Yesterday was, in nutritional terms, a bit of a disaster. I’m too ashamed to admit how badly we ate, but I’d been looking at various things in the preceding week and thought it was time to start on the 30 Plants a Week target.

To be fair, during that preceding week we had a hash that included onions, leeks, garlic, parsnip, potato, swede, carrot and cabbage, which took care of the five-a-day in just one meal, so not all our food is as disastrous as Sunday. I’ve allowed things to slip a bit during the summer and need to do better.

It’s simple – try to eat 30 sorts of plant a week. It is good for you as an aid to ensuring you get your five-a-day (which is quite a low target – most of the rest of the world tries harder ) and it is good for ensuring variety. It also means I have to think about it more when I’m shopping and selecting recipes, and if you’re thinking about the good stuff, you also think about avoiding the bad stuff. Pork pies are great to eat, and easy to build a salad around, but they are full of fat and salt and eating them regularly probably counts as slow suicide.

I’ve just been looking at what counts. I knew tea and coffee were in, and chocolate, but it seems that it has to be at least 70% dark chocolate. So that’s out as I only eat chocolate for pleasure, and 70% is more of a penance. Peanut butter and popcorn both count. I’m thinking this could be an American-based dietary regime. I suppose the eggplant/zucchini thing should have been a clue. Herbs and spices, nuts and seeds all count. They specifically say that rosemary on roast potatoes counts. How much rosemary can you get on a roast potato?

Actually, I just found the answer to that. All veg varieties count as one point – in fact red, yellow and green peppers, for instance, count as one point each. same with green and brown lentils and all the sorts of beans. But herbs and spices only count as a quarter of a point as you don’t have much of them. Fair enough.

Brown bread counts, white bread doesn’t. Same with rice and pasta. I thought it seemed to good to be true, though at the back of my mind white bread was never going to count.

Anyway, Julia just called me through to breakfast, and, as you can see, I took the camera.

Monday Breakfast –

Wholewheat TESCO “Weetabix”
Blueberries
Bananas
Strawberries
Tea

Total: 5 (25 to go).

I’m not sure we should be eating so much imported fruit. I may have to look into that.

There is a diet regime, originating in the USA, based on this, but they expect you to be mindful, to think about what you eat and to eschew thinks that are bad for you , like honey. That’s the first time I’ve seen honey listed as being bad for you.  It’s something to think about, but I’m not sure I’m prepared to give up honey. Or Maple Syrup. Julia brought quite a lot back from Canada. Any decisions on sources of added sugar may have to wait a while.

The birds all flew away as they saw me raise the camera – pigeon, blackbird, great tits, robin, magpie – all gone.