Maria Runs

Hey all

I don’t celebrate Valentines Day, so this is not about that. This morning I was listening to Radio 4 and they were discussing organ donation, and the fact that they still need more people to sign up to the register.

I know that some people have personal reasons against it, so I am not saying everyone should, but my personal opinion is that I would like to think that death is not in vain and if you can help someone then do it. There are so many people waiting for transplants and of course no-one wants to die, but it does happen. It reminded me of a few weeks ago when marathon talk had an interview with a man who was about to run his 11th London Marathon since having a heart transplant. I found it so inspiring- I love hearing about how famous and speedy runners train, but hearing how the average person overcame such a huge barrier is amazing. You can download it here.

Anyway, I won’t go on, but if you want to sign up to the donor list then you can do it online, here. You must tell your family your wishes, because it seems they still need to give permission even if you are on the register. So, if you believe in it, maybe spend a few minutes today filling out the form and telling your family about giving that special gift.

Onto normal ramblings:

I am currently enjoying a cup of Bengal Spice tea. I loved the Gingerbread tea I got from the blogger secret santa, but alas used all the teabags and it seems to be a seasonal flavour. I had seen this tea on i-herb, but had not got around to ordering any. Anyway, today I met Andy for a Starbucks in the afternoon (2 for 1 using the loyalty card) and there is a little health food shop right next to it. We popped in and they had a pack of 10 (for 99p which is a bargain), so at least I get to try instead of ordering it  from the USA. Anyway, it tastes, in all seriousness, like I am drinking a Starbucks cinnamon roll. No joke. This tea is spicy and sweet. I don’t ever add sugar or sweetener to tea, but it does taste like it has some syrup or something. Anyway, next time I am going to make it into a latte as I think it would be perfect for that.

I have been baking:

I had some friends over and one of them gets migraines from chocolate. I mentioned carob to her, and she had never heard of it, so I took it upon myself to make her some carob chip cookies (half also with dried cherries- the bag is separating them!)- she loved them! 🙂 I used the millies cookie recipe that I got from Lucy’s blog before- perfect.

I also made some fudge:

Peanut butter and some beyond dark chocolate drops (found these again in Sainsbury’s- hooray). (We did also have pittas, veggie crudités, grapes and strawberries- we are not all bad!).

I made something healthy for dinner, don’t worry!

Tofu/ pesto quinoa and broccoli. It needs perfecting, but basically I cooked some quinoa (30g dry), whizzed up some silken tofu (about a third of the pack) with a few tsp meridian pesto, then mixed in the quinoa. I put some broccoli in a baking dish and topped it with the tofu/pesto/quinoa mix, and baked for 20 mins. Then I topped it with pine nuts. It was tasty, but I think it needed some more pesto in there.

And after seeing Lucy make some yummy sounding peanut dip, that is what I did for lunch today.

I mixed up peanut flour with cinnamon and almond milk, and had it with apple and wholemeal pitta to dip. Very tasty indeed.

Finally- a few of you have asked about my op. Well, it’s not great news- I don’t have a date but have been told the deadline (their waiting list limit) would be mid-April. I have been put down on the cancellation list, so I am hoping for that. I did see my lovely GP last week and she was not impressed to say the least when I told her about my latest hospital appointment, so she has encouraged me to complain to the hospital. I do feel bad about complaining, because coming from another strand of the public sector I know about how there is never enough money in the budget and everyone does work really hard. And I know that I am lucky because what I have is easily solved and not life-threatening. But at the same time it is my health and my GP did point out to me that the last doctor I saw was not very professional. Anyway, I don’t want to get into it here. It is weird because if we have a problem with our internet/ gas/ shopping then I would complain (in a nice way- I am not swearing at people down the phone or anything- a few years ago we had an awful saga with British Gas where our boiler kept breaking and they kept saying they had fixed it but it only worked for a day and then went, and of course no-one could come out for 3 days, and it was for about 3 months over winter- I won’t ramble on) but for some reason I don’t feel altogether comfortable complaining to the hospital. Also I would not send food back in a restaurant for the fear of spit even though I am sure that actually never happens in real life, only on TV!

How are you with complaining? What is your style?

How do you feel about organ donation?

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

A while ago I mentioned that I fancied doing something to take up my time. In the end I ordered some patches of fabric (from here if anyone is interested) and they arrived the other weekend. So I have started sewing them together.

It was a selection of fabrics, but as they all had pink/ pale teal in them I thought they would look quite nice.

I had no idea how to do this so I started sewing them in pairs, then joining them together.

Anyway, since then I have read that it is better to sew them into strips and then join the strips together. Not quite sure how to turn it into a blanket once I have sewn them all together either! Really I don’t mind how it turns out because (to quote an early years teaching phrase) it is the process, not the product.

It is quite relaxing to sit with the radio on and sew, plus it keeps my hands busy so I can’t be tempted by chocolate the whole time.

I had a scrumptious breakfast yesterday:

Pancakes made with half spelt and half peanut flour, topped with DCD and sliced banana. Mmm.

I also tried some real (caffeinated) tea- Teapigs chocolate tea. I have them on my facebook page and the photos were tempting me! (I am not against caffeine, but the cyst I have is pressing on my bladder, and caffeine tends to make it a bit worse sometimes which is why I have been only having herbal/ rooibos teas lately).

Plus, the latest sourdough loaf was a success!

I made some carrot, sweet potato and butternut soup, and had the leftover-leftovers (well, me and Andy had one lot the other day- this wasn’t reheated that many times don’t worry) for Friday lunch with a slice and my fave hummus. Yum.

It was fab for dinner with bean and veggie bake.

It was also lovely toasted for Saturday lunch (topped with almond butter/ almond butter and apple/mango jam). Even though the top looked burnt, it was really tasty inside. Phew.

Saturday Andy was out and I needed to use up a lot of veggie from our fridge that were a little past their best. I decided to make a lentil chilli, and also roasted some extra veg (carrots and sweet potato) for more soup.

I cooked some lentils:

Then mixed it all up in a pot with some passatta and some chilli.

Nice and warming on a cold night. Plus two more portions in the freezer. Although we need a bigger freezer- it was a real squeeze fitting the pots in there.

We had the soup today for lunch- it was so easy I really should prep stuff like this more often. I put the carrot and sweet potato in the pan, with some water, stock and this time chilli flakes, simmered for maybe 20 mins, blended and served. Easy.

It is half term this week so I am going to have lots more visitors- hooray 🙂

I made the mistake of listening to an old Adam and Joe podcast on my walk on Saturday- cue me walking along laughing out loud like a crazy person. I think those ones are best listened to at home! I am running out of things to listen to. So which podcasts do you like to listen to? 

Yesterday I had to go to the shops, (well, not like I was forced to or anything) because I had ordered some thermal things from M&S that had to be collected in store. We also needed a few bits at home so I went to Waitrose as it is right in the town centre. Randomly I took a photo when I got home of all my purchases. I like seeing what other people buy so here is a treat for you all- plus you get to see how tiny the work surface is in my kitchen:

Although I must have packed some stuff away before I took it. Silly me. Anyway, I got the usual stuff ;bananas, clementines and plums (which were 3 for 2), salad, peppers, courgettes, aubergine, sweet potatoes, tinned tomatoes and tinned beans (although I did look at the dried beans but they didn’t have dried cannelini which are my fave), orange juice, cheese, Pure spread, olive oil, paracetamol, rosemary, black pepper and some montezuma’s chocolate (I have quite a collection but it is on offer!). Anyway, the peanut butter was reduced and I have no idea why as the best before date is months away (which is why I got one smooth and one crunchy). And I got some nice looking rosemary foccacia rolls, and some yummy looking fruit and seed English muffins- straight to the freezer as they went off the same day. I love a bargain! 🙂 I also got Vegetarian Living mag for me and Private Eye for Andy.

I also popped into Julain Graves and saw these yummy looking cocoa dusted almonds. I got Andy some chai tea (shhh) as I am sure our tea supplies are running low. I mean now I can open the tea cupboard without something falling on me, so that must mean we need more, right?

And there are the thermals. I have white vest ones already so I went for black this time and also tried some leggings- 25% off is not to be sniffed at, especially when it is freezing. I got ankle length leggings and they are really drag-along-the-floor-and-trip-me-up length. But I am short. Anyway they are super warm which is what counts.

The other day Mum and Dad had me over for lunch and my Mum made a lovely butternut and carrot soup. I love soups like that but got out of the habit of making them- a few years ago I would have soup for lunch all winter. So I made some myself.

Carrot, Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup:

I had some butternut that I already cubed and roasted with some rosemary, but you could do it with raw stuff.

In a pan soften 3 chopped carrots and 1 peeled and chopped sweet potato. I used about a tsp olive oil. If using raw butternut add it now too. I added mine a little later as it was soft from being roasted.

Then add a litre of hot water and some vegetable stock- I like this vecon stuff. Put the lid on and simmer for a while- maybe 30 mins? I do the fork test (eg poke a carrot with a fork, and if it is soft it is ready).

I added a bit more water here (I originally added only about 750ml I think) but it depends on how thick/ watery you like it really. Add in some rosemary and black pepper. Chilli would be nice too for a spicy soup- maybe I will try that next time

Then blend away until it turns into a lovely thick smooth soup. Of course you can leave some lumps if you like.

I had it with some sunflower ryvita with caramelised onion hummus- a tasty and veggie-packed lunch.

This made 4 good portions so I put the rest in the fridge for the next few days, although I am sure it would freeze fine too.

And as for the rest of the roasted butternut- it went into a chickpea stew. I am pretty sure it had red onion, red and yellow peppers, butternut squash, tomatoes, chickpeas, chilli and spinach. It was lovely anyway, plus it made 3 portions so I have 2 more in the freezer. My favourite kind of meal (and I even labelled them so no more mystery dinners).

So, what soups do you like? I like thick ones, no weird coloured water for me! I like the actual soup to be smooth but I don’t mind things like lentils or beans in there- makes it more filling. Anyway I quite enjoyed making it- pretty simple but it is quite nice to have different flavours and not always make the same one.

Morning everyone.

Yup, if you have not had enough of my weird baking already, I took photos for WIAW when I made my first sourdough loaf (Friday).

Breakfast:

Mint tea (I condensed most of my mint teabags into one box- I thought it was all I had (Twinnings and Aldi) but then found a whole box of Whittards ones too. Having one a day will use them up pretty quick).

Plus porridge- Gingerbread porridge plus a spoonful of dark choc dreams and a topping of cinnamon. Tastes like a chocolate coated gingerbread cookie. Yum.

Snack:

Clementines.

Lunch:

I could not resist a taste of the sourdough, so I had it with some caramelised onion hummus, cucumber, grapes and persimmon.

Snack:

Some dark chocolate with some lemongrass and vanilla tea. I went on a little walk and I needed a hot drink when I got back inside!

Dinner:

Bean and veggie bake, topped with cheese, and some sourdough. This is my fave way to eat veggies- all cooked up together- in this is onions, red and green peppers, tomatoes, beans, but we will add courgettes/ aubergine/ spinach depending on what we have in.

Dessert:

When wandering in Waitrose I saw these rice puddings- mango and coconut, so I had one warmed with half of a graze punnet (which was dried mango, pineapple and coconut). Totally tropical!

So, Jenn has created a WIAW theme about loving your veggies.

 At the moment I am loving dipping veggies in that hummus for lunch- sometimes peppers, sometimes carrots, cucumber or celery. For some reason I don’t often have cooked lunches, even though at the moment I easily could. It seems a bit of a waste to turn the oven on just for me. Although I do love soup for lunch and have that some days.

I get most of my veggies with my evening meal and my fave way is when they get all cooked together- like in the bean bake, or in a chickpea stew, or the mexican casserole, or a veggie bean chilli. Then you can just put in what you fancy, or what you have in the fridge. Most of my recipes for dinners have veggies in them, so feel free to take a look.

So, to go with the theme, fave veggie packed recipe?