Best ever flavour combinations...

...peanut, chilli and egg
tuna and olives
chocolate and peanut butter (works equally well in porridge as it does in ice-cream)
maple syrup and pecan (made for each other).

Others?

Lunch of champions

Quinoa, black beans, sweet potato, tomato, red onion, green capsicum, avocado, spices and hot sauce. Yum!

48 hours in

It's been almost exactly 48 hours since the Thermomix arrived. Now, this blog isn't about to become an advertorial for Thermomix or a slavish rendering of Thermie (see - affectionate abbreviation already) converted recipes. But, I just want to say this. In its first 48 hours with us, we have used the Thermie to make:

1 loaf of bread (success - we even milled some of our own flour for it)
1 batch of pasta sauce (okay)
1 jug of fruit and vegetable juice (success)
1 thai green chicken curry (success for the carnivore)
1 batch of chilli jam (success)
1 batch of porridge (not great, prefer it the old fashioned way)
1 batch of muffins (okay, but I think it was more work than doing it manually).

Any way you look at it, that's quite a lot of cooking. The cool part is, all of that took a sum total of about two hours (thermie cooking times included, oven cooking times excluded). I am having fun!

300

Today was a milestone; I burned 300 calories during my cardio workout at the gym. Three hundred calories isn't much to write home about for a fit and active person. Indeed, four months ago, I burned at least 500 every time I hit the gym (which was pretty much every day). But in these times of MS recovery, 300 is a big deal. It is interesting looking at my otherwise healthy muscles and knowing that it is the neural pathways that are holding them back, making me feel weak, tired and unsteady on my feet. But the truly counter-intuitive thing is that vigorous exercise actually alleviates the fatigue. After burning my 300, I managed to clean the house, cook lunch and do laundry. So, the message is clear; unless I am projectile vomiting with fatigue or a danger to myself on the treadmill, it is exercise for me. This makes me happy, cos it's what I like to do.

The Simple Things...

...are often the most satisfying. A salad (mostly) from my garden, fresh tiger prawns on wholemeal bread with a smear of avocado, lemon and pepper.




Followed by apple crumble, full of almond and chia seed goodness.

Put it to the universe...

...and the universe provides. Last week, I blogged about the burnout of my old food processor, during which I made a fleeting nod to the unattainable wonder of the Thermomix. Well, guess what? We are getting one!!!! Actually, it's not the Universe we need to thank, but my kind and generous brother, who has bundled a life time of Christmas gifts into this one remarkable present. This is truly the Rolls Royce of kitchen appliances. It arrives next week. I am supremely excited!

Feeling alive

Reverb10 is a cool initiative that prompts you to flex your creative muscles by reflecting in writing on aspects of the year that's been. Today's prompt:

Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

Oddly enough, the most alive I felt this year and, indeed, in living memory, is the few moments during which my neural opthalmologist told me I had MS. I was literally shocked into complete presence in the moment. I could feel the tattoo of my heart and the pulse of blood in my neck, but I wasn't really distracted by my bodily functions. I was listening very carefully to what the doc said, as sweat prickled between my hand and Lovely Partner's, who was keeping me, as usual, grounded to this earth. The whole experience lasted about seven minutes, but I will never ever forget it. It is quite stunning how present I felt to my own existence at the same moment I was contemplating a future changed forever. Hmmm...