

"Seriously, are we busted?" Eddie asked. "Like, genuinely in trouble busted?"

"Probably not, it's mostly just evidence I can't leave you alone for a minute," Gregory said.

"Well, the solution to that was to let me keep pestering you in our own two-seat suite and not banish me because you wanted to sleep," Eddie pointed out.

Gregory opened his mouth to say something, then glanced at Noah and paused.

"If you'd like to leave Noah to his video games and come back to the suite, we can discuss that where young princeling ears aren't listening," he said finally.

"You can just say Eddie wanted to make out," Noah said. "I'm sixteen, not six."

Gregory rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Eddie?"

Eddie leaned over and planted a kiss on Noah's forehead. "Behave yourself. Hydrate and have a snack before we land."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Noah called as Eddie left, snickering.

"On a scale of one to ten, how much trouble am I in, honestly?" Eddie asked, following Gregory back into their cabin, which had one chair reclined (covered in blankets that Gregory had turned into some kind of napping nest) and one upright, with Eddie's stuff piled on it.

"With me, a two. With the airline, probably a five. You might have to do a follow-up," Gregory said.

"Like, the breakfast follow-up, or like an apology?"

Gregory shuffled aside so Eddie could shift his stuff off the chair and sit -- then settled in his lap comfortably, arms resting on his shoulders.

"Well, I say you double-down and make the breakfast post," he said. "But I am now prepared to distract you with making out, as Noah so charmingly put it, if you're interested."

"Oh, now you've seen my impressive sandwich-making skills you're ready to join the mile-high club?" Eddie asked.

"That mushroom thing did look kind of good."

Eddie kissed him. "Tell you what, when they do breakfast service I'll use all the butter I saved from the rolls and make you an incredibly mediocre but edible egg sandwich. If I can get more dressing I could probably even make a decent mayo substitute."

"You can't use my phone for extra lighting," Gregory told him, and Eddie was going to protest, but more interesting things were happening and by the time he remembered to be sullen about it, breakfast was being served.

#Shivadhverse #Food #Airline food

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greatgoodplace · 5 months ago

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07.30.24

Today's SW: 241

Breakfast: cold brew cocomo from Dutch Bros

Lunch: Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad

Calories in: 938

Calories out (another 3 mile walk and yoga today): 1,119

Net Calories: -181

Desperate to be in the 230s by the time I wake up on the 1st. Maybe tomorrow morning! My original goal for July was 235 but I will settle for 239 if I can get it. Wish me luck!

#anamia #obese ana #fat ana #thinspø #wanna be thin #goth ana #tired of being fat #tw restriction #tw 3d vent #tw ana rant #tw thinspi #anarexx #🌟ving #🌟ve #i want to ⭐️ve #⭐️ ing motivation

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what-i-made-for-dinner-yesterday · 1 month ago

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My sister’s cat was ready to share our salmon with us….

Sides!

For sides we had blue corn stuffing, 3 sisters salad, roasted delicata squash, and pole beans.

The stuffing was blue corn cornbread, walnuts, cranberries, wild rice, and spices. We also had some carrots sneak in there because there was an assumption made and we didn’t double-check until after we added them. Carrots are from Persia! Whooops. The wild rice was harvested with traditional methods in Minnesota! I think shallots made it in too. Shallots are the one purposeful compromise we make. There is a wild onion native to the Americas that was used for culinary purposes, but it’s extremely hard to get ahold of unless you grow it yourself. Most native chefs use straight up onion or they suggest substituting with shallots for the closest taste so that’s what we did.

This is year 3 (I think) of the 3 sisters salad and we love it. Its maize, winter squash, and tepary beans. The beans are grown in the American southwest and my sister buys them from the Navajo nation Akemi O’Ohodum - Ramona Farms. They have an interesting story around their preservation. During forced relocations to reservations, women would sew the seed beans into their dresses to preserve them as they were culturally important as well as being a critical independent food source.

One of the things to really understand about food colonization is how traditional foods are often denied to those being colonized. For example, food crops like maize and tepary beans were intentionally ruined/restricted and instead sacks of wheat flour were provided. This meant the colonized became dependent on their colonizers for food - a common tool of colonialism and control. Saving tepary beans is an act of defiance that deserves to be honored and respected. I loved using them in our meal as a way of recognizing the importance of preserving culture. Decolonization, especially food decolonization, isn’t about recreating or restoring the past, but about embracing the future while understanding that your world view isn’t the only view of the world.

Our other two sides were pole beans (blistered in oil with salt) and roasted delicata squash tossed with maple syrup and salt. The squash was grown locally.

It was a delicious meal!

On to dessert next….

#thanksgiving #2024 #thanksgiving 2024 #Ramona farms #sides #indigenous food

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epikonionman · 3 days ago

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RINGMAAAASTERRRR!!!!!!

Wax Museum: The instrumental is nice, it’s definitely a step up from the shit pushed through a speaker that is Carnival Of Carnage. The lyrics do still sound kinda tired though, its like maybe they got an extra hour of sleep compared to coc. 6/10, has a nice instrumental, the lyrics are nothing special though.

Murder Go Round: Hate to admit this, but this album does sound okay so far. This song has a nice beat, which definitely compensates for the lack of instrumental. The lyrics are actually comprehensible in a way. But only when compared to the word salad that is carnival of carnage. Another 6/10, has a nice beat, lyrics are fine, do like the concept of the murder go round as it reminds me of the shotgun carousel from saw. But other than that, it’s fine.

Chicken Huntin’: FUCK I hate this version of chicken huntin. It feels so dull, the instrumental just doesn’t sound good, the beat isn’t much better. It sounds like fucking muzak. Riddle Box’s version of this song is leagues better. ZERO OUT OF TEN I HATE IT IT STINKS LIKE BUTT AND SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Johnson’s Head: I prefer the remix of this song. Do they both feel bland? Yes. Does the remix sound slightly less bland? Yes. This song is fine, I dislike it still. 3/10

Southwest Song: Another bland fucking song. That’s my problem with these first two jokers cards. They’re so BLAND. They lack music, in a song. It’s really just not nice sounding. 2/10

Get Off Me, Dog!: Quite the unfortunate case of this one minute long song being better to listen to compared to the 5 minute long songs. This has a nice beat to it, I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy it a lot though, 5/10, it’s a ringmaster track so it really can’t be that good.

Who Asked: A good sounding song surprisingly. It doesn’t sound like shit pushed through a speaker. It has a nice sound to it that I enjoy. It isn’t bland, it sounds good!!! But good for ringmaster standards. 5.5/10.

The Dead One: What a bland song, for once a song has an instrumental. But sadly, it’s a bland one, GOD it’s bland. It’s so boring and boring. I want riddle box back.

My Fun House: DAMN, this sounds pretty good actually. It’s quite the rare occurrence of a good song in an album like this. It has a good beat, the vocals don’t sound tired. It’s an okay song!!!! 6/10!!

For The Maggots: this has to be some kind of running gag where the shortest songs sound nicer than the long ass ones. This one has a nice enough instrumental even if it sounds like pac man being constantly murdered. The vocals sound good. Another 6/10.

Wagon Wagon: This song surprisingly sounds good, probably one of the best songs in the album. It sounds legitimately good. The beat is nice and makes me want to head bop till I dislocate a vertebrae or something. 6.5/10.

The Loons: ANOTHER OKAY SONG. THE VOCALS SOUND GOOD!!! THE INSTRUMENTAL IS NICE!!! I NEVER THOUGHT ID SAY THIS BUT THIS SONG SOUNDS GOOD!!! IT DEFINITELY DOESNT SAVE THE ALBUM THIS ALBUM STILL FUCKIN SUCKS BUT THIS IS A GOOD FUCKIN SONG!!! 7/10

Love Song: Sounds like Muzak. The instrumental is eh. Very basic. The lyrics are fine, usual sex song. A sad break to the good sounding songs streak. Sigh. 2/10.

Bugz on My Nutz: What the actual fuck is this song. Why are the nutz bugz speaking. What the fuck, I feel dirty listning to this. The beat sounds fine, the lyrics flow well but the contents are definitely odd. 5/10, good beat and lyric flow, but dear god those lyrics.

House of Mirrors: AAAAAA THIS SONG SOUNDS GOOD!!!! THERES A GOOD SONG AGAIN!!!!! IT HAS A GOOD BEAT AND LYRICS!!!! YAY!!!! YAY!!!! AAAAAA 6.5/10!!!

Ringmasters World: Ah ah he said it he said it! Besides that this sucks, loop of audio, instrumental and audio clip. Bad stinky bad. Fart fart yuck. >:|

In conclusion, this album and Carnival of Carnage suck and anyone who claims to be a fan of them are lying to themselves.

#insane clown posse #shaggy 2 dope #violent j #juggalo #ringmaster #ringmasterSUCKSEWEWGROSS #YUCKYYUCKY GROSS

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dolfin · 26 days ago

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my bf made me a fat ass southwest salad wrap with chicken 🥺

#i was in the middle of some paperwork and he brought it to me 😭 i dont deserve that

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anaiscallingagain · 11 months ago

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REGRET REGRET

I ate like such a pig today. My boyfriend almost saw my account on my computer tab and he just saw the th1nsp0...

he bought me food and I ate it because I felt horrible ˙◠˙

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ food log ˖ ݁݁ 𖥔.

⟡ grapes - 10 cals

⟡ spicy deluxe sandwich - 500 cals

⟡ spicy southwest salad - 420 cals

-ˏˋ. total: 930 ˊˎ-

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laurkamkitchen · 3 months ago

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A new version for roasting butternut squash!

I halved this, subbing the chili powder for smoked paprika because I know just how weak I am. In retrospect, a quarter or half a teaspoon would like have been fine, as I really took the spice out of sweet and spicy. I also used a full tablespoon of olive oil, which was honestly too much. Half would have been fine.

20 minutes was the perfect amount of baking time. I added the honey, pepitas, and cilantro straight to my lunch salad to really get the full effect.

This didn't necessarily knock my socks off, but it was super yummy and a great way to use up a huge hunk of butternut.

#butternut squash #roasted veg #lunch #harbor lights #vegan

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apilgrimpassingby · 3 months ago

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Queen Abigail's Daily Routine

If anyone's not familiar with her, she's one of my fictional characters - the founding queen of the Kingdom of Anchorage and Kodiak, an Orthodox kingdom in southwest Alaska ruled by a Native American dynasty. This is her daily routine; I've been planning something like this for a while and decided to do it today.

5:45-6:00: Wake up, get dressed by her maid (this is an example of the kind of thing she wears) and say her morning prayers.

6:00-6:15: Attend the First Hour. This is performed by her father-confessor Fr. Philip Hansen, and anyone else willing to get up at that time is allowed to attend.

6:15-6:45: Shower and get dressed again afterwards.

6:45-7:00: Do some reading, watching or listening to music. Her favourites in those categories are respectively the Church Fathers (especially St. Athanasius), Avatar: The Last Airbender (her favourite show as a child, sped up to fit a 20-minute episode into 15 minutes), and 1970s rock (her energising music)

7:00-7:30: Breakfast, usually consisting of eggs, bacon, coffee and potatoes, with the eggs and bacon replaced with toast and fruit during fasts. This is held with the rest of the court, and while not formal "office hours" are a good time to talk to her in person.

7:30-8:30: Meeting with the cabinet to formally discuss policy and give them assignments for the day.

8:30-12:30: Office hours, spent either meeting with various people or responding to letters; which people and letters get through or are sent to other departments is the judgement of her secretaries, as well as how much time people get.

12:30-13:00: Lunch, consisting of a cup of tea, a bowl of soup, and some sandwiches. This is always eaten on her own, as a chance for quiet and a break.

13:00-18:00: Back to office hours.

18:00-19:00: Dinner. A social occasion as much as a meal, lasting as long as it does in order to give people the chance to talk to each other. The food here consists of a soup made of wild game, wild rice and other wild food (the wild game is removed on fast days), grilled and smoked fish (this option is, again, absent on fast days), bannock, bread rolls, salad and desserts made from wild berries.

19:00-19:15: Attend Povecheriye, held by Fr. Philip. Everyone at court is expected to attend this at least once a week.

19:15-22:00: Evening free time. In spring, this is spent shooting waterfowl, and in summer fishing from the lakes and rivers. In autumn and winter, there is a dedicated hunting day once a week, and this time is usually spent relaxing in some other way.

22:00-22:15: Say her evening prayers, get undressed by her maid and go to bed.

Tagging @roses-red-and-pink (who drew Abigail in her hunting dress) and @rebelnurse (who helped me design her hunting rifle for if you like this.

#anchorage and kodiak #queen abigail

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apollos-olives · 11 months ago

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Ooh tough question there about the cheap healthy meals(not sarcasm). The following does not take into account where you shop etc because that is personal information that does not need to be known ya know.

Some of my favorites are a bag of broccoli roasted in the oven with seasonings and either fish also in the oven/air fryer or taking some chicken and cutting it up to go with the broccoli.

I'll do a pack of cheese pizzas but they also come in individual ones at some stores and then a bagged salad (I can usually make a bagged salad last two meals if I have something to go with it)

Lately one I've been enjoying is some ground turkey ,since here it's cheaper than other ground meats, in a pan with some boiled potatoes and a can of beans or sliced peppers in a cooked together. You can make it southwest or spicy etc and it is really good with tortillas. This is usually two meals for me.

Breakfast wise? I've been using frozen egg burritos or some waffles.

Pancake mix is good too, because you can use it and then some boiled eggs on the side for a little bit of protein.

I'm sorry if these aren't the best suggestions. Hopefully these offer a few ideas etc. Have a good day:)

omg these are awesome!!! genuinely thank you so much that helps me out a lot. so far i only got one day down and i've spent like 30 dollars 💀 lmfao

what i got so far </3 devastating

but thank you again!

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patrickarchana-caminofrances · 4 months ago

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Our day as a Pilgrim on Camino Frances

It’s now day 17 of our French Camino. As you know we started in the Southwest of France in a small village called St Jean Pied de Port. Same place that my favourite author Paulo Coelho also started his Camino.

In Spanish, Camino means The Way. There are many different Caminos but they all end in Santiago De Compostella.

By now, there is a sort of a routine that we have set.

On most days Archana is up at 5:30am and after a quick shower she does her exercises, stretches and a set of InnerEngineering Yoga (Shambhavi Mahamudra).

Patrick is up by 6:45am to do his stretches and exercises followed by a shower.

We have both realised that this early wake-up is an essential to have a good start. As we say, well begun is half done!

Usually by 7:30am we have our bags packed and brought down to the concierge so they can be picked up by the baggage transport service by 8am.

We then have a breakfast, an essential request to FTC (Follow The Camino - Irish booking agency) when we made the bookings through them. Most offered a fantastic buffet breakfast, one hotel even had champagne included!! However, some have only offered a limited choice and one in Logrono only offered a glass of Fresh Orange juice, a pastry and some tea or coffee. In Quintallina del Monte, we stayed in a Rural home & the breakfast was really limited to couple slices of cheese, Patrick had some scrambled eggs and Archana just a toast (stale baguette toasted) with butter and jam. Fortunately we were carrying our own muesli, so requested some milk and yoghurt. For the amount we walk daily, we do like the full breakfast as usually on the way there are limited options and we need to ensure sustenance. On that day Patrick walked 40 km.

Between 8:30am to 9:am we usually leave the accommodation and start walking the Camino. Depending on the size of the town it could be a few 100m to 2 km plus (at times) until we get out of the town and start waking on the trail.

The longer the trail the earlier we try to leave so we are in the next town before it gets too hot around 3-4pm.

Arriving into a town is always exciting, as you navigate to the hotel, you discover some of the sights.

In most places when we reach our bags are waiting for us.

The routine is to check-in, unpack, have a good shower to relax the body and then do some stretches and have a snooze (Spanish siesta time is between 2-4pm) until the outside cools down a bit. Surprisingly the showers (water pressure and hot temperatures) have been perfect, except one!

If we need to do the laundry (usually every 3/4days) we go to the nearest coin laundry as a priority. Some hotels do offer a cheap price for a bag wash however they also use a dryer, which we don’t prefer, as we are kind to our clothes and the environment. Once the laundry is sorted we then cover the town, usually the church or cathedral and other interesting monuments.

By 7:30-8pm it’s time for dinner. We have opted dinner inclusion in most places especially if we are staying only one night, to save us hunting for places that could offer us special menu, since I am a vegetarian by choice however Patrick does have a mammalian meat allergy that needs to be managed. The dinner includes a pilgrim’s menu - 3 course meals including water, wine and bread. They aren’t very inventive with their vegetarian meals though, so most nights Archana gets a mixed salad for starter and a pasta with tomato sauce (freshly made) for the mains….. usually there is a carafe of wine, sometimes a glass but some places have given us a whole bottle (750 mls) at times.

If our package doesn’t include dinner then on those nights, we usually settle on Tapas or Pintxos and sangria or wine.

It’s usually an early night, around 10pm as we have to repeat the cycle again the next day. The wine here is really cheap, €1.8 to €2 per glass (from AUD $3 or ₹150), the wine is always excellent, easy drinking and so far never given us a headache or hangover as no sulphites added (given the wines here have no sulphites added unlike many wines in Australia)!

The Camino is obviously one of Spain’s major revenue earner - Religious tourism!

We booked through an Irish Company called Follow the Camino #followthecamino. Along with the baggage tags we also received a guide and app from them to assist us during the Camino. So far we had a great selection of hotels, monasteries, B&B type accommodation ranging between no rating to 5 star rating. Similar to the breakfast it’s been a mixed bag experience. Some average experiences and others absolutely splendid surprises! Like in the Tom Hanks movie, life is a box of chocolates……🙏🏽

#adventure #camino #journey #travel #trip of a lifetime #1000km #elcamino #caminofrances #indian girl walking #patrickandarchana #patriarchie #vegetarianonacamino

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