Quinoa Porridge

 

Healthy Quinoa porridge for breakfast

Quinoa Porridge is Gluten Free

This recipe is chock full of antioxidants which are very, very  good for us. We have already talked about quinoa and about all the ingredients to make a beautiful rich Rhubarb compote.

If you have already made the compote then you are ready to make this very easy breakfast which will set you up and see you through the morning.

Ingredients

•  Quinoa flakes
• Compote made of rhubarb, goji berries,  prunes, raisins, crystallised ginger and dark grape juice sweetened with a little stevia or xylitol if needed.
• Goat’s milk or almond milk or natural milk of your choice
• Chia seeds, ground, black
• Natural yoghurt, 99% fat free

What to do next

Into your breakfast bowl place 2 or 3 flat dessertspoons of quinoa flakes. Add 1/2 flat dstspn of chia seeds, 2 heaped dstspns compote, 1 dstspn yoghurt and 1/2 cup ( about 125ml) milk. Place this in the microwave oven for 66 seconds. This time may vary depending on the wattage of your microwave.

Remove from oven and enjoy. This is just the right temperature to eat right away.

After your breakfast you will know that you have set your body up for the morning. Have a good day!

Antioxidants  in the Goji Berry
Quinoa
Antioxidants  in the Goji Berry
Antioxidants in Rhubarb

Antioxidants in the Goji Berry

 

Goji Berries are an excellent super food

Goji Berries, Wolfberries

Goji berries are also known as wolfberries. They have grown in China, especially up around the Tibetan/Himalayan areas for
centuries. They are one of the most nutrient rich foods on our planet. The are extremely high in vitamin C and are an antioxidant rich super food.

Phyto nutrients – phyto meaning plant and we all know that nutrients are food. Goji contains B-carotene, vitamin C (300 times more than oranges), phenolics, polysaccharides and amino acids.

Goji berries are a neutral and balanced food, tonifying the blood, kidney yin, liver yin and lung yin they are alkalyzing. They contain 18 amino acids, have 10% fibre, are low on the glycaemic index.

Minerals are in abundance in these little red berries. They contain eleven of the major minerals and many trace minerals. 
  

Prunes

Prunes are dried European plums. They are high in phytonutrients like vitamin K, fibre and the mineral potassium. They have soluble fibre which helps normalize the blood sugar, increasing insulin sensitivity which is a good thing. Prunes help prevent constipation and lower cholesterol. If you have untreated kidney or gallbladder problems then give prunes a miss.
 

Grapes 

Purple  grapes are the best for us as they have more goodness in that dark purple colour. Grapes are also full of phytonutrients and antioxidants. They help prevent heart disease and help maintain healthy blood pressure and even help lower high blood pressure. Grapes contain Resveratrol. This is well known to be of great benefit to the human body. Resveratrol is linked to lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Resveratrol also helps improve the skin. Grapes contain antimicrobial agents which help prevent bacteria based health problems. Dark red grape juice is a delicious addition to our diet.
When grapes are dried they are called raisins. These are what are used for cooking.

Antioxidants in Rhubarb

 

We eat the rich ruby red stalks of Rhubarb

Rhubarb

There are some fruit and vegetables that are extra good for us. I am going to share with you what some information about the ones that I eat regularly. They have some of the highest levels of antioxidant.

These are rhubarb, prunes, goji berries, and dark grape juice. I will share with you how I make a lovely fruit compote to have with my breakfast each day. Then I will share with you how I make quinoa porridge with fruit compote and the benefits of all these. 

 Rhubarb has the least calories of all the vegetables. Vegetable you say? Well, rhubarb is not a fruit. It does not have any berries that we eat. We eat the stalk of the plant. If you grow rhubarb remember NOT to eat the leaves as they are poisonous. Only eat the stems.

If you are buying the stalks in the supermarket, choose the ones that have the most red on them. They are better for you having more antioxidants in them than the green stalks. Also when buying a plant to grow – it is very easy to grow – choose a variety that has the most ruby red stalks.

Back to the calories in rhubarb – it has only 21 calories in 100gr of fresh ruby red stem and contains loads of valuable fibre.

Vitamin B

The stalks are rich in B complex vitamins. Rhubarb contains a compound that converts to vitamin A in our body. Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant which is good for the skin, mucous membranes and our vision.

Minerals

Rhubarb also contains  Vitamin K which is a recognized benefit for Alzheimer’s disease. Minerals have not been forgotten in this plant and it contains many major minerals like iron, copper, calcium, potassium and phosphorus.

I am going to share with you what I know about a few more fruit that are very high in antioxidants. The more antioxidants we ingest the better for our health.

Is There a Connection between Potatoes and Arthritis?

 

Alkaloids in Potatoes and Tomatoes

   Part 2
 Last time I wrote about alkaloids in certain members of the vegetable family that may affect people with arthritis. Catch up here.

Cooking Alters Alkaloids

Now here is the good news. If you cook these vegetables - potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant or peppers, then this destroys 40-50% of the alkaloids. So my Mum was able to get away a little bit with eating the tomatoes in her soup as they had been cooked. Raw tomatoes would have been much worse for her.

An easy way to tell if the potatoes in your cupboard are likely to have excess alkaloid in them is to check if they are green or sprouting. Always remove sprouted areas before cooking and if there are lots of sprouts on a potato then throw it away or plant it in your garden. This way you can grow your own fresh potatoes for the rest of your family in six months.

Tobacco

Tobacco, although not a nightshade, has alkaloids in it. Remember that the next time you light up a cigarette, especially if you have arthritis.

There is a substance in the Solanaceae family of plants that blocks activity in an enzyme in nerve cells. This can affect the nervous system control of muscle movement and you can get twitching, trembling and paralyzed breathing or convulsions.

Inflammation and Arthritis

The joints can become inflamed after eating potatoes and/or tomatoes or capsicum and is recommended to eliminate any member of this family group of plants from your diet if you suffer from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis or other joint problems like gout.

Some nervous system problems are Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Diabetes, Depression and Anxiety.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato does not belong to the same family as potatoes so you may be able to substitute this for potatoes. If you are affected by tomatoes, then think of all the things tomatoes are in – tomato sauce, pizza sauce, tomato paste, tomato soup.

Is there a Connection between Potatoes and Arthritis?

 

Potatoes and Arthritis - an Old Wives Tale?

Part 1

Have you ever heard of not eating potatoes or tomatoes if you have arthritis? Is it an old wives tale? Would you stop eating potatoes or tomatoes if they made your arthritis worse?
 Lots of serious questions to ponder.

A Personal Tale of Arthritis

My Mum had very bad arthritis. She had heard this ‘old wives tale’  and looked for a correlation between when she ate tomatoes – she grew her own in a big veggie garden in the backyard – and the pains of her arthritis.

She did find a correlation so very reluctantly decided that she would no longer be able to eat these beautiful, round, red fruit. She went through a long period of grief about this.

It's Only a Little Bit

One day when I was visiting, we had some homemade vegetable soup. Mum always had soup ready to eat. ‘What’s this?’ I said. ‘There’s tomato in this.’

 ‘Oh, only a little bit,’ she said.’ I had to do something with them. I couldn’t waste those lovely tomatoes.’

 ‘But Mum, they’re tomatoes!’ I said. ‘You know they make your pains worse.’ She shut her lips tightly and I knew the subject was closed.

The next day I innocently asked her how her legs and hands had been through the night.

‘Dreadful,’ she replied. ‘The pains in my hands made me cry.’ This was a common answer to my question.

Some days later I talked to her again about how the tomatoes made her arthritis worse. Yes, she could agree with that.
’Well,’ I said, ‘why do you put tomato in your soup?’

 ‘Oh, but you can’t see it’, she said.’ It’s only a little bit.’

The Potato Family

Potatoes, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, capsicum, bell peppers (lots of different names for the same thing, depending on where you live), eggplant, paprika and cayenne pepper all belong to the same family of plants.

Alkaloids, Arthritis and Tomatoes and Potatoes

All these plants have a natural chemical in them called an alkaloid. These can have an effect on our nerve/muscle function. Alkaloids are designed by nature to protect the plants that contain them from being eaten by insects.

Very sensitive people are affected by these alkaloids while others with arthritis may not be. Just like with allergies, some people are affected and others are not.

To see if you are affected by this family of vegetables containing alkaloids, eliminate all of them from your diet for a few weeks. Watch the symptoms of your arthritis and see if the pains subside. If they do, then, if you want to find out which specific vegetable affects you the most, introduce your favourite vegetable one at a time. Have it 2 or 3 times in a week. If there is no reaction, try it again the next week.

If there is no reaction, then on the third week you can try out another of this vegetable family. Continue this till you find one that affects you. It goes without saying that if the arthritic pains worsen considerably when you reintroduce one of these vegetables, then stop eating it and wait for the pains to ease.

Continued in the next blog
Other articles about Arthritis

Is there a Link between Asthma and Arthritis?

  Linking Asthma and Arthritis

A link between asthma and arthritis you say? But these are two totally different illness. Well, scientists today have found a link between these two different diseases. It is Inflammation - heat, redness and swelling. Other inflammatory illnesses are hepatitis, dermatitis, tonsillitis. 'itis is on the end of each of these words. It means inflammation.

Nutrition and Health

If you have read some of my previous blogs you will have noticed how I suggest using food for health. A connection has been made by nutritionists and scientists between deep fried fatty foods and inflammation. If you have any sort of inflammation, their recommendation is NOT to eat deep fried fatty foods. 

Fried Food is not Good for Us

So when your arthritis is playing up, do not have fish and chips for dinner or any other deep fried or fatty foods. Remember also that just a little bit of these foods is not alright when you have any sort of inflammation - that is heat, redness, swelling.

Gluten Free Curry Tuna Pasta Bake

 

Gluten Free Tuna Curry Pasta Bake

Easy Gluten Free Recipe

Here's a good Gluten Free recipe that is very easy to make. I had it for lunch today and there's some left over for tomorrow too!

Gluten free pasta 3 x 250 cups (dry)- use your favourite. I always like the curly one. It doesn't hold any water in it like the penne and it doesn't stick together like the fetuccini.

Cook the pasta in 1 1/2 litres boiling water.
Add to the cooking pasta
1 carrot and 1 bunch of curly kale or other favourite green leafy vegetables. Chop these in a food processor so they are nice and fine.

Cook the pasta and veg for about 10 mins. Don't overcook it because it is going to cook further in the oven.
When cooked, drain and set aside.

Sauce

1 tin light evaporated milk
1 450gr tuna
2 tspn curry powder
1tspn tumeric powder - this is very good for you
1/2 tspn Vegeta vegetable salt
Black pepper
Light cheese, grated, 1 handful

Warm the sauce, place the pasta and carrots and kale in a cooking dish. An 8 inch (20cm) cake tine is OK if you don't have a casserole dish.
Pour tuna sauce over the pasta and stir with a fork. Sprinkle with another handful of cheese.
Cook at 180 degrees C /350 degrees F for 30 minutes

The pasta absorbs the milk in the sauce so it is not runny when baked.
Enjoy!!!
For more recipes check out the following links:

Red Link - Aussie Bush Tucker
Purple - Cuisine Australian food

Food for the Brain

  Eat for Your Brain

Did you know that you can eat certain foods to make your brain healthy? If your brain is healthy, it works better. If your brain works better, then you are smarter. Sounds good?

Here is a list of foods proven to benefit your brain - omega 3 fats, salmon, walnuts, fruit and vegetables especially including spinach, tomatoes, onions, blueberries and apples with their skin on, flax seed, chia, quinoa, barley and tumeric.

You know many of these and it is well worth getting to know some more. 

Gluten Free Seeds

Chia and quinoa are two of my favourites. These are both gluten free. Chia is a seed that is full of Omega 3. Use ground or whole seeds. Add to your breakfast for a good start to the day. Chia can be added to gluten free products to help them stick together.

Chia is different to Chai. Chai is a warm milky tea with spices in it. Chai, the drink, originated in India. Chia, the seed is food for the brain.

Quinoa, pronounced keen-wa, is a favourite of mine. It is a very small seed. Use quinoa flakes as a breakfast cereal or add to soups or stews to thicken. It is very easy to use. Readily available in the health food section of the supermarket. 

Foods to Avoid

Foods to avoid for brain health are trans fats, saturated fats, syrups and bleached flour. Bleached flour is white flour. Use whole grain flours, they are better for you. Syrups are full of sugar.

Start on your brain health now - eat something from this list each day!

Colour Your Food

 

 Eat Colourful Food

A variety of coloured food on our plate is much more interesting than a plate filled with foods of the one colour.

Imagine sitting down to dinner. You have a lovely white plate in front of you. Now you are going to fill it with food. What is your choice? Will you fill your plate with white steamed fish, mashed potato, cauliflower and white sauce?

Or would you prefer to fill your lovely white plate with green broccoli, red tomato, orange pumpkin or sweet potato, yellow corn and purple beetroot?

Food can be an Artist's Palette

Think of your plate as an artist's palette. You can paint the inside of your body with all these colourful foods.

Foods are different colours depending on the minerals and antioxidants they contain. We know that leafy greens are good for us.

Deep red and purple fruit and vegetables are also very good for us. They contain many antioxidants to keep our body healthy. Try adding some to your diet soon.

What colour food do you like?

  

Vegetables and Fruit

Fresh Apricots growing on a tree

Food Nurtures Our Body

We need food to nurture our physical body. In the early days of humanity food was gathered from the surroundings from plants and trees or animals that were caught. People went in search of the food, expending physical energy. 

How We Find Our Food Today

Fast track to our food system today, 10,000 years or so later. Not many of us expend energy in gathering our food unless it is a trip to the supermarket where we gather our food in abundance in a weekly trip.

Importance of Food in Wealthy Societies

People in Western society have become lazy and want their food by the quickest, easiest method as they are always on the verge of engaging in their next activity. Food is no longer as important to us as it was in days long gone because there is an abundance of it in our society. It becomes more important in societies where it is scarce. Over the generations revolutions have been fought because of lack of food.

Foods Can be GOOD or BAD for us

Food can be used to nurture our body. Increasingly, scientist are proving that it can also be used to make us ill - too much sugar, too much fat, bad fats, foods with high GI, food colouring, too much meat, smoked meats and too much food, yes, too much food.

Science is also helping nutritionists prove which foods are so good for us and why. Some of these foods have red and purple skins or green leaves. We have all heard that vegetables and fruit are good for us. Now we have access to the knowledge of which of these vegetables and fruits are the best and why.

More about these foods next time...

Quinoa - Antioxidant, Super Food

 

Quinoa, a superfood, full of antioxidants, minerals and phytonutrients

Quinoa 

Quinoa is a super food. ‘Quinoa is close to one of the most
complete foods in nature because it contains amino acids, enzymes, vitamins and minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients.’

What is Quinoa?

Quinoa is a plant grown in Bolivia and Peru. It is related to spinach. The seeds
are used to make a delicious porridge or to add to salads. It can be made into
pasta too. Quinoa is gluten-free and easily digested so is a wonderful food for people with Coeliac disease.

What is a super food?

A super food is described as having 'high nutrient or phytochemical content that may confer health benefits, with few properties considered to be negative.'

Quinoa, pronounced keen-wa,  contains all nine of the essential amino acids required by the body. These amino acids are used by the body to build our muscles. 
Magnesium, the great relaxer is contained in high quantities in Quinoa. Magnesium helps relax the muscles and blood vessels and so affects blood pressure.

This wonderful superfood also contains fibre which helps in elimination from the body and tones the colon.

You might know that I think very highly of minerals. Without calcium our bones are weak, without iron we are tired and breathless, without magnesium our body is all tense. Quinoa is very high in manganese and copper, another two minerals. Quinoa is higher in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and potassium and zinc than wheat, barley or corn.

Quinoa acts like a prebiotic. It feeds the microflora or good bacteria in your intestines.

This complete food does not feed fungal or bacterial infections in the body. 

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Rhubarb Compote

 

Rhubarb Compote is full of antioxidants

Rhubarb Compote

Rhubarb compote is very easy to make. It contains a medley or mixture of fruit that is full of antioxidants. These antioxidants are very good for our health.

Ingredients

Rhubarb - 1 bunch - about 6 or 8 stalks, the redder the better.

Prunes -I cup, pitted or unpitted

Goji  berries - 1/2 cup

Raisins -1/2 cup

Ginger, crystallized - 1/4 cup, cut into small pieces

Grape juice, dark - 1/2 - 1 cup

This compote is naturally sweetened by the fruit and the sweetness of the grape juice.

Place all in a large saucepan and cook till soft. This is about 15-20 minutes on electric hotplate and shorter for gas cooking.

When cooled place in small containers. One can go in the fridge for immediate use and place the others in the freezer so that you always have a fresh supply of this lovely, healthy compote.

Compote - a slowly stewed fruit.

The pit is the stone or seed in the middle of fruit. Pitted means that the pit has been taken out. Unpitted means the pit or stone is still in the fruit. We do not eat the stone. It is too large and pointy.

 Cup size = 250ml = coffee mug

Chromium and Diabetes

 

Chromium has been shown to benefit people with Diabetes

Link between Chromium and Diabetes

A study has been done of children with Type 1 Diabetes and measuring their Chromium levels.

What is Chromium?

Chromium is a mineral. There are Major minerals we need in our body and Trace minerals or Trace elements as they are also called. A trace mineral     means that we only need traces of it, that is, small quantities of it. We need larger quantities of the major minerals.

Now although we only need small quantities of Chromium, it does not mean that we do not need it.

A Study of Children with Type 1 Diabetes

In this study, young people from 2 years old to 16 years who had recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes had their chromium levels tested. Their levels were significantly lower than a control group, that is, children of the same ages who did not have diabetes.

In the US alone, there are 250,000, (yes, that's a quarter of a million) children with Type 1 Diabetes.

What Works?

Does this say to us that we have to look at alternatives for our children to make sure we leave them healthy when we leave this planet? Obviously, what we have been doing in the past is NOT working.

What we can do about it

The most obvious thing we can do to increase our levels of Chromium is to eat foods that contain chromium. These are brewer's yeast, whole wheat, wheat bran and wheat germ, green bell peppers, apples and spinach.

The other thing we can do to ensure we have enough chromium is to take a supplement. Check on the ingredients of you daily vitamin and mineral supplement. There may be chromium in it, but often, for people with diabetes, the amount is too small. You may also need to take a larger Chromium mineral supplement.

 

 

The Food We Eat

 

Fresh apricots still on the tree

Why is food Important?

It stops our hunger
It gives us energy

Food - The Supplier of Nutrients

Do we ever think of food as the supplier of the Nutrients we need? I would think this was rarely on our mind.

I am suggesting that we should carefully select the food to eat because it supplies our main nutrients to keep our body going. Without food, we die.

In our Western society, we are very lucky that we have a vast array of foods to eat. However we do not often choose GOOD food.

Food Renews our Cells

Good food supplies good nutrients to our body. If we need some minerals to strengthen our body we do not go out and find a rock to lick for the minerals. Even if we did, we could not process the mineral in that form.

Plants are the great 'in between' processor for us. Rocks that contain minerals have worn down into soil over thousands of years. Plants then grow in the soil and their fine little root systems absorb micro quantities of these minerals from the earth.

We absorb Mineral from Plants

When we eat these plants - usually green, leafy vegetable plants - we absorb the minerals. Our body can absorb the mineral in this form.

When the soils we grow our crops in are depleted of these minerals then we need to take the minerals as supplements because we NEED minerals.

Therefore, it is just not good enough to eat, we have to select what we eat. We should select the food we eat that is good for us. We should not just choose food because it looks nice or tastes nice or it is easy to pick up and satisfy our hunger or emotional need. It should also be good for us.

We are what we eat

Keep snack food to a minimum and use it only as a rare treat. Do we want the cells of our body made from fried food, pizza, chocolate, sugar or ice cream? Do we want to be forever tired?

Or do we want the cells of our body to be made of fresh, nutrient rich food that will give us energy? Your choice!

Supplements Do NOT Replace Food

 

Eat fresh fruit and vegetables daily for good health

Eat Fresh Food

I just read an advertisement by a large, world wide company - suggesting that if you take two of their tablets you woud get the nutrients of 10 pieces of fruit and vegetables for the day.

Now, I would prefer to get my fruit and vegetables the natural way. I would still be pretty hungry after eating two tablets for the day.

I do hope that people who take these realise that they are only supplements and just because you take them does not mean that you do not have to eat any more fruit of vegetables for the day.

I hope they realise that it does not give them carte blanche to go out and eat fatty fried foods, pizza and chips, lollies and sweets instead of good wholesome fruit and vegetables.

Good Food, Fresh Food

Eating good food, fresh food, helps to build up our body's immune system. It helps make us stronger so that we are healthy. When we are healthy we suffer from less allergies.
I have friends who have a two Chinese restaurants. One of their most important rules is that the food has to be fresh and it has to be of good quality. If it is not cooked properly they will not serve it to their customers. With these rules, they have built up a good business with many loyal customers.

Irritable Bowel Disease and Potatoes

 

Potatoes, friend or foe for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Potatoes have been the basic food for millions of people around the world for generations. Science is now suggesting that they may not be good for everyone.

If you have any sort of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) then it may be a good idea for you NOT to eat potatoes. Here's why.

A few weeks ago I wrote a couple of articles about the alkaloids in plants. These protect the plants against fungal disease, parasite attack and bacteria.

Catch up here for the background and here.

Now scientists have found that there is a connection between people with IBD and potatoes, especially fried potatoes. Scientists are like detectives. They keep looking for signs, symptoms and details, and look at lots of statistics before they come to their conclusions.

If you have any connection to a garden and your grandparents grew potatoes as many did, you may know that the stems and leaves of the potato plant are poisonous. Well the same poison is present also  in the skin of the potato and in the outer layer of the potato near the skin. This is why it is always a good idea to peel your potatoes.

Glygoalkaloids are the little culprits that irritate the bowel of sensitive people with Crohn's disease or Ulcerative colitis. You will see in my previous articles that I talk about the connection between potatoes and inflammation. Well it is also inflammation in the bowel.

Therefore it is a good idea for anyone with any sort of Inflammatory bowel disease to avoid potatoes and any of their relatives. This includes tomatoes and eggplant. When you are thinking what to eat, you have to be your own detective. Potatoes also includes hot potato chips from a fish and chip shop, and potato crisps from the supermarket. It also includes mashed potatoes and potatoes in a pot of mashed vegetables.

It especially includes fried potatoes. Fried potatoes are especially bad for anyone with IBD as the toxic alkaloids are concentrated.  

• So store your potatoes in a cool dark place to the slow the build up of alkaloids

• Don't eat the skins of potatoes

• Don't eat fried potatoes

• Don't eat old potatoes as the alkaloids build up in them. If you have IBD and decide to eat potatoes, eat young, freshly grown potatoes.  

Goodness in a Jar

 

Dark red fruit contains antioxidants

News Release - Antioxidants Caught in a Jar
I have chatted on in the past about the benefits of antioxidants. I talked about rhubarb, goji berries, raisins and prunes.

Here are a couple of links to help you remember
Glutathione  - Major Antioxidant
Antioxidants in Rhubarb
Antioxidants in the Goji Berry
Quinoa - Antioxidant, Super Food
Rhubarb Compote
Quinoa Porridge

Well, all of these take a little work to make, not much though.
If you are the person who needs a quick, nutritious breakfast, well I found something interesting recently. It is only available at Aldi stores, but if you have one near you then it is worth stocking up ona few jars.
This product is called Berry Cocktail by Sweet Valley.
It contains strawberries, blackberries, black currants, blueberries and de-stoned Morello cherries.

We get lots of phyto-nutrients from red and perple fruit and they are full of antioxidants.

A Quick Breakfast
2 dessertspoons of Berry cocktail
1 dessertspoon of quinoa
1 dessertspoon of non fat yoghurt
Add 1/2 cup milk
And sprinkle over the top 1/2 teaspoon of ground chia seeds

Of course nothing beats fresh food, however it is not always possible to have on hand. It is good to have  something nutritious that we can use as a backup.

I hope you can find this product or keep you eye out for something similar in you supermarket travels.

Gluten Free Food

Gluten free bread

Gluten Free Bread
A few weeks ago we went away for a little holiday, just 5 days. We visited Ballarat, a lovely old gold mining town of the 1800s. Gold was what brought a lot of people to Australia.

Aren't we the same today? All the 'Get Rich Quick' schemes are just people flocking to the gold fields a couple of hundred years ago. Most people lose their money just like most of the gold miners never found any gold.

From Ballarat, we travelled on to Bendigo, also a gold mining town in Victoria, Australia.Gold mining is still in progress there today.

In Bendigo we visited the Chinese museum. I was surprised to find out the rich ties that Bendigo has with the Chinese people. The museum there is wonderful and full of the history of the area. Well worth a visit if you are ever along that way.

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A magnificent Chunese gown

The garden at the Chinese museum

A map of the area

My Imagination at Work
On the way home, we travelled through the countryside. Much of the area we travelled through was very rocky with great boulders strewn over the hills. The boulders made me imagine that once upon a time there were gigantic giants living in the area. The rocks, many just gigantic, were the marbles of the giants who left them there from their game of marbles after they passed through the area.

Lancefield Bakery
On we drove to Lancefield where we came across a bakery that sold gluten free bread on Fridays. They have a Gluten Free day on Fridays when they bake all sorts of gluten free breads and cakes. Well, wouldn't you know it? The day we were there was Thursday! Why do I always come at the wrong time. Apparently they do take orders too and they are open at the weekends. They have a gluten free cake that is very popular also. If you are travelling that way and need gluten free food, try to make it on a Friday.

Giant rocks are strwn around the countryside around Lancefield

The lovely countryside a few kilometres on near Macedon