Monday 4 March 2013

Butternut Squash Risotto (5:2)

So today I started the 5:2 eating plan.

Please 'scuse the letter and plug included!


I used Myfitnesspal to work out the kcals etc. of the ingredients but the site doesn't seem to have recipes syncing with the database so I thought I'd write it down for now.

Ingredients:

Parmesan, 12 g
Aborio Risotto Rice, 50 g
1 Vegetable Stock Cube
Butternut Squash 250g approx
1 tsp of Worcester sauce (can be omitted to make fully veggie)
1 tbsp of soy sauce
approx half a pint of boiled water, more if needed.
(337 kcals)


Cut up butternut squash, bake for 30 mins at 220 degrees C/ gas mark 7.
Then put squash in pan and mash lightly.
Add rice, stock cube, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce in a pan with about 3/4 of a pint of water.
Simmer for about 15 mins, stirring occasionally, then add most of the Parmesan and keep stirring, add a little more water if it starts to stick. Trust your instincts, it's ready when you can draw a spoon through the base of the pan and the metal appears and the risotto is porridgey. garnish with remaining Parmesan.

Oh my goodness this was amazing!

I have further nutritional data through myfitnesspal though I'm not 100% on values.
carbs: 67g
fat: 3g
protein: 7g
sodium 626 mg
sugar: 6 g




Wednesday 23 January 2013

Sewing a Nexus 7 cover

While I spent my childhood with an adept sewer for a mum, I never was much cop myself, in fact I'm still not. But at least nowadays I can manage a fairly straight seem on the machine. I have always wanted to be good at sewing, but never practised enough to actually attain that level of competency.

So here's the deal, I recently received my new nexus 7 tablet (free gift with my new phone contract) and so bought a Bluetooth keyboard/cover to go with it, however I had had the idea of sliding the entire thing into a nice 'envelope' style case since I saw @mlbrook put her Mac book in a similar case when we did the social media videos (I still need to finish the post about that process off!).

So anyway, back to the sewing talk, I was having a short out of clothes and was sorting out a few bags for charity when I came across a purple tank top that I adore but just didn't fit right.
Eventually u decided that actually this was a good candidate for felting in the washing machine and though it didn't work properly it did make me think of the case I really liked.

I picked up the teal coloured polyester satin from a remanant bin in the haberdashery dept of John Lewis in town earlier. I just cut out the shapes I needed (further instructions to follow) and with a bit of machine sewing and the occasional but of unpicking when I got the pattern in my head turned around I left a smallish gap of a few inches at the side to turn it right way out and sewed that bit up by hand.

Then I took a bit of a risk and used the button hole setting on my sewing machine for the first time... Cut a slit in the centre of that and then finished with a button, et voilà a very cute little nexus 7 pouch in a few hours!

Monday 7 January 2013

Having a little difficulty

I haven't written in a while, mainly because my life has been so crazy I've not actually written any goals for 2013 because I've not really had any head space to write them.

I think I'm going to try to in fact just write here, once a day if possible, just as a general diary, doesn't matter about what but just getting my thoughts down is a good step forward I think.

Goals I want to get done before the end of January

My Goals for Jan 2013

1:To clear out my flat, to truly get rid of stuff I don't need and to make space for me to be me.
2:To clear out my clothes, trying to just keep the things that are good quality and fit well.
3:To do my physio more often and increase my strength.
4:To refer myself to the exercise program.
5:To spend more time at home to look after me.
6:To sort through my paper work and actually find a more usable system, shred what I don't need to keep.
7:Put Shelves up because it might be a while til I get to move and I need to try to get my stuff sorted.
8:Contact the Richmond Trust and get on their books.
9:Go through debts and try to sort a plan of action.
10:Buy more waste paper baskets to keep my place more manageable and easily tidy-able

Accepting the problem exists without judging

My flat is a mess, it always has been to be honest, my varying mental states and energy levels mean I don't clear mess and trash (such as empty soda bottles and crisp packets, chocolate wrappers etc.) away, often because I want to recycle them but have nowhere to put them. I don't have places for my stuff, everything is higgledy and nothing (or very few things) have a home.

This is partially caused by my own apathy and fear, the "where do I start?" phenomenon. A strong contributing factor is my lack of feeling like I am the owner of my own personal space. I get things for "the flat" and not for me. I have no idea of how to organise things in a consistent, reproducable, and comfortable manner. I am aware this sounds like an excuse but in all honesty I don't think that's entirely the problem.

I think maybe in the way I don't value my own emotional and physical space as separate entities from those around me, I also never want to throw things away because they're useful, or I might need them some day.
It's plain to see that this way of thinking about my life and space is unsustainable and that I will always end up in a hurricanous whirling mess.

It fills me with more fear than you know, dear reader, to think that I am a "Horder" as I don't want to be like this, it will not help me in the long run and it just leads back to depression.
I have depression, but I also have physical health problems that mean that my activity is limited to the most "important" things, which invariably is friends and family however, spreading myself thin in this way leads to no respite and as I try to create a safe mental place for myself I also need to create a haven for my physical body to inhabit.

I was recently seen by an occupational therapist who will try to get me fairly high on the council list for a new, bigger, easier to manage flat. Obviousy I need to think about how to go through my stuff, not only to sort myself out for now but to create a safe place for my siblings to stay too and so I do not have too many boxes come moving time.

I think tomorrow I will start by writing down what I would like to achieve over the next 6-12 months.

I hope to write tomorrow.
(Written 03/01/13)