FEELING WELL

Something I am not feeling lately is well. It's been over 3 weeks since I started feeling nauseas, I'm not sleeping or eating well as I just feel sick almost all of the time.

On Friday 3 books that had been sitting in my wish list at The Book Depository finally made there way to my home. I've been reading all weekend and decided that today I would start a 3 day juicing detox.

Breakfast started with a slice of lemon in hot water then everything below.

There's a lot to drink each meal but that's good as I certainly won't be hungry. I wasn't prepared for the buzz I've had all morning, no nausea today and I have some energy. This isn't a feeling I've had for a while.

CHANGING IT UP

For dinner tonight we had leftover slow cooked spaghetti sauce, but instead of making another batch of spag bog from it, I came up with something new.

Darren named it Sue's spag slop, lucky it tasted better than it's name.

put sauce in a frying pan, add cooked rice and some grated cheese simmer on low to thicken
put a sheet of puff pastry in an oiled casserole dish and spoon on mixture
fold over pastry to make a parcel and spray with oil
place in a pre-heated oven and cook until golden brown

Enjoy.

AROUND HERE.......

Pancakes - Nigella style
with organic maple syrup
lemon juice (from our home grown lemons)
organic panela (we no longer use sugar in our home)

Chicken stock fresh from the canner.

The second crop of peas are flowering

Sweet little wild strawberries are picked daily

Beetroot are nearly ready to pick and preserve

The bulbs think it's Spring (not sure why, it's freezing) but such a welcome site.

My poor garden bench is a little overgrown, a job for next week.

What is happening around your parts?



PRESSURE COOKER vs STOCK POT

I needed to make up 2 lots of chicken stock today. I had 2 carcasses in the freezer and decided to have a little experiment. One carcass went into the stock pot and 1 into the pressure cooker. Obviously the pressure cooker was going to have the job done a lot quicker but what I was interested in was the difference of flavour.

Well the dury is back and the pressure cooker wins hands down. I ended up mixing the 2 pots together and will can them tomorrow. I have found when canning, the flavour intensifies again so I think this will be my best batch to date.

Tonight for dinner I used some of my yummy stock for the base of chicken noodle soup. Because the stock is so full of flavour, I just added some cooked shredded chicken, rice noodles and parsley. I let it simmer for 15 minutes and it was done, this will definately be my go-to meal when I'm not feeling 100%.

GOOD FOR MY SOUL

Over the last week I've been battling nausea with a mild case of gastro. I've felt terrible and haven't been outdoors at all.

This morning after a lovely sleep-in, I never sleep in, I woke and headed to the kitchen for a cup of tea and a chat to the kids then decided this was morning to get some fresh air.

I put on some old clothes and armed with my gloves and a wheelbarrow I tackled the overgrown with weeds native area in our front yard. With that job completed, I started on the strawberry and rhubarb patches, then the rain came down. I headed up to the vege patch and continued to weed in the rain, it felt so good to be outside that it wasn't until I had finished that I realised that I was soaked and freezing. This little outing in our garden was just what I needed, it was truely good for my soul.

After a lovely warm shower and some dry clothes I started with the inside jobs with a smile on my face.

 I went to the post office in the afternoon to find a package waiting for me, it was from Lark over at Daylesford, they had a huge sale a couple of weeks back and I bought some goodies for our kitchen.

What a nice day I've had and I'm not feeling like throwing up any more.

OH MY..........

Hasn't time flown? I've been pretty busy crafting (see One Crafty Habitat) and not a lot of homemaking to report.

I had a lovely cook up the other day:
bread, honey cookies, quiche, banana muffins and cordial.

Then I came down with a mild dose of gastro. Feeling better now though.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a visit from Sandra, a member from Down To Earth and a really lovely person that is full of valuable information. She brought me a sourdough starter and I have been feeding it every day ready for me to be well enough to attempt my first sourdough loaf. I am really looking forward to the challenge of sourdough and have been reading up on lots of useful information about it.

The kids are doing well. Dan has been working all week at his new job as we are on school holidays now. He really hasn't had a chance to do much else. He is also going really well in under 16's footy.
                                   

Lachie doesn't stop LOL. He is still playing under 12A and under 14 footy and getting in the best players quite a bit. He is playing all over the ground but when he has the chance of playing up forward, he's kicking goals and loving it.

Sophie has been invited to do her ballet and tap exams again this year, her first exam is August 16. I watched her classes last week and I can't believe how confident and amazing she looks while dancing.

I'm off to bed as I have huge day at the boys footy again tomorrow.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.