Prosperous & Creative Soul & MFW Year 3

savingholmes

LadyWithAPlan said:

Glad you are on the mend and you have full sick leave pay. Rest up

It seems your handy man is the current target of many handyman dreams over here on MSE.. I was looking at some flats online and if there was a huge amount of work to do I was definitely thinking --err no...

Hi LWAP - at least you have some skills from the courses you've taken. In the past I've wall papered. I can decorate. I can garden. But I have avoided anything involving a drill... the noise goes straight through me... and I fear I could hurt myself with it.

KajiKita said:

Aquilegia are pretty tough. So long as the tap root is in good condition and there is some top growth for buds, they should ‘do’ again for you 😊

KK

Thanks KK - yes - I have some sprouting in pots as well as some left in the ground by the previous owners. It's raining again here - so it doesn't look like I'll get in the garden today. Because my driveway extension plans are currently on hold - pending finding out the cost of the other items on my wish list - I've bought some wildflower seed. I will spread that at some point and then hopefully get a beautiful meadow where otherwise I'll have a weedy patch of currently 'bare' earth.

I've been trying to batch cook after my food delivery - which included pre-chopped veg including peeled potatoes, onions and mushrooms and dinner veg. I'm going to make half a spag bol and half a chilli. It's currently simmering pre-split. I cooked the potatoes ready to roast - before going to the gammon and seeing I forgot to turn the oven on!! Frustrating. I have some chicken left from the other day though - so I'll reheat some of that and have the roasties with it and save the gammon for another time. Ideally I need to freeze at least half the gammon though once cooked - as they sent me twice the size I asked for for the same price - which is positive - but there's no way I'd get through it in time.

I think it was EH earlier that suggested taking some food to my parents. If today's cooking works out okay - I could take some of this with me. Thanks for the suggestion. Sorry I initially shot it down.

lucielle

Hope you manage to get away but don’t over do it!!
Really fancy gammon now. 

L

EssexHebridean

savingholmes said:
<snip>

I think it was EH earlier that suggested taking some food to my parents. If today's cooking works out okay - I could take some of this with me. Thanks for the suggestion. Sorry I initially shot it down.

I didn't see it as shooting it down - more that you were unsure how it might work allowing that your appetite is so uncertain at the moment. Right now eating "something" is more important than what you eat I would suggest - obviously taking into account the things you can't eat because of your condition. So maybe think about taking a bit of a grazing type spread with lots of options you could dip into as and when you fancy them. Explain to the family when you get there that you won't be sitting down with them to eat a big Easter meal - you might do the sitting down bit, but the big meal is just too much for you right now, but that you will be focusing on eating little bits here and there as you feel you can. It might be that there is something you can think of that you could also take to share as part of a wider spread so you're also looped in to the same meal-structure as everyone else to at least a degree. How about a dessert type sharing spread with jellies, meringue, fruit...? 

I often find with the forums that something I initially look at and think "can't imagine that will work" sits and brews for a bit, and then I can see a way forward with taking a variation on the original idea forwards! 

beanielou

Agree the SW chips are indescribably bad. 

savingholmes

Thanks Lucielle - I've divided the gammon into 8 - although looking at the nutritional values that would be like 14g of fat - so ideally - I should eat a smaller portion than that. I'm aiming for max 30g a day - and the higher the fat content individual items - the more likely it is I'll have pain/increased pain. I've frozen 5 portions - so that leaves 3 for me to play around with - and perhaps split further to reduce the pain risk. I'm looking forward to having some with one calorie spray roasties tomorrow and some veg.

Can I freeze ham? I over bought...

Thanks EH - that's a good way of looking at things. My Mum rang tonight to check what I can eat. We've agreed I'll take the one cal spray - and she'll find a way of separating some roasties for me. (They slather theirs in lard!!). There will be salad, bread, fruit bread, meringue, jelly, fruit, possibly instant custard... Should be something I can eat and I'm not due to be there that long. We've agreed I'll travel the night before and stay over. I think I need to ensure I'm showered and dressed by midday ish Saturday - pack - and then gently make my way down with multiple stops. It's a different route to what I'm used to which adds to the challenge - and it's longer... Eek. I'll just have to take it easy.

I'll have to leave out plenty of food and water for the cat and leave it in - so don't want to be away too long as he definitely misses me.

Thanks Beanie - Glad I'm not the only one. I'm thinking of complaining to SW as much of their ready made food is awful and it's expensive. Thankfully my home made chilli was okay with jacket spud which I had for tea. I have lots of portions of that left. I risked a few mini eggs tonight = 8. That was lovely. But 5.1g of fat just there... (124 cals) I'd rather save 'fat' for treats like that... Learning to be more mindful with my treats.

I'm aiming for around 1750 cals a day in the hope I lose at least 1lb a week. Will see how things go. I'm currently 22lb down out of 54lb operation target. If it's confirmed I definitely need an operation - I can review whether I need to reduce my calorie count further. What I manage to eat is still naturally very up and down though so trying to focus on eating decent main meals while still allowing some treats. May be after Easter I'll set a lower daily target - I feel so new to being able to eat again - that I'm reluctant to do that at the moment.

I had a nice trip out today (not far) but will write more about that tomorrow.

MovingForwards

Could HM pop in to feed cat?

It's a great idea taking nibbles. Eat when you want and reduce self-pressure of x amount of cals, you're no where near that stage yet.

Aguilar are stunning and you've some great plant plans.

Happy Easter.

jwil

Glad you had a nice day out and have a plan for the weekend.  Hope it all goes well.

SandyShores

Just wondering if you had thought about shakes savingholmes (sorry if you have and I've missed it)?  I've used protein shakes before when I've needed nutrition but unable to eat more solid food.  I find the sports protein drinks really good and you can get shaker bottles with a little compartment for a second quantity so they are good when you are out.  I tried the slimfst ones but they weren't as nice, cheaper but needed to be mixed with milk rather than water which wasn't very convenient.  Complan also came to mind - I've never tried it but they seem to have been around a long time.

Another one here loving all the red robin plants around at the moment, so much that I'm seriously thinking of buying another if I can find a space for it.  We are going to train ours into a tree shape too so I've snipped a few lower branches off this year, but its only year 2 so haven't gone too far.  I'm doing the same with our ceanothus and its now in year three so its starting to shape up nicely.  The plan is to have flowers underneath it.  It won't end up exactly like this standard one but its an aspiration

powerspowers

Sorry to read you’ve been unwell SH. Hope you have a lovely Easter with family xx

badmemory

The problem with ready meals is that we tend to eat more of them when we are under the weather because they are "ready" & we don't need to do anything much.  I do not have any of your problems but find if I have more than one a week I can tell because I feel less than fully well.  I find I deal fine with my own ready meals (as in batch cooked) out of my freezer.  Have you seen what they are now saying (admitting) about ultra processsed foods.

As for the gammon I cannot see any reason why it shouldn't freeze, either cooked or uncooked.  I freeze allsorts of things, the latest being a large part of the uncooked 15p red cabbage (via Tesco thanks to Aldi price match) & part of the uncooked cauli.  I cook them in the microwave then dump them in whatever the meal of the day is.