Caryl

PUMPKIN SOUP 1 Tbs oil 1 chopped onion 750g pumpkin, peeled and chopped 1 large potato, peeled and chopped 4 C chicken stock (you can make it or buy cubes or powdered stock) salt black pepper nutmeg Heat oil in pan. Add onion and cook until clear (only takes a few minutes). Add pumpkin, potato and stock. Cover, bring to the boil and cook until veggies are soft. You then pour it all into a food processor and whizz until smooth and creamy. If you don't have a processor or blender, you can mash and put through a sieve (a slow process) or try mashing then whipping with an egg beater. The idea is to get all the lumps out. If you don't mind lumpy soup then it is no big deal Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. For extra flavour you can add a ham hock or bacon bones (both sold cheap in the butchery section) to the pumpkin.

WEIGHT WATCHERS ZERO POINTS GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUP RECIPE Hands-on time: 20 minutes Time to table: 1 1/4 hour Makes 9 cups 6 cups broth (today I used Light Vegetable Stock) Cooking spray 2 carrots, peeled and diced 1 large onion, diced 4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic) 1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup) 1/2 pound (225g) frozen green beans 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 large zucchini, diced Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.) Spray a Dutch oven (pot, deep frypan or similar) with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy! KITCHEN NOTES Zero point soups are easy to make without a recipe. Just cook a pile of non-starchy vegetables in 6 cups of a non-fat broth. It's even easy to convert one-point soups to zero-point soups.

Based on freshwater only, at a temperature of 22˚C, total consumption for a small tank (38L) is about 150kWh a year. A medium tank (114L) 150 - 200 kWh per year and a large aquarium (208L) 200 - 400kWh per year. This is using basic equipment only and merely an average to give you an idea. Exact usage requires an ampmeter, which measures actual energy used and not the energy based on the max output, as some equipment does not run full time (eg heater). watts/1000 x hours x kWh cost x 30 = 30 days cost of aquarium

A lot of people advise variety but I am one who likes eating the same thing and doing the same walks etc. If your diet kept you hungry all day then there was something wrong with it.

Hope the kids don't get too upset when the allosaurus eats the baby plateosaurus :tears:

What they can survive in and what they should be kept in are two different things. Good to know your cories are coping with such low temps. I would not have thought they could do so!

I really hate when shops advertise "coldwater guppies". There is no such thing! What someone can keep in an unheated tank inside a warm, well insulated home, is different depending where in the world you live.

It has Huxley, the narrator, who tells the timeline of the dinosaurs and we travel through time a few million years with him explaining how various dinosaurs developed as the planet did. It starts with some eggs hatching out and then moves on. Various dinosaurs appear and eat, interact and/or fight etc. There is dramatic music in the background and it is all very loud! Gareth has a short video of a bit of it in Facebook apparently.

Grant and I took Gareth and Dena with us to Auckland to see this show. It was brilliant! Very well done. Sorry about the poor quality pics but lighting was low and flash photography banned. Hopefully I have named all the dinosaurs correctly :roll: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v144/carylnz/Walking%20With%20Dinosaurs/?start=all

Soup! Great in winter and helps fill you up. Have as a snack or a starter before the main course. Do not choose creamy varieties. Pumpkins are cheap at the moment and making your own pumpkin soup is quick and easy Vegetable soup is another low calorie option, as is mushroom if you don't make it creamy.

Some fish are more sensitive than others so one species may show signs of stress or illness when others are fine.

Eheim filters last for years. If yours is not running as well as it used to you need to look and see why, then fix it, not spend money on a new filter. You may find it is an easy fix What sort of maintenance have you been doing on the filter?

Guppies are tropical and need a heater (unless your house is kept at fairly warm temps - eg over 20C)

Us older folk have trouble reading small white fonts on a black background :roll:

Clamped fins can be a symptom of many things and a sign of stress. Since you say "community tank" I assume there are other inhabitants? Are all other fish fine and just the angels with clamped fins and lethargy? I am not a fan of adding any chemicals to the water, especially when you have not worked out what is wrong. Have you done water tests?

Been at work all day and having to phone a lot of patients to ask about their smoking history in between answering the phone, dealing with patients, writing out scripts, typing up dictation, etc etc etc :roll: Came home for lunch and spent time in the sun working on my jigsaw puzzle then relucatly headed back to work. Came home after work, had tea, then walked into town to Clubs of Marlborough for Quiz Night. Our team, the Foxy Morons, were 4th tonight. Don't know yet how high over-all. Competitions run each school term. Winning team gets $500 to donate to the school of their choice.

I suggest you read the "What's Up?" Thread and you will see what many have been up to.

Perhaps they didn't survive in his undies :slfg:

What, belly or fish? :slfg:

Is the 'string' stuck to the fish along the whole length or attached only by one end? Any possibility it is some sort of parasite that has attached itself to the fish?

:thup:

You say it only happened when they changed filters. Was any of the old media used from the original or were they run in tandem for several weeks? It seems to me the nutrient levels are out of whack.

Wait until they start critiquing his driving skills :slfg:

Hello. Just showing members how to post. :smln:

I forgot!!! It is the secretary's job anyway so today she will get a lesson in how to do it She is on dial-up still so does not come here very often, if at all. Jam is a given so no need to mention it!