Fig and Walnut Porridge (serves 2)
 
1c. rolled oats
2c. water (cold if you're putting the oats on to soak before a little early morning exercise, boiling if you forgot to do it before leaving the house)
1/2c. milk (soy, full-fat, lactose-free, whatever takes your fancy)
dried figs - roughly chopped (readily available from the supermarket)
walnuts (Lucas Trading have Tasmanian ones for a better price than the supermarket which generally has imported nuts)
prunes - if you like that sort of thing
greek yoghurt - for preference I like Jalna
maple syrup - about a tsp per serve

Method
Cook oats, water,  milk  and figs altogether on a medium heat till soft.  Top with chopped walnuts, a spoon or two of yoghurt, some chopped prunes and a tsp or so of maple syrup. YUM.

More things to do with cheap pumpkin

Egg, Bacon and Pumpkin pies

7 extra-large eggs (6 would probably be fine I had too much mix in the end)
6 rashers of bacon (you know I like Scottsdale Pork's free-range stuff)
a wedge of pumpkin (I just sliced off "enough". Can't be more specific)
100g or so of cheddar diced (that's half price at Woollies at the moment all you Hobart folk)
pepper
3 sheets of butter puff pastry

Method
Pre-heat oven to 220C
Get pastry out of freezer so start warming up.
Dice and steam the pumpkin.
While that's on the go, slice and fry your bacon. Once it's cooked to satisfaction, drain off and reserve the bacon fat for some other nefarious purpose.
Mix pumpkin and bacon together. Once cool enough throw in cheese and eggs. Add pepper to taste. 
Generously spray a standard 12-pan muffin tin with canola oil or some such thing. 
Cut a strip approximately 6cm wide from each sheet of pastry. Hand one to your attending toddler to play with. Using little cookie cutters cut 12 shapes of your toddler's choice (stars and airplanes) from the remaining 2 strips. Cut the remaining 3 sheets into 4 squares apiece. Line your muffin pans with the softened pastry. If it's not soft enough and you accidentally poke holes in it just pinch some from the stuff left over from the strips and make a patch. The excess pastry that sort of hangs over the edge will become the tops - you'll fold it over the filling in a moment. Fill pastry lined pans with the filling. Fold over excess pastry. Plonk an airplane or star or whatever it was on top.
Using the excess filling or an extra egg if you didn't have leftover filling - brush the pies with egg and pop them in the oven for 20mins or thereabouts. I let my 2yo do the glazing. He loved it.

A little bit about hitting the Barre when pregnant

Dear Reader,

For anybody who frequented the river end of Murray St at lunch time in 2012 you would have been graced wtih the sight of me waddling from the Executive Building to the Barrecode studio next to Customs House. Whilst it's hard to compare pregnancies - I think continuing to exercise up until a week or so before my due date greatly improved my comfort levels during pregnancy and my strength during labour.

Barre was pretty much the only exercise I was doing throughout my recent pregnancy - I went 3-4 times a week. I attended Barre Lite classes with Bonita once a week and prevailed upon the kindness of the Barreistas and my fellow Barre devotees (who gave up cherished window spots and endured loads of boring abs, glutes and no-swimming in order to accomodate the pregnant one) at other times during the week. I had a lot of hip pain (right around the gluteus minimus) and symphysis pubis disfunction during my first pregnancy. Whilst this timeI had a small bout of fantastic pain in the SI joint - remedied by a visit to the physio and doing extra clams every day, I had much less hip pain than last time, I think due to the regular butt work at Barre. The reduction in hip pain meant that I slept much better throughout pregnancy - it didn't wake me once. And having awesome triceps made it soooo much easier to get in and out of the bath (admit it, you had been wondering what the point of those thousands of tricep dips you've racked up over the years was) - it was a struggle first time around. Second time? No sweat.

I felt much less whale-like the second time around. I think I put on less weight and maintained more muscle mass - which, considering I had a 2yo to chase around, was a good thing. I cannot recommend enough the services of a good lady-bits physio - I saw Bernie at Jane Barker's Allcare Physiotherapy during and after pregnancy. And the Barre Lite classes are fantastic because I didn't have to worry about modifying any of the exercises or that I was holding up the rest of the class.

My hot tips: If your pelvic floor is or has recently held up a baby as well as the usual grab bag of internal organs? Crunches, deep lunges and wide plies are not your friend. If you're getting pain in the front or back of the pelvis, one-legged stuff probably isn't for you either. With the help of a good instructor and a physio you can probably keep up moderate exercise right up until D-Day. Get the window spot - you really don't want to overheat and nobody else wants you to either. Water. Water. Water. Don't stand up too quickly. Always roll onto your side to get up rather than trying to sit straight up.

Um... That's all for now.

MM