PS: Fay, it must almost be Monday there...how did your toe do dipping into the RPG thingy? I'm dying to hear! Hope you had a bloody good time. Get it? Bloody...as in Vampire? O.k. so I'm not so much for the puns BUT I did amuse myself.

tee hee

I didn't back read, Chickies!!! I hope you all are okay.

I just made a lovely soup.

I sauteed 1/2 an onion, 4 garlic scapes and 4 cloves garlic in 1 T. extra virgin coconut oil.

Next, I added 10 oz. fresh spinach, (which cooks down to not much of anything, really) 1 pound of artichoke hearts, 4 cups of vegetable broth and simmered with spices including black and cayenne pepper. I added 2 T. coconut flour to thicken and add fiber.

I added in 10 vegan meatballs and 1/3 a cup lemon juice and warmed through.

SO GOOD!!! It's really filling too, lots of fiber from the artichoke hearts especially.

I added 1/2 cup frozen corn to DH's bowl. :)

SB my friend! So glad to hear from you. I'm going to make your recipe tonight and dip my toe into a non-animal product meal here. I'm super excited to try it. The only thing DH doesn't like is artichoke hearts so I think I will throw in some chopped celery in lieu of. I also have a rutabega that I didn't cook last night (I mashed the others) Do you think that will work out ok? I have everything else but the vegan balls (hey, that sounded dddiiirrrttyyyyy sorry!). I know they have them at Trader Joes so I'm going to run over there.
Hope all is well with you.
ox
sc

Ruby: Feck! (as Fay would say). I added a 1 to your day 4. Sorry! Must have been my zeal to avoid cleaning out the master bedroom closet. I did run out to the back yard and attack the massive weeds growing in the flower beds. I'm going to count it as exercise.

SC

Well, regrettably I had a dodgy tummy yesterday, and so I decided to stay home - thus missing BOTH the rpg AND a trip to the Night Bazaar with friends. Grr. Stupid body! (Not sure whether it's sorted itself out yet. Fingers crossed - I'm supposed to be having a spa day with a couple of mates today!)

On the plus side, though - hurrah! Broke my plateau! (Indeed yesterday morning the scales read 210, which was TERRIBLY exciting, but since we're up to 212 this morning, that's my official weight. Which is great - I had that pencilled in for my April goal, and here we are! I'm aiming to lose half a stone a month. So far, so good!)

Oh Fay Fantastic. BTW..."Night Bizarre" seems so Arabian nights exotic...except you are in Thailand. I don't give a damn. I'm still closing my eyes and envisioning the same thing. (You, BTW, are belly dancing and hot sexy bloke that you fancy and hot sultry babe that you fancy are both watching you entranced...the only time they take their eyes off of you is when they take a few moment to fight over the sooka...hope I spelled that right).

Sorry you are still feeling stomach punky. That is suckish. Plus...I wanted to live vicarously through your RPG experience. That in itself is moronic (color me loser silly) since by definition...RPG...well, you get it. I should get off of my lazy arse and check into the RPG thing myself to get my boost instead of relying on Fay. You need to say, "For God's Sake SC! I'm not Gumbi! Have some of your own experiences" . Uuuuhhhmmm maybe Gumbi isn't the best toy to use as an illustration. If memory serves, my older sister, who was a bully, threw my Gumbi and Pokey up onto the Southern California lava rock roof (why did my parents think that roofing was attrative in a home?) . When the dolls were finally rescued...the next Christmas when Dad was putting up holiday lights, they were completely black and shriveled from the sun.Tee hee.

sc

Bwah! Actually, when I lived in Cairo we used to love going to the Khan el Khaleili, which is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old, and it was VERY much like being in one of those old Arabian Nights movies. The stallholder guys would yell stuff like: "Beautiful lady! I have seen you before...in my dreams!" and "I have what you want! Whatever it is, I have it here!" and "Did you fall from the moon? Beautiful lady, be my wife!" and all this kind of good natured rubbish, and it would CRACK THEM UP when I - the vaguely Victorian looking white chick - would laugh and say, in Arabic, "Fill Mishmish!" (which translates directly as "In the time of the apricots", but basically means 'Yeah, sure. And pigs might fly, pal.')

The Night Bazaar in Bangkok is much newer, much cleaner, much less hassle and much more full of shiny, good quality things (exquisite silk scarves, lovely bags, brightly coloured shoes, incense, imitation Tiffany's jewellery, 'designer' watches, trainers, gorgeous embroidered bedspreads and throws, silk cushions, carved Buddhas, scented candles, wind chimes, sunglasses, ropes of pearls and precious stones, bags of spices, bars of soap intricately carved into the shape of roses or orchids or lotus blossoms, massage, gorgeous oil-paintings in every conceivable style, pirate DVDs, pirate CDs...) But it doesn't have the dusty charm of the Khan (where you could buy hand-painted 'papyrus' [generally made out of banana leaf, actually] and reproduction statues of ancient gods, or intricate silverware, carven boxes inlaid with mother-of-pearl, tiny glass bottles of scented oils, wall hangings embroidered with gorgeous applique arabic lettering in the shape of a picture [I have one here which reads 'God is great. There is no God but God' in Arabic, arranged in the shape of a dove of peace], and then stop for mango smoothies or mint tea and smoke apple-flavoured sheesha pipes and talk into the wee small hours....) I like 'em both!

Ha! Bless you. But, so very much no - although I can imagine them both staring incredulously and bug-eyed at my fat *** as I wiggled inexpertly, before everyone just dissolved into helpless laughter. Alas.

(In fact I'm now starting to anticipate that I'll discover that actually he fancies HER, or they have had a thing, or something. Because if I were writing this, that's what would happen next. I mean, obviously he must fancy her in a general way, because - OMG with the stunning. But, yeah. Anyway. I still more than half expect that he'll turn out to be an eejit/will be VERY secretly gay/will be a Cylon. And fully expect that he will continue to be oblivious to my existence.)