Poxy Blessings.

Today has been filled with laughter and joy... oh and a bit of baking.  Mmmm perfect.
The children played on the bean bag, laughing and giggling as they fell on it, then rolled off; and generally got into big heaps.

We had fun playing with the jigsaws, and YAH! Rye seems to have passed the "I can't do it," and sulking stage and really had a good go at the jigsaws; most of which he can do now, so time to start looking for more complex ones I guess.  My charge had a decent go too; although she was more interested in holding the cat piece and shouting "CAT!"  lmao.

Thursday's are half days for my charge, so at 1pm, her mum picked her up.  I flumped onto the sofa with a cuppa and the laptop for half hour... and much to my amusement this was my various views as I looked up occasionally;

 I had wondered how long it would take him to figure something like that out lol.

He asked to play with the v'tec reader thingy; it's been sat on top of other book case for months, and today I was feeling magnamious, so I got it down for him.  The shorts disappeared in a frantic dash for the loo.  Rye is going through a somewhat frustrating phase of waiting too long to go to the loo, and thus wetting himself.  Most of the frustration is his because he is getting modest in his old age, and wants trousers on - 'cept he's going through 4 or 5 pairs a day and I simply cannot keep on top of the washing when I can't put clothes outside to dry.  Today has been a mostly dry day though, as I've sent him upstairs as soon as I've seen the slightest hint of a jig or willy holding.

And the poxy blessings?  Well, that's because normally on a Thursday I would be at HE Group with the kids, owing to the spotty lurgy we stayed home, so after C was picked up an afternoon home.  Well, the kitchen called me and as Rye had taken himself upstairs with his cars and the v-tec reader thingy, and after I checked just what he was up to; (cuddled in my bed watching Bob the Builder Dvd and playing with his cars), I delightfully stepped into my kitchen.

Quick tidy up; and then baking; well that was the plan; but then I decided to use up the last of the veggies because my Riverford Veg Box arrives tomorrow.  The plan initially was to make vegetable root soup; it morphed into red lentil curry with brown basmalti rice. YUM.  There is bread dough rising, I'll pop that in the fridge though and bake off in the morning - hmmm fresh bread.

And I was going to bake the lemony shortbread again; but just below that recipe was another for lemony bars.  It is basically a shortbread/buscuity base that is baked off; and then a lemony "custard" poured on top, which sort of seeps into the base, while a little stays on top.  Delicious; tastes a bit like a cross between lemon cheesecake and shortbread.  Very, very rich and tasty :-)

And then after tea; the rain began to pound against the window, the lightening flashed and a huge crack of thunder overhead.  Rye raced to the window to watch the storm :-)  It was a beauty, although over in flash ;-)

Kiddy free weekend Saturday 20th Feb

Rye is at his dad's this weekend; bless him he was so excited when I told him his dad was coming down.  He's been asking for a few weeks now about his dad because he's not seen his dad since Christmas, who had hurt his back and was unable to drive.

I confess, to a squidgeon of excitment at the prospect of a weekend kiddy free, well at least from 1:30pm today, which is when my charge is picked up.   I've been wanting to sort my room out for a while; and have a bit of a move around; partially because some dear friends are visiting in April and will be staying in my room.  Having the bed pushed up against the wall is fine for me; but not so convenient for a couple.   Makes changing the bed much easier too :)  The room isn't how I invisage in my mind eye; but that will happen when I buy some more shelving so the piles of books on the floor, under the bed , on the window cill etc can all go on the shelves.  I may even put some of my own art work up.

Mmmm, and I've eaten some delicious food today.  I've become a bit addicted to 30 Minute Meals by Rachel Ray.  Very American of course and the meals are mainly meat based; but she has such a wonderful presence, and I do like the little stories she tells while she's cooking.  Anyhoos, today she made a marmalade sauce for chicken; and inspiration hit.  As I'm trying to keep my lunch mainly raw I decided to have a big salad and make a lime marmalade dressing; and oohhhh it was suprisingly yummy;

1 heaped tsp of lime marmlade, warmed in the microwave.
1tbsp of omega oil
1-2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp of red wine vinegar (I would have used white if I had any - or lime juice)
Crushed black pepper
Salt

And I just mixed it all together and then poured that over a pile of salad leaves, cucumber, red pepper and sliced in half grapes (needed using up), tossed it to coat all the leaves, then added the sprouted seeds and some parmasan shavings.  OH MY GOSH!  Wonderful.  Tangy, sweet and just wonderful.

Then this evening I fancied curry.  I resolved not to buy takeaways during Lent; and besides I need to spend at least £12 to qualify for delivery - so I thought, "what the heck", and made myself a Red Lentil Dahl.  Oh WOW!

Oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 large carrot quarted and chopped
1 small beetroot chopped
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/4 tin of coconut milk
1 tin of water (use the tomatoe tin)
1/2 cup of red lentils
pinch of dried chilli seeds
3 green cardamons pods crushed, seeds removed and the seeds crushed.  (I love cardamon if you’d prefer a less flora taste reduce to 1 or 2 pods)
tsp of ground corriander
tsp of cumin seeds
aprox 1/2 tsp of fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp of dried garlic powder (not salt)  (could use fresh garlic if preferred)
approx 2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper

I just sauteed the veggies in the oil until soft added the seasonings and spices, cooked for a minute or two; then added the tomatoes, water, and red lentils, covered and after ten minutes added 1/4 can of coconut milk; left to fast simmer for another 15-20 minutes.  I boiled rice with cardamons to serve with, naan would have been nice too; but I decided last thing to make this and couldn't be bothered to faff making Naan.

I've been really slowing down my eating too, and taking the time to really taste and explore the textures and I am amazed how stupendous food is tasting!  I have a few golden rules, lol, well actually, they are Paul McKenna's rules; which compliments beautifully what I've been trying to do myself anyway.  So the rules are:

1.  Eat when hungry
2.  Eat what I want not what I think I should be eating.
3.  Eat Consciously
4.  Stop when you're full.

Whether I loose weight, remains to be seen; although I suspect I will.  I've only been following these golden rules 2 days now; but already I am amazed by the change.  Food tastes absolutely stupendous; the kids look at me bemused when I eat because I'm grunting & moaning in appreciation  seriously, far better than sex!

I only eat when I think I'm hungry, and the idea is not to let myself get too hungry; so when I start to feel hungry that is when I eat.  Although I have a drink of water first because the signal for thirst and hunger are the same.  If, after a drink I'm still hungry; then I eat.  After I'd eaten my salad a few hours later I was feeling peckish and decided to use the rest of the salad up in a sandwich; I spread the bread with homemade humous; added the left over dressed salad.. and blimey, best sandwich I can remember having in a long time.  All this from simply slowing my eating right down and as much as possible, concentrating on what I'm eating and really enjoying every mouthful.  I can't always tell when I'm full; but I have noticed that McKenna is right; when I am getting full each mouth is less enjoyable.  And the crazy thing is, now I'm purely listening to my body I have eaten far, far less that I would normally and I am full much sooner than I would have thought.

The lentil Dahl I made this evening; normally I would have polished it all off myself.  I had a bowl full, ate consciously and with enjoyment and it was enough.  There was temptation to have seconds anyway; 
I suppose knowing I can eat whenever I want, solong I'm hungry, is giving me that degree of control.  Why have a second bowl of the dahl when I'm full, and it won't taste as good. Might as well wait until I'm hungry and it will taste phenomenal again - perhaps have it for lunch tomorrow over a jacket potatoe?

Seriously, whether you want to loose weight or not; give the golden rules a try for a few days or a week.  And yep it can still be done when eating with children and indeed I've come to realise that young 'uns tend to naturally eat this way anyway.

I will weigh myself in 2 weeks time and see how it's going.

So, how's it going?

Fine.  There's not a huge transition because I was virtually veggie before anyway.  We maybe ate meat a couple times a month, sometimes not even that. 

I popped into Waterstones to have a look see for veggie books, and there was one.  Hmmm.  Amazon it is then lol.  I picked up a lovely Tibetan calander, originally £9, reduced to £2.50, bit more like it!
I have to say, it's been strangely relaxing being out shopping with the kids most of the day.  It's gone very quickly, my charge was wonderful and enjoyed the few times I popped her in the ring sling to go into shops that are a bit too narrow for the buggy.  The transformation in her was quite amazing, in the buggy she was quiet just watching the world go by and sucking her thumb.  In the ringsling she was pointing to birds, laughing and smiling and having a good ole chat with me.

Rye was brilliant too, walking lovely beside the buggy and stopping and waiting when I asked.  There were a few mini "big" feelings; but on the whole I was really chuffed with him.  Bless him though, his poor nose, upper lip and left cheek are looking very red and chapped.  I've put tons of the lip balm on to help, which means, at least, it's not getting any worst.  Really stunned how quickly our collective colds came on.  One minute we were fine, the next we both started sniffling and sneezing. 

I made Rye a kiwi and orange juice smoothie, lots of Vit C, sadly he wouldn't drink it; so I had it, hopefully he'll get some of it through my breastmilk.  Tea was more of that lovely Tassajara bread and butternut squash soup, yum.  And now I think early night for us both, snuggles and maybe curl up and watch a dvd. :-)

Gosh, the rain has been a tad intense today.  Pity it couldn't have missed us, like most of the snow did.

There was no pressing need to leave the house, although the children were getting a little hyped up, so I wracked my brain for a messy free, easy to set up activity.... and decided upon aquadraw. 

Instant hit.  Rye had great fun; my boy does love to draw and paint.  I think, given the opportunity he'd probably do it all day.

My little charge enjoyed a little play too before being more interested in using the aqua pen to stir imaginaries in the saucepan on the playkitchen.  I did have to take it off her in the end though, she is at the stage where absolutely everything goes in her mouth.

While she was occupied with the play kitchen I played with Rye.  He kept asking for a picture of Toby....

**cough**  Yes well, have you ever tried to do a portrait on these things?  :P

Once my charge had gone for the day, Rye and me played with the treeblocks some more and the threading beads.  I wandered into the kitchen to potter, but wasn't really in the mood, (there was/is washing up to do lol),  still when I came out Rye had fallen asleep.  Very surpised as he was in bed just after 6pm yesterday and didn't surface until around 8am this morning!

Covered him with a blanket and sneaked upstairs for some surfing time.

The rest of the afternoon has been take up with playing on the bed, watching dvds, snuggling and cuddling and Rye playing with my long t'shirts and saying to me, "Mummee, Mummme, MUMMEEEEE",

"What Ryan????"

"Look at my pretti dress".  Hehehe, his dad would be horrified.

And while I prepared tea, Rye asked for an apple;

He really enjoyed that apple :-)

Which rather nicely leads me onto a decision I made today.

We've been skirting around the edges of vegetarianism for much of this year, simply because I would only eat organic meat, but as finances became tighter and tighter it became far too expensive.  And ok the few dishes I have made recently with organic meat have been lovely - but no more or less than any of the countless veggie dishes I've been cooking.

Living on such a small budget and depending upon the stocks in my cupboards, called for some creative cooking, and well, I keep being assaulted with information on how horrible the farming industry is, the damage some of it does to the environment, and I keep being "presented" with information on the health benefits of being vegetarian, of eating more raw foods, reducing dairy products, all very distinct nudges toward vegetarianism.  Perhaps one day veganism; but one step at a time eh.