Oh yum!

At New Year, we made a commitment to eating more healthily. Since then, my mental and physical health have both been very poor and for the last couple of weeks we have eaten rubbish, including lots of take outs. For me, now, a take out signals being ill, rather than a treat.

We pulled ourselves together enough last week, to explore Abel and Cole. This is a delivery service that works with organic farmers and food producers. All their stuff is traceable back to the farm and is all ethically sourced.

At 9.30 this morning, our new delivery man came to the door bearing lots of (recycled) cardboard boxes.

I was so excited! Normally the Sainsbury's delivery makes me think 'gird your loins, Piggles, and just get it over with'.

What a difference today. Everything fresh and lovely.

It all smelled and felt wholesome. The bags at the back hold cabbage and sprouting broccoli. I will have to surf the web a bit to look for red cabbage recipes. There was also some celery, but that made its way into the dairy products photo:

Organic cheeses, houmous, salmon, cream ( a Texan needs cream in coffee!), whole milk and Guernsey milk, wild mackerel pate and breads. Oh yum. Lunch will be a dense rye and spelt bread with mackerel pate, houmous and vegetable sticks. *I think I might have dribbled a little there*

Then there is fresh fruit. We tend to eat more fruit than veg, but we are attempting to switch that around. Here is the fruit box:

I can report that my cup of tea with the organic whole milk has been a very tasty accompaniment to writing this.

Planning ahead

I have been absent for a week because I have had 3 changes to my medication for bi-polar disorder. This has left me in an unstable state with little or no motivation to do anything. Things are improving now, though, so I can share some of the things that I have been able to do.

Firstly, a rabbit and a bear have been finished and I love the way they have turned out:

Because she has little snails on her skirt, among the flowers and fruit, I have called her Margot Escargot!

She has been made with some gorgeous new yarn...but more of that later.

This one is Birdie Bear:

                    Isn't this fabric adorable?

I have had a couple of deliveries of the most seductive yarn *sigh*.   
I love it so much, I have arranged it in a wire and wicker tray right by where I sit:

Both yarns are by Drops. The fuzzy, fluffy stuff is Alpaca Silk - 77% alpaca and 33% silk. I am using it doubled with 4mm needles for the head, body, ears and arms of critters.

The coloured yarn is Cotton Merino - 52% wool and 48% cotton. It is very soft and knits up beautifully using 3.25mm needles.

As I said, my knitting mojo life mojo has been almost non existent. What I have done, however, is a lot of daydreaming, putting together different colour combinations in my head. I then had the bright idea of actually photographing different combos so I didn't have to try to remember them. These are for the next few projects I have planned (in no specific order):

I am looking forward to getting back to normal. My bunny and bears are in my Etsy shop...perfect for a Valentine or Easter gift!

And they lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time, there was a Frog Prince. He was not like an ordinary frog. He didn't start as an egg and turn into a tadpole. This was his development:

Yarn from Rosie's Wools

A head, aided by a cup of tea

A body aided by another cuppa (thirsty work this creation lark)

Some fat froggy legs

Big, spongy feet

...and then the pieces all started to come together...

He was sent to his Princess, Kim. As the saying goes...

Two more meals

Day 3:  stew and crispy dumplings

This is really tady and is just as good on the 2 nod day, so I usually make up a big batch to last 2 days.

The stew base is really any veggies you have lurking around the kitchen. I used onions, carrots, aubergine, courgettes and tomatoes.  A little oil was heated in a shallow pan, the onion cooked until soft, then all the othe veggies added and cooked for approximately 15 minutes, with more water being added to keep the stew moist. Quorn 'meat' mice was added and cooked for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I mixed up the dumpling mix. 6 oz of Atora vegetable duet, 12 oz of self raising flour and water.

I transferred the stew into a casserole dish, spooned in 8 dumplings and cooked in an oven preheated to 200C for about 20 minutes, until the dumplings are browned and crispy. Yum!

Day 4: Salmon with tarragon and pasta

This is a 10 minute meal.

Boil a kettle of water and put the water in a pan on the stove, to keep bubbling.

Melt butter in a shallow pan and add tarragon and a salmon steak per person.   

Cook the salmon through until the outsides are crispy and put them to one side. Add ready made stuffed pasta shapes (these were filled with squash and sage) to the water and cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, add flour, milk, grated cheese and black pepper to the melted butter to make a sauce.  Drain pasta and serve with salmon and sauce.

This picture makes the meal look rather bland and beige, but it is actually very tasty:

All these recipes require minimal effort and make for an easy clean up. What's not to like?

Poorly Plants

For the past 2 weeks, my poor old brain has been struggling to adapt to medication changes to control my bipolar disorder. When this happens, getting through each day is all that I can manage.

Yesterday, I felt well, so Fin and I blitzed house cleaning and the flat looks, feels and smells lovely!

I was doing the sitting room and became aware of my poor, neglected plants.

A couple were hardy enough to have survive the neglect unscathed:

But the others were in a sorry, sorry state. For goodness sake, even the ivy was half dead, and ivy will survive just about anything:

This little baby I have had for 10 years. I knew that World's Clumsiest Cat had knocked into it a few days ago. I hadn't realised that she had dislodged the roots completely:

I repotted it.

A bit of judicious snipping was in order:

I then put the plants on a tray, on the dining table, in front of the window, in the hope that

a) the extra light will do them good

b) as they are right by me, I won't neglect them

This is how they looked this morning:

So there's hope for them yet!

On a positive note, the erstwhile 'Blanket of Gloom' is starting to morph into the 'Blanket of This Might Be a Piece of Alright'! :

                          Watch this space!

Food for thought

Since the New Year, we have been making a concerted effort to eat more vegetables. We always have plenty of fruit but have been slipping in eating our greens. In the past, for various periods, I have stopped eating meat. We have decided not to eat meat, but are still eating seafood.

Because of my disability, I have limited energy for cooking, though 
I do enjoy it. So I have built up a repertoire of quick, tasty meals and thought I would share them with you.

Because they are quite wordy, I will do a couple of recipes at a time, building up to a week's worth.

Day 1: Prawns and coriander

Melt butter and olive oil in a shallow pan. Add sliced red onions, a chopped courgette and chopped yellow pepper. Cook gently until soft.

Add a heaped teaspoon of Indian lime pickle and about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir. Let everything cook for another 5 minutes.

Add cooked prawns and a chopped up bunch of coriander and cook for about 3 minutes.

Turn heat off. Add 3 heaped tablespoons of thick, natural Greek yoghurt and fold through.

Serve with crusty bread and a glass of orange juice.

Day 2: Nut cutlets and special sprouts

Pop frozen nut cutlets in the oven set at 200C. 

Boil a kettle of water.

 While the kettle is boiling, chop up potatoes and carrots that are not peeled. Put the root veg on to boil.

 Make x cuts in bottom of sprouts and steam for 5 minutes. 

While the sprouts are steaming, heat some olive oil in a shallow pan and gently cook a thinly sliced red onion.

Add steamed sprouts to the onion with a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, a heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a couple of generous swigs of red wind *hic*.

Keep agitating the sprouts to make sure they are thoroughly coated and cooked through.

Remove sprouts, add a spoon of flour to the pan to make a roux and then add water from the potatoes and carrots. This makes a yummy gravy.

Mash the root veg with butter and milk. They look rather 'rustic' as there is potato skin in, but you are keeping all the goodness.

Serve and enjoy!

Pucker up!

A couple of days ago, I had a custom request for a knitted frog. The customer likes the pattern I suggested:

The Frog Prince by Alan Dart.

He is being made in these colours:

For anyone in the Reading area, a new yarn shop had opened - 'Rosie's Wools'. It is next to Fabricland. Check it out and think about supporting local businesses.

So I am enjoying a new project. In between making parts of the frog prince, I have made a new PigglesBoo Bunny - Valentina.

What with kissing frogs and little red hearts, love is in the air.