Chickpea/Pepper/Rice Soup

G'Day, Readers,

I just finished a tres healthy lunch soup which I created last night due to my food processor biting the dust recently.

Talk about a blessing in disguise as if it hadn't kicked it, I wouldn't have plugged in ye ole blender again and this lil darling would not have emerged.

So here's the kidney-friendly recipe for anyone wanting to try it out:

Into the blender went:

1 ripe red pepper

half a cup of cooked chickpeas, (not from a can) *

1 cup of cooked brown rice *

3 cloves of juicy garlic, (chopped ahead of time for the allicin to develope)
a few spoons of 0% fromage blanc, (but 0% yogurt would be great too), some cuminblack pepper

a lil Mrs. Dash  ;)

a micro pinch of sea salt
a splash of apple cider vinegar and water so it all blends

Pour that into a pot and gently coax it up to warmness, not too hot to cook it as the idea is to retain as many vitamins in that lovely pepper as possible.

Serve with a drizzling of EVOO, ("extra virgin olive oil"), which I added instead in the blender on the above pic).

* Use white rice for less potassium.
* Skip the chick peas entirely for even less potassium.

Serves 1. 

And there it is, a kidney happy hot lunch on a cold winter's day--great for those who don't need to eat a renal diet either.

+++vibes  and bon ap,

: J

Earth Mother

Hello again, dear Readers,

My my, it HAS been a spell since I last wrote.  This is partly due to being just as/even more fatigued than I have been in these past few months and thusly, I have been sleeping a LOT.  Must need it, as it feels so good.

I've been kinda down in the ole mojo again lately, partly because I really thought that once I recouped from this last prednisone wean, I would be enjoying less fatigue and more of ME again but alas, things don't always work out the way we'd like them to, do they?

The other part is due to this incredible out-of-synch-ness I have with my friends and fam across the pond.  I'm really only good to talk in the mornings here, when they are all snoozing deeply and by the time they rise, I am knackered and either on the heating pad trying to calm the spine pain or out cold.

Sometimes it all just gets to me, this time-zoned-out-ness and of course and the daily grind that is chronic illness--illness that no one really sees besides my dear P.  And the odd person on the street when I'm struggling.  And Tony.  Heheh...

On the up side, I have noted a marked decrease in those intense, stabbing random anywhere pains I have been dealing with for so long at each day's end.  This is MOST note worthy as wow, not only are they about a 9-10 on the screamin' pain scale, they frankly scare me, I cannot lie.  So those becoming fewer and farther between is simply wonderful.

To celebrate, today, I used my "spoons" on something else instead of power-walking El Bonero.
For the first blessed time in over a year, I returned to the organic/graphic drawing board and produced this, (just click on it to enlarge):

It's called Earth Mother and it's inspired by a) how strangely often the theme of elephants has been coming up in my life lately in photo and video form and b) a few weeks ago the tiny elephants returned to my dream world.  I was so happy to see them walking again, tales hooked on trunks, after not for I think, a couple of years. 

This all got me to researching them and I have since learned much.  A lot of it very saddening of course; like how horridly they have been treated for so long by us--as living bulldozers, circus and zoo prisoners or for sources of ivory--a situation that is STILL going on.  Then there is the tragedy of how their habitats are shrinking in size and quality--again: yay Earthlings.

So here is our Mother, with her largest, most sensitive and intelligent land dwellers, as they roam with limit now.

Also in the cauldron for this piece, is our beautiful Earth herself and how much kicking in the sides we've done in such little time, history of the world-wise.  It's just mind and soul-blowing to me and the older I get, the more it hurts.

Aaaaanywho, just wanted to share a small slice of my old artistic self.  This and my recent return to singing randomly, loudly and often are both beautiful signs of healing.

And I must always remind myself to be patient with this whole process.  After all, this disease was gnawing away at my vessels for some years before finally being arrested and it only makes sense that the recovery must take its share of time too.

Then there's the heavy drugs needed to keep the MPA beast in its cage and the toll they take on the host.  It's only natural that I'm gonna have some tough times with it all.

I'll likely be writing again soon as on Monday, it's monthly lab tests time again.  All digits crossed for some improved numbers as the last tests showed a quadruple level of red blood cells being passed in the ole urine.  Hoping hard to not be heading into kidney stone land again.  *takes the hint and a break to chug some water*.  ;)

Wishing you all well, comme d'hab, as the French say and a sweet weekend too.

+++vibes,

: J