Being Prepared

Pre-cut vegetables, with tomato, chick pea patties and
salad dressing.

I struggle at times to eat properly.  I get to the end of the day, and I just don't have the energy to
prepare a meal.

I'm trying something new - a way to make preparing a meal much easier.

I'm pre-cutting my vegetables.

For the past couple of weeks, I've set aside a day (the day after grocery day) to do two things - to bake something as "treats" for the week, such as biscuits or cupcakes, and to put a week's worth of vegetables through the shredder attachment on the Kenwood Chef.

The idea is that I save energy by only cleaning up my Kenwood Chef once a week, and by reducing the amount of preparation for meals throughout the week.

What I've shredded is a mix of cabbage, carrot, onion, capsicum and celery.  Left dry and in a sealed container in the fridge, this will easily last all week.

It's a good mix, because it's versatile.

Used with a mayonaise style dressing, it's a coleslaw.

Cooked with some lean beef mince, canned tomatoes, a couple of herbs and some olives, it's a bolognese.

Cooked with some lean meat strips and soy sauce, it's a stirfry to go over rice.

Add some tomato and possibly a lettuce leaf or a slice or two of cucumber, along with a fat-free salad dressing, it's a basic salad to have with just about anything.  (In the picture I have chick pea patties:  a can of chickpeas, drained in a colander and then washed under running water, mashed.  Mixed with some garlic sesame seeds and whatever herbs I feel like.  Then formed into patties and cooked in a pan that's been sprayed with canola oil spray.)

Add canned beans, canned tomato, herbs and stock (or tomato paste), it can make a minestrone-style soup.

The effect of preparing my vegetables in advance has been that I've made myself healthy meals now for a week and a half.  I've been looking forward to meals again, rather than just eating whatever is easiest or not bothering to eat.

That little bit of saved effort in preparation and clean-up really has made a huge difference for me. Between meals I mostly have fresh fruit, but I also have small treats I have baked so I don't feel any need or even want of any other "junk food".

ARRC Holding Its First Queensland Event

The Autoimmune Resource & Research Centre is holding its first Queensland event on the 6th of December.

It's a "Summer Soiree for Lupus", and here are the details:

6th December 11:30am - 2:30pm The Terrace Cafe The Gardens Club 75 Gardens Pt Rd Botanical Gardens Brisbane CBD QLD.

RSVP essential 25/11 ph. 0249 214095 or HNELHD-ARRC@health.nsw.gov.au  

Enjoy lunch and discussion with Dr Marline Squance.

More information: http://www.autoimmune.org.au/Calendar-of-Events/.aspx?newsID=11359 .

I'm going, but am not yet sure how I will get there.  It might be a train trip.  I find the drive to Brisbane exhausting, and driving in the Brisbane CBD incredibly stressful. (And I have to be in the Brisbane CBD again the next day to see my rheumatologist.)

Any other lupies from the Ipswich area who are planning to go, please contact me, maybe we can travel together.

I hope I see lots of you lovely lupies there.

Please Help A Fellow Lupie Update

If you wish to help lovely lupie Ruby from the previous post, here is her gofundme link https://www.gofundme.com/py95k69h.

Here's Ruby's story in her own words:

Never in my lifetime have I been this destitute or in this much dire need. After moving out here in the middle of the southern California high desert my health began to decline, I have systemic lupus and it is trying to overfix existing back issues so that I ended up in a wheelchair from disc deterioration and herniation. I can't work and am fighting to get disability. My landlord has carried me as long as he can and now needs the rent I am down to the only utility left, the electric. Water has been off almost four months and I no longer can fill gallon jugs from the neighbours as they are gone now. I have made due but now I need help. Asking is out of character for me and not because of pride, but shame. A dear friend who is a fellow lupus sufferer encouraged me to set up an avenue for help, so here I am. I look to God as my source and am extremely grateful and humbled by whatever assistance I receive. Thank you

Please Help A Fellow Lupie

Most lupies find the economics of illness kicks in at some time.  We have decreased capacity to work and earn income, and increased expenses with doctors, medications, etc.

A few years ago, just as I went from employment to a disability pension, my rent was increased to an amount more than my income. I didn't know how I was going to survive or how I could provide a home for my children.  Some wonderful friends helped me out. I still don't know what I would have done without them.

Now, I'd like to ask you to help me help someone else who is in a dire situation.

Lovely lupie Ruby is in the USA (where doctors and medications are not subsidised by the government in the way they are here.)

I've been talking with Ruby on line for a while now, and I really don't know how this amazing lady keeps going.

As I write this, she has not had running water for four months. She's been collecting water from a neighbour's place, and the taking it home.  The neighbour has now moved, and she just has the water she's already got stored.

She needs a water pipe fixed, and to pay for reconnection. She has a number of other needs to care for herself and her children, but this one is both very important, and urgent.

I think if everyone who reads this blog could give five dollars, we could get Ruby running water again. (If you're also in a terrible financial position, don't make it worse by contributing - only give money if you can.)

Because it's urgent, let's make the cut-off for this really soon.

So send me a fiver if you can, and whatever money I've collected by the 10th of November, I will pass on to Ruby. Let's see what we can achieve in three days.

UPDATE: 

It's just been pointed out to me that this counts as a fundraising appeal under Queensland law, which means I can't ask you for money for me to give Ruby.  I will give her the $30(Aus)  I've already received, and a gift from myself, and suggest she set up a page on gofundme or something similar.  If she does, I will share the link with you.

I had been thinking in terms of a group of people just getting together to give someone a gift they really needed - but it's clearly not that simple.

To the two people who have already given money thank you so much and I have passed that on to Ruby now.

New update:   Ruby's gofundme campaign.  https://www.gofundme.com/py95k69h