WIAW #18: Greenwich and getting in my Greens

When thinking about how to incorporate more “green" into my week it felt like the perfect time to tell you all about my trip to Greenwich just outside London. It definitely goes with the WIAW Green theme.

I’ve definitely been consciously considering how many greens and vegetables I pack into every meal and been doing pretty well with it even though I do love vegetables already!

In addition I am just not eating meals like this:

But back to Greenwich.

This is just on the edge of the city but feels forever away. It has trees and a park! Yes, I currently live 5 minutes from Kensington Park but this is different, so nice.

It has a village feel with a proper town center and a great line of shops that seem like it’s from another area: butcher, cheese shop, vegetable monger, and flower store all in a row. I’m not sure if it is technically “outside” London but it definitely acts and feels that way. Lovely!

We met some lovely people and took a walk around in celebration of Mary Kate’s 21^st birthday. We briefly went inside the National Maritime Museum and around walked outside of the Royal Observatory.

It was just too beautiful a day to be in doors.

I’ve realized that sometimes I tend to oversimplify my travel and let the photos do the talking. Because of that I thought it might be a good idea to give you something to fill in the gaps. My roommate Mary Kate has her own blog that is dedicated to her time abroad. Since we are normally together, she tends to write more and just as much about what I do. If you what some more info and just a generally good read, check out her blog at Living London.

Funny enough we’ve been celebrating this girl’sbirthday all weekend but hey you only turn 21 once, and she got to do it here. If you do stop by please wish her a happy 21^st, and tell her I sent you!

After working up an appetite we went to a little teashop called Royal Teas because the street is was on was called Royal Hill. Clever tea people.

They had a “Cream tea” for only £6.95 but strangely it looked more like a full tea trolley to me, tea, two salmon, cucumber, and cream sandwiches, large fruit scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and a piece of homemade cake at the end! Can’t get better than that! Everything here was decent price but I suppose that is what happens when you get a little outside London, things are so not so ridiculously overpriced here. This was lunch and we were so full we had to order the cake takeaway. When I told the people from my program they couldn’t believe we found a full tea this cheap. Winning!

For a good review on this adorable place check out a blog post from the Greenwich Phantom.

I want to show you our lovely tea and my other green meals from yesterday and today so I will start in order.

Two pots of Loose leaf Earl Gray

Salmon, Cucumber, and Cream cheese tea sandwiches (full sized to me) with lemon and salad garnish, which I put in my sandwiches

Large fruit scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam

One piece of Coffee Walnut cake (saved for later)

Late Dinner after the theatre:

Linguini with sautéed fresh  mushrooms, asparagus, banana shallot, wild garlic, garlic sage chicken sausage, and cherry tomatoes in white wine and mushroom tomato sauce topped with a little parmesan. Darn, I’m good.

Water

Bed

Lunch today just because I was so “green” in the square park, (which has wifi!)

Mixed greens salad with cucumbers, chickpeas, grain salad (lentils, quinoa etc.) roasted  red peppers, beet straws, cherry tomatoes, hummous and roasted seeds in a low fat dressing with a tortilla for the hummous.

Apple from the market

Sparkling organic orange juice

Sea salt crisps. (all from Pret except for the apple.)

I feel so green. Lots of green and other colored veggies!

I had such a good weekend in London. It was record-breakingly beautiful and I spent it between markets, reading outside, and eating of course. Not to mention the Pimm’s I’ve had at three separate places. I love Spring and jugs of Pimm’s split between friends! I’ll have to post a recipe for it. Monday we went to see One Man, Two Guvnors for our theatre class. It was so funny and definitely a crowd pleaser. I love that they brought up members of the audience and interacted, it was so brilliant. It’s coming to Broadway so try to see it if you can!

p.s. it’s pronounce as “Gren itch” not “Green wich” which if not from the Village in NYC, I probably would have referred to it as the latter. Strange English words.

How was your weekend? Have you seen the Hunger Games yet?

Enjoy!

Love,

The College Cuisiner