Thursday, June 7, 2012

Feeeeed Meeee.....

Remember this guy?

Cranky old man who lives in my stomach

I think he's even crankier now that he has a roommate.  Either that, or I'm going to give birth to Benjamin Button  (who doesn't want their child to be as good looking as Brad Pitt?).

Feeeeed us!!!  (my hair is longer, but MS paint still doesn't have the right color)

Moral of the story.... I'm hungry!!  Yaaaay almost lunchtime!  (does it count that I ate a piece of quiche about 15 minutes ago?  No, right?)

Monday, June 4, 2012

Maybe I'll cook this week

So I realize that I've been a pretty terrible blogger.  But I've got valid excuses!  If you want to hear them, listen up, because I don't plan to talk about them very often (at least not as the subject of any posts, they both deserve their own blogs, which most people would not be interested in reading).

1.  I'm Pregnant!!  YaaaaAAAAAayyyyyYYYY!!  (Like Snooki!)
2.  I've been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.  Booo!!  (Like JFK?)

Both seem to be related (at least hormonally), and both have meant that I haven't spent much time in the kitchen during the past few months.  I had lots of food aversions in the beginning (and was also a little bit afraid to eat), but now my appetite is on fire, and my medication seems to be improving my digestion.  I avoided the stove like the plague for a while (unless it was baking french fries or hash browns), but that's all changing fast, and at the rate I'm going the past few weeks I'll be cooking up a storm again in no time.  In fact, I'm thinking about baking some cookies in a few minutes, so that I can eat them all.  Seriously, all of them.

Here's how things have been going down:

Right after the positive pregnancy test -
  • LOVED avocado, chicken, eggs, and chocolate milk.
First trimester -
  • HATED chicken!!!  Could not be in the same room as it!  
  • Also hated pretty much everything else, including chocolate (I never thought I'd see the day!)
  • Crazy heartburn, so nothing spicy, and no tomatoes, peppers, or onions.
  • Survived on noodles with parmesan cheese, peanut butter, and any type of fried potato.  Salt and Vinegar chips amazingly seem to cure nausea (even though the idea of them sometimes caaaauses nausea...).  Also Blueberry "KIND" bars were tolerable.
  • Too tired to eat anyway.
Month 4 -
  • Crazy craving for chicken nuggets.  Also into cream cheese, and still loving potato chips.  
  • Less nauseous, but still tough to find anything appealing.
  • I want spicy food, but still can't eat it.
  • Less tired... but still really freaking tired.
Month 5 -
  • I now dip the potato chips into the cream cheese.
  • Ice cream!
  • Loving fresh fruit (though because of colitis I can't eat much of it)
  • Still not into any vegetables (colitis says "no" to a lot of these too)
  • Eating most things again in small amounts (even chicken!), except spicy food.  But the idea of cooking still makes me tired.  Plus, tons of the stuff in my normal repertoire is either spicy or includes cooked tomatoes... not so great for heartburn.  So I need some energy and creativity!  The other night I boiled noodles, sauteed half a kielbasa, and mixed it all together with canned broccoli and cheese soup.  I called that cooking.  Not very delicious, but progress!
So as you can see, writing about life (and being hungry) has not been very high on my list.  But I think it might be coming back into favor sometime soon, as my appetite is going crazy!  And (some of) the plants in my garden are growing even faster than my baby (who is allegedly somewhere between a banana and a cantaloupe this week... though in my experience those are two very different sizes!)!

Friday, May 25, 2012

I went on vacation!

We went to Spain again!  And ate sooooo much delicious food!!!!!

Here are a few highlights:

  • Pastries for breakfast every day*
  • Ice cream almost every day (it was vacation afterall!)
  • Pa amb tomaquet* (no idea how to spell... basically bread slathered with oil, salt, tomato, and sometimes garlic)
  • Chorizo cooked in cider 
  • Creamy artichoke soup
  • Simple potato salad - potatoes, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onion?, garlic?, lots of olive oil
  • Fried everything* (fish, vegetables, croquetas de jamon y queso) 
  • Shrimp and bacon "quiche" (definately not quiche, but that's what they called it... more like a souffle or frittata? Slathered in a mayonnaise sauce, sounds gross, but DELICIOUS!)
  • Mushrooms stuffed with bolognese-type meat sauce & zuchinni, topped with cheese
  • Tortillas (Spanish omelets)
  • Churros* con chocolate (only when fresh though!)
  • Some kind of special spanish region stew - beef (like brisket?), potatoes, kale, white beans, and broth.  So simple, but SO flavorful!
  • Grilled (on a griddle, not a grill) mushrooms, the weird flat kind (called setas in spanish)
  • Roasted artichoke hearts, topped with crunchy onion pieces and ample olive oil
Things I missed out on, but others enjoyed:
  • WONDERFUL WINES!!
  • Cured hams (serrano, iberico, etc) and meats (varieties of morcilla and chorizo)
  • Lots of awesome cheeses 
  • Good looking little sandwiches and tapas with mystery cheeses and meats
  • Purposely undercooked scrambled eggs served over super fried and salty french fries
I'm very excited to try and recreate a few of these dishes!  And someday in the not too distant future (in late October), I'll be able to pour myself a glass of some delicious Spanish wine like the ones I passed up this time around... and I will likely close my eyes for just a moment, and try to imagine I'm still on vacation... because I'm sure I'll be exhausted!  Estoy embarazada!  Ya tengo 18 semanas :)  I probably ate a few things that I wasn't supposed to, but I tried my best!  And everything was delicious!

*I couldn't survive on pregnancy restrictions AND gluten free diet, so I ate a lot of gluten.  I did my best to have only "fresh" things (no packaged and processed items).

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Spring Cake!



My parents came down for a bit this past weekend, and my mom brought me a really cute cake!  

 It's a sunflower!  (and gluten free! Mmm!)


Thanks Mom!!







Note: I've eaten a lot more of it in the time it took me to upload this picture

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

I cookied!

I cooked this weekend, for the first time in quite a while!  I made Potato Leek Soup, and some pretty healthy (though not low fat) cookies!


Simple Potato Leek Soup with Ham
  • 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
  • 3 Leeks, white & light parts only, rinsed and chopped
  • 5 or 6 potatoes, peeled and diced (i used red, cut up tiny for faster cooking)
  • about a cup of diced up ham (i used about 1/5th of a ham steak, cut up tiny)
  • little bit of ground or fresh thyme (i used about 1/4 tsp ground)
  • little bit of ground or fresh oregano (i used about 1/4 tsp dried)
  • 2 big bay leaves
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 6 cups of water
  1.  In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add leaks and stir occasionally to soften, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add Ham, stirring until fragrant
  3. Add dried thyme and oregano(and salt and pepper if desired), stir well
  4. Add water, potatoes, and bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft.
  5. Remove bay leaves, then mash or blend as desired (I used a masher to break up the potatoes until the soup had a slightly creamy broth, but i didnt use an immersion blender because i didn't want to destroy the ham).
  6. Serve with Salt and Pepper to taste.  Yum!

Healthy-ish Everything Cookies!
  • 1/2 cup grapeseed oil (i only had about 1/3rd cup, i made up the difference with applesauce)
  • 1/2 cup flour (i used Pamela's gluten free baking mix)
  • 1 cup almond meal
  • 1 cup quick cooking oats
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut (the kind i had was more like ground, unsweetened)
  • loose 1 cup of brown sugar (i think maybe this was too much, the coconut added to the sweetness)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup raisins (i used golden)
  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Mix together oil (and applesauce), sugar, vanilla, and egg until well combined
  3. Stir in flour and almond meal
  4. Stir in coconut and oats
  5. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins
  6. Using 2 spoons or wet fingers, add globs of sticky dough to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet (or 2) in desired cookie sizes, pressing until relatively flat (these don't spread while they bake).  These get pretty chewy once they cool down.  Make thinner for crispier cookies.
  7. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they lose their sheen and are slightly brown on the edges.
  8. Enjoy!  
These would probably also work fairly well as bars, though maybe a little less sugar would be wise if planning to eat for breakfast.

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