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