Good morning all. CalifDream thinking of you and your family with the devastating fires. My microwave died last year and I thought I could do without it and not buy another……silly me…..within a week I bought a new one. Having lunch at a coffee shop with a girlfriend today and then to the pub for tea later in the week so juggling FDs this week.

Hello everyone and thankyou so much for all your good wishes for yesterday, I got them all. They worked. <3 🙂 <3
It was all very straightforward (as far as I can tell) and they gave me something to stop me throwing up (which was my reaction for hours and hours last time I had a general anaesthetic). While that was wonderful it meant I was left with the other horrible symptoms of the anaesthetic: nasty irritability, no concentration and a feeling that life is not worth living. That is why I didn’t write when I got home! But I did have my granddaughters here to distract me, and this morning I feel so delighted to be back to normal. I get the results Thursday next week.

Cali, thinking of your part of the world. Wildfires are the main natural disaster we experience in southern australia and they scare me more than any other. I hate how quickly your ones took off and hate the knowledge that the death toll is likely to keep rising. Fingers crossed it is unexpectedly lower. I do hope your rellies recover from the horror quickly and are able to get settled soon.

Lindsay, glad your colonoscopy is over and done with, and hoping they find helpful and non scary things as a result.

And now to the posts that are fun and games.

Ha Lily Martin, I think if I sat on a hot pizza stone it would fix my soggy bottom!
Loved the clip LJoyce, I haven’t seen that movie for ages and this scene is the main thing I remember.

LJoyce so glad your binge was good food and soon to be counteracted by some nice fast days.
You will have such fun visiting the Middle Eastern shops. The one I go to is so popular that everything is very fresh and I get most of my pantry staples from it!

Re your menu, my choice would be the chicken and avocado salad.

Hi Quakka, lovely to have you here. Congratulations on your 6 weeks, that is about what I had done before I found these forums. Fingers crossed this isn’t a wobbly week, but come and complain if it is!

Arelkade, I am glad you got through a difficult fast day. My mantra on such days is “I can do anything for just one day”. And you did it. So nice to know you are enjoying this thread, and you are part of it now!

Gday, so glad the 2kg slipped away so quickly. Hooray!

Minka, so glad to see your post and that you are wending your way back to 5:2 and your gorgeous trousers!

I’m no help with the walking JJulie, as my illness means just walking around the block is something to do on a really good day. It will be interesting to hear the range of walkers here. But I think it is just a matter of doing what does fit in your life and suit your physicality. However, have a read of this that turned up in my feed today, if you hadn’t known how they walked in the Middle Ages!
https://pictorial.jezebel.com/this-video-of-how-medieval-people-walked-is-oddly-compe-1819217663

And now I want to buy aduki beans BUT I NEED TO USE UP THE MEXICAN RED BEANS FIRST!

I do love the kitchen appliance discussion.

Here is my thermomix contribution! (funny) (language warning) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr_etbfZtQ (and a bit of a white wine review too).

I was one of the last people in Australia to get a microwave, but it immediately became indispensable, and when it broke down I bought a new one the same day. I do mostly use it for warming heat bags as I suffer badly from cold feet.
I try to avoid appliances because I have a tiny kitchen, I REALLY want to be a minimalist (fail) and I hate getting things in and out of cupboards.
I have a stove top pressure cooker, so not an electrical appliance, but being a bean-eater it is my best friend, and now I have stopped being vegetarian I love it for my meat stews. And for cooking rice (no quicker but beautifully cooked).
I adore my foodprocessor, which is a good strong one with a blender attached, so (being a minimalist) I don’t have a blender wand. It sits on the bench with the electiric jug and the spice grinder. I toast my bread under the grill (just to be slightly minimalist 😉 )
I’ve lent my little Frosty icecream maker to a friend and I purchased a deep fryer with thoughts of arancine but I can’t bring myself to fill it up with 2 litres of oil just for one meal and I only want deep fried things now and then. Can’t bring myself to give it away yet! So it sits in a cupboard.

Penguin, what a wonderful tale of pilates! So glad you discovered it!
I need to do very gentle yoga, but I am determined to make it happen more as it is so good for me, so long as I don’t overdo it. I once did Tai Chi for several months and absolutely loved it! When I moved away the teacher said ‘make sure you practice every day, or it will forsake you’. But I didn’t…. and it did. 🙁

Well, I am just going to copy this before posting as I couldn’t bear it to disappear!

Edit: so it didn’t disappear. Murphy’s Law? Cheers all.

Two days without a morning post from Cinque is concerning. I do hope all’s OK. Hi Minka. Nice to see your post. Merry, it’s been a few weeks since your FIL’s funeral. I hope you’re OK too.

CalifD, so sorry to hear of the plight of your family. I know how devastating those fires can be. And very unpredictable.

JJulie, I walk a minimum of 5km per day and sometimes 12km. If I’m walking alone, I add some HIT. I don’t walk for weight loss but for general well-being. When we returned from Porto last year, we scoffed at what we’d previously called a hill. Now, it’s back to being a hill again. But most of the walk is flat as it follows the Swan River. There are a couple of other beautiful river walks that we enjoy but they’re a short car ride away and it seems wrong to drive to do a walk.

When we renovated, I designed our kitchen and it’s been perfect. It’s mostly drawers. By design, there are no high cupboards so the kitchen contains only items that are in regular use. Bulkheads come down to meet the highest cupboards eliminating that awful greasy void on top of cupboards. The highest cupboards open upwards with gas lift hinges. All cupboards are only one plate deep so everything is within easy access. And, best of all, there are no inaccessible corner cupboards which are my pet hate. Instead, two ‘corner’ spaces are accessed from the other side of the kitchen in the form of two large deep drawers containing large platters and items used for al fresco dining. Another corner is taken up with a step-in pantry. The only appliances on display are the kettle and coffee machine; the others are slid out and used in place – primarily the coffee grinder concealed near the coffee machine nook and the stick mixer being housed next to the stove. No clutter. I love it.

FD for me. I need it. The neighbour who loves to bake, but not to eat, was round with some sweet goodies yesterday. To those who’ve expressed difficulty with FDs, stick with them, they do become easy. After 3 years of fasting, I still plan ahead so there are no surprises. I try to embrace any hunger and know that it’s doing my body good. Think carefully about what you’re eating on FDs. Protein keeps you full. All the best.

P.S. Hurray, all is well with you Cinque. And you reminded me to welcome Quacka!

Cinque, glad you are feeling much better today. I watched your video link and tomorrow I might see what it is like to be a ball walker rather than a heel walker!! We walked 5 kilometres this morning, we started earlier as it is getting hotter here but my friend in the end had some spasms in her back so we had to slow down. Ended up taking 75 minutes to do the walk. I got home so hot with OH wondering where I had been as he was waiting for me to return before he left for work. We decided to only do the long walk every second day and the shorter 4kilometre walk in between.

Thermomix has been popular in Cairns and my walking friend’s daughter was a thermomix agent where you had parties and demonstrate how to use it as well as taking orders etc. The only thing though was all the bad news about people getting awful burns from it when things went wrong. They were so expensive. I personally would not buy one, but then I also would not buy a pressure cooker. They scare me to tell you the truth.

Thin, I agree with you it seems wrong to drive to do a walk but there is a great walking area in Cairns called the Red Arrow where you climb up steps to the top of the hill overlooking Cairns city and view of the harbour and Green Island in the distance then a gentle walk down the the beginning. I completed this only once many years ago and thought I would die in the process!!! but while I did the one circuit one young girl passed me 4 times without even looking like she was getting a sweat up!! I would love to try it again now I have been doing some walking for a couple of weeks and see how I go, but I might leave this little test till just before I visit Japan in November. Around my house there are lots of little parks and walking tracks for us to choose a variety of routes. One of the larger parks even as gym equipment in it so you can stop and do some arm or leg work which I think I will start doing on my way round.

Thanks for the thoughts Cinque, LJoyce, penguin and CalifDreamer. All good news, apart from my weight. I’m hoping it’s fluid, because the scales are locked in at a level I thought I’d said goodbye to. I’m drinking all the water I can today….I’m at work, and between consultations I wander up to the kitchen and get a large glass of hot water (which tastes better than it sounds). Anyway, it’s another FD today, so I’m hoping I’ll be up and down all night, which is usually a good sign.
penguin it’s interesting to see how programs like Pilates can turn around severe injury. I have had terrific results with myotherapy (which I’d never heard of until I was trying to get back on my feet after a herniated disc). It’s like physiotherapy on steroids, and the treatment involves intense (!) massage until muscles and tendons trigger and then relax. After 6 months of crippling pain, I was back walking with only the occasional twinge. Myotherapy was the last resort, and now when I swing into my GP’s surgery, he just shakes his head in amazement.
OK it looks like my last consultation isn’t coming after all so I think I’ll take an early mark.
All the best friends

Lindsay, I’m also drinking lots of cups of hot water today – but mine has a delicious Madame Flavour teabag dunked in! Choc mint. Sorry that I neglected to send good wishes for your colonoscopy. I was thinking of you though and I’m relieved that it went well as it’s not a procedure without risk especially in an older age group. We almost lost a very dear family friend from a supposed ‘routine’ colonoscopy last year. The good news is that once you’ve had one returned ‘negative’, there is no indication to repeat the test for at least 20 years, if at all. Unfortunately, our friend was not so well-informed at the time that his was prescribed.

JJulie, good luck with today’s fast being a screaming success. Salmon steaks are too high in cals for my FDs too. I sometimes have smoked salmon as part of a FD meal. 50gm salmon, 80gm steamed asparagus and a poached egg with 1tbs yoghurt/fresh dill/lime juice comes in at 195cals. I know you’ve been at this for a long time but twice recently you’ve written something that made me wonder if I should ask this of you. You’re sticking to 500 cals or less regardless of how much exercise you do on a FD, correct? I’m sure you would be, but I’m just checking!

One more hour until my first intake for the day so I think I’ll go and weed the lawn. I’m sure the lawnmower man brings all the weeds in.

Cinque. Two days of morphine got me. The nurse on the receiving end was very understanding, it happens a lot.

Lots of good weight control news around at the moment, so I’ll add to it. I was on my target weight for two weeks in August, relaxed and put some back on. I am now back on target. Obviously I need a target to stop complacency setting in. I have set a new target 7 lbs down.

The sky is gray with all the smoke in the air this morning. The sun is trying to get through but looks like an eerie orange color. There is a fire that started last night in a wooded canyon area a ways east of here that is in a wild area with no housing, just lots of trees. But it’s contributing to all the smoke. Our niece and her family was evacuated again, further north, away from the fires that are still burning without any containment yet. What a nightmare this all is! I feel so bad for everyone that has lost their homes. This is the biggest California fire in an urban area that I can recall. Usually they are in more remote areas and canyons. I’ve been feeling really stressed with all of this.

Cinque, I’m glad you’re finished with your procedure and have your GD’s there to keep you busy.

Thin, your kitchen sounds beautiful! The enclosures and cabinets sound great. You should post a picture. It’s hard to imagine the bulkheads and how the cabinets open. Clutter on the counters is something I wish we could avoid.

Hope everyone is having a good day. Gotta get back to work. I’ll write more later.

Good morning,
What wonderful kitchen designers we have here, LJoyce and Thin!

Cali, my best wishes still flowing your way, everyone must be so stressed and tired with the fires still out of control and so changeable. I do hope the winds die down and give the firefighters a chance to get the fires under control.

Quakka, you are in beautiful country.
Congratulations on getting to 70k! I am like you, I hate the prejudice against fat and cheer on people who love their bodies while they are overweight, but I never felt okay about my excess weight, I hated it, and I am so, so glad to have lost it. I’m very happy to keep 5:2ing for the rest of my life to remain this healthy weight.

JJulie I played around with walking medieval style yesterday and realised it was very familiar, I guess it is how I walked as a child. It did make my thighs and and calves ache! But I am going to try and do it more.
I turned 60 in June (isn’t it weird) and got the same present from the government!

Lindsay, I hope all the water does its trick. It must feel great to have the colonoscopy out of the way for five whole years. And so lovely to read how myotherapy allowed you to recover so well from dreadful pain.
What sort of consulting do you do? (ignore if you want to be private).

It is fast day for me today, I’m going to make it a good one!

Just popping back to say hello Merry! So glad to see your post. I am very glad you have had a bit of a holiday and congratulations on doing so ell without your travel scales.
I’ll be thinking of you through the coming stressful month and hope that everything goes really well.
Cheers for your mini goal!

Hi all I am a bit late today in posting.

I had a really good FD yesterday and clearly lost over 1kg in the process, although that did not quite get me back to 80k on the scale. I was 80.7, so today having another FD and eating similar to yesterday, with breakfast being a Green Tea, lunch was tomato soup and I have the velvet butternut soup left over from yesterday ready for dinner tonight. I also had one small carrot cut into carrot stick mid afternoon before I went to my Taiko lesson last night.

CalifD, Your description of the sky in the morning and the feel of your surroundings at the moment was so descriptive that I felt as if I was there with you. I have never heard it to be as bad as this before and hope and pray that it is under control soon so as not to spread any further. My heart hurts when I think of all the wildlife, family pets as well as people who have perished in this. My thoughts are with you all.

Hello Merryme, I remember you from two years ago. Great to hear you are still around.

LindsayL, Yes every little bit helps and is motivating. Congratulations on the loss. I heard something similar with the polyps when my mother was diagnosed with the bowel cancer and could relay it back to five years before when she had a “scare” and the doctor she went to did not investigate properly.

Well off to my Japanese lesson for this week. I shall look in again upon my return.

sorry not enough time to edit that lot, s/b “how would you like to ……”

Haha thinatlast here I am….still breathing !!

Another successful ‘cleaning out’ day with 7 garbage bags full of stuff in the back of the car to go to the op shop. Some more finds from my 20’s – 2 more mini skirts and a little black dress…and yes they fit perfectly – yay. That should be the last of my ‘finds’ now.

A bit of housework today turned into a lounge room furniture re-arrange. I’ve decided to sell the cross trainer as I dont really like it, much prefer the treadmill. So I’ve moved it onto the front verandah and posted for sale on the local buy swap sell FB page. So much more room now and looks like a lounge room rather than a gym – another yay.

Weight has been steady. Tonights pub meal has been cancelled so will now have to think of something for tea…..mmmm decisions decisions.

OH and I are travelling well and see each other most days. MissD was a little apprehensive at first which was understandable as she’s had me to herself for the last 6 years. But now she’s enjoying his company too and takes taking great delight in telling everyone that mums got a boyfriend.

Must go….things to do.

Thin, my doctor who I have had now for 30 years (ever since I moved to Cairns) was the same doctor who finally found the cancer in my mother. When I reached 40 he sent me for a colonoscopy. I have never had one since. It seems the poo tests we do are sufficient to be the first testing we need and if anything is found it is then that he will order the colonoscopy. I get tested every year with him this way then also do the government ones when they arrive. So I am quite happy not to have a colonoscopy every 5 years as it was stated 22 years ago I should do due to the family history. It seems that blood tests and our poo tests are refined much more these days and they can pick up more this way than what they could do years ago.

Stay, I usually do B2BFDs and it is usually on a Monday and Tuesday, but I just could not get my act together this week and gave myself a good talking to on Wednesday morning about how I could do this and not to give up on my goals.
I love tulips! The first time I ever saw tulips was on mass on the US side of Niagra. We had arrived around midnight from Buffalo airport and spent that first night in the hotel just opposite. My relative lives just north of Niagra on the Canadian side and drove down the next morning and picked us up. Before he arrived we could hear such a loud noise around 5.30am and my father decided to get up and investigate. He came back saying how we all needed to see what was outside, so we all got ready and wondered down to find that the noise was actually Niagra Falls and that the whole area in the park was a mass display of tulips of all colours. I fell in love!!! How I wished I could visit the tulip display you went to when I read your post. They just dont grow up here in Cairns!!

Gday, sounds as if you are having a great clean out. I bet it feels so good. I have done some housework today as well and a big tidy up as we have our Taiko group coming over tomorrow night for a “Friday the 13th Taiko Party” Not quite what you might think it is as we will not be making any noise with the drums. This is going to be a drum making party and we are hoping to start the process of making at least 3 more drums from old wine barrels. It is quite a long process that we have done before (and learnt from it) but it is a great social outing for us all as well.
I had to laugh at MissD telling everyone you had a boyfriend. It must make you feel like a teenager again and I hope you are enjoying it.

LJoyce, what a terrible couple of days you have had. Hope you are feeling much better now.

News has just shown photos of the fires in California. So many stories of people surviving with just minutes to spare. It seems not to be letting up at all. I remember years ago that some Aussie firefighters went over to help when there was devastating fires then they returned the favour when we had bad fires in Australia and some American firefighters came to help here. I have not heard that any of our guys have gone over this time.

Well so far my second FD has been successful and I have just finished my carrot sticks. I will heat up the soup soon so I can have that.

Happy Fast Day to those also doing it with me.

Hi everyone
Been a few days since reading all your very interesting posts. Just wondering what most of you have found helpful to eat on FD’s to stick to the calorie count! Do most of you have evening meal,then do FD all day, then eat normally the morning after – or is there a better way. I know it’s individual choice, but any hints would be helpful.
Just bought a food processor, & also a combined slow/pressure cooker – hoping to have a cook day & have food in freezer for convenience! Have to check net for good recipes.
Friday 13th tomorrow – must buy lottery ticket!
Hope you all have a great weekend & enjoy whatever you choose to do. Cheers

Good morning everyone. Another lovely day today.
Thank you JustJulie for all that info and very helpful advice. Congratulations on being under 80kg – I feel good for you. It would feel good to be in the next lot of 10kgs. Enjoy.
I’m visiting my brother with another brother & sister about 300klms from home. We haven’t been all together for so long & it is wonderful to catch up – big problem is nibbles ie cheese, dips, cabanossi, wine, etc that I don’t usually have at home. The body doesn’t feel good today so will try to be good – home tomorrow arvo.
All enjoy doing whatever is special for you today. Cheers

Thin, you are the wisest person I know and have helped me so much with 5:2. I thank you very much. Yes I will be eating today. I ended up having only green tea all day so I can enjoy the BBQ sausages and salad tonight.

Hi again
Thank you thinatlast
All sounds very helpful. Its interesting hearing how others manage their FD choices & makes it easier when all options are discussed. I really enjoy reading everyone’s posts.
It’s 9.40pm Friday evening – time for sleep, home tomorrow.
Cheers

Good morning everyone,
Penguin,
That hurricane is scary. Fingers crossed it manages to get rid of a lot of energy before hitting land.
So interesting that you get accustomed to not eating during your fast and are not eager to break it. I’d like to get the chance to do a fast your way, but my life doesn’t suit it at the moment.

Arelkade, I began 5:2 by deciding to have a small bowl of porridge in the morning of a fast day, and a bowl of soup in the evening.
My plan was to drink 0 calorie drinks through the day, but that was just too hard. So I decided I would let myself drink my cuppas with milk through the day and only eat my evening soup. That has worked so well that I pretty well do it every fast day, and have done for more than two years.
I enjoy the ritual and I make miso soup so I just need my jar of miso paste, my bag of frozen chicken tenderloins, some dried shiitake mushrooms and a vegetable or two.

I’m glad you are having such a lovely time with your siblings, but my sympathy with all those dips and things around.

Thin and JJulie, aren’t you two so lovely!

LJoyce, are you still crook? Sending best wishes.

Cali, I see the fires are still an emergency, a terrible time.

Hello to everyone else.
I managed to get to the Social Enterprise’ workshop yesterday and it was worth it. So interesting to be in a room full of people doing interesting things. But I need to take today quietly. And fast day tomorrow!

Cheers all

Good morning all,
What a lovely Saturday morning it is in my little area of Cairns. To give you a little idea, we have a two story house, designed with an old Queenslander style in mind, but a bit more modern. We live in a suburb of Cairns called Brinsmead, it used to be called Brinsmead Valley as we are actually part of a valley. We are surrounded by mountains so from my front balcony I have a wonderful green outlook of the mountains in front of us. We have a mountain behind us, but as we used our back balcony especially in the mornings for relaxing and having that morning cuppa, we have it partially enclosed with lattice. The lattice still allows for the airflow but gives us a bit more privacy from the house behind us. Therefore OH and I can sit outside with our laptops and have our morning cuppa, answer work emails, plan the working day and also relax on weekends all to the music of the birds in the area who are busily chirping away. Often we are entertained by the kookaburras who sit in the trees behind the house or enjoy the little Olive-backed Sunbirds who flitter in and out our balcony looking for somewhere to build a nest or the odd bug or two that might be hanging around (the tropics is full of bugs.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive-backed_sunbird
We have gekkos living on the balcony (dont like them inside as they can be too messy) and when it rains the green tree frogs come out of hiding and we often find them out at night looking for their feed of the bugs.
So this is my Saturday morning………
Last night was a huge success with the start of three new drums and a sausage sizzle with a cheese and fruit platter, vietnamese coleslaw and japanese cheesecake. There ended up being miles too much food as others also pitched in without my knowledge. One of the team is vietnamese and so she brought the coleslaw (very tasty coleslaw that has cabbage with chicken) and one of the Japanese team members brought the cheesecake (which I had to have a small piece of)
Everyone was here til about 9.30 so it wasnt a late night.

Weight this morning was still under the 80’s which is so good considering I ate two sausages, cheesecake, coleslaw, cheese and fruit and of course some wine. So today I am going to fast all day until this evening’s meal. OH is off to Brissy until Monday night for work so I only have to concentrate on my own meals for the next couple of days.

Thin, how was the pizza?
And yes drumsticks would have been a great idea. I will do that next time we get together to work on these drums!

Arelkade, One thing I have found is very useful for making fast day soups is a stick mixer. Mine is now permanently next to my cooktop for blending my soups. It is easy to clean as well.

Penguin, stay safe…..do you have a routine where you prepare for the hurricanes?
Cairns is a tropical area so we get cyclones. We have what we call a cyclone preparation plan where we prepare our house in readiness for the high winds and rain that a cyclone brings. We fill containers with drinking water (years ago after a cyclone we had no water for 4 days) we also fill anything we can find with water so we can use it to flush the toilet. We make sure the gas bottle on the BBQ is full in case we have no power and the BBQ becomes our only source for cooking (one other time we were without power for 3 days) We now have a generator where we can use it to keep the freezer and the fridge going therefore decreasing the food loss. We tape up the windows to stop them from shattering during the high winds which can be quite dangerous as you can imagine. All animals are brought inside for safety. Candles and torches are put out for easy access. Spare batteries are bought for both the torches and the radio. (radio may be our only source of information even before the cyclone fully hits us)….and the list goes on!
So stay safe Penguin, I know how hurricanes (cyclones)can be devastating.

Cinque, I love porridge but just dont seem to be able to make it like my grandmother did so I have given up. Mine tastes horrible!!!!

So I hope everyone else has a great day today.

What a lovely environment JJulie. When I lived in the deep south of the USA, we experienced tornadoes. Most people had basements. Ours had one small window and I recall seeing lawn chairs fly past during one episode.

It was 31C yesterday. The sky turned eerily dark when we arrived for our dolphin watchers gathering and there were lightning strikes close by. One lady was understandably concerned as she explained that her aunt had been struck by lightning twice. A strong wind came through and all the hors d’oeuvres had to be held down. Then it started to rain quite hard and everyone bolted for their cars. Normally we wouldn’t have driven but OH can’t walk too far yet. Anyway, it was quite a show from nature and the good news is that there was no pizza!

CalifD, I don’t have any experience with alopecia. I listened to Australia’s leading medical authority talking about it recently. It was widely held to have been caused by stress but he has debunked this theory. I knew someone suffering from the condition and it caused her great anxiety. It must be awful to work in a stressful job. Can you consider getting rid of it?

Cinque, good that it was worth making the effort to get to your conference. See you for miso fasting tomorrow!

I add 100 gms chicken breast thinly sliced, 8 shiitake mushrooms and a quarter of a Chinese cabbage. That’s for two miso soup servings.

Two slices of pizza would see me up a kg the next day. The bread base is the killer for me.

CalifD, we have 22 adult dolphins permanently residing in the river park comprising the Swan and Canning Rivers. Babies have a high mortality rate (50%) so they’re not included in the resident population count. Dolphin Watchers is a citizen science programme to record their movements and behaviour. They’re identified by their fins, like a fingerprint. All the fin shapes are different but the easiest way to identify them is when the fins are damaged – from tangles with fishing line, boating collisions, shark attacks when they venture into the ocean, etc. We are issued a Fin Book every year with colour photos of each adult and their offspring. Sometimes I’ll see them everyday for weeks and then have no sightings for weeks. They swim at approximately my walking pace so I’m sometimes lucky enough to follow them along the river bank for up to an hour.
https://www.riverguardians.com/projects/dolphin-watch/identifying-dolphins

I have just been doing some work in my vegie garden and picked a heap of tomatoes. Took some to the next door neighbour. I also pick a heap of snake beans and am now trying to decide on how to use them for dinner tonight.

CalifD, Something that can be prepared ahead of time………
Soup
Chicken Casserole (any casserole or stew really)
Chilli Con Carne
Quiche
Meatloaf

If you have a slow cooker there are endless things that take very little effort.
Slow Cooker recipes…….
Slow-cooked Corned Beef
Slow-cookedChicken, Leek and Mushroom casserole
Slow-cooked boeuf bourguignon
Slow-cooker marsala-braised pork with chilli and prunes
Slow-cooker Middle Eastern lamb with quick hummus
Slow-cooker spicy pineapple roast pork with lemongrass and lime rice

Also there are heaps of things you can do with miso as a base.
Japanese Nabe is a Japanese style stew that is often cooked at the table. (I only do it that way when entertaining)
The last time I had Nabe I did vegetarian only and found it really filling.
I think I have posted the recipe in the other forum for recipes.
You can add chunks of boneless chicken thigh, skinless breast or tenderlions to it if you want.

I just had a look at google earth and found my house. The day this was done the garbage truck was just out the front!!! My husband’s old blue ute is in the driveway (that car has been gone for a year) It is incredible to see. [post edited to remove personal details]

Hi SHs,
I’m just catching up of the posts for the last few days, still have more reading to do.

I’m getting better, but still feel rather wobbly. I’m still pretty limited in what I can eat without causing an adverse reaction. I’m OK with grains and some dairy, and I’ve just reintroduced egg and bananas without too dramatic a reaction. Although I didn’t feel like it, I dragged myself out of the house this morning to get some sprouted rye bread, ricotta, bananas, yoghurt and kefir. That should tide me over until I’m better. I’ve been listening to my body and just eating the foods that feel palatable and that has mostly worked. I’ve taken some butternut soup out of the freezer and I’m going to try that tonight.

Cali – I’m praying for rain and a cool change for California.

I’ll post again later once I’ve caught up with all the posts I’ve missed.

Thin, I love the fact that you can walk with the dolphins. That would be such a great walk.
Thanks for the miso soup recipe, sounds delicious and easy too. I have some shitake mushrooms in the fridge, tofu as well so I have decided to make a miso soup and use my snake beans as well.

Minka I am glad you had a geat FD yesterday. Dont worry too much about FDs as I
move them around too like I did this week.

CalifD, Yes I liked the sound of the spicy pineapple pork dish too and the rice sounds refreshing. I might make that one too sometime soon. Did you find the recipe? It serves 8 so I would half it.
Thanks for your comments about the house. We have palm trees in the front and I do like the look of them but they do make a lot of mess when they drop their fronds which are sometimes too big to put into the garbage bins. We get the sulphur crested cocatoos in the front palm trees as they go to eat the palm nuts. The brightly coloured Rosellas are often in the trees around us that have flowers with nectar. My friends house has heaps of those types of trees. Grevilleas, Bottlebrush, Lillypilly, Callistemon are some of the trees. The Powder Puff tree flowers attract the coloured parrots and after it has rained the mixture of the rain and the flower nectar starts to ferment when the sun comes out again. The birds have a wonderful time drinking all this nectar and the funny thing that happens is that they all get quite drunk off of all this fermented nectar and end up falling out of the trees. We usually have to make sure that they are not attacked by the dogs and let them sleep it off. Then next day they are gone. Probably with a huge sore head!!!

The kangaroos (we have wallabys here) are not far from our house. There are a lot of parks and rainforest areas near so this is where they live. We often see them just sleeping in the parks on the grass, feeding and relaxing. Yes you can see them hopping down the street sometimes. They are wild still so you can never get close to these ones unlike the wallabys at the local “zoo” where you can hand feed them.
Koalas tend to be in the eucalyptus trees as this is the only leaf they eat. We dont have any of those trees near our house so I have never seen any koalas in the wild around here, but they are in the areas just north of us.