Coconutty Pumpkin Soup

It is winter here in NZ, well almost, so what better way to warm up than making a big pot of yummy soup?  I do love soup it has to be said and I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and tea quite happily however lately it has been a bit of a necessity for me as a way to rest my digestive system.

We have been lucky enough to have a free place to park our bus for the past 9 weeks, while himself has been working to restore the railway after earthquakes last year, beside a large paddock of a local Irish Pub.  While we haven’t had to pay for the spot we have felt obliged to spend a bit of money here to keep in the owner’s good books so we have been going out for tea up at the pub at least once a week.  I’ve been thoroughly enjoying not having to cook however my digestive system has had other thoughts.  Being a vegetarian in a small country area has its downsides … namely that there are only a few items on the menu you can have and of these few selections most contain gluten, dairy, a combination of both, or are deep fried.

View from across the paddock back to our bus … the kids love it!

It has been an exercise in having the things that effect me least or trying to just have things sparingly.  Trouble is that I’m not that good at sparingly and I’m really not a have one and be satisfied kind of girl!  So let’s just say that over the past 9 weeks my eating has been very ‘off’ and I am now paying for that prolonged accumulation of foods that my body just doesn’t agree with.  Over the last few days I have been experiencing pain due to diverticulitis (flaring up of diverticular disease) and I completely know why it has reared up …. I only have myself to blame and myself to sort it out.

My main way, and this may not suit everyone, is to rest my system as much as I can until the pain subsides and my body feels ‘normal’ again.  I tend to go liquid for a few days so that my body isn’t having to deal with too much in the way of digestion in the hopes that it will have more time to deal with healing.  So far this has worked, on the few occasions that I have needed it, however the best plan is always to keep my diverticular disease at bay by eating well, exercising and having good fluids.

As it is pumpkin time here, and we New Zealanders love our pumpkins, I have been enjoying making up some pumpkin soup and my latest pots have been a little different after getting a few ideas at a local community dinner.  I usually just love pumpkin soup with a few onions and garlic thrown in, nothing fancy just yummy pumpkiny goodness, however I may have changed that for good after adding some coconut cream and ginger to the mix.  This recipe doesn’t really have any measurements, sorry, aside from 1 tin of coconut cream which you may want to increase if you are making  a large pot of soup. Experiment with what you like using this simple recipe as a base.

Crown Pumpkin

• 1/2 a large Crown Pumpkin (this is the best flavoured pumpkin for soups)
• Ground or fresh ginger
• Garlic
• Veggie stock cube
• 1 can of coconut cream
• Water

– Fry off the garlic in a pot with a little oil

– Add in pumpkin chopped into cubes (should come to almost the top of the pot)

– Pour in coconut cream (should cover 1/2 – 3/4 of the pumpkin in the pot) and then cover the rest of the pumpkin with water

– Bring to the boil and add in the stock and ginger

– Boil until the pumpkin is all soft.

– Take off the heat and mash until you have a thick soup.  You can add more liquid if you like it runny or mash less if you like your soup chunky.

– Enjoy!!

 

Hope this finds you free of pain and full of life.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

 

 

Easing through the stress

Honestly there really isn’t that much to stress about with this move; we are getting packers, the house has been freshly painted, all the maintenance on the property is done, it is a landlord’s market here with hardly anything to rent, himself will be here pretty much until we move and the kids are old enough to help.  Yet, me being me I still find something to worry about and stress over!

Our house on the hill

Last shift (2.5 years ago) my eating wasn’t as good as it was now and I resorted to late nights mixed with V energy drinks and rescue remedy to see me through. This time I am in much better health and with the absence of sugar in my diet there will be no V this time around 🙂 However the stress has made an old problem re-surface; diverticulitis.

I have pretty much sorted this diverticular dis-ease, which I have had for close to a decade, with changing my life style and eating however in times of stress is does appear for short bursts with vengeance!  In these times I get tapping, keep up the exercise and Bach Flowers to help the emotional side and I usually revert to a gluten free, diary free, increased liquids along with a nut and seed free way of eating which equates to a fairly dull old meal time.

So imagine my delight when I read a great wee recipe in my running magazine for a yummy wee ‘pancakes’ which fit into the above criteria!  I thought I would share it here because they really were very easy, yummy and best of all healthy 🙂

Coconut and Banana Pancakes

Thanks to Runners World Magazine – November 2014

•  2 bananas
• 45g ground almonds
• 15g desiccated coconut
• 1 egg

1.  Mash bananas (just realised I did both when the recipe says one and to use the other for a topping – still yummy though) in a bowl and stir in the ground almonds and coconut.
2.  Beat in the egg. (Recipe says to add in milk to make a batter however in using both bananas in the recipe I didn’t do this).
3. Heat some oil in a frying pan and place a few teaspoonful amounts into the pan, keeping them separate.
4. Cook for 3-4 minutes until golden underneath and then flip over and cook till the other side is golden.
5. Serve as they are for a yummy morning tea or top with a drizzle of honey and  sliced banana for an easy dessert.
6. Enjoy

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy and pain-free 🙂

Arohanui

Y