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"What have you eaten" Parallel Chat

The best day foodwise for a while. I even managed nearly 10k steps today, we drove to a nearby country park and walked two miles round the lake. We saw many waterfowl, Egyptian geese, tufted ducks, a pair of courting grebes and were fortunate to see a group of swans take off, seven or eight of them, a mahestic sight. Very few small birds, were about which still mystifies me. The wooded margins of the lake looked good habitat to me.
Apartment living though - with kitchen and living room in one - the roasting chicken aromas were driving the cat mad, and he was doing the same to us with his constant insistent begging
 
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@SlimLizzy, I've been noticing for about 2 years now that there are far fewer small birds around than we used to see. They used to love perching on our various shrubs and picking at insects, berries and seeds - mostly we saw waxwings, thrushes, starlings, sparrows, redwings, blackbirds. Thrushes and blackbirds used to love our fuschia bushes. I did see one little sparrow a couple of days ago and I did see a robin about 2 weeks ago but nothing else - not even a starling and they used to nest in our roof. We also used to see lots of lapwings but they haven't been around for a couple of years either. We do, occasionally see greylag geese on the field opposite our kitchen window but not much else. I know it's winter and the weather has been a bit odd for a year or so, but it seems very strange that they have pretty well all disappeared.

Brunch today was bacon, Lorne sausage and fried eggs. This evening the meal will be a black pudding, mushroom "cheeseburger". (2 portobello mushrooms, 2 slices black pudding, 2 slices cheese plus tomato and spring onion - all baked in the oven.) Smells good.
 
We get plenty of small birds in the cover of our hedge. It used to form an ancient field boundary and I'm sure they remember that!
We have wrens, robins, great, coal and blue ****, thrushes, blackbirds, pied wagtails. Saw a jay the other day, buzzards and red kites over the fields most days. Starlings, swallows and geese still to come.
Sure we see more of the prey birds now there is no flight path traffic to or from Gatwick, and the route into Heathrow is very quiet too.
 
laughing at the auto censorship of a bird that begins with t and ends with t!
 
I'd put the disappearing small birds down to magpies. Our cherry tree always played host to a family of songbirds until the magpies appeared.
 
His teacher is getting him in when school ends on Thursday just to see if it settles him a bit. He's better than when he was panic stricken before Christmas. At least we're managing to get him out to play occasionally now and he's not upset at coming to ours. There's a lot of children like this. I can't see him going back full time immediately but, as I said, I'm not that concerned by that as I'll teach him in the afternoons. I know I've got him ahead of his class so hopefully that will help too.
 
maglil55 said:
I'd put the disappearing small birds down to magpies. Our cherry tree always played host to a family of songbirds until the magpies appeared.
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I'm putting it down to the weather. We don't get magpies here but there's not even a crow of any description. We do still have a few seagulls, but fewer than usual. We used to see the odd heron - wandering from its base in Stornoway. But it must be more than a year since we saw one of those. Come to think of it, I don't think I've heard any corncrakes calling for a couple of years either. I didn't think the climate here had changed all that much, (a few more big storms than usual but that's about all) maybe it's the effect of changing climate on other places.
 
A further indication today that I do have an issue with either wheat or gluten. I thought I was using rice noodles in my spicy mixed veg at lunchtime today. Within the hour I was feeling nauseous and bloated. Then Neil pointed out that the noodles were wheat noodles, not rice ones.

I'd made some beef burgers yesterday and had one sliced up and refried with a couple of fried eggs this morning - worked fine and no great rise in BG - plenty of insulin, of course. Neil bought some raspberries in today's shopping but today is their use-by date, so I'll have those with some double cream for this evening's meal.

The house was a bit of a wreck this afternoon. Em came in with her mum and dad on the way home from town (DIL brought back 4 sweaters she had been trying to get stains out from for me - only managed to get one clean, so the rest are going into the bin). Em asked if she could stay with me for the afternoon - there won't be many chances after school starts again on Monday. So we've spent the afternoon playing ball (a bit dodgy inside the house, but we managed), building a "stronghold" with furniture and blankets, watching some Youtube stuff and having a discussion about it (stuff I don't approve of - not the subject matter but the way it is presented. I think watching too much of that would lead to some sort of mental health issues.) She also did some "shopping" from my cupboards. Her dad came to collect her in time for her evening meal and I have just finished putting away a pile of stuff. She was always so apologetic every time the ball hit me on the nose!
 
We took the eldest grandson to school today after all the other kids were out. His teacher thought it would be a good idea to get him into class and just have a chat about weaning him back into school. Amazingly, he was fine and pleased to see his teacher (much to our relief). The school is keen to bring him back slowly rather than his anxiety emerging again. They're more comfortable with a slow return now they've seen the work he's done. I got a complement! Not only were the astonished by the quantity of work I'd got him to do, they admitted they were astounded by the scope I'd managed to cover. There is no way his education has suffered. He decided himself that the time in school will increase by 30 mins a day so my school remains open for now! Having given them 4 weeks worth already that weighed a ton, they were even more surprised to get another 4 weeks worth today. Fingers crossed we can encourage him back again. It will certainly be a load of my mind if we can even get him close to full time again before Easter. @Annb, have they ever tested you for gluten intolerance?
 
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Glad to hear that your grandson is beginning to settle down - and that you've managed to get him ahead with the school work. He's lucky to have you. I'm afraid Em hasn't done so well over the school closure - she has learned lots and seems very advanced in many ways, but I fear that she hasn't taken advantage of the opportunities offered by learning at home. She won't be behind the rest of the class, but she won't be ahead - from her point of view, if she does what she has to, it is enough. She's very bad at focusing on anything remotely academic. Neil was exactly the same - too bright for his own good. With a high IQ, he refused to listen to teachers and wasted most of his time at school. He thought he knew better (and, sadly, often did). As with Em, it was a case of "done that, don't need to do it again".

No, I've never been tested for gluten intolerance, so all I'm working on is self testing and observation. I'm not totally convinced that this is the issue, but will keep going with cutting out wheat and other grains with gluten for a while, then test again - probably starting with rye (never did like barley). I can get gluten free products here, which should cover all those grains. The only problem with them is that some of them contain things I have always had problems with (tapioca, arrowroot, almond and even, I think, sweeteners) so I will have to read labels very carefully - or Neil will when he goes shopping - I have difficulty reading them even in good light with my glasses on, never mind in the shop (our local shop is the only one I can get into and is small and not very well lit). Talking to my sister-in-law, who has a diagnosis of coeliac disease, my symptoms sound very similar. After all these years, it seems strange for such an intolerance to have developed in these last couple or so years, so I'm not convinced. Trying to keep an open mind.

Finished off the raspberries and double cream for breakfast. Lunch will be the remaining beef burger and some salady things. Dinner? Could be salmon, or sausage, or a kind of "full English breakfast" - without the beans or the carby things. That's what is sitting in the fridge after Neil's shopping trip yesterday.
 
Just found this on: https://www.glnc.org.au/grains/allergies-intolerances/gluten-in-grains/

"Gluten is the name given to the protein in wheat , rye, barley and oats that affect people with coeliac disease. It is a composite name and so gluten represents:

  • Gliadin in Wheat

  • Hordein in Barley

  • Secalin in Rye

  • Avenin in Oats
The current tests for gluten can measure gliadin, hordein, and secalin but not avenin as it is a slightly different protein. Accordingly it is prohibited under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code to use oats in foods labelled or advertised as gluten free. When people discuss gluten free oats (and laboratories advise that oats are gluten free) what should be said is that they are free from wheat (and rye, barley) gliadin i.e. there is no measurable contamination.

Avenin is an essential part of oats (as gliadin is with wheat). Oats will never be gluten (i.e. avenin) free [even if they are described as gluten (i.e. gliadin) free]. As mentioned in The Australian Coeliac magazine on several occasions, Dr Robert Anderson has found that approximately 1:5 people with coeliac disease react to pure uncontaminated oats i.e. they react to oat avenin.

Since we cannot determine who the 1:5 is and we know that damage can occur in the absence of symptoms, Dr Anderson’s advice (and Coeliac Australia’s) is that oats should not be consumed without a biopsy prior to and during consumption."

It never occurred to me that oats could be a problem in terms of gluten. Does anyone know anything about this? Leaving that out means just polenta/corn flour, quinoa, chickpea flour, potato flour, coconut flour and I suppose, bamboo flour (haven't used that yet so not sure how it works out). I do hope all the legume flours are gluten free. Just about to try to find out.

Edited to add: looking on the internet but can't see anything that indicates that legumes will be a problem (unless contaminated in the factory, of course). There are, of course, other gluten free products that I haven't mentioned, but I don't know enough about them, so probably won't use them.
 
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My niece was a late diagnosis coeliac. She was in her 40's. I was chatting to her today at my brother's and she was telling me they have diagnosed her with another two intolerances. One was sugars. She would happily take Soya milk before but now she's had to switch to the Lactose free milk and lactose free cheese. (The other one was something unusual but it escapes me at the moment)!
 

Being diabetic without realising it for so many years, I have had noticeable problems with sugar which no doctors took seriously. I didn't realise, at the time that carbs in general could be an issue. But I always knew that I couldn't cope with any of the artificial sweeteners available at the time. Even now, Stevia is a real problem and I'm not willing to try erithytrol, just in case. In fact, ordinary sugar doesn't cause any of the dramatic effects that sweeteners do, so although it does spike my BG, I can tolerate it. But not much! So I suppose I am sugar intolerant to a degree. I still do take lactose though in dairy products.

At present, I don't want to start asking doctors about gluten intolerance - I'm still trying to sort out the fluid retention/breathless issues and don't want to complicate things. So I'll plod along, trying various things and see what happens - might never sort it out because, I daresay, time is running out on me. There are lots of things at the moment that I'm saying that about, like my bathroom: will I ever see it finished? I don't suppose so, even if I live long enough to get my birthday card from the queen. Will Neil bother after I'm gone - shouldn't think so, he has a shower room. This carb/sugar/gluten thing might be in the same category.
 
I was at my brother's yesterday for quite a while. He's sleeping more now. You try to tell yourself it's because the mornings are so busy but, in your heart of hearts you know it's a sign of decline. Thankfully, he's still not in any pain and he's still eating but I would say even that has reduced slightly. He's a bit up and down but does seem less engaged than previously. What struck me yesterday was how much he looks like my other brother who died in 2018. I feel for my niece, she was saying yesterday that she composes herself and takes a deep breath before she goes into his room in the morning. I recognise that totally. I was the same with my other brother. Just a feeling of dread every morning wondering what was waiting. I knew there was a risk of seizures but, she was telling me yesterday she had a conversation with the GP who said they will be able to medicate if it happens. He then added, but we do have pills that can prevent them. Niece asked if there were side effects? No. So why are we even talking about it? Surely it's better just to medicate to prevent them rather than wait for them to happen?? He's now on these pills. My vertigo is back again too.
 
I do so feel for you @maglil55. And for your brother's and your families. It must be awful seeing the inexorable decline and actually being given a timeline. Glad to hear that he is on those pills to prevent seizures. That will make things a little easier.

Do take care of your own health at this difficult time - the vertigo might be a sign that you are taking too much out of yourself. Not easy to hold back, I realise, but I'm sure he wouldn't want you to make yourself ill.
 
Getting very short of my "new" insulin (Humalog) but the pharmacy doesn't have any - it is on order but can't be here before Monday now. So I decided to have 2 large meals today instead of 3 - that means only 2 doses of insulin and not 3. So I had a full English minus the carbs for brunch and I will have some gumbo (also without carbs) for my second meal of the day. Fine - except that my order of pork cracklings with sea salt arrived in the post (12 packets) so I had to try them, didn't I? Very morish. I did stop at the one packet (mouth beginning to crinkle with all the salt). Needing some tea now to counteract the salt, but it was very good, if noisy!

If I do run out of Humalog, I still have most of one cartridge of Humilin S left, so may have to use that on Monday morning. Since out local pharmacy was sold to some people from Glasgow (an investment - they aren't pharmacists and they are still in Glasgow) the service they give has become poorer. They don't re-order supplies as quickly as the previous owner and often run out of products, or have never had them in stock. Now there are far more slightly tacky gifts on their shelves (I'm biased) and fewer chemist-type products. As a result, I have started ordering the kind of things I would have bought from there, from Amazon. The only problem is - lots of packaging to get rid of.
 
Tomorrow is the day that our recycling bins are emptied, so I just made a trip out to the bins with stuff to put in them. At least it cleared the kitchen and hall of all the recyclable packing. At the same time took out all the boxes with sticky tape all over them to put in the main bin to be emptied on Tuesday. Ow! that brought on the pains! I use my rollator to carry stuff out to the bins (about35 feet away from the door) so I had plenty of support while walking but the breathlessness was bad. Neil would have done it, but I do try to do what I can and most of the time take stuff to the bins (gives me a tiny bit of exercise - 70 feet in all to walk - not exactly impressive, I know but the best I can do at the moment).

Two meals again today to use as little insulin as possible so brunch was the same "full English" as yesterday (small amount of carb in the black pudding and the sausage plus whatever is in one tomato and none, I think, in the mushrooms).

Salmon and salad stuffs again for the evening meal. Apart from that there's only some ham and some minced beef in the fridge in terms of protein. Don't really fancy either of those.

I asked Neil to get the beef mince because I wanted to try making ragout the way that Tom Kerridge showed on a recent TV programme. He spread it out on a tray, raw, and browned it in the oven before putting it together with the rest of the ingredients. But I've forgotten just how he did it. Did anyone see that programme, and remember how it was done? May just have to experiment. But not today.
 
Antje77 said:
I did a quick Google search on "Tom Kerridge ragout meat mince oven" and Google came up with lots of results so I'm sure you can find it again!
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Thanks Antje77. Found it. I hadn't bothered because when I put in a query, it never finds what I want. Obviously I use the wrong terms when searching.
 
Annb said:
when I put in a query, it never finds what I want.
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Keep practising and you'll get better at it!
It helps if you take the time to find the keywords for your search, in this case 'oven', 'meat mince', 'ragout' and 'Tom Kerridge', which I all took from your post literally
 
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