Cooking by numbers

While we have been here in Abu Dhabi we have tried meal boxes before, but they have never really been a complete success. Still, we have decided to try yet another type and so far, it seems to be a hit!
It is called Spring, and it is almost like cooking by numbers!

Twice a week, we get a cool box outside the door, with either 2 or 3 meals in each. Meals that we have picked out ourselves from their menu. I try to pick things that I would normally not cook myself, to try things and get some more recipes to add to my menu bank.

Each meal comes in a box with all the ingredients marked and ready to be cooked.

It really couldn't be easier, vegetables are washed and chopped, and all ingredients are measured and separated into vacuum sealed bags, each with a number that corresponds to a specific step in the recipe.

 

We have enjoyed all of the meals we have tried so far, some more than others sure, but they have all been tasty. Another thing I really like is the very little amount of wasted packaging. This has been a gripe of mine with other meal boxes, but here all the plastic is biodegradable, and the cardboard boxes by Spring. We just leave them in the cool boxes each time they gets picked up.

So the food is delicious, there is not a lot of waste, its easy to cook - and, it takes no time! What's not to like! Last night we had the Cajun Blackened Chicken with Avocado Dijonnaise Mayo, and vegetables.

Sure, it is not cheap. But. Apart from all the things mentioned above, I also do enjoy that I can adapt our order week by week, depending on how many days we want, and for how many people. This service does help us, as we have ended up going down the 4pm "hm... what are we going to have for dinner today... let's go to Waitrose and get something"-route too many times. Which is also not cheap, at all.
So, we will continue to "Spring" for a bit yet!

(If you would like to try yourself - let me know, and I will share my code with you for 50% off on your first 2 deliveries!)

Christmas Day 2023

Christmas Day was a really quiet day for us. We spent all day at home, starting of course with coffee and our gifts in the morning. Again, there was a mountain of presents under the tree, and I'm not quite sure how that happened..!

The kids had really done well with their gifting this year (again), Linnea had bought Lucas both some Spiced Chai (his new favourite drink) and a Christmas mug in London. She had also got him a Santa for his Christmas tree.

Mormor & Morfar had sent down the cookbook of all cookbooks, 'Rutiga Kokboken', and a couple of cooking Santas for his collection. We also all received (yes, even Linnea now) our own copy of the family wall calendar.

Lucas and Nathan also had "got each other" the same Icebreaker sweaters:

And of course there was the usual underwear and socks presents being opened as well.
The food theme continued for Nathan as I had got him a new pepper mill in Sweden, and Linnea had bought him some Festive Coffee and truffle powder in London. Funnily enough, Nathan had bought me new salt- and pepper mills too! Great minds think alike!

He also got a cookie jar full of snaps (!) from Mormor & Morfar, and a Pop Funk figure, from Linnea:

Mormor & Morfar had also got Linnea a Santa, and silver earrings:

Linnea continued to score big though, as many of the things she had found herself in London ended up being Christmas gifts, make-up, jewellery, clothes and a hand bag. So not many surprises there, although she hadn't noticed I had bought her some London-themed Christmas tree decorations and Harrods tea:

Nor did she know about the Dyson Airwrap..! Thinking she will be moving to Uni next year, she cannot keep using (stealing) mine.

I was spoiled too. I got a book about Monet, some perfume, santas for my collection, a cool art themed deck of cards and a fun puzzle from Mormor & Morfar, with a Skara motif on it!

I also received the biggest gift of them all, a new computer!

Lucas and his girlfriend Tove had also done really well with their gifts. Lucas gifted Linnea some much wished for make-up, and Tove had got her a sweatshirt that already has been put to use. I received a Chinese soap and a lipstick (in my best colour!), and above all, we all got very sweet and personal Christmas cards from Tove, as she was supposed to be here but ended up changing plans and now is not coming until after New Year.

Tove and Lucas' gift to Nathan had been the source of all the curiousity up to Christmas, as it was HUGE! Apparently they hadn't been aware of its size when they bought it, ha ha, so poor Lucas had to transport it here as special luggage! It was a to-go bar, a portable cool box which doubles as a table! Perfect!

For some reason I didn't get a single photo of our Swedish julbord, but we had all the goodies! I had schlepped two suitcases back the week before returning from Sweden!
Instead, you get the yearly Christmas family photo:

Merry Christmas to all!

Julafton 2023

This year we topsy-turved our Christmas celebrations a bit as we were celebrating with the Turners, and Will was going to fly on Christmas Day.
So instead of having Swedish julbord on the 24th and turkey-dinner on the 25th as per usual, we did it the other way around!

Obligatory group photo, good to have the Turners with us, even Hannah who had come out from Bath. We were missing Ben of course, who had decided to stay in NZ for Christmas this year.

This year we had ordered a turkey box from Springbok Butchery, after the disappointment with Festive Hamper from the Westin two years ago, which barely managed to feed us all one serving.
Let's just say, we got enough food this time..! Oh. My. Lord. We had certainly over ordered, but isn't that was Christmas is about, ha ha, turkey left-overs forever after?

It was all really, really tasty! A great meal had by all! Turkey, ham and all the trimmings, om nom nom!

Tash had prepared a fantastic dessert platter which we enjoyed while watching 'Die Hard'. What better activity after a huge Christmas meal!

God Jul!

Corona Diary, Day 297-300

Day 297, Sunday 27 December
Petra is out of town, so this morning I brought Lucas to padel coaching instead. We had a really good session! We have rather different strengths and weaknesses, but the coach got us to practice a fair few strokes, and play some games too. Fun, fun, fun!
Then it was time to take the kids to the drive-in center to do their PCRs for returning to school.

No... they are not going back in person until in two weeks time, so not quite sure either why this early. Every school had got a specific day their students were scheduled to do it. Just ticking the box I guess.
Linnea cooked tuna pasta for dinner. Happy not to have to cook myself, but really starting to think we should teach her some more signature meals she can revert to when it's her turn.

Day 298, Monday 28 December
Nathan went to work this morning, but the rest of us have been having a day at home. We have had a house guest though, so it was a bit special anyway! Really nice to have Emma, it had been a while:

I got started on my next Uni exam today, finally. It's really hard to get into gear, into the "now-Christmas-is-over-lets-get-back-to-routine"-feeling, considering every day has been pretty much the same for the past 10 months... But now I've started, yay. Only a few weeks until it has to be submitted.
McDonald's for dinner. Because Monday. Or something. Blergh.

Day 299, Tuesday 29 December
Padel again this morning, wii-hoo! Today we just played a game, Lucas, Nathan and I together with one of Nathan's colleagues, Murph. He had never played padel before but turned out to be a bit of a natural and completely outplayed me. I am a very sore loser. So I was in a foul mood for the rest of the day... Not so much for losing actually, but for not being a natural talent me too.
I took my foul mood and went to the LAD for a bit to cheer myself up. Needed to do some quick research for the next Uni exam due very soon.
Then I went to see 'The Seed' with a colleague of mine. The show itself was surprisingly short, only about 15 minutes, but it was nice to enjoy the sunset from the beach and with that view; and the show was rather magical.

Came home to Nathan having cooked a spinach and chicken lasagna, lucky me!

Day 300, Wednesday 30 December
Another padel morning, today Nathan and I played mixed with some new friends, Lotta and Simon. We had a really good game and have already booked in another game for the end of the week.
Linnea has been ploughing through all the 'Harry Potter'-movies the past few days, and today Dobby had died when we came back from padel, so she had a few tears.
We spent the afternoon and evening with some friends, good food, relaxed time and lots of chat and laughter, best evening in a long time!

Corona Diary, Day 39-40

Day 39, Friday 17 April
I must admit sometimes it's hard to get that proper weekend-feeling when we are all at home anyway all day every day... But today we have tried at least.
I made fresh scones for breakfast and we cleared off the dining table and turned it into a ping-pong table for the weekend, something especially Linnea enjoyed. Bless her, she is really trying to keep herself busy, but she is becoming increasingly bored by this isolation. She also tried making macarons today, which turned into a bit of a fail as it's rather complicated, will have to give that another try another day. I kept her company in the kitchen in the meantime. It was time to clear out, clean, label and reorganise the food cupboards.

In the evening we had some real comfort food (chicken curry) for dinner while we binge watched 'Younger'.

Day 40, Saturday 18 April
Nathan was having a ride scheduled "together" with some friends via Zwift in the afternoon today, so it was a bit of an inverted schedule with some cleaning and organizing going on in the morning, and the training got done in the late afternoon.
Today we attacked the stove-top fan (yuk!), the top of the kitchen cabinets (yuk, yuk, yuk!) and the storage room.

I must admit I keep things pretty tidy around here normally as well, but today we really went through everything - even the inside of the tool box!

I guess all this cleaning and sorting out is a solution for two things, firstly it gives me a something to do of course, it's one of the ways I get time to pass. Secondly, it's a way to feel control in all this uncertainty - control of something.
I am a planner, I need to have things to look forward to and I like to be in control, but right now it feels like I am living in a void. All information about the different restrictions we need to follow here is given "until further notice", so we all we can do is keep living day by day. I feel like I'm treading water just waiting for - well, I don't know. I don't know if next week will be the same as this, if we will be allowed to go outside next month or travel during the summer holidays; or this year at all!
I can't make any plans, whatsoever - other than for today, and maybe tomorrow. I guess this is why I make sure I exercise every day and why I have created a to-do list of small projects to get into; at least I can control my daily life, and it feels good.

Thanksgiving 2019

Time flies, and we have already had this years Thanksgiving celebration! Traditionally celebrated with our ex-neighbours, now in Dubai. Biggest one yet with almost 40 people! Amazing!

This year we could come all four of us, and it was the first time I saw Kristen and Chad's new house which they moved in to over the summer. Really, really lovely - gave me house envy... why don't we have those kind of nice compounds in Abu Dhabi..? We all fit outside on their lawn:

Food, food, glorious food..!

We ate, and played some games, and ate some more...

There was tons of kids there this year. Aiden was certainly living his best life with all these buddies around him! Linnea as well, getting to play with not just Wyatt, but two other little babies as well.

Linnea and Aiden drawing Thanksgiving turkey-hands on the window:

And as per usual, the next day we got to take a special take-away box home with some turkey and trimmings, for later. Art work by Aiden.

Thank you McGeHees for another wonderful Thanksgiving!