the long, slow march to spring

Is it just me, or is everyone feeling the February fug?

Nothing seems particularly exciting, or inspirational, when it comes to food right now. The dishes I'm serving up are the same ones I served up last month, and the month before that. Other than forced rhubarb (which has scary Gothic overtones for me, sorry), no "new" ingredients can be found in my fridge or my cupboard. It's sad. I'm sad, and a little bored.

So what's on the menu this week? We gotta eat, after all...

Monday: sausages and mash. swede mash. Pretty tasty, especially with a bit of wholegrain mustard stirred in.

Tuesday: twas to be a Thai curry, with frozen fish, carrots and bok choy. But the cinema sounded much more exciting (as did the local Chinese restaurant). Alas, no to our friend the Thai curry.

Wednesday: Spanish-style butter beans and prawns with tomato and chilli. Yum, actually. I'm quite looking forward to that.

Thursday: ratatouille pasta. There are still some decent courgettes coming from Spain, though God knows where that aubergine came from. I imagine it huddling together with all the other shivering aubergines in the crate on the way here, dreaming of its warm cozy home. I envision a lovely, chunky rustic pasta, with loads of sauce.

Friday: burgers and sweet potato chips. A stalwart.

Here's the issue, I think: all of these dishes are nice, right? tasty. belly-filling. But I'm getting no sense of urgency to eat them. The tins and frozen produce, and possibly even that swede languishing in the refrigerator, aren't going anywhere.

The feeling (like in in May, when you gotta, you must, you have to do nothing but eat asparagus) eludes me completely right now. I miss it. Terribly.

Possibly one of the biggest roadblocks to healthy eating, the mundane hovers over us like the wretched two-degree fog. Come, spring, come!