I Got A Round Tuit with Gluten Free

I'd been having oaty bars most days as part of my diet...oats, dried fruit, nuts and seed..no naughty sugars or anything. I've recently had to go gluten free and discovered that oats, although naturally gluten free, are contaminated during growing and processing. 

Hubby only usually gets one of my bars...hey he can eat anything...but he now has all my frozen batch I'd made for the month - he's a happy camper lol. After being so ill from going glut free I've finally managed to make myself a 'safe' batch. As the Gluten free oats are so expensive, I've had to use half buckwheat flakes.

I don't have a receipe as such - being a 'what's in the cupboard' kind of a cook and make it up as I go along. However, this is my method.

I soak raisin and currents in fruit juice & and the oats separately in enough water to cover for a couple of hours. This avoids the need to add anything to sweeten. I did add a little agave syrup to this batch as the buckwheat flakes aren't to my taste. 

When soaked I throw them together with seeds, ground almonds (sometimes chopped nuts). It needs to be  quite wet but not sloppy...kind of the mixture for rock cakes. Adjusting is done with dry oats or water, depending on need. 

I put it in shallow baking tin, firmly squashing it down, and cook at medium heat for 25 mins. 

An Aviary for Pea

Pea has been bedridden now for 2 1/2yrs. She is able to talk a little more, and starting to look forward to being well enough to do a few things. In fact she's had me send for a few crafting items for her...including a huge box of oil pastels. It's long been her desire to have a couple of little birds when she is well enough to move about...a long way off yet and for now her room is plastered with the prettiest birds in the world. They will be her first pastel subjects. 

Meanwhile I've started needle felting an aviary for her. Above is my first attempt at a hummingbird..she's called him Henry, and below is Hetta, his new companion. I'll be starting on a Rainbow finch next. 

A link to see photo's of Rainbow Finch Here

Life is a buffet

It really is, when you consider all the things we have to get done in a day from just getting out of bed to taking a holiday. Our lives are made up of lots of little events.


Now most people can go up to the buffet table and help themselves to whatever they want...and as much of it as they can fit on their plate. They can even quite often go up for second and third helpings.


For those of us with M.E....well we have to treat life as if we are on a diet. We go up to the buffet table and look carefully to see what we are allowed today - and it's going to depend on how much we have had already..we can't go over our daily/weekly allowances now can we. 


Depending on the level we are at, we may in fact only be able to have the tiny little nibbles that are on the table.....and a very few of them at that. However, a tiny nibble of a few things is far preferable to a huge plate of one thing that will make you, first of all, regret breaking 'your diet' and perhaps have the long reaching effects of making you feel ill for weeks or months.