At the start of this writing it is still Sunday, 30th of August 2020, but close to midnight already!
Peter and I, we still enjoy good food and fresh air and sunshine! For lunch I cooked a very likable Vegetarian meal today. (I think, Peter liked it too!) It was lots of different vegies with a cheese sauce. As a desert we had sour cherries (that came in a glass from Poland!) as well as some fresh cream and custard. We also had some chilled muscat wine.
And yes, we had a most beautiful sunny day today. So, I spent a lot of time outside, meaning, for hours I was just sitting or lying down in the sun! Sometimes, I went to sleep for a bit. In the afternoon Peter joined me in the sun for a while. We each had a glass of chilled ginger beer. This was so good!
Later on we watched a German movie on television. I soon went to sleep. I also went to sleep watching the evening news. Later on I was awake for a while watching ‘Vera’. Before ‘Vera’ was finished, I went to sleep again, probably for hours. When I woke up around ten o’clock, Peter was still awake. We soon reminded ourselves that tomorrow is Monday and we have doctors’ appointments. By 8 o’clock we have to be in the Medical Centre here in Dapto. That means getting ready on time we ought to be up by 6 o’clock. Reluctantly, we both made an attempt to get ready for bed. I think it was about 11 o’clock when finally we were both lying in bed. Peter was very tired, and he soon went to sleep after having helped me along with taking my blood presure again. Actually this was once more an immense struggle for me. Just to establish a reading on the monitor was so difficult for me!
When I realised, that Peter had gone to sleep already and that I was not quite ready for sleep, I actually decided it was better for me to get up for a bit of whisky.
Well, I did have this bit of whisky, and now I am glad that I ended up having a bit of time at the computer. In the meantime, it is already a bit past midnight. Time for me to go to bed again. I am sure, I am going to have a wonderful sleep now.
Kale or borecole is a vegetable with green or purple leaves, in which the central leaves do not form a head. It is considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms. Wikipedia
I copied underneath some pages about kale for your perusal. First I want to relate now some of my recent experiences with kale:
After having had a look at the above you are probably convinced that kale is very good for you. Apparently kale is getting more and more popular in Australia. We did buy a bunch of it the other day at a greengrocer’s in Thirroul. It was only three Dollars, which we thought was a very good buy. Today we bought another bunch here in Dapto, costing us five Dollars.
Today’s bunch was a Hydro Produce. Does it mean it is free of pesticides? I hope so. When Caroline gave us a bunch of kale the other day, this was probably organically grown kale. Caroline usually buys organically grown vegies. Out of Caroline’s kale I made a meal for breakfast. I had a few boiled potatoes which I cut into small pieces. Then I hacked the kale leaves into tiny pieces. I also cut some fresh red capsicums into pieces. I used two frying pans: One for the potatoes with the kale pieces, the other one for the capsicum. I sauteed everything in organic butter. I transferred the cooked capsicum to the big frying pan. Then I used this smaller frying pan to do some scrambled eggs in. Once everything was served onto plates these looked rather colourful: Sauted potato pieces, tiny green kale pieces and pieces of red capsicum on one side and beautiful yellow scrambled eggs on the other side. I like to eat food that looks colourful like this! 🙂 When I cooked this breakfast we still had Caroline and Matthew with us. They praised my cooking which made me very happy.
Today we had another sunny but very cold and windy day. Exactly the sort of winter day where some hot comfort food is very much appreciated. We still had some slices of kassler (smoked pork). Normally I do not like to cook any meat together with my vegies. However Peter wanted the kale cooked together with the kassler. And he wanted it cooked a long time (the German way) so it would be quite soft. So the kale with slices of kassler in it was cooked for a long time. In the meantime I also boiled some potatoes to go with the meal. I added some butter and pepper to the kale. My slice of meat I did not eat for lunch. I left it on the side for eating it another time. Peter did eat two slices of kassler with kale and potatoes. I could see that he loved it a lot. We each had a can of beer to go with this very enjoyable meal. For desert we had some preserved sour cherries topped with a bit of organic yogurt and some custard. After lunch Peter served some espresso coffee with a piece of chocolate. Delicious! 🙂
Isn’t it amazing that we, being ‘poor’ pensioners, can afford great meals like these? As far as income is concerned we really do belong to the people with the least money. Still, we think our lifestyle is not poor at all, in fact we always are grateful how well we can live with our bit of money. Plus we have on top of the Australian pension a tiny German pension. This extra tiny pension helps us to do occasionally a bit of extra travelling. Our government thinks, it is about time we all learned to get by with less money. But I think most pensioners would find it very hard to make ends meet if the pension was to be adjusted to a lower level.
Providing comprehensive support for the body’s detoxification system
Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale.
WHFoods Recommendations: . . . . At a minimum, include cruciferous vegetables as part of your diet 2-3 times per week, and make the serving size at least 1-1/2 cups. Even better from a health standpoint, enjoy kale and other vegetables from the cruciferous vegetable group 4-5 times per week, and increase your serving size to 2 cups.
Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables around and one way to be sure to enjoy the maximum nutrition and flavor from kale is to cook it properly. We recommend Healthy Steaming kale for 5 minutes. To ensure quick and even cooking cut the leaves into 1/2″ slices and the stems into 1/4″ lengths. Let them sit for at least 5 minutes to enhance their health-promoting qualities before steaming.
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Kale and Pesticide Residues:
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in their 2014 report, Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, conventionally grown kale are contaminated with concentrations of organophosphate insecticides, which are considered to be highly toxic to the nervous system. While they were not among the 12 varieties of produce most concentrated in overall pesticide residues (and therefore not part of the EWG’s traditional “Dirty Dozen”), the EWG felt that this organophosphate concentration was relevant enough to bring attention to kale. They actually renamed their produce category of concern from “Dirty Dozen” to “Dirty Dozen Plus” with kale, collard greens, and hot peppers being the “Plus” conventionally grown produce. Therefore, individuals wanting to avoid pesticide-associated health risks may want to avoid consumption of kale unless it is grown organically.
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Apparently all this is in kale in good, very good or excellent amounts:
vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C , manganese, copper, vitamin B6,
fiber, calcium, potassium, vitamin E, vitamin B2, iron magnesium, vitamin B1. omega-3 fats, phosphorus, protein, folate, vitamin B3″
Please go to the link if you want to find out more about the exact amounts.
Originally I copied nearly everything but then I shortened it quite a bit so the post won’t be so very long any more.
AuntyUta 