Happy Birthday Lindsay. Hope you are having a lovely day x

Happy Birthday, Lindsay! (This time on the right day, I hope!) http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/n-arxsrf/zw4pw/products/121/images/426/RM_141_Beautiful_Birthday_Cake_of_Flowers__84379.1399216227.1280.1280.JPG?c=2
It’s so good to hear the wonderful news about your OH’s improving eyesight. I hope you see more in the coming days.
I hope you both are enjoying the Amazon Echo. We got oneof the first ones 4 years ago when they were first available here. We’ve added them to other rooms in the house over the years and really enjoy the convenience of having light bulbs connected through them which we can control with voice. They can do so much more these days than they could do 4 years ago. They update themselves all the time. Ask Alexa to sing Happy Birthday. Or tell you a joke. Or play music from the 60’s or 70’s. Or how to say “good morning” in French. She is so smart! Penguin, Siri lives on my phone and is a lot more snarky than Alexa. 😁

Thin, I had to laugh at your comments about your neighbor and the alien rubbish. I thought that was what extra food on FD was called. 😁

Cinque, good to hear you are getting rain. Please send it in our direction when you are finished with it! Yesterday the smoke from the fires to the north of us was blowing in our direction. Although it was actually a sunny day, it looked like a thick fog and smelled awful. The sun looked like an orange ball. I can only imagine how much worse it must be up there. It has now grown to 141,000 acres – 40% contained.

Intesha, your new cookies are lovely. But $90 to mail them to the UK! Ouch! Have a safe drive down to Melbourne. Is it a scenic drive?

LJoyce, you had an incredible op shopping day. The clothing you bought is beautiful and I imagine it cost a fraction of what it would be in a regular store. Our friends wanted to go to the op shop here yesterday and today and bought a couple things. (She volunteers at one near their home.) Our store just had a big Christmas sale so it was really kind of picked over. But they continue to put out new things, so I was glad she found something.

Our friends leave tomorrow morning and I’ll get caught up on reading all of the posts then and write some more. Hope everyone is going well today.

Question – I’m making chicken broth today and the new recipe I’m using says to simmer gently for 12 to 24 hrs to get the most flavour and nutritional benefits. I’m not too keen on leaving the pot on the gas burner overnight while I’m sleeping so thinking I might put it in the oven (which is electric) on low overnight. Your thoughts on this please ?

Hi all

Just a quick check-in as we are crazy busy with spring cleaning ready for the big family day next weekend. Had a pretty bad day yesterday food-wise but today am being much more controlled. Woke up with a sore throat and head cold so feeling pretty ordinary.

Everyone sounds like they are having a good weekend. Hope it continues!

hi all just a quick check in. Arrived in Melbourne all checked in, scotch in hand and some smoked almonds (sorry). Just noticed the almonds are from California.

The trip was about 9 1/2 hours and that was with stops. It took me over 45 minutes just to get around the ring road to my hotel but I’m here.

Cali everyone’s scenic is different. I came straight down the freeway and I love the wide open spaces, seeing cattle and sheep grazing. Even though we’ve had severe drought there are places where it is very green. The other way is via the coast which is a longer trip but very scenic. If I had someone with me it would be lovely to meander down that way and stop off as the mood dictates.

Anyway Cinque I am here and so looking forward to a catch up.

Looking forward to my Sunday FD today as it’s been a rather indulgent three NFDs. Who’s in?

It’s been a long time since we made a road trip in Oz. Those distances! I remember once driving for four days before seeing the first sign for our destination, “Darwin 1400kms”!

CalifD, good for you for fitting in the FD. We’re expecting 23C today in the west, not much higher than your 18C. I hope you get that rain. So much destruction is hard to comprehend. Not to mention the plight of furry friends. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/11/17/surviving-camp-fire-was-hard-enough-now-these-animals-have-find-their-humans/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a8696be078d8

Excited to discover that the tomato seeds I planted a while back are vine tomatoes. They’re growing in groups of eight. So tasty, I can’t wait for them to ripen.

Gday, That sounds like a good decision.

Hi everyone. Sunday at 11.00am and it is mostly sunny but only 21 today. There is a cool breeze…I can’t believe summer will be here in two weeks because lately it has been feeling more like autumn

Intesha, glad you are in Melbourne and enjoying the start of your break. Cali, I am doing a rain-dance for you as well

Congrats on the 1kg down Gday! Your shed sounds amazing

Enjoy your FD Thin, I’m looking forward to mine tomorrow. I normally can’t do Mondays, which I actually prefer, but my Dad isn’t coming tomorrow night because of my head-cold. He catches things easily so will stay away from my germs.

Has the hot weather arrived as predicted LJ? I am really hoping for some heat next weekend so the family can enjoy our swimming pool. It is heated but if it is cool outside it is very cold when you get out

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great weekend

Anzac, your post arrived after I submitted mine. Today and tomorrow are in the 30s here, then back to quite cool and possibly wet days days until next weekend. As the short burst of heat seems to be heading east it will probably get to the east coast, although not sure which states it will get to. Hopefully you’ll have it next weekend so you can enjoy the pool.

6pm and I’ve just cleaned up the kitchen after making 28 pasty slices. A marathon 7 hour effort but glad the freezer is stocked. In fact the freezer is quite well stocked with soups, stews, spaghetti Bolognese etc which makes week night meals so easy

Miss D’s friend who slept over on the weekend has gone home but MissD not so keen on cleaning up the mess they made. Time to put feet up, do some reading and an early night for me. 36 degrees today and 39 tomorrow….yuk

Hi all. A quick post as we are on the island and I left my dongle at home so internet is confined to my phone which I dropped and now have a shattered screen. Oh well.
Thank you for my birthday wishes all…it’s been perfect.
Oh’s spirits are high. He didn’t tread on any children’s toys (or the baby!) and the family didn’t let me lift a finger.
And I got a great present from my son and dil … a bee hive for native bees. They know me so well… I’ve always hankered over bees.
Hope those of you who are doing well continue to do so, and things look up for those who aren’t.
And praying for rain in California.
Good night all.

Gday, it sounds like your freezer is now well stocked after your cooking marathon. You deserve some leisure time now! Your shed sounds like it will be a great place for the treadmill and exercise bike with the temperature control. How niceto have a dedicated space for exercise.

Anzac, your weather yesterday when you posted, sounds like ours today. It should get to around 21. Still praying for rain for the fire areas. Here’s a link for info on the fires. The Camp Fire is the one north of us. http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents Thin, the article you posted about the animals is heartbreaking. Getting the pets out is one of the things I worry about most if there would ever be a fire here.

LJ, your vegetable garden seems to grow by the minute! That cucumber you posted looks like a pickling cucumber. I don’t usually pickle them, but I often buy those small ones and slice them for salads, like you did. Thanksgiving and Christmas are both big holidays here but Thanksgiving is my favorite because Christmas has become so commercialized with the shopping and gift giving aspect that it kind of takes the enjoyment away. Thanksgiving is just a big meal with friends and family, and it’s one of my favorite meals to cook. We are going to OH’s neice’s house for the holiday and then I will do a meal here on Saturday here for friends. Traffic does seem to be worse on Thanksgiving and thankfully we’ll only have a 15 minute drive. Thin, how nice it was for you to offer to work on the holiday when you lived here. I’m sure your co-workers were thankful.

Intesha, will there be pictures of your meetup with Cinque? I know you probably wouldn’t want to post them on a public forum like this, but Cinque has my email and could give it to you.

We already have a lot of fall decorations up from Halloween, so I swap out the pumpkins for turkeys and such. Here’s a photo, plus a photo of the trees in front that are very colorful this time of year. https://imgur.com/a/xLYuJRt There are 3 of those trees in front, an Ornamental Pear tree that doesn’t bear fruit. About half of the leaves are down and in the driveway already. There’s also a picture of our Meyer Lemon tree in the garden. The lemons still have a lot of green on them, but I’m guessing they should be ripe in another week or two. We planted that when we moved here.

Hope everyone is having a nice Monday. It’s great to read all the posts here.

Good morning all

Well this morning I cracked the 87’s! Happy dance :):) Having a cold helps because you don’t really feel like eating too much.

We are having a claytons spring, it is normally much warmer than this 2 weeks out from summer. But I’ll be moaning about the heat once it arrives 🙂

So glad you had a lovely birthday Lindsay and your hubby is feeling more confident with his footing. What a lovely and unusual gift – a bee hive!

Does it get very cold in winter where you live Cali? I’m still doing rain dances for a deluge to help with those awful awful fires.

Cinque and Thin, it was interesting to read your comments that your FD’s are harder if you eat more on NFD’s. Makes perfect sense but I never thought about it that way. My first FD of the week always seems much harder than the second one and I guess it is because I eat more on weekends.

Glad to hear you had a great FD on Saturday and a light NDF yesterday LJ. I love cucumber and yours straight from the garden sounds delicious. I’m going to ask my in-house gardener (hubby) to try and grow some. Our tomatoes are coming along nicely and he planted basil, parsley and chives from seed and they are sprouting. We have lots of different chilli plants as well as thyme, oregano, mint, sage and capsicums. I’m sure there are others but I can’t think what they are at the moment. We have a miniature lemon tree but it never does that well and we only get a few each year.

Marathon effort cooking Gday. Well done! I like having a well-stocked freezer too so there are always healthy options to hand when we can’t be bothered cooking.

How is the holiday going Intesha?

I’m very hungry already but just about to make a nice coffee to distract myself.

Have an awesome day everyone

Test

9:15am Monday, Adelaide Forecast has been reduced to 34C. The sky is completely overcast here so I suspect there will be rain tonight.

Cali, lovely photos. What beautiful autumn foliage – both alive on the tree and also the garland you have on the stair banisters. I also like the tartan turkey, very cute – is that a McTurkey? Thanksgiving sounds like a nice holiday actually. We don’t have anything like that here. Getting together with family without all the gifts and expense sounds rather nice.

Cinque & Cali, the cucumber might have looked like a gherkin, but it was much bigger – about 20cm (8 inches) long. That’s just a guess as it was a bit bendy. It reminds me of one the cucumbers that was commonly available when I was a child, but is never in the stores these days. Those little dimples were actually a bit spiky, but I used the vegetable brush to scrub them off. A lot of the older varieties of cucumber do have little spikes, I wonder if that is why we can only buy continental and lebanese cucumbers these days – no spikes. Even the varieties of zucchini that I am growing are quite prickly to handle – they are covered in sharp hairs. I’ve learned that they are best picked wearing cotton gloves!

Lindsay, sounds like a lovely birthday. I didn’t even know you could buy a native bee hive – I hope it gives you a lot of joy.

Anzac, I too have lots of herbs. They are one thing I always try to have growing, even if I’m limited to pots as they are rarely practical to buy. It’s usually $3 for a big bunch of something when I only need a sprig. I seem to do better with some than others. Coriander always bolts to seed the moment I plant it.

GDSA & Anzac hope your FDs go well. I’m on another controlled NFD.

I have to babysit this evening from 4:30-8:30 so I have a bit of an unknown around dinner. I’m thinking I might even eat before I go as the children usually end up with something that is mostly pasta and cheese. I have half a tin of salmon left from last night and was planning another salad, something I only really enjoy when it’s a hot day – like today.

The home made dips and veggies were well received as an alternative to my usual baking for afternoon tea yesterday. That’s good to know as I don’t like using the oven on hot days as it quickly makes my living space hot. Also quite a bit healthier as my standard dips are hummus and tsatziki.

Have a good day everyone.

Lindsay, I think your gift of the bee hive wins the prize for unusual birthday gifts. I hope it was a really enjoyable birthday.

Thin, congrats on the first place results on bridge. This is getting to be a regular thing! Turkey is sold all year round here but it’s usually minced turkey that I buy during the year, because a whole turkey is a lot to eat or store. They are on sale everywhere before Thanksgiving though, often under $1 per pound. I wish I had space to store an extra one. I usually get a 20 lb one and have lots of leftovers. Then I make turkey soup with the carcass several days later. Baking it in the oven makes the house smell so good.
Still waiting for your book to arrive from Amazon. It’s from a 3rd party seller, so takes longer.

Anzac, congrats on breaking into the 87’s. Before you know it, you’ll be under 85.

Cinque, thank you for your rain magic. The weather prediction for Wednesday up in Paradise, CA where the fires are is showing 100% chance of rain. I hope they are correct. It would be a huge help for the fire fighters.

FD for me today. I’m still trying to decide whether to move Thursday’s FD to Wednesday or Friday. (Could probably use both this week!)
Have a great day, everyone.

Good Morning everyone

I read all your posts yesterday but didn’t have time to post myself. It was one of those days at work where I wasn’t super busy but there was lots of different things going on and I felt like I was achieving nothing!

Yesterday’s FD was successful and I really needed it after the preceding three days of EFS. I don’t know what got into me but I have put it behind me and am looking forward. I am doing a B2B today as I start holidays (a few days off) tomorrow. We were supposed to be going camping later this week but of course there are things working against that happening. Firstly, the weather is meant to be terrible, especially for camping and fishing. If it doesn’t rain it is still going to be really windy. We camp on top of a hill overlooking the ocean so it is not very pleasant in the wind. Secondly, due to rain last week, OH’s job has been delayed and there are things he needs to be on site for. So who knows, we may get away for day or two but I don’t think we will be camping.

I made a really lovely FD dinner last night. I baked some shallots (scallions, Cali?) and also asparagus in the oven. Then I dressed them with a miso dressing that also had honey, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar in it. I also stir fried up some kale with garlic and two very small pieces of pork for me, a bigger piece for OH. There was some dressing left over so I put some over the kale and mmmmm. The whole dinner was delicious. Now, I don’t know if it was really as good as I thought or if it was just that I was on a FD and we all know how good food tastes when you haven’t eaten all day! I will be making it again though and OH also liked it. He did mention (and I agreed) that the shallots are a bit chewy. Maybe next time I will cut them into pieces before roasting.

I better go and start work. If I have time I might post some more later. Hope you all have a lovely day and an easy FD if you are joining me 🙂

Take care x

Phew, back using my laptop and not blocked. That was very strange but I can tell you I was quite panicked at the thought of not being able to be here with you all anymore!

Nice sunny day in Sydney, 25 degrees later. Just a quick post as a bit busy at work this morning

We have tried to grow coriander several times and finally gave up. We love it and use it constantly but it just goes to seed straight away just as yours have done LJoyce.

Enjoy your catch-up Cinque and Intesha. I wish I could join you 🙂

Glad there is rain on the horizon Cali. I hope it is the end of these tragic fires. I still can’t fathom the amount of lives, property and bush that has been lost

Congrats winning bridge Thin!

My FD yesterday wasn’t the best but wasn’t the worst. My next one is tomorrow and today I want to have a very mindful eating day. Have brought healthy food to work and will NOT graze. Will NOT 🙂

Have a good one all

10:20am Tues, in a wet cool Adelaide. I’m going to be saying that a lot. We have a whole week of col temp and rain forecast here. That rain dance worked a little too well – the rain has been going no-stop here for the last 8 hours!

Cali, I’ve very pleased to hear that rain is heading toward those fires. I hope the rain helps the fire fighters get them completely controlled.
I’m doing a FD today as well, and another Friday.
20 pounds sounds like an awful lot of turkey. I hope you have a lot of good recipes for leftovers.

Anzac, you will not graze, you will not graze! I hope you can keep yourself distracted enough to avoid the food temptations today.

Quacka, thanks for the recipe. I can see asparagus and a number of other veg working in that recipe too. Green beans and broccolini perhaps. I’m also wondering if you could substitute oven baking for BBQ grilling once the summer gets here.

Thin, congrats on the bridge win. It’s always good to gently annoy the grumpy bums. Some people take themselves, or perhaps just their bridge a bit too seriously. I agree about the crowds, but on hot days it will either be a slow afternoon walk in air-conditioning or no walk at all, so I figure slow is the better option, at least I’m moving rather than sitting.
The babysitting went well, they really are quite well behaved children – mostly. (Only one short tantrum last night – the 5 year old wanted to go first in every game of dominoes and didn’t like being told to give her brother at turn at starting the game.) The babysitting was at short notice due to a death in my nephews’ in-laws family. I probably won’t be needed Thursday this week as I think my niece is covering that.

Cinque, enjoy those first little zucchini. I always think the same thing about my garden – if I have herbs and a few leafy greens (and eggs) I have dinner.

I’m glad it’s not just me that has trouble growing coriander, it sent me off to do some research. I planted a punnet of seedlings which of course gave me too much coriander at once and as it bolted to seed it was a short harvest. I have since found out that coriander grows really well from seed and prefers not to be transplanted. So I think the only way to approach it from now on is to buy a packet of seeds and plant 1-2 seeds every 6 weeks through the warmer months. That should give me a more manageable quantity and a steady supply. I might also try this in a pot as it will give me a longer growing season. I might try leaving a plant to go to seed, although I have done that with parsley in the past and it self seeded a little too well and I had an overcrowded pot.

I’ve been a bit concerned about my over indulgent eating on many NFDs lately. Especially with December approaching and the more frequent meals out to deal with. I promised myself one week (this week) with no overeating, only controlled NFDs. I started Sunday and so far it has gone well. My only concern is that now that the weather has cooled down it may increase my appetite. I’ve decided to deal with that by making two soups. Red lentil-sweet potato-zucchini soup and also Cinque’s sorrel-potato soup. I also have home made hummus and tsatziki and cut pieces of raw veg in the fridge. I’m hoping those things will help me deal with hunger in the NFDs without feeling too deprived. I am limiting myself to no more than one slice of sourdough bread a day, which has surprisingly been ok. I cut it really thinly and made it into melba toast to have with the dips – having a little bit of the toast along with the raw veg helps me think of the dips as a treat and not a diet food.

I’ need to do a little pottering in the kitchen today and make those soups. I’m going to have to brave the rain to pick sorrel and zucchinis.

Have a good day everyone. I’ll wish for a mindful day of eating choices for everyone without regrets.

Kitchenaid update for Cali & Intesha
I made a huge stockpot of soup this morning and I used to rely on the mincer blade in my old food processor to chop the veg for most soups, and sometimes the grating discs. I decided to see if I could get everything cut to my liking by the Kitchenaid food processor, even veg like onion and celery. I was pleasantly surprised that the dicer blades did such a good job, even with the onions and celery. A perfect size for soup – in fact better than the smaller pieces that the old food processor produced. I took pictures of the process: https://imgur.com/a/jbDxnzr The dicer blades handles soft veg like zucchini as easily as veg like sweet potato. I will definitely be using this dicer a lot during the colder months when I make a lot of soup. I’m a lot more confident now, that the combination of the food processor and mincer attachments that I purchased to go with the Kitchenaid mixer will do all the things I need it to.

Anzac, bounces up and down in the scales are not unusual and some people suffer them more than others. I’ve never been someone who easily has a steady weight. I weighed myself Sunday morning and I was 2kg up on my weight from about a fortnight before. I weighed this morning after 2 careful NFDs (no FDs) and that 2kg is now gone. It means it was mostly water weight not body fat gain. But even if we understand that the gain must be mostly water, it doesn’t seem to stop the emotional reaction we have when the scales go up. I often react badly to this by overeating – one of the reasons I stopped weighing myself regularly.
Yes I know I’ve weighed twice in the last 3 days! – I’ve put them away again until next Sunday – I want to see just what impact a 5:2 week with careful NFDs can do.

I have had a little salad for lunch and a beautiful white nectarine – I love summer fruits! I am looking forward to a steaming bowl of the lentil veggie soup for dinner. Even the smell of it cooking now is comforting.

Good morning, beautiful sunny Melbourne, 7am.

I had a lovely coffee and catch up with Intesha yesterday, and her good friend she has known from school days. It was great to hear the story of Intesha surprising her with her visit. Such fun.
And I am also so lucky as to have some of her Christmas biscuits for my grandchildren. I think I will tell them about them, and send pictures, so they can enjoy the anticipation, before giving them to them at Christmas. (Am I right or would that be cruel to a 4 and a 2yo?)

To add to the coriander research going on here, I discovered that planting the seeds from my pantry, increases how quickly they will bolt and go to seed. They are bred for going to seed quickly.
I bought some ‘coriander for leaves’ seeds and that turned out much better.
My good friend bought a lovely variety (through Diggers) that have pinkish flowers, she had such a wonderful crop and gave me seeds that I had great success with, so I hope they are the ones self seeding now.
But now is not the time to plant them for a long crop. The hot weather will send them bolting quickly. That doesn’t stop us from having a plentiful short crop though! And yes, so true that they don’t like being transplanted!

I’ve decided to fast tomorrow. Today is home help and baby sitting and enjoying the garden after a rainy night.

Cheers everyone.

Yes Anzac, I’m fasting with you today. I feel sorry for all that temptation you face but an ‘all or nothing’ approach would work. The only trouble with that is that people tend to feel the need to make comment and make a big deal out of it.

Cinque, good that you and Intesha caught up. Personally, I wouldn’t mention the cookies – 4 weeks is an eternity to wait at that age.

LJ, that kitchenaid sounds amazing. Maybe you can train it to do a few other household chores. Yes, I see what you mean about walking in the mall or not walking at all.

Quacka, enjoy your post fast day. Sounds like you’ve earned it.

11:30am Wednesday, in a cold and very wet Adelaide – it’s been bucketing down all morning. I managed to get a break in the rain for a walk yesterday afternoon. Not sure if I’ll be that lucky today.

Cinque, I agree with Thin. At that age their strongest concept of time is “now” or “not now”. They could teach us a lot about living in the moment.

Intesha & Cinque, how lovely that you got to catch up. One of these days I’m going to head interstate and catch up with some of the lovely people on this forum.

Quacka, I can’t handle B2B at all, so I’m amazed you managed to follow a FD with 1000cals. Id recommend you just treat it as a very controlled NFD and add another FD later in the week if you feel like it.

Thin & Anzac, you can get the Kitchenaid mixer to do a lot of tricks, but the problem is, you have to buy the attachments first. There are many optional attachments (juicer, grain mill, spiralizer, pasta roller…) but they range in price from $100-$400 each. That adds ups quickly. I bought the food processor and mincer as I could see myself using them a lot. Everything else I would use so occasionally, I couldn’t justify spending the money.

Anzac, all the nectarines in the shop were hard here too, but they did still ripen quickly when I got them home. If none in the shop are soft, just look for those that aren’t as shiny. I found three nectarines that had duller looking skin and bought those. I put them in the fruit bowl, not the fridge, and they were soft and ripe within 2 days, although they were warm days, which helped. It is still hit and miss as to whether they will be sweet or not – thankfully these have been.

Thin & Anzac, hope you both have very successful FDs.

I think I went over my calories on yesterday’s FD. The cold weather got to me and I had a hot almond milk drink in the evening – it probably put me about 50 cals over – nothing much to worry about.
Controlled NFD for me today. I haven’t eaten yet, but am planning mushrooms and a poached egg on a slice of rye toast for lunch. Dinner will be the sorrel soup and I have an apricot, nectarine and raspberries for afternoon tea. Probably another hot almond milk drink this evening too as the forecast is just 16C.

Have a nice day everyone.

My FD going really well, just had my emergency apple as I was very very hungry. All good, it tips me just over 500 calories so I am not remotely worried

Thanks for the tip about how to pick nectarines LJ, I had no idea. Will definitely do that in the future if they are too hard. Good luck with the rest of your controlled NFD

I too have trouble leaving anything on my plate so well done Gday. We are learning so much on the WOE aren’t we?

Thin, I got through our ‘lunch and learn’ easily as I had my salad and took a coffee in as planned. I didn’t even feel tempted by the sandwiches and I don’t have a sweet tooth so the cake wasn’t even in my sights!

Must run….

Cinque, thankyou for the sorrel soup recipe, it’s worked out beautifully – in the end – with an unfortunate detour along the way! I wanted to make enough for 2 serves and I wanted to use the veggies I had on hand. So in addition to the stated veg, I added 2 small pale green zucchini to the soup and I also added a huge amount of sorrel leaves (many times the amount mentioned in your recipe). I was expecting the soup to be lemony, but not pink (from the red stems) and definitely not bitter – after simmering the pretty pink broth was very bitter. So I drained off the broth, rescued all of the veggie chunks and discarded the cooked sorrel leaves. Then I added fresh stock to the veg and I actually obeyed your recipe and added only a dozen shredded sorrel leaves right at the end. I chose to puree the soup. It is very nice – creamy, slightly lemony and no longer bitter. Sometimes taking an individual approach doesn’t work out so well.