Midweek Munchies

CW for this post: Depression, grief, food restriction.

I've had a lot of photos back logged, so all those mid-week munchies I have been posting over the last few weeks... they were from the before times. The times when I knew time with Dim Sim was limited, but I was trying to give us as much time as possible. The time when I still had hope. Then she was gone, so suddenly. Honestly, I didn't eat anything for three days, and then I spend the next couple of weeks barely eating. It took a long time for my appetite to come back to any semblence of normal, and my desire to cook or do anything was next to none. During these times I relied on things like microwave meals, juices, snack bars, and biscuits for when I did get to a point where my body was demanding some sort of food. So the next many midweek munchies posts will be covering some of those foods, that were there for my when I needed. Why did I keep taking photos of them? I don't know. Some sort of compulsion? Some attempt at connecting to life even though there was a long time there when I didn't want it? Anyway, if you are sad in Australia, here are some foods you could turn to.

Two of my wonderful friends sent my care packages from The Green Edge. To be honest I can't remember which package these were from. Biscuits are easy, and I could eat half a pack to get my blood glucose up and then go back to bed. I liked the Chocolate Fingers the best, they were jam sandwiched between short bread cookies and dipped in chocolate.



Dinner as a concept was not something I was able to cope with too much. It involved having and appetite, making an effort, and also some sense of timing. So I just ate whenever, even if that meant dinner at 3pm. I ordered/bought a bunch of different microwave meals. This one was actually pretty good. The patties were fine, the gravy was nice, and it was a good mix of vegetables.



This Super Pulses Vegan Bolognese was a bit meh, and I had to pick out capsicum (yes, even in my darkest moments I won't let capsicum slide). The pea protein pasta was a bit grainy. I added nooch.



I randomly picked this up one day at the shops. Grocery shopping is hard during grief they say. And it was. But at sometimes I just felt like I couldn't stay in the house for another moment. I needed to get out for a little bit, and the shops were just the easiest option. This was on sale. It sat in my cupboard for quite a while before I actually ate it, because it was about to expire. It was really nice, soft bread and the flavour was good. I had it fresh with some hummus, but you can also heat it up. (Not pictured anywhere but how good are tubs of hummus when you just feel like you need to put some food in your face?)



I mentioned juice. I drank a lot of juice and iced teas and things. Maybe I didn't feel like I could eat anything, but juice at least as a bit of energy in it and some sort of vitamins or whatever. This juice was mostly apple and orange, but as you can see with echinacea in it it is a little bit of a silly drink.



This juice is less silly, but was very nice. I was quite dehydrated during this time (more so than usual), and something about this combination really did quench that thirst.



Final one for this post is this Nature's Kitchen Cottage Pie. Nature's Kitchen is the in-house vegan brand at Coles. These meals are sold in the fridge section, but I freeze them all the time, then just thaw and heat in the microwave for when I feel ready. This was pretty nice. Kind of soupy, but I liked it.



Also a huge shout out to my beautiful friend Amy, who came over a couple of days after Dim Sim passed just to sit with me and talk. She brought me silly juices, as well as pho and banh mi from Cafe O'Mai. The filling of that bahn mi was the first thing I ate in three days. And I managed the pho the day after.