Showing posts with label healthy eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy eating. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Inspiration from Phyllis - a foodie post

Hello. Phyllis asked a couple of questions which I am happy to answer. Might as well do it properly in a post rather than squash it into a little box on yesterday's comments page.

Can you say why you chop the bran flakes? Also the nuts and seeds?
Apart from the nuts you don't seem to have a big source of protein for the day, do you eat more protein on other days and reckon it up over the week. Also I'm wondering what other sources of protein you have, I don't think I have enough with not eating meat or fish.


Hello Phyllis. Sorry, a bit misleading there, I don't usually chop the bran flakes, sometimes I do, but I don't need to because the milk softens them up. I have no grinding molars on my bottom jaw, I have a denture but do not wear it because it's uncomfortable. I want to hang on to the teeth I have left by not putting unnecessary pressure on them, so to get hard food down me like nuts and seeds I need to whiz them in the mini chopper, which does the job of my missing teeth.

Protien is found in a lot of foods, not just meat. I do eat dairy, probably too much cheese, and I will be eating eggs today. I eat eggs on three days a week, two at each meal.

Here are a couple of  quotes from the Vegetarian Society web site.

There are many protein rich foods for vegetarians, rivalling the protein content of meat products. Popular concern that vegetarians lack protein is misplaced and plant protein has the advantage of containing reduced saturated fat associated with meat protein.

The protein content of plant origin foods such as nuts, peas and beans (including peanuts) is very high and rivals that of meat and fish. Some vegetarians include eggs and/or dairy products as part of their protein intake. Cheese has similar levels of protein to meat and fish by weight, whilst egg is regarded as the perfect protein food for its ideal balance of amino acids. 

Here is a link to their fact sheet on proteins.  https://www.vegsoc.org/protein

There is an interesting web site called No Meat Athlete. Matt Frazier created it,.here is a quote.

Tell someone you’re vegetarian, and the first objection you’ll likely get is, “But where do you get your protein?” (Never mind what kind of shape the person asking is often in.)
I personally have not let the protein issue affect me, choosing instead to cook and eat a wide variety of foods and trust that I’ll get enough protein and all of the essential amino acids, and I’ve never felt better. 
A link on this site takes me to a guest post written by Mathew Ruscigno, a vegan and nutritional professional, and athlete.  Protein, a primer for vegetarians.  Mathew has his own blog, this is a post he published on June 15th 2011, entitled 15 Years of Veganism. 
There you are, lots of reading there. Although my diet appears to be lacking in protein some days, I make up for it on other days. A varied diet is the key I think. I have a guilty secret, I am often seen to be picking from the fridge, so I don't exist merely on the meals I post here. I keep a tub of home made peanut butter and I can't resist dipping into it, ha ha. 
Did you see the sunrise this morning? It was amazing for about five minutes. I awoke at 6.30am just as it was about to come into view through the trees at the bottom of the garden. What a glorious start to the day.  First picture from an upstairs window, the others from the garden looking up at the chopped down trees in the neighbours garden. Can you spot the wood pigeons on the tree stumps.  


A dry day today, time for a Rocky bimble to the church. Thanks for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Three meals a day.

Hello. It's been a typical Monday here, Crafty Club, dog walk, sewing, library, three mile walk, feeding cats and dog. Good news, Heidi is making improvements, taking more notice of what's going on, and eating normally. Looks like the tablets are working. 
My breakfast this morning was bran flakes, nuts and seeds whizzed in the mini chopper, exotic fruits, and rice milk with plain yogurt. I absolutely love this.  
I bet you are wondering what this yukky stuff is, ha ha. Red cabbage and kale soup made to my own secret recipe. I can't tell you what's in it because I've forgotten already, that's the secret. I won't say it was wonderful, it was very nice but not exceptionally nice. I ate it and it filled me up, all for about 5p.

Now this looks a whole lot better, the usual plate of steamed veggies, just cooked and not mushy. Sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, parsnip, carrots, and peas. Nothing on it, completely nude, can't beat it for taste and flavour. If I could get this kind of meal at a reasonable price in a restaurant or pub, I might be tempted to splash out on a night out.
No I haven't started eating fish again. I bought this bag of white fish for the kitties. It's £2.30 and has quite a lot of pieces in it. It's quick and easy to put a piece on a pyrex lid and microwave it for a minute. All the cats like it, but they don't get it every day, it's a treat.

I don't have to to out and do my walk tonight, because I did it earlier just before dinner. Not a lot to to talk about, so I'll sign off and say goodnight. Thanks for popping in, and we'll catch up tomorrow.
Toodle pip.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Do you have trouble getting the kids out of bed!

Hello. Thank you for your good wishes regarding Heidi. You can be assured that I will do my best for her. I am coming to terms with the fact that sometimes things happen like this, animals can be born with hereditary conditions just like humans can. She was lucky enough to come into our rescue with her four kittens, I decided to give her a home after the kittens went to their new homes, now it's up to me to look after her . 
This is the chaos at tightwad Towers in the morning. I am the first to stir from my bed, but before I can get the coffee on the go, I have to open the back door and let the kids out. As you can see, the place looks a mess. Rocky has been out for a pee, Bugsy had a quick look outside but soon came back in when the white stuff landed on him, he didn't like that, and Mayze couldn't be bothered and stayed where she was. 
The newspaper is spread around because Bugsy was prone to bringing up his food. That problem is now solved through a change in diet, with smaller portions and more frequent meals. I leave the paper there just in case of accidents. 
Next they demand food, so I serve up a bowl for each of them from the extensive menu available, ha ha. Talk about pampering. I have usually put the bed away by this time, but this morning Mayze absolutely refuses to get up. Bugsy gazes contentedly at the gas fire in the hope of getting a tan.  
Heidi has decided not to join in with the crowd, preferring the quiet of the kitchen. She is still a bit sad, but hopefully she will pick up a bit once the tablets start to kick in. She was camping out in the bath, but now has found a better place in a basket on the worktop. I have had to move my things out of the way to a different part of the kitchen.

Normally they would all go outside for a mooch round, but none of them fancied it this morning. A quick pee for Rocky and straight back in. Don't like this white stuff. You may not be able to see the flakes falling, at this stage they were quite small. 
Half an hour later.....

And an hour later......we all decided to stay indoors.

The snow became quite heavy and I thought the best thing I can do is go to the shops and get a few bits of shopping to make sure I have enough in case we are snowed in. I also needed to go to Tesco to take a phone back for a refund. It turns out that I didn't need a new phone after all, I needed a new sim card, which was sent out in the post from Talk Mobile. I had to ring them up and get the number changed back to the old one, the number that everyone else has in their phone. The man was very helpful and that was a success, but I have lost my contact list so now I am asking everyone to text me so I can start a new list. 
My lunch today, which I have just scoffed. The boiled eggs and spinach came in a little pot from Tesco, 13p instead of £1.25. I have another one for tomorrow's lunch. Tomatoes were 7p for six, instead of 69p. Two kinds of cheese, not yellow sticker, and couscous which I made yesterday. It was chuffin lovely. 
Well the snow has now stopped and it's beginning to melt. I hope we don't get any more. I have been getting on with sewing, the picture is coming along nicely, it shouldn't be too long before it's finished. I am liking the fact that it is smaller than what I usually make, so won't take as much time up. More shopping bags on the production line, using up the roses fabric which was given to me.

I'll get off now, a scruffy little dog is looking at me willing me to get off my bum and take him out. I can't resist that gorgeous face.

Have a nice weekend. Catch up soon. Thanks for popping in.
Toodle pip.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Jo Brand - book review, and other stuff.

Hello. What a disappointment today. I was all ready for the BBC with my notes and I got a phone call saying the interview on the Jeremy Vine Show was off. Too much going on, couldn't fit me in. I got shunted into the sidings. Oh well, that's how it goes. In the meantime I have been communicating with someone from Channel 5 television, they want me on their magazine programme on Saturday morning. I am not able to go to London so they asked if I have Skype. I know I deleted it off this big computer, but it is still installed on the small laptop, and after testing it still works. They are going to let me know if they want to go ahead with that. 
In the meantime.....here is my breakfast. The bran flakes and moooozleee (can't spell that word), topper is swamped by the rice milk. I have some strawberries left from Saturday night shopping and they are still fine. There are some left to finish tomorrow. 
There you are, I do put some heating on sometime. Bugsy snuggled close to the gas fire in his suitcase bed, getting some warm rays on his back. I must check his age, he will be about 20 now.

I had to use some mushrooms up so here is tonight's dinner. Garlic mushrooms on a microwaved spud with a bit of salad. All yellow sticker except for the blob of cream cheese I put in the mushrooms. I just lurv garlic mushrooms, this is how I make it. Slice mushrooms into a smallish pan, add butter, margarine, or oil, or all of them if you like. Add garlic powder and vegetable granules, half a teaspoon of each. Add soft cheese, I use the Value 49p one. When almost done add a couple of spoons of plain yogurt. Sorry it looks a bit messy, I didn't take the photo until after I had dived into it.

I've just finished this book, I started it ages ago. Things got busy and I had to put it to one side. This is the story of how Jo started off in the entertainment industry, how she became famous, and how she managed to persuade someone to marry her and have some children. This is the second volume of her memoirs. Her take on life is really funny, and as I read I could hear the words come out of her mouth. She writes as she speaks and it was just like watching one of her stand up routines.

The book is divided up into lots of short chapters and the format is ideal to pick up if you only have 20 minutes to spare.I found one chapter particularly interesting, entitled Ladies and Gentlemen of the press. It's  what she has learnt about dealing with the media. Pity I hadn't read it before my little dabble into the world of minuscule celebrity. She says she thinks it doesn't even occur to a lot of people how obsessionally selective different papers are about what is 'the news' and how they present it. At least we have something in common, we have both been ripped apart by a Daily Mail journalist.

Jo talks about the comedy circuits, the stand up gigs, writing her material, finding a man and getting married and having children, her charity work and her telly work. It's a very entertaining book, she says it like it is, with some colourful language thrown in for good measure. Pity I didn't take it with me and get her to sign it when I met her.

I sent a link to my trucking story to Leicester Heavy Haulage, and had a nice email back from Paul Rodwell. The company is run by four brothers, who's father Brian, my boss, started it. Sadly Brian passed away in 2014. He was a smashing boss, I'll always be grateful to him for giving me a chance.

I'll just copy part of a recent comment here, which arrived on a previous post. It has cheered me up no end. She found the blog through the Daily Mail article and lives in the south of France, and is now following.

You give lots of important information about how to save money when shopping for meals. The thing that helped me the most is to adapt your meals to the bargains in the supermarkets. I bought carrots and potatoes at a very cheap price, and I include them in my meals this week. I never did that before, I used to make a list first, decide on a menu and then go shopping...now I go shopping first, get the bargains and then prepare my menu. 
Very valuable information, mainly for me, I'm a single mother with 3 children and it's difficult to make ends meet. Marce. 


Now haven't I been saying that all along. Don't menu plan then shop, do it the other way round. Buy the best you can afford at the lowest prices, then plan your meals around that. YAY, go Marce, and I hope you save lots of money doing it that way.

Thank you all for your comments, I love to read them. Crikey, look at the time. I must get off my backside and do my three miles. Thanks for popping in. Catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Keep popping up.

Hello again. I wondered if that article would surface at some point. As it's been two weeks since the first one  was published in the Yorkshire Post. I thought the Mail might have ditched this latest one, but no, there I am again popping up all over the place. Strange how they haven't used any of the photo's they took though. The man kept having trouble with his camera not flashing, maybe that was the problem. I've also been on the Take a Break Facebook page as well, funny how they all want to get in on the act. I haven't spoken to them so they just cobbled something together from other articles. Tons more comments have been flying around as well, a lot of them negative, I replied to some of them, but it really is a waste of time.

I did get to Crafty Club this morning, and I've been on the phone a lot this afternoon. So what did I have for my lunch today? Here it is, tuck into three different boxes, salad, pasta, and mixed bean salad. Couldn't be bothered to put it on a plate. Save on washing up, ha ha.

Me walking the streets in the dark, doing my three miles. Woolly hat to stop the wind blowing my hair in my face. Cold, red, wet nose that needs constantly dabbing.   
Contrary to what the trolls say, I am not mucky, I've had a bath tonight. A lovely soak with a book. That's me well scrubbed up.

Another big pan of stew is made, cost of this one is 35p. There's butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, onions, broccoli, and mixed beans in it. I will eat another bowl of it tomorrow and freeze two portions because I have to eat some mushrooms next, then more broccoli.

I've had a conversation today with Pete, a researcher from BBC Radio 2, and I am booked to go on the Jeremy Vine Show on Wednesday, at about 12.30pm. Now progressing from local radio to national. I'm going to enjoy that. Also I am booked to go on Radio Coventry next week, on Tuesday. It's all happening here. I need my calendar on my desk now instead of hanging in the kitchen, to keep track of what I am doing.

I see the page views are shooting up again, I wonder if they will go higher than they did before. It's amazing.
Thanks for popping in, and thank you for your smashing comments. Winding down now. Catch you soon.
Toodle pip

PS. Just checked the page views for today. They have gone WAY WAY HIGHER than before. Almost 17,000 Golly Gosh.