Category: The General stuff

The Sugar-free Lunch Low-down

I’m going to try and cover most lunch options as our circumstances differ, so here goes.  We try to stay wheat free due to Daniel’s food issues, but there are loads of other options.

For the kids we pack of the following, along with the snacks from yesterday’s post, diluted fruit juice and/or a fruit.  Daniel also gets a healthy cooked lunch at school, we are very happy with the menu.

As toppings we mix it up between Peanutbutter, Cream Cheese, a little bit of St Dalfour Jam, Cheese, Ham and Bovril.  Even just grating cheese instead of slicing it makes a difference.

Sugar-free yoghurt is hard to find as once you find yoghurt with AB Live cultures AND rBST hormone free you are very limited.  We do compromise on sugar and rather have other good stuff, especially because Daniel is lactose intolerant.  Alternatively, buy Bulgarian yoghurt and keep frozen boiled, liquidized berries or some of that apple sauce I spoke about yesterday to liven it up.  I find that works quite well.  And it’s cheaper.

Etienne is very easy to please with a sandwich he makes himself (I know, he’s a keeper!) with some nuts as a snack and I try to have a salad and either tuna or smoked chicken.  Alternatively rice cakes with cream cheese topped with salad goodies.

I am however REALLY bad at lunch as I am notoriously disorganized in the morning, so most afternoons I shout “what’s for lunch!?” from my office and then toodle on down to the shop for some slap chips and a cheese griller.  Very very bad.

What I do find helps is making soups and freezing them, especially now in winter.  I take it out the freezer as I’m running out the door in the morning and by the time I’m ready for lunch it’s mostly defrosted.  I just have to make myself eat the soup and not run down to get that bloody cheese griller.

As a side-bar: for supper last night we fried some lightly spiced chicken breasts in coconut oil* and added a tin of creamed sweetcorn.  We then boiled some pasta and added that to the chicken/corn mix and the kids LOVED it with a little grated cheese on top.  How easy a meal is that for kids?  And quick!

*I am in love with coconut oil.  If I could marry coconut and have its babies I totally would.  I use it for absolutely everything and even Etienne is grudgingly getting used to it.  It seems expensive, but you use a lot less than you would normal oil and it is 100 times better for you.  Try getting the Dis-Chem brand, it’s well priced compared to the rest.  I dare you to try and fry some potatoes in the oven sprinkled with coarse salt.  You will never look back.

Tonight I’m going to try my hand at some sugar-free cookies as I found some really amazing websites here, here, and here.  Stay tuned for those results!

Lastly:  What ideas would you make for supper that is completely sugarfree.  I’m officially crowdsourcing supper.  So please leave me a comment to your blog or tweet me or let me know on FB and I will add it in tomorrow’s post

Sugarfree 48 Hours Challenge

By now I have had lots of questions and lots of interest about our little challenge this week ranging from “are you mad” to “I’m in!”, so I asked our favourite Nutritional Therapist, Frances van Reenen, for some advice.

First some ground rules:

  • No honey – It has a higher Glycemic load than sugar
  • No dried fruit sticks covered with sugar.
  • Give Xylitol a try, it’s a great sugar replacement we have used for a while now.  It is safe for children, prevents tooth decay and serves as a pre-biotic.  So not only will your hips, your blood-sugar levels and your teeth thank you, your gut will also be very happy as there will be no sugar to aid the growth of candida nasties.
  • Peanutbutter is fine as long as you buy a brand that specifies “no sugar added”.  (we use Black Cat)
  • Do not underestimate apples.  I often boil and liquidize apples to use instead of sugar, especially in home-made muesli or granola.  It’s easy to keep blocks in the freezer and you can pop them out and use them as you need.  Or you can just keep a small pot in the fridge and scoop over food instead of sugar.  Or you can simply grate apple over cereal in the morning.

By now I know you are wondering how on earth you are going to feed breakfast, pack lunches and organize snacks for those 2 days and we are going to make it as easy as possible, promise!

If you are standing in the shops and you aren’t sure what to look for, here’s what to look for on a food label.  I have used the back of Nairns biscuits for this exercise.

An easy guideline:  If something contains 5g of sugar it is equal to a teaspoon of sugar.  Also, make sure to check the serving sizes!

Breakfast:

  • Oats cooked with raisins, grated apple and cinnamon
  • Wholewheat or low GI toast  with sugar and salt free peanut butter
  • Scrambled/boiled egg with a slice of toast and marmite
  • Fruit salad, plain unsweetened yoghurt and sugar-free muesli
  • Baked beans on toast
  • Tastee wheat with sliced banana and/or raisins
  • Rice crispies with Xylitol

 Snacks:

  • Popcorn (easy on the salt or use Himalayan salt)
  • Biltong
  • Dried fruit and raw nuts
  • Nuts and raisins
  • Nacho’s/plain salted corn chips with avocado dip
  • Vegetable sticks (carrot, cucumber, celery) with hummus or avocado dip
  • Sugar-free fruit and nut bars
  • Pretzels
  • Hummus and grissini sticks
  • Sliced apple and peanut butter
  • Corn thins with cheese and/or good quality ham (no MSG)
  • Fruit smoothie
  • Boiled egg
  • A piece of fresh fruit and a handful of unsalted, raw nuts

Lunch will follow soon on Tanya’s blog!

The participants so far are:

Margot | Tanya | Jules | Andrea | Nicki | Camilla | Adele | Tertia | Candice | Molly | Lauren | Colour Giggles | Pamela | Cazpi | Sharon | Bronwyn | Cat

Please let me know if you are in and I will add you to the list!

PS: If you are looking for a nutritional therapist and you are in Cape Town, please contact Frances.  She is absolutely amazing and has a gift of not making you feel like a fat old hag. Ever.  You can reach her on nutritherapyworks at gmail dot com

Opinion Fatigue

I have a serious illness and I have done a self-diagnosis.  I suffer from Opinion Fatigue.

It is mainly caused by the awesome people I follow on twitter and the media.

Just recently we had the Big Race Debacle of May 2012. I specify the month because I’m pretty sure we’ll have another one next month. And the month thereafter.  It will have different players, but it will center around the same theme.

Then this week we had The First Big March Debacle.  I call this the First March Debacle because I’m pretty sure there will be more, very soon.   As a sidebar: I am of the opinion (YES! I have an opinion!) that Helen Zille secretly rubbed her hands in glee over that disaster as it exposed the underlying sticks and stones (so to speak) mentality of our society.

Here’s how it plays out:

A bunch of Journos are on the scene of the “crime”, be it virtually or physically.

They tweet about it.

Everyone gathers at the virtual dinner table (twitter) to see what is happening.   There is much grumbling and mumbling and the racket is deafening.

The  journos are retweeted with opinions.

The opinions get retweeted with more opinions.

People get upset about other people’s opinions.

There is a twitter war with sides being taken very swiftly.

No one wins.

We inevitably revert back to another Big Race Debacle.

Everyone that dared to step away from twitter for 5 seconds wants to know what the hell happened.

Everything gets rehashed.

Rinse and repeat opinions.

Rinse and repeat arguments about opinions.

Another virtual scuffle breaks out.

No one wins again.

All this while? The journos stand back and enjoy the virtual shit storm, all the while also rubbing their hands in sheer glee.

Then those journos go away and think about the events and opinions of some people that weighed in.

Then everyone writes an opinion piece.

Or an opinion piece about someone else’s opinion piece.

And few people remember what actually happened.

But the best thing of all: people’s tweets are suddenly news.  It irks me that quoting people’s tweets has become news. Surely they are mostly opinions and not fact?  It makes me feel a little dirty.

I acknowledge that there is never a 100% true reflection of the facts, only a perceived reality, but aren’t we moving further and further away from reality and closer and closer to the perceptions and opinions of but a few people?

One of the things I love about twitter is that I get to see the thoughts of very bright and very knowledgeable people as events unfold, it just gets incredibly noisy.  Instead of wanting to weigh in I find myself backing away until all the noise dies down and everyone has gone away to write their opinion pieces or people are busy reading the opinion pieces.

Instead of being a place that is entertaining and supportive it has become a competition of who can shout the loudest and it is exhausting.  (And don’t for a second think I’m completely innocent, I also have my moments!)

Does this mean I’m going to abandon twitter altogether? Hell no, but it does mean that I should be looking at who I follow.  Which kills me, because I love everyone I follow and I like being able to stick my nose in and have a conversation with random people, there’s just too much other noise.

What do you think?  Too noisy or do you love it?

Why yes, I do believe it is Mothers Day this coming Sunday

As I had so much spare time (snort) over the weekend, I spent some of it on twitter and found a link to something completely unrelated that landed me on this blog.

Amongst the posts was a post about keeping the flame alive in your marriage which I thought was lovely, along with a handy “100 ways to keep the flame alive”.  It’s always interesting to see these lists and see how things in our marriage measures up against them, but I thought it would be a good idea to leave the list strategically lying around in this week as we build up to Mother’s Day.

In all honesty, these lists normally make me anxious.  They are like marking a test you have written and you might fail it somehow.  Every relationship is different and there’s always something that you wish your partner would do that they aren’t comfortable with. (for example, I would like more affection in public, I always get a kick out of a smooch in the shops, but it’s not really Etienne’s thing.  But he does try, poor guy).

I was wondering why the list is written for the guy, and there are a lot of things applicable that girls could be doing for their men, but then I realized: Guys are just a lot easier to please in general than us gals.  Give them the 3 B’s (Beer, Boobs and something else you can figure out for yourselves.  Hint: it rhymes with row) and generally speaking they are happy. Oh, and the remote of course.

Lastly: Before you think I only mentioned it in passing, it is in fact Mother’s Day this Sunday.  Normally I cringe at the consumerism attached to it, but this year I shall be a team player and join in the fray.  I shall demand breakfast in bed, gifts, being showered with more love than usual, peace and quiet and not having to lift a finger.  Oh and gifts, did I mention gifts?

In fact, Mother’s Day should be like a whole weekend thing.  The Saturday should be Mommy pamper day, with a romantic dinner on the Saturday night and then Mom’s favourite food on Sunday that she didn’t lift a finger to prepare.  Children should be presented with rosy cheeks, squeaky clean and be quiet. Ok, I did a manic little cackle on the inside with that one, but hey.

For my Single Mom Friends (some of whom are legally married): Because it’s Mother’s Day I think you should find friends with Husbands and drop your children off there on Saturday morning and only collect them on Sunday evening.  It’s only fair, don’t you think?

And Dads/Lovers/Boyfriends: you can’t un-read this post.  You have 5 days to make it happen.

Just. Do. It.

Ps: On that list was a lot of stuff that made me giggle.  I clearly have a very dirty mind.

Fighting Fair

I am about to break a couple of my own unwritten blog rules.

1.  I am about to potentially sound like a SMP (Smug Married Person) and

2.  I am about to admit to having a fight argument disagreement with Etienne

Are you confused by the contradiction?  Good.

Without going into too much detail about what the actual argument was about it left me curious about our established Rules of Engagement over the last almost 13 years of being a couple.  We have some really simple rules that we seem to have acquired that I didn’t really spend much time thinking about until last night and today.

Here goes:

  • Don’t drag old or irrelevant shit into the argument – stay on topic.  Otherwise it’s like bringing an AK47 to a water pistol fight: never fair and bound to in end in tears.
  • Don’t walk out.  By walking out you have actually lost because then nothing gets resolved.
  • Don’t go to bed angry.  No-one sleeps well then except for the one that takes drugs. (me)(not even then really)
  • Don’t make sweeping statements such as “you never… “ or “people say…”.  You’ll only look like a douche, so stick to the point.
  • Don’t compare your partner to other people.  Ever. Everevereverever.
  • Don’t get too angry.  When you get too angry you inevitably say things that you are going to wish you could take back.  You are going to try and grab those words and stuff them back into your mouth the very second they cross your lips.  Rather ask for a time-out.  Or take a deep breath.  And pre-warn your partner that if they push you any further it could potentially happen.
  • Don’t push someone’s buttons until they get too angry and end up wanting to take some words back themselves.  Let’s be honest, when you’ve been with someone for long enough and you’re really mad there’s a certain perverse pleasure in knowing exactly which buttons to push to make someone spitting mad.
  • Speaking of honesty: be honest.  This is your chance to spit it out.  Say it, deal with it, and move on.
  • Don’t hold grudges.  They eat away at a relationship and life is too short.
  • Acknowledge that you might just be not so 100% right and justified in feeling hard done by as you would love to.  Those high horses are hard to fall from.
  • Find a compromise that leaves you both with your dignity intact.  Unless someone committed some horrific act so completely wrong that they will be buying flowers and diamonds…scrap that… if it’s that bad you should throw every single last toy out of the cot.  And then ask for demand diamonds.
  • By all means have a disagreement in front of your kids as (I think) it’s healthy for them to see life isn’t all sunshine and roses and people do disagree, but then keep it above board and fair and no shouting.  And make sure that they see you make up.
  • Make up.  Make up properly, not grudgingly because you know you have to.  Be mature (notice how I didn’t say grown-up) about it and don’t sulk like a 3 year old.

So how many of these rules do you think I broke last night? I broke all of them except for one.  Mature much?

Do you have Rules of Engagement in your relationship? How do you go about disagreements in your household?

Etienne turns 40

Etienne turned 40 on 18 February and I wanted to make it a really special day for him so I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve.

Expensive gifts were not an option so I opted to shower him with love for the day.

We went out for an early breakfast whilst my Mom took care of the kids just so we could have a little time together before the day got manic and it was lovely to have him all to myself.  Along with a loud Australian chick at the next table that was curious to know whether South Africans also put braces on their teeth. But anyhoo.

We had a lovely morning at a kiddy party (with wine) and then off home for an afternoon nap.

I then presented him with a little project I had been working on for a while.  The idea came from Pinterest (duh) and you can click here for the original website it came from.  In a nutshell, I contacted Etienne’s old and new friends, colleagues and family and asked them each to send me a memory of him they hold.  The idea was to present him with 40 memories from people special to him on his 40th birthday.  The people in my office must think I am quite mad as I cried so often when I opened the messages at work as they were all so amazing and special.  He was completely blown away and may or may not have pecked a little tear himself.

The pile of envelopes

Thank you THANK YOU to everyone that participated in this, you have no idea how special it was.

Etienne reading his letters

We then moved along to Ke-Monate for his birthday bash with most of our favourite friends and family and it was a truly amazing evening.  The service and food was just perfect and the company was even better!  The restaurant is just outside Durbanville and literally sits between vineyards.  Perfect.

The table
Gift and name tag

The last little trick up my sleeve was Etienne’s birthday cake that was made by Angie, our favourite teacher.  He is a big fan of Lord of the Rings, so we decided on a LOTR cake.  In the end it was my favourite part of the day because of the expression on Etienne’s face when the cake came out.  He loved it!

 

Etienne with his cake (sorry, not the best pic!)

To my love:

I wanted to write you a “40 things I love about you” post, but we tell each other those things on a regular basis anyway and love isn’t about saying so once a year, it’s living it every day, which you do.  Love you madly.

The flowers in his table decoration opening up, loved them.

Tralalala, let’s be festive

I’m starting to intensely dislike this whole Festive Season thing.

Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that people do terrible things to each other at this time of year. Couples break up, people commit suicide, we hurt each other in indescribable ways.

I remember when we were not able to have children that I told Etienne one Christmas that I don’t ever actually wanted children.  If he believed me for a second and didn’t see through my Christmas angst he would have left me on the spot.

In many ways the Christmas Season brings out the worst in people and I even feel it in myself.  My normal level of worry is multiplied for some reason, I cry at the drop of a hat and I’m snapping at Etienne and the kids (more than usual at least).  I caught myself saying some horrible things about someone yesterday, uncharitable thoughts that usually I would not think to verbalise.

I don’t know whether it is to do with reluctance to change that is inevitable as we move into a new year (this definitely applies to us!), extra financial pressure during this time or the thought of spending 24/7 with someone you successfully avoid during the year, or a culmination of all of the above, but I’m asking if we could stop.

And breathe.

Take a step back and breathe.  And think.  Is this worth getting upset about?  What are my kids going to remember about Christmas this year?

Let’s be kind to one another.

Let’s endure the things that normally irritate and just suck it up.

Let’s put all our emotional shit on the shelf until next year.

Let’s think about our children first and ignore the trolls that lurk in shopping malls and in our families.

Let’s be bloody festive people.

That’s an order.

My homemade Vanilla Essence

 

Found this in our bed this morning when I came out of the bathroom.

15 reasons to go to Greyton

We went off to Greyton this past weeked with some of Etienne’s colleagues and had an awesome time.  I fell in love with Greyton.

We stayed on a farm called Oewerzicht and even the mountains felt inviting.

1.  It’s like a cross between a little bit of England and Clarens.  Without the snobbiness of Clarens.

Be prepared for a photo overkill!

Reason 2: Just look at this street.
Reason 3: View from our cottage at Oewerzicht
Reason 4: View from our shower. For real. The shower had a glass sliding door!
Reason 5: all the stuff from England you can find in the Village Store.
Reason 6: Need I say more?
Reason 7: Cows. The most good-looking cows I have seen in a long time.

 

Reason 8: The kids were in heaven. I was battling to balance my drink..

 

Reason 9: The village market on a Saturday morning. These were duck and cherry pies and the lovely lady that made them. To. Die. For.
Reason 10a: Miniature Dolls houses
Reason 10b: More Dolls houses, just check out the detail!
Reason 10c: You guessed it..
Reason 11: Post swimming chip rolls.
Reason 12: there was a piano. The kids had a ball!
Reason 13: Sunset over the mountains
Reason 14: Peace and quiet
Reason 15: Proof that the kids had a great time

And it’s closer than Hermanus!

 

A nice wake-up call

I am Afrikaans.

It’s not something I hide, but after so many years of reading/working in English I find myself battling to do business communication in Afrikaans.  For my generation which grew up during the last days of Apartheid I live with a lot of “Afrikaans Guilt”.  I (wrongly) assume that people would judge me because I am Afrikaans when, in fact, only a single person has in all the time I have been working.  (And he didn’t want to speak Afrikaans in an Afrikaans Call Centre despite being told that is was a requirement as he felt it was “the language of the oppressor”.  But that’s a whole other story)

Last week I interviewed a really awesome guy with dreads.  Because I’m so inquisitive we ended up talking about how to maintain dreads (carefully and with special soap) and meandered through his family history of being Tswana and ending up in Cape Town as he had quite a distinct accent.

We then ended up talking about how people judge you on the way you look and speak and I ended up “confessing” that I am Afrikaans.  He looked absolutely horrified and said that I should never apologise for being Afrikaans, there’s nothing wrong with it at all and that I should be proud of my heritage.

It came up in conversation with friends this weekend as well and our friends suggested that African people possibly embrace Afrikaans-ness more because tradition and heritage is (rightly!) so important to them.

I wasn’t really going to bother writing a blog post about this, but then happened to read this article this morning by Phillip de Wet in the Daily Maverick.  He is a self-proclaimed “once-Afrikaans mhlungu”.  I saw those words and they were quite jarring.  So much so that I scrutinised the comments to see if it was just me that noticed it.  I’m so happy I’m not alone.

I am Afrikaans.  So is Etienne and so are our families and children.  And proudly so.

You don’t suddenly become “Un” something you grew up with that is your heritage.

Edit to add:

Right after I published this post I had a guy in my office that marked African, Coloured and Other under Race on his application form and very helpfully added that he was Swazi.  So I asked why he ticked Coloured.  No, he says, I don’t speak Coloured.  What language is Coloured I ask.

Afrikaans he says.

Like it’s a whole other race.

I just laughed.

 

Plain Language South Africa

I don’t regard myself as an activist and activism is certainly not the purpose of my blog, but when I came across the Plain Language Blogger competition (you can also visit their site) I thought it was a great opportunity to get some things off my chest.  (It also made me want to win the R1500 Kalahari voucher after I had a browse there, but that’s almost irrelevant)

You may or may not know that I am privileged enough to meet people from disadvantaged backgrounds every single day as part of my job.   I don’t mean disadvantaged because of their skin colour.  They are disadvantaged because of their circumstances.  I also certainly don’t mean that they are victims or have a victim mentality.

Many of them left school in Grade 10 because they had to work to support their families, had babies, couldn’t afford to go to school, was the victim of a crime or was a member of a gang and got kicked out of school.  Many MANY people finish Matric deep into their 20’s.

The majority of these people have very basic language skills – not just people who have English as their second or Third language.  English is their FIRST language.  Some of them cannot even spell the name of the suburb they live in, even though they have lived there all their lives.  Many of them don’t know how to construct a basic sentence.

These people are not stupid.  They are uneducated.  The Education system in this country is a crying shame and has failed them miserably.

The amount of people that pass through our office every day that are immensely talented breaks my heart.  For example:

The guy with the beautiful, beautiful long fingers.  I asked him if he played the piano.  No, he says, his school didn’t have a music teacher, but he does love playing the piano and taught himself.

The very enterprising guy that was telling me how much he loves writing and would love to be making films one day.  He has a business that makes video recording for African people of funerals.  A very lucrative business.  (I wanted to wrap the Internet up for that guy and give it to him as a gift)

I have a question I love to ask them: If I had a magic wand that I could wave and you could pick any career job in the world, what would it be?

95% of them say they want to work in an office.  Doing what? I would ask.  They want to help people like themselves is their answer, unfailingly.  99% of the time they have no idea to get from where they are to how to help other people.  They haven’t been taught about setting goals, about planning a budget, about saving for studies or a house or a pregnancy.

So sad, SO true.

Think about that document you write that you want your staff to read, think about that form you want someone to complete.  Think about the words you use to give someone an instruction.  Make sure they understand.  And for goodness sake, treat them with respect and dignity.

They deserve it.