Monday’s Dinner

Along with the mashed cauliflower and tomato soup leftovers from last night, I had this yummy, sweet juice. Here’s what was in it.

That’s a sweet potato, 3-4 carrots, and an apple. Yielded just over 16 ounces of juice.

I’m totally craving something green now. Hmmmmm.

Craving satisfied. Here’s what I dug out of the fridge:

I used 4 of the outer stalks of celery along with the leaves, the whole bag of chopped kale (which was perfect since it expires tomorrow), and 2 pears. Again, it yielded just over 16 ounces. Just enough for a little cup for my daughter.

And for anyone who doubts my sincerity when I say these juices are delicious, two-year-olds don’t lie about this kind of thing. She sucked hers down and said, very emphatically, “DEEEEEEELICIOUSSSSSS!!!” 🙂

Monday’s Lunch

My daughter and I spent most of this beautiful day in the backyard. She harassed lizards in her sandbox while I watered plants and cleaned the patio furniture. When we came in for lunch, she was a bottomless pit. She had a bowl of peas (we’d usually stop there), two clementine oranges, five big strawberries, a banana, and a slice of bread with olive oil. Guess there may be a growth spurt on the horizon.

As for me, my pain pill was wearing off, and I realized I’d spent the bulk of my energy on the patio furniture. I was feeling very hungry, but dreaded chewing anything, and didn’t have the energy to come up with something healthful. So this is what I had:

In my opinion, there is nothing nutritious about these shakes. Any multivitamin will give you the same “nutrition” and, generally, the high sugar content and loads of weird ingredients make me steer clear of them. The only time their consumption is justifiable is if you have a strong craving for a fast-food milkshake- these’ll satisfy it. Oh- and if you just desperately need calories and are too exhausted to come up with a meal that won’t be excruciating to eat.

Monday’s Breakast

Woke up feeling the same as yesterday- not great. But at least I’m not feeling worse. Still have a lot of thrush on my tongue and the left side is really swollen because of the lesion. It seems to be really deep. And is affecting my speech in a very noticeable way. Taking fluconazole for the thrush and hydrocodone/acetaminophen for pain. And colchrys (my regular treatment). So much for detox. I’m also taking a probiotic pretty regularly and randomly take a fish oil supplement.

I had to wait until the pain pill kicked in to be able to eat breakfast. I’m extremely grateful to have a med that works so well on this pain. I’m able to function pretty normally (except for eating) until it wears off. But I feel like I have to be careful with it, since hydrocodone can be addictive.

On to breakfast. We went to a you-pick strawberry farm a couple of weeks ago and brought home nearly 20 pounds of strawberries. Let me tell you, there is nothing more delicious than a freshly picked berry, warm from the sunshine. They’re all in the freezer now, but because we picked them ourselves, they still seem more special and more delicious than a bag of frozen berries from the store. I defrosted some of our berries in the microwave to go alongside one of my favorite healthy baked goods: Morning Glory Muffins. My mom found this recipe in a Clean Eating cookbook. It tastes like a cross between carrot cake and banana bread. She baked us a bunch to have in the freezer for a quick breakfast when my daughter was a newborn. And now, I almost always have these in the freezer. I make a HUGE triple batch and freeze them, then take out whatever portion we need the night before to let it defrost overnight. Then warm it up in the oven or microwave. Totally tastes freshly baked. You can also warm them up straight from frozen, but it obviously takes longer, and I usually end up with a cold center when I try that. Here’s a link to the original recipe.

http://www.eatcleandiet.com/the_kitchen_table/recipe/recipe.aspx?id=981

If you don’t have wholemeal spelt or coconut flour, the recipe works just fine with regular whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is even better. And if you don’t have oat bran flakes, wheat bran works as well. It’s also easy to make substitutions with your sweetener. I usually use a combination of honey, molasses, and/or agave nectar in place of the rapadura sugar. Just keep in mind if you’re adding a liquid sweetener, you’ll want to pull back on the moisture somewhere else, so maybe use a little less soymilk. You can also play with the fruit you use. I often use raisins, cranberries, or chopped figs in place of the dates. And in our last batch, I added some chopped Granny Smith apples. Turned out great. One tip I’d suggest for every time you make these: add a bit of citrus zest. It’s subtle, but really brightens the flavor of the muffins.

I’d baked this batch in mini-loaf pans. You can also make it in a regular size loaf pan, slice, and freeze, or keep whole to have on hand for company. The possibilities are endless.

I topped my strawberries and muffin with a big dollop of plain Greek yogurt, and drizzled it with lavender infused honey. The combination of all the flavors was really yummy. I was so happy when my pain pill started working and I could enjoy it. 🙂

Sunday’s Dinner

Thankfully, my amazing husband was home tonight and handled dinner for himself and our little girl. So I could focus on finding something healthful and mushy for myself. I microwaved a bag of Steamfresh garlic cauliflower and blended that up with a tablespoon of vegenaise, and a pinch of black pepper and garlic salt. And we had a bit of Thai tomato coconut soup left over from the other night. It’s really high in sodium, and the flavor was overwhelming the first time we had it. So I diluted it with some carrot juice- ended up being about half soup, half juice. Much better. And healthier.

Both dishes were delicious, but consuming anything is a hassle with the state of my tongue. And, despite a two hour nap this afternoon, I’m exhausted. Almost fell asleep in the bowls. So I’m giving up after eating about half from each bowl. Will save the leftovers for tomorrow. Or if I get ravenous again before bed.

Sunday’s Snack

After taking a pain pill (hydrocodone/ acetaminophen), the pain in my mouth is dull enough that I was able to gather the energy to get myself and my little girl dressed and out of the house. We headed over to hang out with my in-laws. I took these two nutrition-packed to-go cups. The green is leftover from yesterday: cucumber, celery, pear, and apple. The orange is about 3/4 carrot juice and 1/4 orange juice. This is a great immunity booster. Carrot juice has loads of vitamin A and orange juice has lots of vitamin C- which work really well together to support the immune system. And, yeah- my immune system needs lots of support right now. Plus it’s delicious. The sweetness of the carrots is balance by the tartness of the oranges. Kinda reminds me of a creamsickle.

We ended up chillin’ at the in-laws longer than I expected. I was a little apprehensive about finding myself something to eat over here- since I really want to stick to something healthy, and these lesions limit what I’m physically able to eat. But I quickly found a microwave bag of sugar snap peas and a container of roasted red pepper hummus. Since they’re cooked, the peas are soft enough to deal with. This is perfect. And my daughter apparently has a new favorite food. She ate at least half of the peas. Great finger food. And I don’t typically buy these. Will definitely have to keep some on hand from now on.

Sunday’s Breakfast

Ugh. Lesions got worse over night. I almost skipped dinner last night, and then became suddenly ravenous just before bed. Ended up eating half a peanut butter sandwich (whole wheat bread, organic natural peanut butter). Woke up with a swollen tongue and thrush. Been swishing with nystatin the last few days, but it’s not working, so I had to break out the fluconazole pills this morning. Hopefully that’ll help knock it out. Wondering if I may need to eliminate gluten from my diet…

Well, if I do, it won’t be starting with this breakfast. Whole grain cream of wheat with soymilk, honey, and pumpkin pie spices. Even this soft consistency is difficult to eat this morning. Booooo. I see a lot of juicing in my future today.

Saturday’s Snack

I was hungry again pretty quickly after lunch since I wasn’t able to finish my salad. Was craving pumpkin pie. This did the trick. And the texture was easy on my sensitive mouth.

Canned pure pumpkin with vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Topped with a few spoonfuls of plain Greek yogurt, and drizzled with sorghum syrup. Perfect afternoon snack which I enjoyed with another cup of detox tea while my daughter was napping.

Saturday’s Lunch

For my toddler: leftover chicken bits (which she did not eat), avocado, and mashed cauliflower.

For me: Mixed greens with tomato, avocado, and raw sunflower seeds, dressed with lime juice and zest, and a spritz of balsamic vinaigrette. And leftover mashed cauliflower. Man- I really like that stuff.

I ended up not being able to eat most of the salad. With the lesions I have right now, it was hard to chew the lettuce leaves. The avocado was easy to eat, and the tomato wasn’t too bad. But the leaves were a lot of work and I finally gave up. Probably wasn’t the smartest idea to use such an acidic dressing, either. That was kinda painful.

Soooo, I supplemented with juice.

I ended up juicing an extra apple in with the pears. Delish!

Saturday’s Breakfast

I love steel-cut oats, but they’re such a pain to cook. They take forever, and you have to constantly stir them so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. And we’re usually in a bit of a rush in the morning, so I’ve ended up eating “not quite done” oats on several occasions. Not yum. Not at all. Then I came across a tip in a magazine that changed my life, at least as far as steel-cut oats are concerned. So now, this is what I do: the night before, boil the water, add the oats, stir, let it cook for just a couple of minutes, turn off the heat, stir, cover, and walk away. Go to bed. Wake up in the morning, turn on the burner, add honey/spices/fruit/whatever, it’s done in less than 5 minutes. If it’s too soupy, just cook a little longer. If it needs more liquid, add a little soymilk. Perfect steel-cut oats in the time it would take to microwave a packet of instant oatmeal. LOVE! So this was our breakfast today, along with a cup of detox tea for me. Today is my last day of prednisone (I’ve been tapering it off for the last week or so) so I figure I can go ahead and start eliminating whatever crazy toxins all the meds I’ve been on have deposited in my system. I don’t intend to do a true detox, just a general shift to mostly foods that are going to make a positive contribution to my well being. Anyway, to our oatmeal this morning, I added honey, cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice, and nutmeg. We picked 20 pounds of strawberries at a farm last week, so our freezer is stocked for a while. I got some of those out, along with some frozen raspberries and blueberries. Microwaved them in a bowl with a bit of honey until they got mushy, and used them to top off the oatmeal. Perfect.

Friday’s Dinner

I’m on my last couple of days of medication following my hospital stay, so I’m very excited about the potential detox on the horizon. I woke up Friday morning intending to get an early start on toxin elimination, then my husband requested pancakes for breakfast. We’d had an amazing date night Thursday night, and I was in the mood to make him happy (I mean, I always want to make him happy- but I was feeling particularly devoted to his happiness this particular morning.) So I made just enough batter (half whole wheat) for his pancakes, and whipped up my favorite healthy breakfast for myself: sauteed root veggie (purple potatoes in this case) and tons of wilted greens (kale) topped with 2 eggs, perfectly cooked so the yolks run through the veggies like a deliciously rich sauce. Yum! As much as I love coffee, I’ve traded it for green tea since leaving the hospital. Despite such a nutritious breakfast, I was really dragging all day- no energy whatsoever. And, with several painful lesions cropping up in my mouth, I was generally uncomfortable. I baked up a couple of ripe plantains which my daughter and I munched on for a light lunch, along with about 16 ounces of carrot juice. I took a pain pill and dragged myself to the shower, and we headed to the beach/boardwalk for a late afternoon family outing. While not exactly painful, the general discomfort of a pending flare is draining. So once the medicine took the edge off, I felt my energy returning and felt much better. I’d also juiced 2 cucumbers, a bunch of celery, and 2 green apples before we left the house. This generated about 32 ounces of juice, which I drank in the car on the way. So, maybe that had something to do with how much better I was feeling, too. We had a blast out at the beach, riding rides, playing games at the arcade, and watching the surfers.

I was surprised that I had the energy to cook when we got home, after being so lethargic all day. But I was still feeling great. So I broke open 2 big bags of frozen cauliflower and steamed them with lots of garlic, put in a couple spoonfuls of vegenaise, and blended everything up with an immersion blender. Mashed cauliflower is my new favorite thing. Love, love, love it. It made a perfect bed for chicken breast (they were pretty big, so I only ate half) and a few slices of kielbasa sausage. The sausage is the only thing I ate all day that I know I probably shouldn’t have eaten. Microwaved a Steamfresh bag of peas and mushrooms, and toasted up some sesame ezekiel bread (topped with smart balance omega-3 spread). Not sure how healthy the Smart Balance spread really is. Plain olive oil would probably have been better. I have a small tub of olive oil in the fridge that I salted and am waiting for it to harden up to a spreadable consistency. It’s been in there for several days, and thickens up more every day. I intend to use it in place of butter or other spreads once it’s ready. At any rate, a tall glass of carrot juice (with a shot of orange juice) rounded out dinner.

Ok, I realize I need to work on my food presentation skills. I didn’t know I’d be starting my blog with this meal when I plated it up. The garlicky juices from the peas/mushrooms look kind of gross running all over the plate, but it actually provided a delicious sauce to dip the bread in, and served as a sort of gravy for the meat and cauliflower. Certainly more yummy than it looks.