Bean, tuna …

I found this here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/white-bean-and-tuna-salad-61136

Very tasty and very easy.  No need to get a grown up to help you with the cooker …

I used a normal sized tin of tuna in brine (185g) – drained, and a normal size tin of cannellini beans (410g) – drained and rinsed.  I also used Lime juice rather than lemon, simply as that was all I had and it tasted great with that too.  I didn’t include olives as I don’tlike them, and I was generous with the red onion and the tomato.  I certainly didn’t use half a cup of oil either !  Just enough to make the dressing look about right.

We ate it in pitta bread with some green leafy salad:

Serving suggestion …

… and it was great.  There was enough for 6 pitta breads worth and a bit more to eat with other things a couple of days later.

Just in case they break the link / move it, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

 2 (1 lb) cans cannellini beans, rinsed,drained  (also, see above)
 2 (12 ounce) cans solid white tuna, drained  (also, see above)
 2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
 1/2 cup chopped red onion
 1/2 cup kalamata olive
 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
 1/2 cup olive oil
 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
 lettuce leaf

Directions

1: Combine beans, tuna, tomato, onion and olives in large bowl; combine lemon juice and mustard; gradually whisk in oil; add to salad; mix in chopped basil; season to taste; line 4 plates with lettuce leaves; spoon salad over; enjoy!

2: Note: this salad makes an exceptional sandwich 'wrap'; use warmed Greek pitta bread.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/white-bean-and-tuna-salad-61136

Morris Minor Traveller – http://www.flickr.com/photos/58907675@N00/3433931887/

It appears that the Council want to put a new travellers’ site in one of three or four possible locations.  One of those possible new sites is directly behind the flat of someone at work.

I don’t think she fancies having a travellers’ site just over the back fence from her flats so she is organising the opposition to the Council’s proposal.

The rights and wrongs, the ups and downs and the everything else of the whole thing are not for me to say.

I was however amused by the way that a stretch of (almost definitely) rough waste ground overlooking an industrial estate (or similar) which the locals have probably been dumping mattresses and old fridges on for the last umpteen years (and generally turning into a right shit heap), has suddenly been discovered to be a haven for local wildlife, which the current residents have become very interested in and extremely concerned about virtually overnight … that is of course when they can tear themselves away from the TV and going shopping at one of the three nearby retail parks.

I have been reliably informed that Red Kites have been spotted, along with Pipistrelle Bats and a Rare Orchid !

Aren’t those things (or very similar) found at nearly every proposed location for a new travellers’ site ?

Branch

Slightly difficult to measure scale on the photo, and I haven’t included anything in the image to compare its proportions with.  It was a big branch though … maybe a foot thick ?  Quite a size.

I tried to take a photo of the wound left in the trunk of the tree, but I failed to get anything where you could see much, as the sun (or rather the brighter bit of the cloud as I haven’t seen much of the sun recently round here !) was behind the tree.

A few days later I walked that way again and it looked like the chainsaw fairies had been and done their work:

Logs

The falling branch had inflicted an injury on one of the rhododendron plants below as it came down, so that branch was mixed in at the back too.  I wouldn’t have minded this lot in my shed drying for 18 months or so … just in time for winter. The smell of the fresh sawdust was still pretty strong, so the chainsaws couldn’t have long gone.  I couldn’t help noticing how happy the small of the sawdust made me.

The next time I came past, the logs had gone:

Sawdust

All that was left was the sawdust (and that was a bit soggy by now too and had lost much of its smell).  I didn’t position the shot well as you can’t see the new rhododendron that had been planted where the old rhododendron’s broken branch had been …

Sunrise

I was pleased to see this today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-15/study-finds-diet2c-excercise-help-treat-ms/3892238

Partly because it is good news (although I think it is the same thing referred to on my post from a few days ago) but also because this message is (what feels like finally) starting to spread !

It wasn’t so long ago that I was being told by my local MS support service that they didn’t really have any recommendations to make on diet, other than it is always best to eat healthily.  I mentioned the Overcoming / Taking Control of MS recovery programme and was told, in no uncertain terms, that there was no evidence to support that … and in fact they wouldn’t recommend such a change in diet due to the risk of malnutrition … especially the dairy !

Hookworm

My wife saw things about hookworms about a year ago and has been unreasonably (in my opinion) keen for me to find out more ever since !

She had read about a doctor who’d become interested in the idea of a lack of parasites in our lives being detrimental to our health – causing allergies and so on.  So, as a life long allergy sufferer, he’d gone off paddling around barefoot in sewers and latrines until he’d been well and truly infected.  I think it could have been this page:

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/05/30/hookworms-a-cheap-treatment-for-autoimmune-diseases/

Suggesting that the worms manage to convince our immune systems to leave them alone, and in doing so calm the immune system in general – resulting in good things for peole with auto immune conditions.

Now this one comes out:

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Scientists-use-hookworms-tests-control-symptoms/story-15384856-detail/story.html

This time they are actually looking for volunteers, so if you live near Nottingham or Derby, fit the job description and fancy giving it a go, then go for it !

I won’t.  Partly because I don’t live in Nottingham or Derby, but also partly because I am a big scaredy cat !