Hellooooooo

I is back!

Sorry it was a bit long... I forgot to tell you all I had to have a little operation. It was just going to be some tests under general, but ended up being a cauterizing of my bladder and other such delights which has left me with some considerable pain in my undercarriage and a nice infection too. YUM!

So, new years eve saw me at the mercy of my Urologist and his lovely Cystoscope. Can you believe that i walked into theatre and went "Oh, I forgot to take off my pants!" Now HOW did I forget that? What a moron I am. Maybe it was a little mind battle "NO DON'T DO IT TO ME" or something.

I was so freaking out about it. Talk about stressful. We got back from France the day before and so I didn't leave myself much time to prepare, which I think was a good thing, but I was dreading it all through my trip away.

Anyway, France was excellent. Considering that we couldn't be completely additive free whilst away, and I the fact that I didn't hold back on my eating at all, I was amazed today at Slimmingworld that I had actually lost half a pound!! YAY!

Thats the first time EVER that I have lost weight over any holiday. Awesome! So have been continuing immediately with no MSG/additives on my return and things are going pretty ok. The wine is also all used up now (well we had to bring SOME back didn't we!!), and so we are back to the status quo.

I must admit Sue is putting the odd spanner in the works. She bought a chicken with stuffing, sausages and bacon and syrup puddings for dinner the other day. I always cook for the family and the 2 lodgers, but being of tender loins over the weekend, DH was on duty. Taking pity on the poor bloke (or fed up with sausage(albeit organic no additive ones!!!) and mash or jacket potato and beans!) she cooked this lovely roast. However, the stuffing was full of crud, as were the sausages and bacon wraps and the puddings. She also bought tins of ambrosia rice pudding and put it in my cupboard, and some custard and biscuits. Nice thought, but MSG MSG MSG and all kinds of stuff we DON'T WANT thanks very much!!!

Its like she has suddenly developed a craving for them. She used to buy the odd thing for us all to eat, but not like this and its not like she is flush or anything. Me thinks its a bit unusual that she is suddenly buying these things now she doesn't get the MSG enriched ones on a daily basis from me! Maybe that shows up her craving/need. Interesting.

DH is now Tea Total apparently. He decided after France that after drinking he feels really lousy in the mornings and doesn't want to any more. Thats kind of interesting too. After not drinking for some weeks (ok... not many, but at least 4) I noticed a marked difference in the morning after too, and that was only after a few glasses. After drinking practically daily over the last week with our booze buys from Francais, its noticeable less... like I got used to it again!! Nightmare. So will be good to get that back out of our systems again. DH also stopped the plonk when I did, so its interesting he noticed a 'roughness' after it was reinstated. Maybe this just means we drank far too much in the first place... I don't know.

So, cooking this year started yesterday evening with a GORGEOUS dinner. I haven't dreamed up a name for it, but it was delish. I soooo wish I had taken a photo, but I didn't. These flavours might sound a bit odd, but trust me it really worked.

get a curly kale or hard greens and shred. Fry with a little oil, 1 finely chopped onion and some salt and pepper, dill and parsley and 3 cloves of grated garlic. add a few spoons of water and cover to simmer and wilt. Make sure all water is gone and set aside.

Make pastry with a lot of butter and flour and some sage. roll out into an oblong shape and spread the kale/greens mixture down the centre in a long pile. Cut up and blob blue cheese all along the cabbage mixture then over the roll with rashers of bacon. Then cut the pastry into little feathers along the edge and fold over the mixture to make it look like a strudel or en-croute. bake for 20-25 minutes and serve with roast potatoes and roasted vine ripened cheery tomatoes.

Mmmm. It was so rich and lush and delisious. The tomatoes just cut through that richness and it was gorgeous. I will make it again and photo it as it was awesome.

Bacon, Kale and Blue cheese strudel. that sounds good.

So, here we go again, another week, another load of eating, another load of msg/additive avoidance and hopefully another week of a happy fresh mind, better skin and hopefully no bladder pain!