Delivery!

Much to Tom's amusement, I've been saving these parcels until they'd all arrived so I could open them all at once. They're the ingredients for some of the gifts I am making for Christmas and I cannot wait to get started!

I'm still gathering bits and pieces for the overall present, but now these things have arrived I can get on with step one. :-)

Are you making presents for people this Christmas? Let me know what you'll be doing in the comments!

How To: Turn a Jumper Into a Cat Bed

We have 3 cats, 2 of which are outdoor cats who sleep in the shed. We've had one of those climbing towers since the 2 younger cats were kittens and it's in a precarious state of disrepair these days. It's still their bed in the shed, although they've grown so much that only one can fit on at a time now. Through the summer this wasn't a problem but as the days are getting colder it means one cat is sleeping on the cold shed floor.

Rather than buy a new cat bed that'd cost anywhere from £15-30 for something cosy, I thought I'd turn my hand to upcycling and see what I could create. I'd seen a post on Facebook months ago showing how someone else had turned an old jumper into a bed and since Tom had a pile of jumpers waiting to go to charity I nabbed one!

Here is how I did it in picture form...

Sew up the neck hole

Sew from armpit to armpit then stuff the arms & neck to create the sides of the bed

Tuck the end of one arm into the other then stitch them together

Pad the body of the jumper and trim the excess from the bottom, turn it over and stitch the body to the arms

And you're done! Donate to a furry friend 

Recipe: Endo-Friendly Moroccan Chicken & Lemon Cous-Cous

As some of you will know each week we make a meal plan so that we can keep our food costs down and also get everything in one shop rather than going to and fro all week for things we need.
Monday is meal plan & shopping day, so I usually spend the better part of the morning doing a quick inventory of the freezer and cupboards to see what we've got, then coming up with meals for the week. Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays tend to be my favourite days to cook something new as those are my days off and I can generally spend more time preparing an exciting meal.

Since starting the Endo Diet food has lost some of its appeal to us, which is a little depressing. As much as I enjoyed being inventive at first, trying to come up with exciting new ways to present what is essentially chicken or turkey and veg has become a bit of a chore. So yesterday I made an extra effort to come up with meals that sounded full of flavour and was really quite pleased with myself when I fell upon a recipe for Moroccan Chicken & Lemon Cous-Cous! Not only did it sound delicious, it was also an opportunity to attempt cooking with bone-in chicken thighs. For those who don't know me that well, I have never even eaten food with bones in before unless it was a surprise and in all occassions I stopped eating as soon as I found out. Something about it freaks me out. But in the name of money saving and on a quest for flavourful foods, I took a deep breath and jumped right in to this new experiment.

I had a little waver upon seeing them at the shop and another upon seeing the bones at first at home, but after seeing the price I pushed through. £4 got us 1.1kg of chicken thighs! To put that into context; the packets of 450g of chicken breast are also £4, so we got almost 3 times the meat for the same price. So on the back of last nights' success, I've been convinced to try AFC (Ami Fried Chicken!) using chicken wings or drumsticks in future. I'm a bone-in convert...for chicken at least!

And so on to the recipe...

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients:

4-8 Bone-in Chicken Thighs

2-4tsp Turmeric

1-2tbsp Garam Masala

Pinch of Salt

Sunflower Oil

1 Onion, finely sliced

1-2 Garlic Cloves, finely sliced

500ml Chicken Stock

Juice from 1 Lemon

125-250g Gluten Free Cous Cous

Parsley to garnish

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a large pan, coat the chicken thighs in half the spices and place skin-down in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn and cook for another 2 minutes before removing them from the pan.

2. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry until golden.

3. Add in the remaining spices and cook for another minute. (I forgot to do this bit and it still turned out yummy!)

4. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil, before placing the chicken back in the pan skin side up.

5. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 35-40 minutes. (I didn't cover it and the stock concentrated down nicely, but I did have to add more water in later for the cous cous to cook.)

6. Remove the chicken and take the pan off the heat.

7. Stir in the lemon juice a cous-cous, topping up water if necessary, then leave to stand for 5 minutes/until the cous cous is cooked through.

8. Fluff through the cous cous and place the chicken back on top.

9. Garnish with parsley and serve!

I forgot to take a picture of our meal last night so this picture is taken from the recipe!

The Uprising Bakery and Cafe

Last month it was my friend Rachel's birthday and everyone went for a meal and a night out to celebrate. I was heartbroken I couldn't go, but with my diet and my early bedtime at the moment I would've been a dead bore for everyone. On a hen night I attended earlier in the year I'd met a lovely girl called Ellie who runs a vegan, gluten free cafe in Bristol and as a birthday treat I decided to take Rachel who's also on a gluten free diet. :)

The Uprising Bakery and Cafe is a sweet little cafe with delicate tea cups and eclectic furniture. They have a menu of savoury and sweet foods such as soups, pizzas and cakes that are all handmade on the premises not to mention quite a wide range of scrummy herbal teas.

Rachel and I shared a pot of wild berry tea (which tasted mildly of black jelly babies in my opinion!) and Rach had a red velvet cupcake while I had a yummy slice vegan banana bread. It was all absolutely delicious and very reasonably priced considering the usual raised price of anything gluten free.

Once you factor in the enjoyable walk there from the Cabot Circus car park and the lovely antique jumble shop across the road that I fell in love with, it made for a cheerful afternoon. :) Definitely something I'll be repeating when I'm in need of an endo-friendly sweet fix!

Yummy wild berry tea!

Exciting Delivery!

I've not been having the best week diet-wise and since having my last Zoladex I've been pretty tired and grumpy (much to Tom's dismay!) so up to now I didn't have anything to share with you guys. But today I got a very exciting delivery - the things I need to get started on Christmas presents!

Normally I'd keep it all top secret as family and friends read this, but I've been so excited by it all that I've told most of them anyway! In the picture you can see silicon moulds, lollipop sticks and cellophane wrap, which will eventually come together with some scrummy ingredients to make hot chocolate on a stick! I've got some other plans for gifts too, so there'll still be surprises for any relatives that spot this post.

I can't wait to get started with testing recipes and wrap ideas. :)

Will you be making any presents this year?