OneGuyFromBarlick

Funnily enough I was considering cooking a chicken today (butcher's day) I had the last of the hot pot for lunch and did one of my regrettable overdoses at teatime, a fruit scone, an Eccles cake and a large custard. When will I learn! Up at midnight seeking relief with a dose of bicarb in water! Sweet things do this to me but do I take any notice!

Got the chicken but casseroled a lovely piece of well-hung rump steak. Dead simple, just onions, Oxo, steak, sliced tomatoes, sliced spuds and some peas to fill the gaps. Lovely and it will be even better today. Will cook the chicken tomorrow.

Roasted the chick with lemon and made old-fashioned stuffing so casserole for dinner and chicken butties for tea. Same again today..... So no decisions to make!

Finished the casserole at dinnertime and chicken butty for tea. I'll finish the chicken today..... Once again I have reminded myself how good sage and onion stuffing is!

Classic fridge tidying exercise yesterday. Remains of the chicken and stuffing plus peas and one lone potato fried for scallops. Tasty and tidy. Now for the last pack of BOGOF sausages and freezer is empty and can be defrosted ready for the Dexter delivery....

More fridge tidying. Sausage and poached eggs on toast. Don't worry, I shan't starve! My eye is on a black pudding, some bacon, eggs and a new loaf.....

I noticed my tomatoes were wilting a bit on the window cill. So, fried tomato butty for dinner and a chip butty for tea. Economy is the household mint!

Good to be home. Last night I had a chicken breast portion and Dave had steak with chips and peas followed by wimberry pie and cream. Eileen

I had porridge at dinnertime and Pie and peas for tea. I've noticed that over the last week or two I've been fancying very simple food. I think it's because of all the reading I have been doing about the Russians in WW2 and the near-starvation conditions they suffered. Dry bread and sausage was a treat! We forget how lucky we are today and subconsciously I have been influenced by their privations. No sweat, I really enjoyed the porridge, just medium oatmeal, a bit of molasses sugar and semi-skimmed milk cooked very slowly and given time to soak. How long since you tried it? Definitely good for you and comfort food.

It' s porridge for breakfast everyday for me, Alison too weekdays (she has a 'treat' weekends and has packet cereals...)

Three minutes in the microwave and bob's your uncle!

I usually chuck a slack handful of sultanas and perhaps some dried apricot into the bowl before heating.

The bowl I'm eating at the moment has a banana, satsuma and blueberries in it as well, together with a teaspoon of honey and a dash of semi-skimmed.

If it weren't for the statins, I'd have started off with half a grapefruit.

Nowt like getting your five a day under your belt first thing!

(Given current recuperation, just need to make sure I'm getting enough walking in to walk it all off!)

Does anyone actually know why grapefruit is forbidden with statins?
I have the same warning on my pack....suspect it has summat to do with potassium as potassium supplements are a no no too.
But to be honest, have never asked the question ( not being a grapefruit fan). But I do like lemons, so often wonder if I should beware.

Marilyn wrote:Does anyone actually know why grapefruit is forbidden with statins?

Hi Marilyn.

Asked the pharmacist at Whitworths before I went in for the op.

She said that something in the grapefruit juice inhibits the breakdown of statins in the body. This can lead to a build up of the statins. This increases the risk of muscle cramps.

She advised not eating grapefruit if muscle cramps are a problem, or if they begin after combining statins with grapefruit.

Before op, I timed statin and grapefruit intake to be 12 hours apart and went for it. No probs.

At present, have enough aches, pains, twinges and spasms to be going on with. Will reintroduce grapefruit into diet when damage from op has settled down.

What I don't understand on the statins/grapefruit front is that grapefruit was supposed to be a natural product that broke down fat? Also citrus fruits contain traces of Plant sterol which according to many are a safer option to statins. We are all unique so how can they come up with a national average?

Anyway cholesterol nightmare last night for tea, lightly battered fish with a half portion of chips and mushy peas. Delicious and just what the Doctor ordered after being in France for 8 weeks.

My old mum used to say "eat when your hungry, drink when your dry and if no one stops you you'll live till you die". Also a bit of what you fancy does you good. Eileen

Yes, Eileen,....just think of all the diets of the seventies and eighties that began the day with 'half a grapefruit'.

Strangely enough, I have just checked the packets of both my blood pressure and cholesterol tablets, and there is no little sticker warning about grapefruit, though I am sure I have seen it there month in and month out. ( when did it suddenly disappear?)
I would rather start the day with a half a grapefruit than a pill.

And strangely enough too...my current tab packets do not show the warning about potassium supplements either.

Am a bit confused now, so shall ask the question next time I get the script filled.

They tried to get me to take statins at one point 'as a precautionary measure'. I refused on the grounds that my BP and blood analysis was that of a sixteen year old. (My daughters can't understand why I have better results then them....) I tell them it's the black tobacco and the whisky.
In view of the frost, I have some dried peas soaking and got two big ham hocks this morning from Stewart. It'll take two days but the results will feed me for a week.

Did you ever wonder - like me - how tinned grapefruit had no white pith on it whatever, and have you ever tried to remove it yourself - impossible. The answer was revealed a few weeks ago on a TV programme. Almost all our tinned grapefruit comes from Swaziland, where the fruit is washed in dilute Hydrochloric Acid to remove the pith, then to remove the acid it is washed in dilute Caustic Soda. Simples.

Whats the nutritional value of the pith ( in small quantities ). I thought the avoid grapefruit was that the juice increased the absorbsion so you got too much rush of the drugs. Anyway I think from the telly that the advice changed about 9 months ago, half a grapefruit at breakfast is OK ( assum statin taken around tea time ) , but not grapefruit juice or poss the tinned stuff as thats too concentrated. I think cranberries went on the warning list too.

Hope that helps.

But whats the difference (chemically) between a Ruby Grapefruit and a Blood Orange ?

The difference between a ruby grapefruit and a white grapefruit is that I love the latter, but can't get excited about the former...

The industrial processes used to prepare 'food' are probably things most people would rather not know about!

I had wondered about the distinction between grapefruit juice and fresh grapefruit vis a vis what's allowed and what's not.

Pith is probably quiet good roughage and good f'rt bowal, tha knos.

A recent French study concluded that statins (together with half(?) the prescriptions issued in France) were a waste of money and not proven to be medically effective.

My problem is that if I start trying to second guess the cardiologist and surgeon etc treating me, my faith is their infallibility is undermined (this is as opposed to challenging and testing what they are telling me). If my faith in their methods is undermined, my response to their treatment will be less effective. Long live the shaman!

When I had the anagram, and the cardiologist reported blockages here there and everywhere, I joked that they'd got perfect images of Chubby's chips bunging everything up!

I suspect the real culprit is too much cheese (and too much eating altogether). After my youngest kids were born and a lifestyle change due to redundancy from my physically active job, I went up from 11 stone to a peak of over 16 stone - if you put so much fat on, come of it is bound to end up clogging your arteries I suppose.

Starting each day for the last 20 years or so with half an unsweetened grapefruit hasn't protected me from coronary arterial disease, but it's still quite a good way to start the day!

I think you had an angiogram.

On next week 0915 BBC1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nr447 Rip Off Food. More Gloria Hunniford mix of scaremongering delivery and an over gloss of the real food issues ( for that see BBC Radio 4 The Food Programme )

Whyperion wrote:I think you had an angiogram.

Sorry Whyperion, poor attempt at wit...

When I attended clinic at LGI, it was very much like an anagram, with floors and different reception desks identified by this letter or that, very much alphabet soup approach to treatment journey.

Sorry Mr Whipp, ( hey they can't call me whippy now ), thought you were getting spell checker challenged. LGI is best avoided by anybody , particulary if ill. My one showed a bit of blockage ( 5%) but that my internal plumbing is oval and not round ( genetic ? ). My local hospital / GP at the time missed my symptons were related to heart problems - probably because I was not very clear at describing all of them to the right expert at the time. Anyway a few pills ( dispensed by nursing staff with little explanation as to what they were/ are for stopped the problems ). I am supposed to lose weight- but the cheese really does make it difficult to shed the pounds.
Local supermarket had 4 large mushrooms at 19p as running out of date , had a couple lightly grilled with rapeseed oil , served up on brown bread ( also 19p).

Meanwhile, on the food front.... Pressed beef butty for dinner and two meat pies with half a Soreen loaf for tea. Fruit for pudding. I put Bicarb with the dried peas, I've never done it before, I always threw the bicarb tablet away that came with the dried peas in the packet. I should have done it before, peas mushed far quicker and saved time and leccy. Hocks cooked down, meat separated, fat separated from gravy and into the fryer, at the end of the day I have a big pan full of some impressive ham and pea soup. Will freeze some. That's the finish of the first bag of dried peas, have started on the second. Cheap grub!

OK. Sticking strictly to topic!

I made a stir fry with lots of veg from a box of vegetables presented as a get well gift by friends instead of flowers.

Portion control was way out, and ended up ringing grown up daughter to take surplus as a take away for their tea.

We had chicken korma and rice. Eileen

Ham and pea soup (with added carrots because they were cheap!) is pretty good.....