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I like to take notice of how I am feeling when I wake up in the morning.

One of the things that living has taught me is that if I pay attention to that primary waking feeling then I can manage the endless crap that tries to take over and fill up my head and turn my day to mush.

Today I wake feeling a familiar feeling, but one that I have difficulty naming accurately. I

tend to call it ‘hopeful’, though I’m not sure that is altogether the right noun – there is a vague feeling of excitement that generates from somewhere in my solar plexus and skitters up to my heart and makes it sing. A small upturn at the corners of my mouth is willing me to smile and my body wants to dance. I feel alive and expectant of good things. I feel happy!

I have no idea of why I feel this way – nothing untoward, exciting or inspiring is planned for this day. I hope to eventually escape the blogosphere and make it to my play room and start work on turning a box into a book, and there is more daunt than hope around that intention!

But nonetheless, this is the feeling that I wake with.

I rise at 6 am, it is just dawn, the grey sky lightens while I fetch and carry for Orlando who warbles and purrs his approval and rubs his head against any available part of me – leg, arm, hand – and I know this is why I woke feeling this feeling. My little fella makes me happy!

I make my morning coffee, turn on the laptop and settle down to read my emails. Good news lurks there, I’ve won not one but two bonus tickets on the lottery drawn last night, another try tonight then! This makes me happy and I smile with anticipation!

While involved in catching up on news and Facebook and daily bargains the day emerges and my wee house is suddenly flooded with sunlight and warmth. This makes me happy!

Saving the best to last I eventually arrive in blog heaven. At first I don’t understand what is happening on Char’s blog – I wonder if WordPress has made a mistake and put my blog title on her blog – I follow it into the sphere and read the latest post from Lesie’s World and see that, bless her cotton socks, the girl has mentioned my post in her post and ‘pinged’ me. I didn’t even know you could do that!

This makes me really happy! What a great compliment, what a great way to start the day!

I spend an hour or so, wondering around blogs, I have found another like soul in Patricia Awapara and enjoy time admiring her stunning paintings and reading her book excerpt. I visit new people and stay awhile with some and move on more quickly from others. I discover another writer worth following. Ah, such happiness!

My cat curls up beside me and warbles himself into sleep. And, of course, this makes me very happy!

And now if you’ll excuse me, I must get on with my day. I wonder what will come next?

Thanks for visiting, I hope you are having a great day!

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It’s been a while since I posted – if you have read previously and are waiting to hear more about the new life style, all I can say is it is going well – I still spend more time in the kitchen than I have for years and am still experimenting happily with recipes both old and new.

More important though is how I am feeling [within my body and health and well-being generally]. At the end of week five I am pleased, proud and happy to report that all is going very well…… for the first time in over a decade my body is pain-free, the inflammation has subsided substantially – I can now touch my toes while keeping my legs straight – something that had eluded me for some time! And I feel good – that ephemeral feeling of general well-being and ease within the physical translates into a sense of greater contentment.

I’m sprouting [mostly alfalfa and a seed mix known as ‘Energy‘], making yoghurt, cheese and oat cakes [ see a previous posting for the recipe]

and chicken broth [which becomes a yummy soup].

Did you know that when you put a dash of cider vinegar into the water it helps to pull out more of the vitamins and minerals from the chicken so that your broth becomes an even more potent cure-all. There is wisdom in the old-wives tales and folk medicines!

My window sill is full of fresh herbs and regenerating bits and bobs such as celery and spring onions and my freezer is full of pureed pumpkin, chicken stock and soup, spicy nuts [for a quick pick-me-up snack] and bags of activated walnuts and almonds just waiting to be added to the next meal.

I’ve even made my own salad sprinkles – a tasty mix of various activated nuts and seeds mixed with dried karengo [a nutrient rich seaweed] and crisped coconut flakes. This has been a great favourite and even though summer has given way to autumn, and salads are being replaced with hot dishes, I feel confident they will be just as tasty sprinkled over vegetables!

Now, just in case you think I’ve become a health nut, let me hasten to reassure you, all the old cravings for comfort foods are still being satisfied. Why just last night I prepped up a couple of parsnips and sweet potatoes and rubbed ’em down with some oil and peanut butter [homemade, she said proudly] popped them in the oven with good sprinkle of salt and enjoyed myself some hots fries and watched a movie!! It was just that kind of night!

I think what I’m enjoying the most about this change in life style is that it is not a ‘diet’ – it is really a chance for me to enjoy good wholesome food without the crap that factory made stuff is liberally covered in and because I use home-grown or organic wherever possible I know it is good for my body and health too. I’m enjoying finding out what my body likes and what it doesn’t like – perhaps for the first time ever I am really paying attention to the messages it sends me…….. a little later in the day, but hey, better late than never!

Now apart from all this, I’ve also been busy in the craft room – lots of stuff underway, lots more ideas waiting to be trialed in the art journal but here is a quick pic of the latest card:

Front Inside

Made for my eldest daughters mumble birthday.

I’ve also popped those photos onto Orlando King’s pinterest page if you want to have them.

Thanks for popping by – leave me a note to say you’ve been, I enjoy hearing from you!

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…. in the kitchen particularly……

After years of not being overly interested in spending time in that room, I have, thanks to my wonderful ED’s gift and Sara Wilson, [author of the gift, a book called ‘I Quit Sugar’] re-discovered the joys of creating tasty foods that feed the body and the soul. [I should probably also add that Sara Wilson doesn’t even know I exist just in case you mistake this as an advertisement for her.]

When I began this new adventure – about two weeks ago now – [really is that all, it feels like forever!] I decided to give up on wheat as well as sugar – may as well kill two birds with one stone I thought [such as odd saying courtesy my parents generation] – so was looking for something affordable and tasty to replace that lunchtime sandwich with.

I’m not a recipe follower, never have been, probably never will be – and as I mentioned in my previous post I was experimenting with something I call Cheese and Oat Cakes which I have been making on and off for the last forty odd years – mostly off in the last ten years – I knew though that if I was going to record this in my blog I would have to have, at the very least, an accurate record of the ingredients.

That was a challenge!

Luckily its a pretty easy recipe to remember. The proof lies in the fact that after pretty much a decade I pulled that recipe from my memory pretty much intact and started fiddling about with it. Now I’ve had three attempts at making something just right for my lunchtime taste buds. And today I got it just right!

And I was a good girl, I remembered to jot down what I was mixing in and I even remembered to take a couple of photos – well towards the end which is better than nothing!

So here’s the recipe to make 12 cakes: [I don’t know why they are called cakes – really they are more a patty-like creature. Maybe I should call them Cheese and Oat Patties from now on??] [Oh, and another aside, everything is free-range and/or organic wherever possible – but if that’s not your bag use whatever you have to hand]

Toss all this into a large mixing bowl:

3 cups rolled oats; 3 cups grated cheese, a good handful of chopped fresh parsley; 2 tsp Zesty Garlic Herb Blend*; sea-salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Mix this all up enthusiastically then add in 2 eggs and about a half cup of cornmeal. [If you don’t have cornmeal use flour]. Add in a small amount of milk to make the mixture damp, but not soggy.

I use my hands now and strongly insist that a good palm full of the mixture becomes a ball – if it won’t and keeps falling apart, add in a bit more milk. You have to be quite firm with the mixture or it won’t bind. So now you should have 12 nice round balls all lined up neatly on your board. [I did, she said proudly!] I let them sit there for 10 or 20 minutes and then put my nice big heavy bottomed fry pan on the element and heated it through. I don’t add any oil as my pan cooks beautifully without it – but use a little if you need to.

I put 6 balls into my pan at a time, flattening them out somewhat so that they resemble cakes – or patties – rather than balls. Turn the heat down and cook for 2 – 3 minutes before turning. If they brown too quickly turn the heat down further. Cook the other side for 2 – 3 minutes also.

You can see in this photo there is no oil in the pan, yet the cakes are still browning nicely.

And that’s it they are done and ready to eat!

Yummy!!

Enjoy!

*A quick note about the Zesty Garlic Herb Blend, which is for me personally, a prime ingredient in the success of this recipe. It is made by Bittersweet Herbs & Spices who do a great mail order service. Find them on the web at http://www.herbsonline.co.nz

If you make these tasty treats do drop a line to say what you think.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post!