Easy – low effort dinner

Last night my partner went to the gym but I’m still too poorly to really do any exercise – I’m trying to rest my broken lungs not give them a battering especially before a match I’m playing in at the weekend.

So, I had a rifle through the freezer to see what we had in as this week I’ve been pretty unprepared meal wise.

Tucked into the top of one of the draws was 4 chicken thighs (about 400 grams worth) – perfect I thought and I put them in the microwave to defrost. Meanwhile while these were defrosting I found a couple of sweet potatoes, a handful of green beans and a couple of carrots.

Once the meat was defrosted I popped it in the oven, in a baking dish uncovered at about 180 degrees to cook, figuring that they would take about 40 minutes to cook.

About 20 minutes into the chicken cooking time I washed and cut the rough ends off the sweet potatoes and scored them down the centre then put them on a baking tray in the oven. Originally I thought I might make chips but I felt too ill so just bunged them in the oven as they were.

About 20 minutes later my partner came home from work and I washed and cut up the carrots and put them in a pan of boiling water along with the green beans which I couldn’t be bothered to cut up in any way!

A few minutes later the carrots and beans were drained (I like my veg crunchy), and it was all served up with some instant gluten free gravy.

Skin left on vs skin off

I know lots of people remove the skins of both carrots and sweet potatoes but I like to leave the skin on my veg for several reasons:

1. More often than not I can’t be bothered to peel it (laziness!)

2. Veg and potatoes are often more nutritious with the skin left on – for example, sweet potato skins are said to be high in potassium and have high levels of vitamin-A and beta-carotene which make them a really good superfood. And as a derby player is exactly what I need to be fuelling my body with.

Roller Girl Flu vs Runners Cough

About a month ago my Roller Derby team when to France to play in an international tournament (which we won) and lots of the team came back with Roller Girl Flu of varying kinds. Some where in bed for a few days and called in sick from work, some were flat our poorly and couldn’t move and me, well I had a horrible mucus cough for about a week and so felt like I’d gotten off lightly.

Having amazingly shifted that cough quickly I felt pleased and relieved – as an asthmatic there is nothing worse than having a chesty cough that sounds like a smokers cough!

About a week after shifting this cough, I joined the gym and one week into going I seem to have developed a very dry painful cough. It’s one of those coughs that you cough continuously for about 3 minutes without breathing and  it is quite unpleasant!

Anatomy of a cough

Recently there has been some research into Roller Girls and the spreading of germs and there are no surprises. We sweat and are close proximity with and are often touching our team mates and opposition team and so germs get around and spread across the team easily.

Runner cough however is different and according to some brief Google research that I have done runners cough can be caused by:

• ASTHMA
• BRONCHOCONSTRICTION AND BRONCHOSPASM
• ANAPHYLAXIS
• VOCAL CORD DYSFUNCTION

http://www.livestrong.com/article/383110-i-keep-coughing-after-i-exercise/

Runner cough however is usually only present for around 20 minutes after exercise and right now I’m coughing sat at my desk doing no other movement that typing and lifting my cup of tea to my mouth

It is most likely that I’ve picked up another bug – perhaps from work or at the gym, I just hope that it goes quick as I have a A-team match at the weekend!