Jerusalem (artichoke) - And Did Those Beet In Ancient Times - 10 / 10 club - TITLE BY GREENY

[FirenzeandZooey]

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information by following the link at the very bottom of the page

At mid-night the first chiken gets it.

(Those things are all fruits, veg, or berries btw).

*c

Lionheart, please please tell me about your exotic fruits! Tell me what they taste like please! I'm a bit scared of very exotic fruits as I think they sometimes arrive in this country less than fresh. Oh, and be KIND to those chickens - they have obviously inspired you fruitwise.

Malfoynomore, your boys are beautiful And what lovely names. We nearly had a Sven.. And where is Yannic from?
My borshch is a made up from memories of recipes I have read through. It's probably not very authentic! This time I used:
1 large onion, sliced
1.5 large sticks of celery, sliced
4 small beetroot cut into sticks
1 large potato cut into sticks
1tsp caraway seeds
Saute them all in oil for a bit, until they start to soften,add water and a bit of salt, cook until veg is soft. Oh, and add some fresh dill part way through cooking. Dd2 and I love it, but the others will not touch it (fusspots!)

TooT, I erm, didn't really eat them, they were just for effect. I am trying to break the HP spell, you know.

But, in your especial honour, I will release chicken the first from the altar of sacrifice and stop getting fixated by everyone else's HP obsession.

I probably couldn't eat them anyhow unless they were homegrown because of my carbon footprint.

(They have all kinds of stuff on wikipedia, although I suspect some of these things sound better than they taste.)

They are gorgeous, M, (and the owls too).

malfoynomore - how come I got Tech's personal profile when I clicked on your link...

Feeling better today! It was just Friday.. didn't have to get up so early this morning and saw in-laws this afternoon so they took dd off my hands for half an hour.

Lentil moussaka was lovely! My first time cooking with lentils so I'm very pleased I've also made Chocolate Brownies for MILs birthday tomorrow and we've had a little taste (tiny honestly, just a bite!) just to make sure they're ok. Again, yummy!

Not so good on the f&v front. Nectarine, lentils, tomatoes, onion, celery, aubergines. I will pledge to eat melon and an apple this evening (with my glass of wine).

I got my Harry Potter book but haven't started it yet - I'm tempted to read the Half-Blood Prince again to catch up.

I'm going to go and put the Moussaka recipe on a recipe thread.

I got Tech first too - had to reclick the link.

Lionheart, I am most disappointed. If it's any comfort, I have not seen the latest film and do not have immediate plans to get the book, although I fear the end will be spoiled for me (I will not stampede like the masses! ). In which case I may sulk and not bother.

Have eaten 1 grapefruit, 2 oranges, cold borshch, cold ratatouille with lentils, carrot, cucumber and am about to have plum and orange cake.

Mental states are delicate here today. Ds2 is mourning his pet moth (it was dead, but still...), ds1 told him he'd eaten it , dd1 is overtired, I am menstrual, achey and shivery. Dd2 is a ray of sunshine

lentil moussaka thread

lol Lionheart, about the spell. Lol, the fruits and berries really did sound fantastically extravagant, lol...would love to know if one could actually buy any of them and what they taste like....
And ty for the compliment....it was the first time that I was that near to owls...had seen some behind bars, lol, but it's so differnet to be able to touch them, they feel amazing

ToTicky, thank you on the compliment Well, I obbviously think that my boys are little handsome gorgous devils...but then, I suppose I am bias How come that you almost ended up wiht a Sven? With us it's a case of me being german and the first 2 names are commonly used names in german (Yannic is french origine, apparently there was a racing driver called Yannick Noah, which is kind of funny, cause I really always wanted a Noah, but dh never let me have that name as he dislikes it ) , but the most important name criteria was that it had to be pronounced exactly the same way in german and english and it had to be obvious by the spelling how it would be pronounced
The Bortsch recipe sounds lovely, I shall give it a try...I love beetroot, well fresh one anyway, can't stand pickled one, lol!

FMV, funny you say that, when I first tried out the link it happened to me, too, but then I closed it down and opened it up and it worked....odd thing that....

Pinkpotter, oh please do, and give a link, too, please... ooops, continoued reading the thread to the end, and you already posted that link...Thank you

Must say am not really all that Harry Potter fanish, and have not read one book, just seen the movies and fdidn't like the first 2 all that much, but the last 2 were brilliant I thought....well, at least a nice movie that I will enjoy going to cinema with my es, lol...

Oh, ended up having Pasta with a veggie sauce for Dinner....not sure how many portions I had in the end, lol...but I made it with 2 tins of toms, a punned of chestnut mushrooms, 2 large handful of spinach, a large onion and a few garlic cloves...and I had about 1/2 of the lot, lol....I try to cut down the amount of pasta I have, so, tend to fill up on the sauce....twas yummy anyway

Malfoynomore, we have a sort of Scandinavian theme We're very fond of Sweden, but also want to visit Germany (have only driven through it!), especially want to see lakes and mountains, forest and Neuschwanstein.

I'm drinking real strawberry soya shake

Malfoy the first 2 HP films were dreadful but I think you can't get all the detail of the books into the film so you really miss out. I didn't get into it until the fifth one was out. I'd always scoffed at the idea - kids book about a wizard, huh! Then dh got the box set of the first 5 for Christmas and I read them all by New Year!

TooT, do you know Sweden very well? For holidays and stuff? I would love to go and explore my Abba/Bergman dichotomy.

Lionheart where i LIVE it is prone more to drought than flood. We have been having weather extremes, rain all week. Have to sit in the spa pool with an umbrella - Other areas have had tornadoes and excessive rain. And I had a very big stack of pancakes for breakfast. Bit bleurgh tbh and as I was reading my astro forecast yesterday it said to stay away from fatty foods. So had better pull up my socks and eat my artichokes.

Has anyone seen my blood donation thread ? I just thought I'd try and get people thinking about it! I've had 18mths off becasue of ttc and being pregnant but I can go back in August. I've felt really guilty about not being able to go!

Have just printed out the moussaka recipe

I wonder where Franny is tonight - reading HP?!

Lionheart, we have been twice as a family, staying on farms this wonderful scheme
We have only explored a tiny part really, in the south, Skåne, Blekinge and Småland. Love love love it!!! Unfortunately haven't been for 3 years as finances have not been favourable

But you do have a spa pool to sit in Papillon. And Xena and Janet Frame too, so it must be a good place (o.k so Xena is not real and JF is dead, but still).

Never quite sure what you're supposed to do with artichokes, I must admit. They fall into the scary veg category for me. They don't even sound friendly.

PPW I gave blood a couple of weeks ago after not doing it for years so at least I can feel virtuous about that.

Franny is probably adrift in a Harry haze, I reckon.

ToTicky, have never been in any of the scandinavian countries, but imagine them to be great Used to love the Astrid Lindgren Books and films/series as a KId, Kids from bullerboe, etc...not sure if the author is actually known in the UK nor do I know if the movies etc. to her books were shown here...saying that I know there is a cartoon of Pippi Longstocking, anohter childhood favourite of mine, but not the cartoon, the real thing...I used to love Pippi
The link is great and shall store it for the future

I love the Black Forest in Germany (Schwarzwald) and have been there for several Holidays The german Islans like Wangerooge etc...are also great, especially for Family Holidays

TooT that does look wonderful. It looks very tempting.