Tips for Surviving the Holiday Season

This holiday season be prepared. This is the time we catch up with family and friends.  It's also the time we eat more, drink more and spend more.  Just a few precautions can make a difference to your diet and to your budget.

1. If going out make sure you eat a healthy snack before you go out even if you are going out to dinner. Consider fruit, nuts, popcorn, organic cheese and homemade crackers.

2. Alcohol flows freely during the Holidays with all the different parties and get-togethers we have.  If you are drinking wine add filtered or mineral water (at least half and half) and try the low alcohol beers.  You just have time to brew a batch of beer for Christmas. Home brewing has come a long way and there are some really great home brew beers available.  One of our favourites is Coopers Mexican Cerveza.  Coopers recommends using their Brew Enhancer 2 instead of sugar. This makes it more expensive but it makes a great tasting brew. To make a low alcohol beer use only 500g instead of the 1kg.  Keep away from the ‘pop’ alcohols. If you drink spirits, mix your own drinks.   Add fruit juice (no added sugar) and soda water to your champagne.  

3. For non-alcohol drinks, try fruit juice (no added sugar) with added filtered or mineral water.  Try to keep the ratio to 25% fruit juice and 75% water.  Or try some homemade cordials like Old Fashion Lemonade.

4.  Snacks at parties can greatly increase calorie intake, unhealthy fats and food additives.  Try to keep away from purchased chips, biscuits etc.  and go for the dips that are home made.  Try roast garlic dip, salsas and vegetable base dips.  Have these with bite size pieces of raw fruit and vegetables.  Consider fruit, nuts, popcorn, organic cheese and homemade crackers.

5. When out, keep a supply of healthy snacks with you. Again, consider fruit, nuts, popcorn, organic cheese and homemade crackers. Eat these at the first signs of hunger instead of going for the unhealthy, expensive packaged alternatives.

6. If going out for a meal skip the entree course unless you are very hungry. 

7. Select meals that have a high vegetable content.

   

8. Avoid meals with creamy or high fat content sauces.  Ask for the sauce to be put on the side.

9. When ordering salads ask for the dressing to be put on the side.  Otherwise you may find you salad is covered in oil (unhealthy types) and sugar. 

10. For desserts, go for those that include fresh fruits, ricotta, yoghurts, yoghurt cream cheese or coconut milk.  Try Pineapple Freeze

11. Often at this time of year we are meeting friends for coffee.  Keep your coffee intake to no more than 3 cups per day. Or better still go for herbal teas.  Like peppermint or black adder tea.  If you drink decaf coffee please make sure it is decaffeinated through natural filters and not by chemicals. Try to resist the temptation of cake with your coffee.  If you can’t resist go for something with lots of fruit.  Better still invite your friends to coffee at your place then you can control what you eat and what you spend.

12. Drink at least 8 glasses of filtered water per day. 

13. Go to the www.terracottacottage.com.au for more great ideas and recipes.

Wrigglers

From the Wangi Garden Journal

I noticed that there are 'wrigglers' in the small garden pond.  I grew up calling mosquito larvae - wrigglers.  When I was a kid growing up on a couple of acres on the outskirts of Brisbane (Australia)  we only had tank water.  Sometimes you would pour yourself a glass of water from the tap and there would be a wriggler swimming in your glass of water. Time to treat the tanks. Of course these days, water tanks have screens and filters to prevent mosquitoes breeding in the tanks.

For my pond I need to get some native Australian fish which will eat mosquito larvae. Kevin Casey suggests in his book "Attracting Frogs to your garden" -

Pacific Blue Eye - I think we are too far south for these

Fly specked Hardyhead

Australian Smelt

Rainbow Fish from your local area

I managed to get Crimson Spotted Rainbow Fish from the local pet store.  Apparently they are native from Coffs Harbour to Tamworth.

I removed the Bacopa plant from the pond and left the Gotu Kola so there would be more room for the rainbows.  

The species I planted is an Australian Native Gotu Kola, Centella asiatica, which is recommended for frog friendly ponds. (Here's hoping - we hear frogs on rainy nights but have not seen any yet)  Gotu Kola also has medicinal properties.  I always found it quite useful for people who have trouble sleeping. It won't help you get to sleep but is more helpful for those who wake up during the night.  It may also be helpful for clarity of mind, arthritic pain and fatigue.  

One of my pet dislikes is the amount of Soy that is in our food.  Most processed food has soy in it.  Soy has been promoted as an amazing health food.  And yes, how it is eaten in the traditional Japanese diet is healthy - naturally fremented and only in small amounts.

We were not meant to eat Soy flour, textured vegetable protein or drink Soy Milk.  For more information go to Soy Alert at The Weston A Price Foundation. Gotu Kola may be helpful to those who have had too much soy in their diet.

The recommended daily dose of Gotu Kola is two leaves of 40mm diameter per adult, or the equivalent in smaller leaves. It will be bitter if grown in full sun.

Gotu Kola is usually considered safe.  However there are a few side effects to taking too much of this herb - mouth ulcers, sensitivity to the sun, increased blood sugar levels, stomach irritation and nausea.  

As with all plants allergic reactions may occur.  

Gotu Kola is contraindicated in pregnancy and while breast feeding. 

Solar Power

Its been almost a year now since we installed a 1.75kw solar power system and evacuated tubes solar hot water.  We don't have a north facing roof so we placed the evacuated tubes hot water on the nw corner of the roof and the solar panels for electricity on the east facing roof.  The front of our house faces east. We also have a lot of very tall gum trees in the neighbourhood which tend to block the sun early morning and late afternoon.  The only time we have had to turn the electric booster on for the hot water were those few times that we have had cloud and/or rain for about 3 days. 

Where we are at Wangi, our electricity company is Energy Australia.  We signed up to a new contract earlier this year where we feed 100% of what we generated back into the grid and receive 66c per kw paid to us each quarter through the buy back scheme.  We then receive our electricity bill as normal where we are charged different rates for Peak, Shoulder and Off-Peak.

We do use more electricity than we generate.  Even though we have replaced lights, fridges, freezer, dishwasher and washing machine with more energy efficient alternatives and try and schedule the use in the off-peak period .  However, because of the attractive buy back scheme the cost of our electricity is covered most quarters.

Our biggest problem is living in a pole home (wood) with polished wood floors with no insulation.  Come winter and the house is freezing when the westerlies blow up the hill.  We are in the process of building in under the house which should alleviate most of this problem.

We are very happy that we invested the money in solar electricity and don't think we could have received a similar return if the money was invested in shares or sitting in a term deposit.