Ethiopian Fasting Food Feast for Fertility

It tastes so much better than it looks

I had a sweet potato and thought a red-lentil curry was in order for dinner, but I make variations on that dish all the time and kind of wanted something different. 

As I was surfing around Mr Google, looking for a twist, I came across a blog post for an Ethiopian sweet potato and red lentil curry which reminded me how much I loved Ethiopian food.

I first tried Ethiopian food when I was still new to San Francisco.  I don't remember what we ordered, but it didn't make any impression on me.  

The second time I tried Ethiopian food was about eight years later.  When my good friend from New York wanted me to meet his new girlfriend in London, she selected an Ethiopian restaurant around the corner from where I was living in South London. Given she'd been to Ethiopia, and we hadn't, Oliver and I let her order for all of us.  She ordered a vegetarian platter served on injera and it was DELICIOUS.

Several years later when Mr Duncan and I were in Ethiopia with the Landy and I was still vegetarian, all ate, that I didn't cook myself, was the fasting food.  

In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, there are two days of the week where it is forbidden to consume animal products, so for those two days and certain religious holidays (eg Lent), everyone eats the vegan fasting food.  

Fortunately for me most places served the fasting food dishes every day of the week.  

I certainly wasn't going to eat kitfo, although Mr Duncan seemed to like it.

Post miscarriage acupuncture and the kindness of strangers

My scan after I lost Pipkin showed that there was retained tissue.  The doctor advised I give it a few days to see if it would pass by itself and scheduled a scan for the following week.  She said if there was still tissue then I'd need to have surgery to remove it.

I've only had a general anaesthetic once in my life, when my wisdom teeth were removed (they were growing the wrong way up into my cheekbones) and have no desire to experience that again.  I was also aware that a D&C can sometimes result in scarring which can affect the lining of the womb and implantation.

I was desperate to 'complete' the miscarriage on my own so emailed my acupuncturist with the news that I'd lost my baby and a request for advice.  I made an appointment to try to stimulate my body to expel the retained tissue naturally.

By the time of my first appointment, five days after my loss, the bleeding had subsided and I was just spotting.  The bleeding restarted quite vigorously within an hour of my first acupuncture session but after two days no clots had passed so I made a second appointment.

It was a nice day so I decided to walk the 25 minutes distance to my appointment.  The treatment went without any problems and I did notice on my way down the stairs that my legs were a bit trembly, but didn't think much of it as I set out to walk home.  

Within about 200 metres, my legs started feeling weird and I felt nauseous and faint.  I clung on to a garden wall as I felt my legs fold underneath me.  I felt a strong cramp and a gush of sudden bleeding.   

I was frightened and started crying.  

I had no idea what was going on with my body and felt alone and vulnerable in the middle of a main road in west London.  I made my way to the bus stop a few more metres up the road and took a seat, lowering my head between my legs to help with the fainting.  

I couldn't think straight. 

I didn't know what was happening and didn't know what to do.  Was this the haemorrhaging they warned me about at the hospital?  How was my blood pressure? Should I go back to the hospital?  I phoned Mr Duncan to tell me what to do.  He made me check my pulse.  A bit fast, but strong.  He offered to come and get me, but that would have taken over an hour by the time he took public transport home to get the car so we agreed I'd take a cab.

I know I was crying like a crazy person, but it surprised me how many people looked at me as if I was dangerous while giving me a wide berth.  Only the dope-scented old Rasta man at the bus stop asked if I was okay and listened to my incoherent response.  He sat with me and offered me his bus fare, bless him, but the buses weren't going in my direction.  He voluntarily missed bus after bus as he helped me hail a cab and saw me safely into it.  I feel a lot of gratitude to that kindly old man.

After about an hour of severe cramping, I passed a large clot and was given the all clear at my scan the next day.

Australian visa granted

The much awaited visa grant

A long, long time ago, Mr Duncan and I agreed we would move to Australia.

We just needed to wait until his start-up company started doing well (we thought three years was reasonable), and he felt that it could continue to prosper without his daily supervision.

Three years later I was climbing the walls in frustration and he still hadn't applied for the skilled migrant visa he'd promised to apply for - even though it promised no guarantee of a visa within any particular time-frame.

Then we found out we were pregnant with Pipkin.  

Immediate change of priorities.  

I found another visa we could apply for - family member of NZ citizen and we submitted it as soon as we could.  I was keen to have my baby in Australia* and wanted to get there before airlines start denying you boarding...

The estimated waiting time for visa processing was 2-3 months which in the worst case scenario, gave us a window of a few weeks between visa grant/denial and third trimester travel ban.

We lost Pipkin three days after we posted the visa application but that didn't change the time-frame (thank God).  

But Mr Duncan's medical did.  

He had ridiculously high blood pressure which was way outside the permissible guidelines for medical approval.

When he told me I cried - and put him on a strict blood pressure and weight loss 'diet'.  I say diet but it mostly involved him not buying sandwiches from Eat or Pret for lunch and taking food from home or looking at offerings from Crussh.  Oh, and eat no bread or dairy in front of me given he is a bread and chocolate milk addict..

A flurry of letters between his GP and the embassy doctors ensued where the embassy doctors requested his high blood pressure history and his GP said there was no history and that he had 'white coat syndrome'. 

Which he does, but he has also put on 5 stone in the past three years since we returned to London and the rat race.  

I expected the best case scenario would be that they would ask him to re-test.  The embassy sent the results to Australia for 'consideration'.  Who knows how long that would take?

Mr Duncan got the email yesterday.  Visa has been granted with nil restrictions.

Woohoo!

When he told me I cried.  With joy.  Relief?

There is a lot to organise what with households and cars and bank accounts but I hope we're there and settled by the end of the year.

Oh, I'm still having stupid symptoms but caved in and got a BFN.  

Sigh.  

Before I ever got pregnant, I always thought I could trust my body.

*and this is no reflection on the UK medical system** which has been nothing but good to me in its own way. Mostly I didn't want to have a newborn in London where the weather was crap and I had no support system.  To be fair, my support system in our chosen city of Melbourne is not high - I only know a couple of people.  But the weather and public transport are better and worst case scenario I can fly a friend from NZ over in less than four hours.

** We had the same conversations about Poppy, but had agreed we'd give his new company three years, so Poppy was always going to be a UK baby.

Sardine and Feta Potato Pizza

Apologies if its TMI but here we go again...

I'm irritable and my breasts look funny.  

It must be PMS.

Or maybe I'm irritable because I'm so damned warm? 

I must be pregnant.  

I am peeing all the time... but maybe that's because I'm drinking so much water.  

I'm drinking so much water because I'm so uncomfortably warm.  

Gah!  Let the thought carousel stop!  I'm driving myself nuts.

The first two cycles after I lost Pipkin, we were careful to make sure we didn't conceive.  I had lost a lot of blood and felt like crap.  I wanted to give my body some time to recover.  We also didn't want to increase the chances of another loss if we conceived quickly and my body wasn't up to it.

This cycle we were not trying, but we took no measures to prevent either.  We are just trying to take one day at a time, enjoy each other and not worry about trying to conceive for a bit.  

It turns out I hate it.  

I mean, I'm fine with the theory but the practice?  At least when I take my bbt I know what day I ovulated and what day to expect my period.  I can see what my temperatures are doing and the likelihood of being or not being pregnant.  

This not knowing is messing with my mind.  

As annoying as it is to wake up at the same time every day to take your temperature, I'm definitely starting again next cycle!

I am craving sardines though.  

They're useful little critters, full of goodness and conveniently packed in an inexpensive, recyclable can.  I like to have some on hand for the occasional sardine-and-tomato-on-toast weekend lunch.  I was given some excellent quality sardines in olive oil with chilli peppers by a friend when she came back from a trip to France so want to do justice by them.

When I was at university and my food budget was limited I liked to make sardine pizza.  The pizza dough itself was just a basic scone/biscuit recipe*.  Topped with passata, onion, sardines and cheese and thrown in the oven for 25 minutes, it was easy and tasty comfort food.  

(Comfort food? It could be either pregnancy or PMS!)

I don't want to make pizza though as Mr Duncan is still off bread for blood pressure reasons.  And it looks like its making a difference as his jeans were practically falling off him yesterday.  As usual I have a glut of potatoes and googling around for ideas brought me to a uktv recipe.   Now I couldn't follow the recipe as the instructions were not clear enough (do you layer the potato cooked or raw?) and I didn't have fresh sardines for a start.

Fertility Focus

Sardines -  full of essential fatty acids, vitamin D and a food source of coenzyme Q10 which aids mitochondrial function - not to mention all the olive oil they're packed in.

Ingredients

• Par-boiled potatoes, sliced thinishly
• Onion, sliced thinly
• Courgette, sliced
• Tinned sardines
• Olive oil (I used the olive oil from the sardines)
• Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• Feta cheese to sprinkle

Method

1.  Set the oven to 180 degrees C.  

2.  Oil the bottom of a heavy oven-proof pan (I used our cast iron frying pan from the Landy).

3.  Layer the potatoes, overlapping in a spiral starting from the middle.  

4.  Drizzle with some of the olive oil from the tin of sardines.  

5.  Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes, until they start to crisp up.

6.  Remove from oven.  

7.  Layer the onions then the courgettes on top.  

8.  Flake the sardines and scatter over with the sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese. 9.  Drizzle some more olive oil from the sardines over the top.
10.  Return pan to the oven for another 15-20 minutes until veggies are cooked and topping is starting to colour.

We served this with a salad made of grated carrot and beetroot tossed with mint and sunflower seeds, and dressed it with apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

This recipe would be equally good with sardines in tomato sauce, or tinned mackerel or herring.  

Actually, I quite like the idea of using the potato galette instead of pizza base for any topping.  Maybe I've finally found a way to get through all those potatoes that come in our veg box!

*I don't know what to call them in the UK, but they're definitely scones in New Zealand and biscuits in the US.

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Can Kiwifruit Help with Fertility?

We received kiwifruit in our veg box this week, which reminded me of this article from Thats Life magazine about a woman who ate kiwifruit to combat antibodies that can cause miscarriage instead of taking the asprin she is allergic to.  

It gives me hope because not only did she conceive four times in her 40s, but her successful pregnancy was at the age of 43.

As a kid, growing up in New Zealand, chinese gooseberries (as we knew them in the 70s) were really common.  

I remember visiting friends working as fruit pickers at the orchards in Te Puke showing me the sorting shed which was quite an introduction into mass processing and where any fruit too small or funny shaped were available to the workers to take home with them for free.  Cue kiwifruit in every meal on that trip. 

Yum.

Zespri, the New Zealand kiwifruit export marketing board, has information on the nutritional benefits of kiwifruit which turn out to be quite the powerhouse - and some interesting recipes which I might try.  

I'm not too sure about those golden kiwifruit though, I'm sure those didn't exist when I was growing up...

L.
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