Shoshiplatypus

Health Update

I had a surprise phone call on Friday from the Exeter hospital, totally out of the blue. It has been so long since I heard anything since my initial referral three years ago, and due to getting lost in their system for months after my initial appointment and subsequent CT scan 4 months later, and then the intervention of Covid and the cancellation of all elective surgery, I had pretty much given up hope of ever getting my operation done. It was the appointments department, asking me to come in and see the surgeon, Mr. Daniels. She gave me three dates and I told her I would phone her on Monday to confirm as my hubby was out all day and I would need him to consult his diary.

My parastomal hernia hasn’t got very much worse and I have been managing it OK with the support garments, and occasionally having to change my bag more frequently. We shall have to see what he says about it. I expect he will want me to have another scan after all this time, to see how much it has changed, and this will probably involve another wait of at least a further four or five months.

I am just glad that it isn’t too troublesome and unlike many people, I am not in constant pain while waiting for long delayed operations.

Food

A new recipe which is absolutely delicious!

Bircher Muesli

According to Wikipedia, “Originally known in Swiss German as Birchermüesli (its creator was Bircher-Benner) or simply Müesli, the word is an Alemannic diminutive of Mues (non-Swiss Standard German: Mus) which means ‘mush’ or ‘purée.’

“Developed around 1900 by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital, it is now eaten as a standard breakfast dish, like a breakfast cereal, and also in Switzerland as a supper called Birchermüesli complet: muesli with Café complet (milk coffee, accompanied with bread, butter and jam (Butterbrot)).”

I have always experienced Muesli as a dry mixture of oats, nuts and dried fruit, which is pretty hard work to chew, and never as a wet dish. I found several recipes online and did a bit of a pick-and-mix job (in true muesli fashion!) and came up with my own recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup dried cranberries
8 dried apricots, chopped (makes 1/3 cup)
1 cup apple juice (I used pressed unpasteurised, not from concentrate)
1 cup almond or soya milk
3 tabs chia seeds
1 dessert apple, finely chopped
1 tsp stevia if you want it a bit sweeter – very low calorie. Alternatively, add maple syrup.

Optional topping
A handful of almonds or other nuts, roughly chopped
Yoghurt
Granola

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Pour into a Mason jar and store in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.
3. It will keep several days in the fridge.

This is utterly delicious! I decided to make this because I stay up very late with my weird sleep routine, and by bed-time I am often very hungry as it’s hours since we ate supper. I wanted to make a nice healthy snack that tasted good but was not too heavy before bed. It works a treat.

I already make a chia oatmeal pudding which I have for breakfast but fancied something different, and the Bircher muesli sounded like a reasonable alternative.

In a small bowl with some soya yoghurt and home-made granola to top it off, it’s an ideal late-night snack. We also eat it sometimes for pudding at lunch time and my hubby loves it too. It’s a great recipe to add to the arsenal, and very healthy too.

Kitties

The first photos of the year.

This one was taken in December. A very rare event indeed for either of the kitties to use the kitty bed!!

Cuddled up together.

Ruby wrapped up in the blanket ready to go to bed.