Reporting In

The end of June comes way too quickly each year. For me it starts months of hard slog at work that ends around about the end of November. I was going to list all my big deadlines over the next five months but thinking about it makes my eyes spin in their sockets and is irritatingly depressing.

Added to that is how I’ve felt since I returned from Spain. For some reason I feel restless, disorganised and bored with anything and everything. I’m not sure it’s possible to feel restless and bored at the same time but I do. I start something and within five minutes I’m bored with it and so move on to something else. Pick up the knitting, knit two rows and put it down. Pick up a book, read two pages then put it down. There’s also a stack of things I want to do but can’t be bothered doing. I haven’t been to gym in about 10 weeks, my sensible eating plan is up the Khyber and my mind seems cluttered with a thousand things on the to-do list.

Aaaaaaand I hate Winter. I need heat and sunshine for my energy, both physical and mental. Boo hoo, it’s real tale of woe is me.

Still, I feel better just having written all that down (it’s only taken four hours on and off). Articulating instead of feeling; pinpointing the problem(s) instead drifting along. I’ve even come up with some sort of a plan. That will wait for the next post though or this will turn into an epic. Now though I’m away to pick up my knitting and I *will* knit for 30 minutes to see if I can get back into the groove.

Asian Chicken Soup

I’m not a lover of soup as I grew up in tropical North Queensland and we just didn’t eat a lot of it.

Last year however, Husband went to the Doctor for an infected bite or some such and Doc thought it would be a good idea to run some routine tests. Oh dear. Cholesterol level? Out of this world. Not was he was eating at home but those bought lunches were doing some damage. He’s a big man (and that’s just big, not fat) and accordingly he needs a lot of food. So a full meal at lunch every day (usually served with hot chips), a greater than average moderate beer consumption, little exercise and Houston, we have a problem.

So three days a week now he takes his lunch (which I get up early to make). Soup, a sandwich, piece of fruit and something to nibble. Any cook will tell you that there’s just something they ‘don’t do’ or ‘don’t do well’. For me that ‘don’t do’ is soup but this recipe is a gem, especially if you like Asian influenced dishes.

The original is here but this is my take on it which is even easier:

* 450g fresh thin noodles
* 1 tablespoon peanut oil
* 3cm piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, crushed
* 2 small red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped
* 6 cups reduced-salt chicken stock
* 500g chicken breast fillets, trimmed
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 1 teaspoon sesame oil
* 3 teaspoons brown sugar
* 1 bunch baby bok choy, chopped

Chop chicken into what ever sized bits you want or feel like doing. Place oil and chicken in a pan and start to heat. Don’t add so much oil because if the chicken catches a bit it just adds flavour and texture to finished dish. Clean up cat spew and wash hands. Chicken should be browning by now so add garlic, ginger and chillies. More garlic and less ginger because Husband prefers it that way and too much garlic is never enough. Quantity of chillies used open to interpretation on the night: disregard any opinion voiced by Husband. Discuss rugby results with Husband and give pot a stir every so often so it browns but not burns. Add stock, soy sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and float off to PC to check various blogs. Remember that soup is cooking when you go back to kitchen 20 minutes later to pour a G & T. Boil water for noodles, cover noodles with aforementioned boiled water* and pour G &T. Add drained noodles to pot with bok choy**, discover you don’t have any spring onions, say to self ‘who cares?’, simmer for five minutes and you’re done. Contemplate another G & T.

* If you add dried noodles instead of fresh ones then you will have a superb chicken and noodles main meal. The starch in the noodles soaks up the stock. It’s wonderful but definitely not soup!

** You’re not limited to baby bok choy. Try beansprouts, mushrooms, water chestnuts, asparagus etc.

Another thing to note: An Aussie tablespoon is 20ml. The rest of the world functions on a 15ml tablespoon but we just had to be different.

Woah!

Hoo boy. Went back to gym today for the first time in a few weeks. Not only was I returning after a break, but I was starting my new program. It really did demonstrate how complacent one gets. The old program was good, I enjoyed it, but was it really challenging me? That would be a no. Tomorrow, though, I am going to be a bit sore I think as I’m doing more weight work now. Weights aside, the rest is:

Bike – 15 minutes
X Trainer – 10 minutes
Rower – 200m, 400m, 600m, 400m, 200m at maximum possible speed with 30 second intervals

Progress on the first 2 is monitored by Level and Distance, progress on the rower measured by Level and Time. Today’s results:

Bike – Level 4 – Distance 6.2km
X Trainer – Level 3 – Distance 1.2 km
Rower – Level 5 – 11m 30s

Bike and rower are fine; X trainer is not. That thing just kills me. Still, I’m looking forward to carrying on with this. I’d like to lose another 3 – 4 kg before my holiday but I’ll see how that goes.