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IBS friendly Chicken and Leek Risotto

May 30, 2018 by Nicole Leave a Comment

As I’ve mentioned before my other half has post infection IBS. What this means is he has some severe intolerances to foods that are high in fructose. This means he can experience some really nasty side effects such as, body cramps, migraines, poor sleep, weight gain, weight loss, brain fog, mood changes, and the list just goes on. Many people have IBS to a degree, and they might not even realise. If you personally have found yourself reacting after eating onions and garlic, then there’s a good chance that you may have a level of IBS. Fructose can be very hard on the guts!

This means I have to adjust all the recipes we cook to make sure they work for IBS. It’s a challenge and you need to plan in advance, but it does mean that we eat a lot healthier! Mainly because things like takeaways are not an option. I wanted to share a recipe with you all, one of our absolute favourites – and the very first “proper” risotto I’ve ever made.

This risotto is originally from Dish magazine (in NZ). We get the Dish magazine with our Flyby points. It is one of our favourite things to receive every couple of months. All of the recipes it has need to be adjusted. But that’s normal with IBS. It’s something you just have to get used to, so this is my version of the recipe adjusted for IBS.

It makes an enormous amount, like six servings plus so is a great recipe for a big family. We also find it freezes nicely and reheats well, although if you’re a risotto purist you won’t agree with me and you’ll be horrified at the stickiness of it. I’m one of those people who loves sticky, solid, good food. I love porridge, I love rice pudding, and I love my home-made risotto. If you do try out this recipe, let me know how it goes and let me know if you like it! I would really love to hear.

[recipe title=”Chicken and Leek Risotto” servings=”6-8″ time=”90 mins” difficulty=”easy, but time consuming”]

Chicken

  • 4 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil
  • 30 grams butter
  • 150 grams finely chopped pancetta (though I have used 100grams with little noticeable difference)
  • 850 grams boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • sea salt and ground pepper

Risotto

  • 1 or 2 bunches of spring onions chopped finely – use the green part (dark, not light) only
  • 1 or 2 leeks chopped finely – green part only
  • 2 celery sticks chopped finely
  • 21/4 cups Arborio rice
  • 1/3 cup white wine
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves
  • 7-8 cups chicken stock – Massels make stock cubes with no added garlic or onion (Massels 7’s)
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • 35 grams butter
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped parsley

To serve

100 grams of Taleggio or other soft rind cheese

Chicken

Heat the garlic oil and butter in a large wide saute pan – one with high sides is good – and add the pancetta. This is when everyone in the house will suddenly notice you’re cooking – it smells divine! Cook the pancetta for 2-3 minutes then add the chicken and cook for five minutes (no, it won’t be fully cooked, don’t worry). Remove the chicken pieces and pop in a bowl, leaving the pancetta in the pan.

Risotto

Place the stock in a large pot and on a very low element so it’s heating slowly as you cook.

Add the spring onion, leek and celery to the pan with the pancetta and cook for 10 minutes over a medium heat. It will reduce in size a bit, don’t panic, but this is why you want the high sided wide saute pan. You can add another drizzle of garlic oil at this stage if you like (I usually do). After the 10 minutes add salt and pepper then the rice. Cook it for 3-4 minutes then sprinkle the thyme in, and pour the wine in. Stir, and once the wine is almost all absorbed begin adding the stock. Pour in a couple of ladles of stock and stir. This is the long and time consuming part – it will take a good 20-30 mins. Put the timer on for 20 mins, and just keep stirring! As soon as the stock appears to have almost absorbed, add more stock. You do NOT want this risotto to dry out, it is meant to be a bit wet. Once the 20 mins is up (and most your stock will be in the risotto) add the chicken back in (drain off the liquid first).  Cook for another five minutes then taste test the risotto – the rice should have a very slight bite. But, if you find it’s a tad mushy, don’t panic, mine was the first time too and it still tasted great. After the final five minutes remove the pan from the heat and stir through the parmesan, butter, and parsley.

Ladle into bowls and top with skinny slices of the cheese. It was the first time trying Taleggio for us, and now it’s a firm favourite.

If you’re going to freeze the leftovers, this is a very dense risotto and does take a while to cool down. I usually segment it out into Glad ziplock bags then leave those to cool on the bench before popping them into the freezer. I reheat the risotto in a good non-stick pan (has to be good, otherwise it STICKS) and top with the cheese – YUM!

[/recipe]

I hope you enjoy this recipe and remember to let me know if you do try it!

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I’m BACK! Finally ;p

September 14, 2017 by Nicole 5 Comments

Hi everyone!

Yes, it’s been a while and I have been very, very busy, but finally life is beginning to slow down again—and I really appreciate it. As I mentioned on my books’ Facebook page (if you follow that) I had my biggest month for work last month. It was reporting season, and if any of you know Finance you’ll understand that there is a heap of reporting going on in August, so that was a new challenge and I really enjoyed it.

Now I am getting back into everything, trying to balance my life a bit more, and exploring some new ideas. I decided to start learning how to wire wrap jewellery, as a way to de-stress in the evenings. I’m one of those people who can’t just sit still and watch TV, it drives me nuts. I have to be doing something with my hands. For a while there it was literally just folding plastic bags into neat little triangles, that a friend showed me how to do. I find as a convenient way to carry plastic bags when I walk the dog, to clean up her mess. Not surprisingly, that got a bit boring. Then I saw on Pinterest some really lovely jewellery, that mixed wire and crystals and looked fairly simple. I had to give it a shot.

It isn’t quite as simple as I thought, but that’s okay. It’s a really good challenge, and its creative, and you can produce something in a fairly short amount of time. I like the ability to be able to create something beautiful while watching an hour show. Unlike writing a novel, which takes a little bit longer… But as I say that, I am here testing out my dictaphone recorder, so that I can train my Dragon that bit further. Yes, I am still working on training my Dragon. Procrastination and all that. Have any of you worked on training your dragon, or do any of you use Dragon? It’s a great product, and I’m seeing the improvements every time I make myself sit down and work, it’s just that sitting down and working part that’s hard. The part you have to do, that I’ve only realised is so vitally important, is reading your own work to it, and at the end editing the work using Dragon: only using Dragon. You have to use all the VoiceCommands, and you have to wait while Dragon thinks it through, and makes the notes, and my God I end up wanting to throw my laptop out of the window. That said, I’ve gone from 8 to 6 edits per page to about one. Which is a decent difference. If I can pace myself, and force myself to do this, I can see this being a logical way to genuinely get somewhere with my writing. Which is great, given that I have got nowhere so far this year other than editing book one of the trilogy again, so that I can release it into paperback. And below is the beautiful cover spread, of the way it will look. But more on that in another blog post.

I hope you’re all well, I hope you are getting through the hurricane season, and the earthquakes, and floods safely. If you have read any fantastic books lately, do let me know, and I will be trying to get back into regular blog posts. Forcing myself to do this dictation thing. Training my Dragon… ;p

Have a great week everyone, Nic

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Filed Under: Daily stuff, Life Update

Working towards a new look

May 23, 2017 by Nicole Leave a Comment

I’m very excited to be able to show you all my brand new map of Gar’nyse! This beautiful map (based on my hand-drawn sketch) will feature in the new look paperbacks, and in the next update of the ebooks. You can also find it on its own special page on this site, under the books tab.

The spruced up version was created by Robert Altbauer, a talented individual whose site I stumbled across a couple of years ago (been waiting for the free dosh to afford this *lol*). If, like me, you appreciate a beautiful map you should zip over to Robert’s site www.fantasy-map.net , or his DeviantART page www.sapiento.deviantart.com to peruse his stunning collections.

 

Back to the drawing board! Those paperbacks won’t format themselves (*wistfulsigh* dreams are free…)

 Have a great week

 

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Filed Under: Daily stuff

Fast talking, hard selling, scamming Indie authors

May 30, 2016 by Nicole 2 Comments

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Navigating the murky waters of indie publishing can do the most patient person’s mind in. If, like me, you subscribe to other author’s newsletters in hopes of useful information you’ll see now that everyone (and their dogs..) seems to be offering courses that will make YOU the next number one bestseller. They all have their own theories and they ALL offer you the chance to access this lucrative information, at the right price – naturally. The funny thing I keep noticing though, is that NONE of these big talkers are in the top 100. I will confess, I have signed up to one of these courses and now have the distinct pleasure of watching $59 USD a month vanish from my bank account. I wish I could say I see the promised results.

What I am belatedly realising is

  1. The person making the six/seven figure income is making a significant portion of that by selling courses to gullible indie authors like myself
  2. The information is already readily available on the internet for FREE – they just package it pretty and add attractive headlines such as ‘Top Secret Methods – Top Dollar Results!’ *not an actual headline – not pointing fingers
  3. One author’s success method is another author’s failure method – we all need to establish our own paths
  4. The most helpful advice I have ever received has been free – because in the long run it’s the writing that will succeed, not the marketing (if you write shitty there’s no amount of marketing that will save you, you might have a flash-in-the-pan moment, but it won’t last)

I’m not saying ALL courses are scams. I know darn well many are of absolute value, but I do recommend doing some decent research first. If I could repeat my purchase over, I’d make sure to get through all the info in the “free trial” period so when I reached the end and found that I thought it severely overpriced, I would have requested a refund.

Don’t feel pressured into a purchase just because you listened to their free podcast and they now incessantly email you with offers of the course. It’s your money! And if you’re like me, every dollar counts when it comes to what you can, and can’t spend on your indie work.

I’ve decided I’ll start posting a piece of advice I’ve learned along the way, for free, no strings attached, each week. If you’re a fellow indie who’d like to have a guest post then get in touch – you can advertise your book/s after your piece of advice *grin*

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Filed Under: Daily stuff, Writing Tip

The thief of time…

May 18, 2016 by Nicole Leave a Comment

Procrastinator

It’s every writer’s nightmare. That annoying voice that shrieks ‘OMG you MUST go do this, this, this or that’ just as you sit down to type. No, I’m not talking about kids or your significant other. I’m talking about freaking procrastination. That thing that seizes your mind the instant you think, ‘Right! Let’s sit down and write one page.’ For me I find myself bargaining with that irritatingly distracting voice like it’s a child with ADD. Usually along the lines of this.

Okay! Ready? Just one page. Dead easy, focus and it’ll be done in 30mins.

Oooo I’ll just check Pinterest for inspiration.

NO! *smacks hand away from mouse* WRITE! Then Pinterest.

*huffs away indignantly*

Come on! Write! Then hate on me.

*pouts*

Just start with a line. Just a single sentence.

*GROOOAAANNNN*

A word?

*frustration builds and explodes* Pounds out half a page in five minutes.

OMG! That was amazing! Well done, now half a page to go.

…..

Oi??! Where’d you go??

*silence*

Hey! Get OFF that news site! Nothing news worthy has happened yet!!

But, but, I’ll just finish this article (frantically reads pointless article on why people put weight back on)

*drums fingers* Off? Good! Now, write!

*whiny voice* But I’m hungry.

No, you’re not. You’re just bored.

Noooo, I’m REALLY hungry.

Write. The. Freaking. Page. Then I’ll buy you a treat.

Pounds out the rest of page. Okay DONE! Break time! TREAT! TREAT!

*sigh* fine.

And now, after procrastinating via writing this post… I shall get back to the actual writing *lol*

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Filed Under: Daily stuff

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