Kicking Flu in the A***

Well it had to happen didn't it...we have the flu in our household...never mind "Christmas in July"...this is even more ridiculous!

Seeing as I have done one post about food today why not make it today's theme!

I am nuts about nutrition, nah that's not quite strong enough...I am obsessed about nutrition...to the point that I have realised that more often than not when I cook, I am cooking with the prescriptive benefits in mind more than the pleasure of eating... It is a damned good job that we like the flavours of this prescriptive diet!

Take for example a couple of days ago...we had HM chilli not because that is what we felt like but because I thought that is what we needed. The perfect meal would have been something that involved many spices and chicken on the bone but alas all I had was a whopping great solid lump of chicken breast in the freezer and that in my mind wouldn't have quite hit the mark so I saved that for another day and just went for minced beef and spices.

Why did I want chicken on the bone I hear you ask? What I have gleaned from the many "using your dinner plate to heal you" type of books is that chicken skins and bones contain something ( called cysteine, I think that is right without checking the name ) which works as a decongestant, and that many over the counter decongestants use a derivative of the same thing...so the idea is...if you make yourself a tasty chicken soup,/stew and throw in other prescriptive stuff, garlic and onion for the antibiotic qualities, chillies and ginger for their anti-inflammatory effects and so on, you can cut out the middle man and make yourself better in the way that nature intended...well why else would things that grow in the ground have these fantastic qualities?

Now that is not to say that if you have a bout of flu or other illness that you should always try and treat it at home, no way...we followed the gov advice, checked out the symptoms on NHS direct and on their advice phoned the GP. He said it doesn't sound like Swine flu but another flu virus and said how to treat it at home...well after a couple of days there was no improvement with the suggested symptom relievers so that is when I decided to get my skillet out ( translate as cauldron for the purpose of this post! ) In just a couple of mouthfuls ( is that a word? it doesn't look right! ) it started to work and clear the sinuses right away...thus making the patient's headache much better! I drip fed other meals throughout the day along the same theme....The next day, as expected...there was a dramatic improvement! I am putting it all down to the combination of prescriptive ingredients and low GI. So far I am thinking this is working as a preventative as well as a cure ( touch wood ) ... I have not gone down with anything and seeing as the doc said the patient should be kept isolated I think I too must be doing my immune system a favour or is it just the incubation period is very long? We shall see, but personally I do have much faith in this way of truly FEEDING your body with what it needs at the right time.

In my opinion eating low GI is so over looked as a health benefit...it is not just something to be looked at as a faddy way of loosing weight...did you know that the amount of sugar in your system vastly effects the amount of white blood cells whizzing around! I eat mainly low GI myself these days and feel pretty flipping good!

My family groan when I stand on my nutritional soap box BUT I know the message has got through seeing as DS advised me the other day to eat a handful of walnuts before my driving lesson to help with my concentration...What was that, health advice from a teenager? LOL!

I could go on and on...infact I think I could start a whole new blog on prescriptive eating alone but I will spare you that for now...what do you like to include in your diet that goes beyond the 5 a day and why?...I'd love to know. ;o) ...and Min, if you are reading, I know you could kick it off with parsley and turmeric just for starters lol. :o)

Stay healthy folk.
Doxie, so far bug free!

Recipe finder

I am trying to use up the bits and bobs in the freezer so I can defrost it and start OAMC ( once a month cooking ) again in the Autumn... no I am not wishing the Summer away, just being prepared, (you can tell I was a Brownie lol ! ) ...though in reality it has usually ended up as 2 month cookery as I generally go over board with it! Anyway I thought I'd post a link to the great My recipes site just in case there is someone who hasn't yet discovered it...it's great for when you have few/odd ingredients and are lacking in inspiration. Just type in what your store cupboard has to offer and it will suggest recipes for you...pretty cool eh? I have linked to the advance recipe search page but have a real good look around it has many functions and ways to find out the perfect recipe for your immediate needs.

Bon Apetit

Doxie

Planning ahead

I just adore cottage garden plants. Every year I dream of having the "perfect cottage garden" but rarely get the whole herbacious border thing going...I may have pretties at the front of the border but so often the back is lacking impact, bar a few sunflowers. I look at the plants and always wish I had put in Hollyhocks and lupins but of course they don't flower the same year as sowing...it feels like cheating to go and buy the year old plants so I kind of put them out of my mind and think

" Oh well..."

Next year it will be different though. Hopefully we will be in a new location and that means NEW garden...and the first year of that new garden will be bursting with Hollyhocks and Lupins because I have a greenhouse full of them right now! I actually remembered to think ahead! :o) I just hope I can get them through the winter. I think this will be the first year I will buy a greenhouse heater. I do have another garden I can "borrow" space in to put them in to get established between now and next Summer but I would feel a bit mean digging them up when they had just got their roots down. The same goes for Asparagus. I have several pots now in their second year of growth looking forward to their new home in the hopefully not too distant future.

My best friend is moving too and she loves gardening equally...so between us we have been planning what we can grow and share for our new plots.

I think in the new garden my moto will be NO MORE KNEE JERK GARDENING. I will actually use my garden planning book for what it was intended instead of a convenient coffee mug mat!

Something else I need to take care of is the front garden. I hate being out in the front so it gets very neglected...I live in hope that I will like the next place we move to so much more that I enjoy the front garden just as much as the back.

Doxie so excited about the future.

You may be what you eat but you are not what you wear

Silly little observation here...

The other day when I opened the door to a certain friend she nearly fell over with astonishment and announced to the world and their ostrich that I was wearing jeans. She just couldn't believe it so she kept telling me. In my latest round of decluttering this has made it very easy to let clothes go...

I wear jeans practically every day ( apart from in that very hot weather ) and yet my friend says she has never seen me in them ( mind you she is blind in one eye, which could throw the whole validity of this post out of the window )...perhaps we are always going or have been somewhere where I might find jeans not the best option...but to think that she didn't think of me as a jean person is hilarious...she and her family have been here for lunch upteen times, seriously, 2ce a week over a long period of time...so you'd think she'd know me and have noticed what I wear. This got me thinking...what we wear really isn't that important is it?...it doesn't make us WHO we are. Okay, I know that is a bit of a sweeping statement because after all if you walk around with the same filthy shirt on every day you may be a bit of slob or perhaps can't afford to have your washing machine fixed and have broken both arms so can't wash by hand...but you know what I mean.

I wouldn't suggest turning up for an interview in your pyjamas and telling people that what they see is not the real you...but it just goes to show that people you feel know you really well know YOU and not your trimmings and adornment!

Ho hum life is funny at times.

Doxie the amused

NOBLE CREATURES

U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class John F. Looney (RELEASED)

I haven't put this up here as a comment on war...but because it speaks volumes about our relationship with these beautiful creatures.

On a search to see where the above pic originally came from I stumbled across the following k-9 memorial site. Look here . You can't fail to be moved if you are a doggy person.

Okay, dogs are the best thing in the world fix for the day over...Now go hug your dog and put some cheery music on because that last one and it's accompanying music doesn't half make you feel melancholy.

Doxie, who loves dogs just in case you didn't know!

New visitor to garden

Whilst tidying my kitchen this morning I have been kept amused by a new visitor to the garden...a lovely little Nuthatch. He has been stabbing the peanut feeder like crazy...looks like a little woodpecker at work...and is so acrobatic, he walks down the pole with the feeders on head first, but the thing that has amused me the most is that when he gets a whole nut or seed he brings it over to the tree by the kitchen window, wedges it under a piece of flaking bark and whacks the hell out of it, then takes the little fragments out one by one. What a clever little bird. I guess you could say he was using the bark like a vice. So often you see this kind of thing on wildlife programmes but to actually see it in action is amazing.

If he continues to come every morning I will try and get his photo taken, at the moment I am too mesmerised by his presence to take my eyes off him let alone run off to get a camera. ;o)

In addition to this newbie we have a coach load ( well maybe a minibus load ) of baby Blue Tits coming each day...infact they seem to stay all day, they are there first thing and still there at dusk when you'd imagine that all good little Blue Tits should be in bed. None of them have the blue yet and some are teeny but they all seem very confident and capable of feeding themselves, unlike the petits Moineaux who still seem to rely on their parents until they are quite big.

15 is the magic number

Someone asked me today what is the single most important thing you have learned from the Internet. This was such a hard question to answer because the net is such a prolific giver in terms of knowledge...but the answer I would have to plump for ( where the heck does that saying come from I wonder? ) would be ...

"To live my life 15 minutes at a time."

15 is great in all areas of life.

1) If you can't bear an activity, you can at least stick it out for 15.

2) If you don't think you have time in your day for yourself...you can find 15 minutes if you try.

3) 15 minutes is just right for a power nap...any longer and you are asleep

4) You CAN get more done in 15 than you can imagine.

5) you can even prepare a dinner in 15

15 is magic, it goes quickly when you are hating an activity but you can also achieve so much more than you imagine in that small amount of time...and it is long enough to feel you have pampered yourself if you are up for "me time".

oh how freeing this moving lark is

I'm really getting into this moving lark now. I am finding it really easy to let stuff go and whittle the house down to the bare minimum...(that is all the every day stuff, NOT the craft stuff, you'd have to peel that out of my clammy hands)... I am thinking when you go on holiday you cope with the bare minimum so do we really need 3 sieves, 3 can openers, 10 cereal bowls? I think not...and what is the worst that can happen, we will just have to invest in a few more for our new home...shopping...no problemo! LOL

One thing I have learned is that I really need a walk in larder or floor to ceiling pull out larder next time...I found about 5 packs of Quinoa in the carousel...hidden from view, had no idea I had them! I've always hated that carousel...I will NEVER be so green to let one of these kitchen shop designers actually DESIGN the kitchen for me ever again...they don't have to actually live with the plan...still as my Mother used to say "

There's no point in getting older if you don't get wiser!"

well aint that true?