Hearty Eating

Sausages, eggs, mushrooms, tomato and toast for breakfast.

Freshly juiced orange/apple/coconut water.

Chocolate zucchini muffins with leftover juice for lunch.

Leftover sausages with potato/sweet potato bake and roasted cauliflower for dinner.

Chocolate muffins for dessert.

Tomorrow will be a green day. Lots of green leafy vegetables in smoothies and as part of our meals and maybe some turkey mince. I also have quite a few berries to use up. My mouth is watering just thinking about tomorrow's meals!

Aside from baking chocolate zucchini muffins today, I have also cleaned my work area, so I have a fresh clean start to my studies on Monday. Let me tell you THAT was a job and a half!!

This afternoon I caught a juvenile koel steeling cherry tomatoes from my garden! Unfortunately, by the time I got my camera, she had flown into my mulberry tree, so it was difficult to get a clear shot. It took her a while to figure out how to swallow the very large cherry tomato, but after squashing it slighty, she swallowed it whole!

Big NRL football Grand Final on tomorrow night. South Sydney Rabbitohs v Canterbury Bulldogs. I'm barracking for South Sydney, who haven't made it to a Grand Final in over 40 years. Fingers crossed.

Adoring Husband and I are watching 'Moonraker', a crappy James Bond movie, but it seems that Saturday nights mustn't generate much of an audience, because every channel has a pretty unfortunate line up of crappy shows and movies.

Perhaps an early night is in order.

Nite all.

The Week End

Happy Friday!

It's been an interesting day.

I cleaned off my desk .. which is a mighty task in itself. It has not been tidied properly since my studies began, so it's been six months since my desk was cleared and cleaned properly.

It's amazing how cleansing it is for your body and soul when you clean something that you use often, so thoroughly.

My desk is now shiny and sparkly and ready for a new term of heavy duty study.

I distributed our excess pantry items among the boys at the Seat of Knowledge this morning. Everybody took something, so I didn't have to throw anything in the garbage.

I had coffee with The Bird Woman this morning too. She chose a couple of things from my grocery items and was hesitant to walk home carrying them because they were heavy, so I offered to drop them off later in the morning.

I got my take away coffee and then triked to her house, where I spent an hour chatting about stuff like grandchildren and dogs and mothers-in-law.

I didn't even get a chance to order my text books today!

I'm going to make some munchies for Adoring Husband tomorrow, like zucchini chocolate cupcakes, banana and pecan muffins, chocolate mousse and chocolate bark.

I'm watching some recorded episodes of Big Brother and I will be in bed early tonight. Ten o'clock will be my limit.

No photos.

Facebook shares ..

Oh my, I am so tired!

Nite all.

Pantry Love

I know that you are going to be so envious when I tell you how I spent my day!

I have been gluten free for over 3 years now, and we have been refined sugar free and processed food free for a year.

So it was time to clear out the pantry.

I had saved some food stuffs in one corner of the pantry, just in case we couldn't commit to the challenge, or just in case we had visitors who couldn't do without certain products.

Today, I threw away vegemite, ozimite, peanut butter, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, mint sauce, sundried tomatoes, tinned beetroot, 4 tins of four bean mix, a can of lite coconut milk, a can of condensed milk, two tins of red curry paste, hoisin sauce, tinned mushrooms in butter sauce, wheat spaghetti, a packet of GF crackers, 6 packets of trident spicy soups and a few other things.

All of those things, aside from the spaghetti, contained sugar.

It still surprises me, how many common foodstuffs have sugar in them.

While I was on holidays, if we ate out, I just couldn't avoid sugar, except when we ate two meals at a Paleo cafe in Townsville. Paleo meals don't contain refined sugar. In other restaurants, I couldn't tell if my meals contained sugar, nor could I tell how much was in them.

The best I could do was to avoid gluten.

I could feel the sugar having an affect on my body.

I really thought that if I was as careful as possible, a little sugar here or there wouldn't hurt. But it did hurt. I could physically feel it. I could feel the changes in my mood, from extreme highs to dull lows. I could feel the changes in my energy levels. I struggled to stay awake mid afternoon. The joints in my fingers and my knees began to ache almost immediately and it probably contributed to my inability to sleep.

These things all happened to my body before I quit sugar, but I didn't recognise it as a side effect of sugar, I put it down to everything else from overwork, stress, ageing, being overweight .. any number of reasons.

So now my pantry is clear of food that contains sugar. Here is the 'before' shot ...

... and here is the 'after' ...

I just noticed a jar of peanut butter in the 'after' shot that shouldn't be there!

Tomorrow I have to order some text books for this term's subjects. I have a sneaking suspicion that they may be quite expensive ... and scary looking!

Meanwhile, it's time for sleep.

Nite all.

Where is Spring?

Even though the weather is glorious and the air is clear and the colours are vibrant, the usual signs of Spring are non-existent this far north of Australia.

It's something that BGWLBH mentioned when she was here a couple of years ago.

In NSW, you know instantly what season of the year it is, just by looking out the window.

In Autumn the leaves change colour and the trees are covered in vibrant reds, yellows and orange.  In Winter, the leaves fall and everything becomes grey and dull. When Spring arrives, there are vibrant bursts of colour everywhere, and everything, including birds and wildlife, comes to life. Summer makes everything golden, dusty and dry - the sun, the fields, the soil, the air.

This far north, everything stays the same.  Well, except my orchids flower in Spring and vegetables are virtually impossible to grow in the heat and humidity of Summer. The change of seasons is almost indefinable.

It was most noticeable for me today because I went triking around town for 2 hours trying to find nests and wildflowers and wildlife.

I found a Butcher Bird nest. Nothing else (aside from the Tawnies and the Bee Eaters).

Disappointing.

I took quite a few hopeful photos but I haven't looked at them yet .. which is an indication that there is nothing there that I'm excited to see!

Here is a lovely pelican that I photographed a couple of days ago..

I had a great phone call with Chicklet and Vegan Chickie today.

Tonight, I got adventurous in the kitchen and cooked some venison,  a whole baked cauliflower and beans and broccoli. The venison was surprisingly delicious. The butcher told us that to prevent toughness, we should cook it on a very high heat quickly, so that's what I did and it was lovely and tender.

The cauliflower was the highlight, with it's deliciously spicy marinade coating.

Spicy Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower
1½ cups plain Greek yogurt
1 lime, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons chile powder (I was intimidated by this & only used 3/4 T. It was still spicy enough)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° and line a small baking dish with baking paper. Set aside.

2. Trim the base of the cauliflower to remove any green leaves and the woody stem.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt with the lime zest and juice, chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, curry powder, salt and pepper.

4. Dunk the cauliflower into the bowl and use a brush or your hands to smear the marinade evenly over its surface. (Excess marinade can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three days and used with meat, fish or other veggies.)

5. Place the cauliflower on the prepared baking sheet and roast until the surface is dry and lightly browned, about 40 minutes. The marinade will make a crust on the surface of the cauliflower.

6. Let the cauliflower cool for 10 minutes before cutting it into wedges and serving.

Sharing is caring.

Nite all.

Touching Spring

This month's challenge for the flickr photography group is "A Touch of Spring"

I desperately tried to think of something different for this challenge, but the month has been full of study and exams and holidays, so I didn't find the time to put enough effort into it and with a last ditch effort in a moment of desperation, I came up with this ...

... once again, I don't stand a chance of winning, but at least I've contributed and hopefully next month, I can be more imaginative.

Another lovely morning tea with the girls today.

Adoring Husband and I spent a long day in The Bay. What I thought would be a quick trip in for groceries turned out to be quite a bit more than that, so we didn't get home til almost 4pm and then it took a while to unpack everything.

After a ride down to the beach and creating the "Touch of Spring" photo, a quick steak and salad for dinner and then a Big Brother hit, it's now 10.30pm and time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Birds Have It

Ok, firstly, the Sunbird as promised ..

Sadly, in the ten days that I've been gone, there have been two deaths in town and so a couple of elderly Mums are no longer with us. Condolences to my friends at this time.

Also sadly .. remember the Tawny Frogmouth on the nest that I showed you a couple of weeks ago?

Well, the nest AND the Tawny are gone. Gentleman Jim, from the Seat of Knowledge, found a dead Tawny in the Lions Park last week and the next day when the boys checked the nest, the Tawny was gone and eggs were on the ground.

When one Tawny of a pair dies, the other will toss the eggs, knowing that he/she cannot raise them on their own.

On a happier note, I found two other nests today! I think I have an idea where there are another two nests as well .. and I will take photos of them all tomorrow. Unfortunately, none of them are at the perfect height in the trees for great photos of chicks, but they are there and that's what counts.

I have morning tea with the girls tomorrow morning and then Adoring Husband and I will be heading into town to shop and restock the pantry and fridge now that I'm back.

The final piece of good news for today is that I got the results for my Naturopathic Philosophy exam and I passed! 93.75% is a result worth celebrating! Wahoo!

My subjects for next term are 'Anatomy and Physiology 1' and 'Chemistry'.

Ugh!

I think I can handle it.

I'm confident.

Ha!

How difficult can it be?

No matter .. it's good to be home.

Nite all.

Home at Last

I feel like I've been away for months.

It's so good to be home.

I even enjoyed the four hour train trip .. it was like savouring each moment as I got closer to home, knowing that soon I would be where I should be.

So I've already unpacked and settled into my comfy spot on the couch, watched the X-Factor and now doing a short version of this blog post before I head off to my beautiful, comfortable welcoming bed.

Aside from arriving home safe and sound, the highlight of the day was finding a Sunbird and actually getting some photos .. which I will share in tomorrow's post.

Can you hear or sense my satisfied sigh of genuine happiness?

Nite all.