Mini-Vent

There's a long post coming about this sooner or later... But WHY is mental illness seen as different than physical illness?! I'm so sick of hearing about why psychiatrists are quacks. After all, "real" doctors are to be trusted 100%, right?! (Insert sarcastic eye roll here) Ugh.

Breakfast - 1/2 cup coffee w/usual; apple later; apple juice later
Lunch - roasted chicken breast in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - Spinach Pasta; chocolate cake (small piece)

I picked up the cake at the grocery store after supper. It was pretty good at first but by the time I took my last bite it tasted too sweet. Now that taste is just stuck in my mouth :P Can't wait for the hour to pass so I can drown it with water!

Flip

We ate our carb meal at lunch and protein at supper because I really wanted pancakes this morning! Actually, I wanted cinnamon rolls but made Cinnamon Roll Pancakes instead. I ended up getting hungry and shaky before supper was ready though.

Breakfast - 1/2 cup coffee w/usual; diluted juice
Lunch - Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Supper - roasted chicken breast in usual salad

Today's Food

Breakfast - mixed fruit (1 lb each frozen peaches and berry medley, defrosted, pureed in the blender with stevia and cinnamon)
Lunch - tuna salad salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - mushroom white sauce; crescent rolls; fun-size Twix

ETA Just to clarify... I did not eat all that fruit! I served myself a little of it and put the rest in the fridge :-)

Long Busy Day

The boys and my mom and I were gone for almost TEN hours running errands... That included lunch but still!

Breakfast - 1/2 cup of coffee w/usual; banana later
Lunch - homestyle buffet
Supper - nada

We ate lunch a bit later than usual and I wasn't hungry tonight. And after the tummy ache I had last night (still don't know what that was from), I didn't want to make myself eat tonight!

(Insert Interesting Title Here :P )

I couldn't decide what I wanted for supper and Jesse said I deserved a break so we did take-out. The bad news is I didn't eat smart. The good news is I found another old favorite that does not taste as good to me anymore!

Breakfast - nada
Lunch - Greek-seasoned 93/7 ground beef in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - Chili's - appetizer sampler (southwestern egg rolls w/avocado ranch, cheese sticks w/avocado ranch, spinach artichoke dip w/tortilla chips); chocolate chip paradise pie (2/3 of it, no ice cream, little hot fudge and caramel)

So far I've eaten one of the apples I bought. It just didn't taste that good. Actually, it didn't have much of a taste at all! I need to find some organic ones I think...

Not What I Wanted But...

What I really wanted for supper was Chocolate-Stuffed Beignets. I didn't have biscuits though...

Breakfast - apple
Lunch - sirloin in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - peas (leftover, frozen, steamed, seasoned w/Essence); mashed potatoes (instant); cookie; Ghirardelli 60% Mint Bliss square

Chocolate-Stuffed Beignets

No, these aren't exactly healthy :-P But sometimes you have to treat yourself!

CHOCOLATE-STUFFED BEIGNETS

2 cans (10 ct) buttermilk or homestyle biscuits
Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips (yes, they're bigger than regular chocolate chips - nothing is wrong with your bag LOL)
Oil for frying
Powdered sugar

Heat oil to 350. Flatten each biscuit. Place 7 chocolate chips on each. Fold in half and press to seal edges. Fry a few at a time in hot oil. I drop in 3, turn them in order, then take them out in order with no time between and they're done perfectly! Dust with powdered sugar while they're hot. YUM!!!

What I Ingested Today

Breakfast - 1/2 cup coffee w/usual; apple juice later
Lunch - Italian buffet
Supper - (nothing yet, may just drink some juice since lunch was late and I'm not hungry)

Double Chocolate Pancakes

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PANCAKES

4 c. pancake mix
3 c. rice milk
Egg substitute equivalent to 4 eggs (2 tbsp. Ener-G + 4 oz water)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla Torani (flavoring syrup for coffee)
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips

Place chocolate chips in a bowl. Add about 1 tbsp. of pancake mix and stir until all chips are coated. Mix together remaining pancake mix, milk, eggs, cocoa, sugar, and Torani. Stir in chocolate chips. Cook on a hot griddle until done.

Just Meals

Breakfast - apple
Lunch - leftover chicken in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - Double Chocolate Pancakes (more about this soon...)

Today's Food

Breakfast - nothing :(
Lunch - tuna salad salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - chicken jambalaya; roll; cookie (all at a get-together); slice of cheesecake w/blueberry pie filling on top

Comfort Food

I had a really rough night Wednesday and it carried over some to today. Nothing healthy sounded good for supper...

Breakfast - apple juice
Lunch - frozen grilled chicken in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - canned biscuits stuffed w/bittersweet chocolate, fried (but I fried them correctly so they barely absorbed any oil), dusted w/powdered sugar

MIA

Yeah, I've been gone again... A lot going on emotionally, and I don't always feel like journaling my food lately. But I need to. I'm not going to try to catch up on what I've been eating, just starting over with today's...

Breakfast - nothing (slept in a little, then had hungry kids and stuff that had to get done!)
Lunch - roast beef in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - simple pasta; peas
Later - Pumpkin Spice Latte (will post recipe another day)

Friday's Food

Midnight last night I started craving a roast beef po-boy. I know my iron is low and I think that has something to do with it! A good brand of roast beef was on sale today so I ended up getting some and making my own.

Breakfast - nothing (but I did get some apples at the store tonight! nonorganic though)
Lunch - chicken breast in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - roast beef po-boy - roast beef, tomato, lettuce, instant brown gravy, mayo on multi-grain french bread; sour cream and onion chips; biscotti

Anyone have a good biscotti recipe without nuts? I'd love to try to make it myself!

Thursday's Meals

My digestion is a bit messed up. I'm getting gallbladder twinges but also other places. I really don't think it's my gallbladder acting up... I highly suspect the emotional upheaval lately is the cause.

Breakfast - banana
Lunch - Greek-seasoned ground beef in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - sweet potato pasta; Ghirardelli square

I really wanted something fried and/or buttery for dessert but that didn't work out. I think I'm PMS'ing :-P

Planned Cheat Meal

I had planned a cheat meal for this week, just didn't know when I was going to take it. Well, today seemed like a good day. And since I was cheating, I went all out on dessert too.

"Breakfast" - 1/2 cup of coffee w/usual
Lunch - Chili cheese dogs - beef hot dogs, homemade chili, cheddar, mayo, mustard on wheat bun; slice of cheesecake w/blueberry pie filling
Supper - apple juice (wasn't hungry)

I got tired of bananas for breakfast. Seems like I do that - eat one fruit for a while, then get tired of it and move on to something else. I had an apple earlier this week and it was yummy so I'm guessing that'll be the next thing. I need to find some organic ones though - they taste so much better! Plus I can eat the skin so it's less prep ;)

I'm Back...

It's been a really rough few days... Emotionally exhausting... I avoided Blogger until I was ready to blog in my personal journal about what's been going on. That happened late last night. So here I am.

Just a quick summary of my eating the past few days:
Saturday - ate on plan
Sunday - usual lunch out (cheat)
Monday - nauseous a lot of the day and ate all carbs at supper

Tuesday's meals:
Breakfast - apple
Lunch - chicken breast in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - shroom pepper pasta; canned biscuits w/butter; Sno-Caps

Sweet Potato Pasta

SWEET POTATO PASTA

12-16 oz rotini (I used Barilla Whole Grain)
5 large sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled
4 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. cream
Salt
Cinnamon
Cloves
Nutmeg

Cook pasta in boiling water according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

While pasta is cooking, mash sweet potatoes with butter and cream. Add seasonings to taste.

Mix together sweet potatoes and pasta.

Happy Toddler :)

I threw something together for supper and he LOVED it! We did too :)

Breakfast - banana
Lunch - ground beef seasoned w/homemade Greek seasoning (lost the recipe again!) in usual; Ghirardelli square
About an hour after lunch - <1/2 cup of coffee w/usual
Before supper - french bread w/butter (couldn't start supper till late and I was weak and shaky)
Supper - Sweet Potato Pasta; leftover chocolate chip pancakes w/butter and Reddi-Wip

Thursday's Food

Breakfast - nada
Lunch (little early b/c of Dr. appt) - chicken breast in usual salad;
Snack (3+ hrs later running errands) - multi-grain french bread
Supper - battered mushrooms (frozen, baked); "beignets" - canned biscuits fried w/powdered sugar; chocolate iced coffee

The beignets didn't hardly absorb any oil! I saved the oil after it cooled and for frying 2 cans of biscuits, there was only about 1/4 cup of oil gone!

Supper Out... Again

It just takes so long to get us all ready and out of the house, pick up my mom, run errands, etc. Seems impossible to do it all without eating out or coming home to eat!

Breakfast - banana
Lunch - tuna salad salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - Shoney's breakfast bar - eggs w/mushrooms and cheese sauce, potatoes w/cheese sauce, chicken tenders w/milk gravy, french toast sticks; Ghirardelli square w/peanut butter and sea salt

Dinner at the In-Laws'

Breakfast - nada - boys and I slept till 11!
Lunch - turkey stoup; Ghirardelli square; 1/2 cup coffee w/usual
Supper - chicken nuggets (few small ones), spaghetti (homemade w/ground beef and white pasta) w/parmesan cheese; fried roll; peanut butter brownie

Mom's Night Out!

Breakfast - 1/2 cup coffee w/usual; banana
Lunch - turkey stoup; Ghirardelli square
Before supper - few fingers of Nutella; 1 peanut butter cup
Supper - Texas Roadhouse - a few steak fries w/cheese and a little bacon dipped in ranch; roll w/"butter"; house salad w/blue cheese dressing; country fried sirloin (only ate half the breadhng) dipped in cream gravy; bite of sweet potato

Something Else About the Farm Tour

I walked a LOT. Over uneven ground. In thick and fairly high grass. With Gabriel on my hip in the Moby. He weighs 18-19 lbs. If you add that to my current weight it's still less than I weighed before I got pregnant with him. About 20 less...

I really felt the difference of walking with the extra weight. It was probably worse because of the terrain, but still. At my heaviest I was carrying almost FIFTY lbs more than I am now. All. The. Time.

It makes me wonder... If I would've done the tour before I was pregnant, how hard would the walking have been? Would it have been easier because I was used to carrying the weight? Or harder because I weighed more?

I wore a new pair of tennies for the first time. I got them because the only shoes that fit me are my sandals and I knew there was no way I could do all that walking in them. Never mind with Gabriel. They're just a pair of Dr. Scholl's, nothing fancy. I wonder if some of my walking difficulty was from wearing the shoes for the first time.

When I was walking the last long stretch (I rode the hayride back instead of walking) the terrain was the toughest of the tour. I was getting tired, and was very thankful for my tennies giving my feet some stability. It may have been easier too if Gabriel had been in a more balanced hold but he hasn't tolerated any other hold since he was a newborn.

I wonder what the tour would've been like for me at my prepregnancy weight. Or 15 lbs heavier at my highest. Would I have been able to walk it? Or would I have had to take advantage of the hayride for the whole tour? Hmmm...

I'm really glad I'm speaking theoretically. And hoping by the time we do another tour I'll be carrying less weight - even with a heavier baby :-)

Yummy Lunch!

Breakfast - nada
Lunch - Turkey Stoup; Ghirardelli square
Supper - chocolate chip pancakes (my recipe) w/finely ground decaf espresso beans

Turkey Stoup

TURKEY STOUP

15 lb turkey - minus breast, wishbone meat, drumsticks, thighs (used them for salads)
1/2 lb frozen sliced carrots
1/2 lb parsnips, sliced/chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
Salt

Place turkey remnants in a stock pot. Add rest of ingredients and water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer until veggies are soft and meat is falling off the bones. Salt to taste.

Farm Tour

We took a group tour today of a local organic farm. We started at the tilapia ponds and ended at the garden. We also saw chickens, turkeys, and cows. One of the cows was so sweet! She came to us and let us pet her etc :-) It was so strange to see chickens running around the cows' legs like they owned the pasture! I guess you could say they co-inhabit it during the day ;-) I walked most of the tour with Gabriel in the Moby Wrap using the hip carry. It was a challenge over all the uneven ground! Jesse and Ethan opted for the hayride, as did I for the long walk to where it ended. It was neat getting to see all the animals just roaming within their huge fenced-in areas without a care in the world. We didn't scare them - they're perfectly used to people being around. The garden was smaller than I pictured it but the rest was bigger than I anticipated. I look forward to doing another tour sometime in the future :-)

Breakfast - banana
Lunch - turkey in usual salad
Supper - shroom and pepper pasta (only had a small bowl left); potato w/butter and S&P; iced coffee (what was left from last night)

Tired!

Been running errands with my mom today. Late night...

Breakfast - nothing - I forgot :-(
Lunch - turkey in usual salad; Ghirardelli square
Supper - "Sneaky" Pasta; iced coffee - decaf coffee, rice milk, cream, Hershey's syrup

"Sneaky" Pasta

"SNEAKY" PASTA

12-16 oz penne pasta
4 c. rice milk
1/2 c. cornstarch
1 lb. frozen green beans
Salt
Italian seasoning
1/2 c. cream

Make white sauce - Heat 3 c. rice milk over medium heat until hot. Mix remaining rice milk with cornstarch until smooth. Slowly whisk mixture into hot rice milk. Cook over medium heat until thick.

Cook pasta according to package directions in salted water. Cook green beans according to package directions.

Mash green beans with a potato masher or use a food processor. Mix green beans into white sauce. Mix together with drained pasta and cream. Add seasonings to taste.

NOTE: This got its name because I tried to sneak green beans - which Ethan doesn't eat - into something he likes - pasta with cream sauce. And it was a success!