Love the Moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries

I painted all day yesterday. Nice.....

To complete the picture of the artist painting away in her studio, I made some mushroom and cashew pate adapted from Vegonomicon to make it low-sal. If I could drink alcohol a nice glass of red would have completed the picture. But a cup of tea in my sheep cup was pretty cool!

Check this out - my first food photo! (Okay, maybe need some more practice..)



Mushroom & Cashew Pate

1/2 cup chopped leeks
4 cups chopped mushrooms
1 tablespoon oil
1/3 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup verjuice (or white wine for those who can)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Saute leeks in oil for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and cashews and saute for a further 2 -3 minutes. Add verjuice and spices. Cook through and blend.

I served mine with rye toast. I didn't have enough mushrooms so mine is more cashew and mushroom!

No Work = No Pay

Cannot for the life of me find any white paint! And I've misplaced my drop sheet. Dammit. Not to be beaten, I'm pretty sure there is bound to be an almost old sheet somewhere that I may need to sacrifice - or, clean not-paint splashed floors are seriously overrated! I need to do a painting - now! I'm so inspired by some amazing artists and I'm just itching to paint. (actually I'm always itching these days). With my ill health I haven't been able to work, and as a consultant I'm paid when I work - so I have no money.... So, I need to do some paintings to sell. Kinda urgently. I made some chickpea sausage rolls yesterday.. They were yummy and really easy.


Chickpea Sausage Rolls

• Chickpea cutlet mix from Vegonomicon
  
• Reduced Fat Puff pastry sheets

• Roll the mix into little sausages
• Cut the pastry sheet into 4 squares
• Put the sausages in the square and roll into a sausage roll
• Seal with soy milk and brush the top with soy milk Bake in hot oven until brown and puffy.

Very yummy...

Here's a painting or two I prepared earlier....

Crossroads

I'm really tired today - still only operating on 2 cylinders. Bad blogger...

I'm cooking but its really not that exciting yet. I stumbled across a blog from an artist - much more talented than I could ever hope to be, but still she has the right idea. I'm thinking I should join, although I'm a little late. Only a little though.

I need to do something.

So - here's my to do list.

• Try and blog everyday.
• Do something creative everyday.
• Cook more and take photos of the completed product.
• Finish my Post Grad Dip in Coaching

Bubs awake - so I'll get back to this later..

Caio!

Here's My Beautiful Ellie....

One of my many darling girls. I love my Belted Galloways...

That's all. No interesting cooking yet. I'm still experimenting with my challenging limited food choices.

Caio! Just enjoy looking at her gorgeous face..

Arrgh! Allergies...

I am experiencing one of my worst ever allergic episodes ever at the moment - completely swollen face, eyes, mouth and my face looks like I've have 3rd degree burns. One of my ever loving friends said "you look like a freak!!". Unfortunately it seems my concerns that having my gallbladder out will exacerbate my allergies is proving to be correct.

Anyways, I was reading through one of my favourite bloggers and Mandee suffers from similar allergies although not the same reactions. She seemed to have some success with Advanced Allergy Elimination Clinic. So I searched their website and yay they had a clinic in Perth (its so rare! Honestly Perth is sometime so remote!).

I went there yesterday and I am allergic to Iron & minerals (bit of a concern that one), sugar (doh!), grain & wheat, corn, caffeine & coffee, amines and salicylates (yep, knew that one!), artificial preservatives, colours and flavours, pollen, grasses/weeds, plants, plant phenolics, moulds, fungus, dust, dust mites, cockroaches. Interestingly, I kinda knew all of that anyway. I'm so in tune with how my body reacts to things after so many years of struggling with the extreme reactions I have. I was also allergic to eggs and dairy which is not a worry anyway.

Happily I'm not allergic to my lovely critters so I can continue to snuggle into their gorgeous fur!

I don't eat anything with artificial anything since I had a really severe reaction to additive 631 and ended up in hospital.

Yesterday they treated me for pollens and amines - so fingers crossed. I've made another appointment - heck, I might even camp on their steps.

Oops, I might get back to this post later - my allergies are grumping at me - so I'd best get back to my cocoon.

Never eat more than you can lift......

I made a really yummy mini meal today - totally bad for me sal-wise - but my face is a mass of hives and lovely itchiness anyway, so what the heck!

What to call it - umm.... penne pasta with mushrooms, spinach, kalamata olives and white wine. That doesn't sound very exotic.

Anyways, recipe....

1/2 cup wholemeal penne pasta or fusili or your choice really
about 3 or 4 mushrooms sliced or chopped - again feel free to choose..
1 tbsp soy oil - again or olive or your favourite oil - I went with soy oil because unlike the rest of the ingredients, its sal-free
a bunch of spinach leaves
4 or 5 kalamata olives sliced
vegie stock
1/4 cup white wine.
small handful of raw cashews.


Cook the pasta in boiling water.

In a heavy based skillet, heat the oil and add the mushrooms and gently saute for a few minutes.
Add remaining ingredients and put the lid on and let it steam through for a few minutes while waiting for pasta to cook.

Toss it all together and enjoy.

Sorry no picture, but I will start taking photos soon.

Caio!!

Love has no boundaries; it is the greatest force on earth...

Well, I'm now recovering from surgery - lost the battle to keep my gallbladder. So now the real journey begins.

I'm going to keep this blog to track my progress with eating well and staying sane and my attempt to avoid what seems to be the inevitable weight gain after the gallbladder is removed. It will also be interesting to see if my multiple allergies start to reduce as my surgeon hopes. He said he can't give a medical reason why this would happen, only that he has had patients in the past that have had at least one of their allergies disappear.

That would be awesome! If I could have a choice, could it please be the salicylates? Please, please?? It would be so nice to tuck into a really yummy crunchy salad with juicy tomatoes, and roasted pinenuts and wow, AVOCADOS, - hmmmmmmm I would love to be able to eat avocados. Anyway, I'm salivating now - so best keep sipping away at my hot lemon drink as I try to reduce the bloating.

I'll learn how to photograph my meals like my other favourite veggie bloggers do....

Caio

As you think, so you become. Think well, you will be well. Think ill, you will be ill. It's all your thoughts.

Much to say, not much time.

I'll be back.................................

Don't deny the diagnosis; try to deny the verdict.

Ok - I'm back. Wow two whole years have passed.

I'm now a vegan, still struggling with earning a dollar and finding time to paint, and look after my health. My b'ful puppy unfortunately was hit by a car.

This will be a very short post as I'm as always pressed for time.

I'll do better next time - promise.

Caio!