Last week the gorgeous Fuzzy, aka Faustina Agolley, was visiting and cooked a Chinese New Year banquet for a bunch of us. When I tweeted about the dumplings I got asked for the recipe…so Fuzz and photographer Marija Ivkovic set to working up these instructions for everyone.

photo by www.marijaivkovic.com

Fuzzy and I actually met via Twitter. I’d read something she’d posted about being grateful for the death of her Dad as a young child. I commented. She replied. We’ve stayed in touch since. Her joyous energy always makes me smile.

 Faustina says: Happy Chinese New Year! I’ve been GF for about 8 months now and have loved making dumplings in the past. With CNY, I wanted to revisit my love for dumplings by changing the regular wheat wonton skins I used to use with rice paper. Hoorah! It worked!

* You can switch up the mince and added ingredients to your liking e.g. if you like prawn dumplings substitute pork mince with prawn mince and add shredded carrot with a splash of fish sauce, and if you like chicken dumplings switch to chicken mince and add cooked sweet corn kernels.

gluten free dumplings

• 500g Pork Mince
• 1 garlic cloved chopped finely
• 3cm nub of ginger chopped finely
• 1 bunch of coriander washed thoroughly finely chopped including the root

Hello! Detoxing much? Trying some of the detoxing/sweet help I suggest in the ebook? What’s working?

Some quick housekeeping

* OK, I’m doing my first webinar tonight. I’m doing it on ustream and you’ll need to either go to my #IQS Facebook page or here (if you’re not on Facebook) to register. You’ll be able to “chat” with me and post questions…and it should be fun and it SHOULD work…

Three things:

1. I will have to do this at 6pm, NOT 6.30pm AEST now. I hope this doesn’t muck any of you around.
2. If it does, the video will be up on ustream and Facebook…I’ll send around links tomorrow.
3. This is a bit of an experiment for me…so bear with me…fingers crossed it worked (and please suggest any tips!)

* Little reminder: it’s your last day to register for Febfast. Go on. Do it. Here.

PS I was on The Circle this morning chatting about Febfast…there I am…And will be chatting with Yumi and Chrissie Swan on radio – The 3pm Pickup - tomorrow about #IQS…tune in.

A few elevator pitch statements

OK…all that aside I thought I’d share a few elevator pitch statements with you that come in handy when people say, “what’s this no sugar thing, in a nutshell”? People only want nutshell, chomper-size soundbites, mostly. So serve it up to them!

* In caveman days sugar – or fructose – was so rare that when we DID stumble on it, we were designed to binge on it AND store it instantly as fat. Our biology hasn’t changed in the 10,000 years since the agricultural revolution, nor since the 1800s when sugar was introduced. We’re still designed to binge on it and store it as fat.

* Fructose is the only food molecule that we a) don’t have a corresponding enzyme in our brain that says “we’ve had enough” and b) that goes straight to the liver as fat.

Our own dreams are the most fascinating things ever. Other people’s dreams? Hmmm, not so much. For this post, I asked Jo to interview a dream interpreter. I’ve written about dreams before (and how you can use them to train yourself for tough decisions)…scroll to the bottom for a special reader offer. But, now, over to you Jo….

photo via happy blogger

Weird dreams that don’t make sense? Who better to ask about them than someone who spends their days as a dream analyst, therapist, and alchemist. I chatted to Jane Anderson about some weird and wonderful dreams a few of us have been having lately…

q. Sarah and I were talking. She has ‘breast-stroking through the air’ dreams. What’s the deal?

Sarah describe it like this: “I’m usually chased and have to springboard off precarious surfaces – like tree limbs or balcony bannisters to get “traction”…I have to breaststroke for hours, trying to keep off the ground, and trying to get “traction” from the air.”

 Jane: You feel that aspects of your practical life are precarious, and respond to this by exploring ideas you’d like to get off the ground. You’re working hard at this but your efforts may be unconsciously more driven by escaping practical issues than finding solutions for them. You may feel that you springboard from one precarious situation to another, but you always hope that this time hard work and the right mental approach will save the day. To manifest ideas, to make them happen, we need the right balance between mind and body, between developing ideas and establishing practicalities.

[Actually rings very true - Sarah]

q. Your job is to investigate and interpret dreams. How did you get into that?

Jane: My curiosity grew throughout my years at university studying science where I specialised in developmental neurophysiology – how the brain interprets the world. In the end, it was a leap of faith, driven by passion, that got me into this field.

q. This reader dreams about wolves…?

The reader asked: “Wolves howl at my bedroom window. I think I’m safe because they’re outside, but they howl for ages, and