Recipe: Roasted Beet & Barley Salad

One of my favorite things is beets. I grew up eating canned pickled beets - an odd thing for a kid to really like, particularly when my mother served them hot as a side dish, where the juice would run and color all the other food on the plate. But then I ate them frequently in salads, and continued to love them as an adult.

Then I discovered roasted beets. So different! A mild sweetness, they do take on flavors that surround them. They still of course are that bright purple color, and they will color any other ingredient in the dish.

This is not my recipe - it was developed by Anna Thomas for this month's Eating Well magazine.

The only ingredient I didn't have on hand was fresh basil - my plant didn't survive our recent major thunderstorm. I actually think this would be even better with some argula mixed in - giving a bit more green color, plus the crunch of peppery leaf.

The magazine gives 6 servings for the recipe - 8 would be more in line with post-op serving sizes. 

• 1 1/4 lbs small beets
• 3/4 cup pearled barley
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1.5 tbsp whole grain mustard
• 1 tbsp honey or agave nectar
• 1 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1 cup thinly sliced radishes
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced basil
• 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 400F. Scrub beats under running water. Wrap tightly in foil and roast in oven for 1 to 1.5 hours until beets are tender when pierced with a fork. When they are cool enough to handle, slip skins off with your fingers or a paring knife (this will color your fingers if you don't wear gloves). Chop beets into a small dice.

Bring large saucepan of water to boil with 3/4 tsp salt. Add barley, reduce to a minimal simmer and cook uncovered 45 minutes. Drain well, spread onto a baking sheet to cool.

Heat dry skillet over medium heat on stove. Add chopped nuts - toast stirring frequently until fragrant. Remove from heat to cool.

Whisk vinegar, oil, mustard, honey, fresh cracked black pepper to taste and remaining 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add beets, celery, radishes and scallions, toss to coat. Let sit for about 15 minutes, then add barley.

 Just before serving, stir in basil and nuts.

Nutritional information (based on 8 servings): 181 calories, 24g carbohydrates, 7g sugars, 9g fat, 4g protein

Recipe: Chocolate Caramel Frozen Greek Yogurt

Chocolate, sweet, and frozen - some of the things that you think you may have to give up in a post-op life, but not so! And, it doesn't have to be the fake food nastiness that's in a lot of the things in your grocer's freezer section.

Now, I will admit that I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to these things - to make a good frozen yogurt you do need some fat. It may be possible to make this work with non-fat or very low fat products, but the texture and mouth feel just won't be the same and it will harden into an icier freeze - not optimal. You may choose to make some substitutions, but the savings in calories and fat, in my opinion, don't make the changes in the final product worth it.

•  12 oz plain greek yogurt (I use Greek Gods brand, found at Harris Teeter)
• 1/3 cup good quality unsweetened cocoa
• 1/8 cup Truvia (stevia sweetener)
• 1/4 cup Torani sugar-free caramel syrup
• 3/4 cup whole milk 

Whisk ingredients together in medium sized bowl until thoroughly combined. Consistency will be thicker than milk, but not as thick as a milkshake. Add milk a tablespoon at a time if you feel it needs thinning.

 Freeze in home ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions - mine takes about 25 minutes to get to a good soft-serve stage. Freezing for 4-6 hours will give a firmer but still scoopable consistency. I find that a thaw of ~45 minutes or more is necessary to get back to a soft consistency after a hard freeze, longer than you'd expect a traditional ice cream to need to rest.

I've rated this recipe 12+ months only because the fat content is bumping out against our goals for the losing stage. As always, let your own tummy be your guide as long as it fits within your daily nutritional goals.

This recipe makes just a bit under 1 quart - or approximately 4 ~3/4 cup servings.

Nutritional information (1/4 recipe): 173 calories, 14.2g fat, 17g carbohydrates, 6.5g sugars, 7.5g protein

What's For Dinner? Honey Lemon Chicken

It's been such an odd day. It seemed that it finally had decided it was spring around here, and the weather had started to settle on upper 70s/low 80s for high temps, then suddenly it was back to low 40s this morning barely topping out at 60 but with a very chilly wind. Between that and a strong rain storm yesterday afternoon and evening, finishing the tilling of the garden was out - too mucky.

I woke up with a pain in my neck in the middle of the night, stretched a bit, and went back to sleep, and wasn't really going to think much more of it, except when I woke up for good this morning and rolled over, I felt like somehow I'd managed to break the middle finger of my right hand in my sleep. Moving my hand hurt, bending my finger was out of the question - what on Earth had happened?

I got up, moved my arms around a bit, stretched my shoulders and neck a bit more (got a half decent pop in the neck), but the pain in the hand was still shockingly strong. I noticed that while it was centered on the joint where your finger meets your hand, that movement did "tug" on things through my palm and give shocks up my forearm. A paramedic friend asked if I slept funny (at which point I remembered waking up in the middle of the night with the neck pain) - and we've fairly well decided I pinched a nerve some how, but I haven't managed to massage it away, and vicodin while taking the edge of the pain a bit hasn't relaxed anything enough to provide serious relief. I may end up at my chiropractor on Monday if I can't get any relief. Ugh.

I was looking for something fresh and "spring" like to make for dinner, and created a quick little recipe for Honey Lemon Chicken. It's super quick, very low calorie, and despite having honey it, less than 5g of sugars in a serving.

I served it tonight with some steamed broccoli spears and a third of a cup of Trader Joe's Rice Medley - a great combo of brown rice, red rice, and black barley - it's in the freezer section, so the rice is already cooked. It comes in steamer bags, 3 minutes in the microwave and it's whole grain goodness!

In non-food related news - I finally got my new assignment at work. My former group was brought back out of the global application development pool and into a different technology group - led by a woman I've known for most of my career at the bank. She's pretty awesome, and I think it's a great move. I'll be working on application governance for our group and the rest of her boss' organization - making sure we're adhering to enterprise policy on a number of issues: technology choices, data management, etc. Much more exciting for me than coding has ever been, so I'm very much looking forward to getting started on all that.

Finally, our egg donor has her major evaluation at the clinic on Monday and barring any surprises that throw a wrench into things, starting the meds which would put us on course for retrieval in about 4 weeks, with transfer to me about 4 days later. So quick, but so slow at the same time! Ugh!

Hoping tomorrow that my finger won't be messed up and that it's a bit warmer, really wanting to take Mabel the bike out for a ride. So how's your weekend going?

Recipe: Honey Lemon Chicken

Some post-ops have trouble with chicken, in part because it can be dry, even when cooked carefully. To that end, though I rate this recipe as 3+ months post-op, you should be mindful of your own personal tolerances to chicken and as always, chew chew chew.

• 12 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• zest and juice from one lemon
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Trim any remaining fat from the chicken breast(s), season with salt and pepper, and place in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. In a small bowl whisk together honey, oil, and juice. Pour half of honey combination over the chicken, turn over, then pour on remaining mixture. Turn or use a pastry brush as necessary to coat chicken completely.

Bake in oven for approximately 40 minutes - turning half way through and basting as necessary to keep moist.

Makes 4 3-oz servings.

Rated: 3+ months post-op

Nutritional Information: 124 calories, 4.5g fat, 5.7g carbohydrates, 4.7g sugars, 17.3g protein
 

Recipe: Sauteed Lemon-Chive Cauliflower

• 1/2 head cauliflower - cut into small florets
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese - grated
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Warm olive oil and salt in large skillet over medium heat. Add cauliflower and saute without stirring for 3-4 minutes until beginning to brown on the bottom side. Toss and continue to cook until most pieces are caramelized. Add  garlic during last 30 seconds of cooking. Remove from heat, toss in in lemon zest and chives. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese when serving.

Serves 4 (bariatric), or 2-3 traditional servings.

Rated: 6+ months post-op

Nutritional information (1/4 recipe): 54 calories, 4.2g fat, 3g carbohydrates, 1.2g sugars, 2g protein

Easy Cottage Pie

The variety bug has bitten me lately, and I've been scouring blogs, recipe sites, and more looking for something new to introduce into our meal rotation. It doesn't need to be fancy, and tonight's dinner definitely wasn't, but I found it quite tasty. Turns out the Man doesn't particularly like "this kind of dish" - so I suppose it was good it didn't have any spendy ingredients in it, but it was warm, filling, and best of all - fit well into my meal guidelines.

Modestly adapted from the Framed Cooks.

• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 medium russet potatoes - peeled and cubed
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tbsp butter, divided
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425F. 

Brown ground beef in large skillet then drain and set aside - reserve 1 tbsp drippings in pan.
Saute onion in reserved drippings and 2 tsp butter. As onion turns translucent, add carrots. Saute for about 5 minutes, until carrot softens. Add tomato paste, flour, and 1/4 cup water. Stir until paste and flour are well blended. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add back ground beef,Wworcestershire sauce, and 1.5 cups water. Simmer 5 minutes until sauce thickens. Mix in corn and peas, simmer 5 more minutes.

While mixture simmers, bring potatoes to a boil in salted water. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 15-20 minutes. Drain potatoes, mix in remaining butter and slowly add 1/3 cup milk while you mash or whip the potatoes. Add approx 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.

Spoon beef mixture into 9 inch pie or cake pan, or 8x8 square baker. Spread potatoes on top.

Bake in 425F oven for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly. Makes 6 servings.

Nutritional information: (1/6 recipe) - 227 calories, 7.3g fat, 21g carbohydrates, 4g sugars, 19.2g protein

What's For Dinner? Rosemary Garlic Lamb Chops with Stewed Green Beans

Today was weird - I decided to see how my knee could handle the treadmill, and successfully managed a 45 minute session (3mph, 2% incline). I did a bit of weight work as well, and two 30-second planks. The planks will allegedly give me killer abs - I'm waiting!

With all the other changes I have going on, I think I mentioned that we discontinued my Depo-Provera. I've seemed to have started cycling again - but it's pretty rapid, as I started again today - just 27 days after the last time (before anyone says 'but a cycle is 28 days' - not for me, this is unusual). I'm not thrilled, but at least it's the weekend, and if it's as crampy as it was last time, at least I can chill out for a few days.

I'm a bit trapped here this weekend, the Man's car is having some odd intermittent issue with starting, and he ran the battery down the last time he tried. It's safely parked in the lot at the store, so it's not going anywhere, but he's driving mine in the mean time. He brought the battery home to charge up today, so we're hoping he'll be able to fire it up tomorrow and at least get it home so we can do a little more diagnostics on it and see if he and his brother can fix it, or if it will have to go to the mechanic. Ugh, just need one more year in that car, and then the next new purchase is his.

I did pretty good with food today, sitting here happy with dinner, and not feeling like I'll be itching for a snack before bed.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 serving Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt

Snack

•  2 celery stalks

Lunch

•  Salad of 1.5 cups romaine, 2.8 oz chicken breast, radishes, 1/4 cup corn, 2 tbsp Ken's Healthy Options Parmesan and Peppercorn dressing

Snack

•  Sargento Light String cheese
• 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
• 12 almonds

Dinner

•  3.5 oz lamb loin chop marinated in garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and olive oil
• 1/2 cup stewed green beans with bacon

Water - 80 oz

Exercise - 45 minutes treadmill - 3 mph, 2% incline, 2x10 reps tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, lateral shoulder raises with 4 lb weights. 2x20 lunges. 2x 30 second plank. (approx 300 calories burned)

Daily Totals - 943 calories, 43.8g fat, 63g carbohydrates, 24g sugars, 83.7g protein

What's For Dinner? Dickey's BBQ Pit

Ugh - eating out is sometimes still really hard. And it is rather ironic that it was hard while meeting some folks to eat before going to our WLS support group meeting.

We had a new meeting this month - one intended specifically for people that were more than a year post-op, as our concerns tend to be a bit different than the pre-ops and recent post-ops. The meeting location doesn't have a lot around it for easy food - and one place that a few people in this group likes is Dickey's BBQ Pit - a chain that some of you may be familiar with. I've never been too impressed with their food, and tonight I thought I'd just have maybe a veggie side and then eat when I got home. But, by the time I got there, I was hungry, and went ahead and ordered a quarter plate (4 oz of meat, two sides). I had been completely unimpressed with the brisket I'd had there before - dried out, tasteless. I ordered the marinated chicken breast that others had recommended. It was OK, but nothing stellar. Where I fell down a bit was in the sides - I ordered onion strings and green beans. The onion strings (fried) added some calories, the beans were bland, and I had 2 of the hush puppies that come with every order. Not the best choices.

Then, the group headed to Starbucks for coffee before hitting the meeting. I'm generally not a coffee gal, and I think I've had something to drink from Starbucks maybe 4 times in my life. I asked a few questions, and ended up with a "Light Cafe Mocha, nonfat" - according to MyFoodDiary.com that still had 170 calories in it - damn.

So tonight I'm over calories that I wanted to consumer, but that's kind of how things go down some days - tomorrow will be a better day.

Oh - I ordered some clothes from Old Navy's after Christmas sale - and I tried them on when I got home tonight. I love the new outfit - definitely could be worn to about any office event - with the boots as pictured below, or with pumps. Excuse the wrinkles - this is straight out of the package. Best thing? The skirt is a 14, and the shirt a large - even in a non-stretchy fabric!!

My Meals

Breakfast

• 1 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk
  

Lunch

• Left over time! About 2/3 the size of yesterday's spaghetti shells
• 2 oz tri-tip
• 1/3 cup green beans

Dinner
 From Dickey's BBQ Pit

• 2.5 oz chicken in bbq sauce
• 1 serving onion strings
• 1/3 serving green beans
• 2 hush puppies
• Starbucks Venti Light Cafe Mocha

Water - 72 oz

Daily Totals: 1168 calories, 43.5g fat, 138.1g carbohydrates, 49.8g sugars, 68.1g protein

What's For Dinner? Tri-tip with Nutty Quinoa Cakes

Three or four times a month the Man is scheduled to close at his store. It's slightly annoying, in that cooking for 1.5 people can be a challenge, but cooking for .5 of a person is even tougher. But, I try and take advantage of it and experiment with some recipes that he's unlikely to find appealing. One of his dislikes is "chewy grains"  which means anything but white rice. So if I cook quinoa or other grains, it's only for me.

I recently found a web site called http://www.foodily.com (Food, I Love You) that's sort of a recipe search engine, or maybe better said an aggregator of content crossed with a sharing site (think Pinterest). Through that, I found the recipe for tonight's experiment - Nutty Quinoa Cakes over at Big Girls Small Kitchen blog. Made as directed, they're OK. It seems to be missing a little seasoning - maybe a bit more salt, definitely some black pepper, and maybe something else - perhaps a bit stronger cheese than Parmesan? Not completely sure what's missing, but it would be a good basis for further experimentation at some point. Though the recipe says it serves 2, I got 9 cakes out of it, and had My Food Diary calculate nutrition information on 9 servings. I plated two cakes for my dinner, and got about 1.5 of them in - was a bit too full to finish it off.
 

My Meals

Breakfast

• 1 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Snack

• 2 celery stalks

Lunch

• Left over spaghetti shells made of: 
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pasta (medium shells)
• 1.5 oz browned ground beef
• 1/4 cup prepared spaghetti sauce
• 1 tbsp parmesan cheese

• small salad of romaine, 2 radishes, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe's fat free balsamic vinaigrette

Snack

• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt

Dinner

• 3 oz beef tri-tip marinated in marsala, oregano, and basil, then broiled
• 1.5 nutty quinoa cakes (see recipe link above)
• 1/4 cup french cut green beans
• 1 tsp sour cream
• .5 tsp butter

Water - 80 oz (new record!)

Exercise - 20 minutes Zumba! on the Kinect, 4 sets of strength exercises w/4 lb weights: tricep kickbacks, lunges, bicep curls, and shoulder presses, plus two 30-second planks (estimated 406 calories burned)

Daily Totals: 892 calories, 30.4g fat, 97g carbohydrates, 31.3g sugars, 72.4g protein 

Quick Faux Pho

Pho is a dish that is simple in ingredients, but long on flavor. To make it "right", beef bones and long simmering broth are necessary. This quick version take short cuts, but can be a decent approximation of the real thing for a quick weeknight meal.

• 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 oz deli roast beef - shredded
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 2 tsp ginger, microplaned or minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 8 large leaves basil - preferably Thai basil
• 1/2 a serrano chili, seeded and minced fine
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1 oz raw bean sprouts
• 2 oz snow peas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 shitake mushrooms - caps sliced thinly
• 2 oz rice vermicelli (usually found in the Asian section of the supermarket)

In a medium pan of boiling water, cook rice noodles for 4 minutes. Add snow peas and cook for an additional minute. Drain peas and noodles and rinse under cold water.

Heat oil in same pan, then saute shallot until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, stirring constantly for another minute.

Add broth, water, and fish sauce to the pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 10 minutes to combine flavors.

While broth simmers, place bean sprouts, basil, cilantro and mushrooms in two large soup bowls.  Divide beef and rice and peas between the two bowls.

When broth is finished simmering, pour over vegetables in each bowl.

Nutritional information (via myfooddiary.com): 1 serving = 1/2 recipe: 244 calories, 4.5g fat, 30.3g carbohydrates, 2.8g sugars, 19.1g protein

• 
   

What's For Dinner? Boozy Bistro Chicken

It's a new year, and time to finish the new me! I took most of December "off" - between the never ending ass issue and the holidays, I just needed to take it easy. The nice thing was though, even with reduced exercise (see ass issue), and a bit more rich foods/eating out, I maintained my weight for the month - yay  me!

I will definitely be trying to post daily again, as I've had comments as to how helpful that has been to see how someone eats day to day after having my type of weight loss surgery.

The other good news is, I finally have my appointment with a surgeon for a second opinion on the ass issue tomorrow morning! Progress! I'm hoping she'll have some good ideas, but I suspect new tests or imaging is in my future first.

Tonight's dinner included two new recipes I've posted - a boozy bistro chicken and broccoli cheese casserole. Yum! Probably should have paired the chicken with something other than the casserole, as my daily totals were about 200 more calories than I'm still striving for (850-900). But I'm fairly pleased on the day.

My Meals

Breakfast

• Multi-Grain sandwich thin roll, toasted
• 1 scrambled egg
• 1 tbsp mexican blend shredded cheese
• 1 tsp butter

Lunch

• 1.5 cups romaine lettuce
• 1 small roma tomato
• 3 radishes
• 3 oz grilled boneless chicken breast
• 2 tbsp Ken's Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing 

Snack

• Dannon Light & Fit yogurt - raspberry

Dinner 

• Boozy Bistro Chicken
• Broccoli Cheese Casserole 
• 1/3 cup corn
• .5 tsp butter

Water - 72 oz

Exercise - Kinect Zumba! - 306 calories burned

Daily Totals: 1134 calories, 50.7g fat, 94.9g carbs,  62.3g protein

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Broccoli is one of those vegetables that while very good for you can also be a bit boring. There's steamed broccoli, it's often tossed in pastas with heavy alfredo sauces, or in homey cream-of-whatever soup casseroles. The casseroles can be tasty, but fat and sodium bombs. I set out to create a lighter version of a broccoli casserole that had less rice and binders than other versions out there. I believe I definitely succeeded on taste!

• .5 cup cooked white long grain rice
• 1.5 cups steamed broccoli - cooked until just past al dente
• 1/2 medium onion - finely diced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 slice toasted white bread (or scant 1/4 cup dried bread crumbs or panko)

Sweat onions in small pan until translucent, set aside in medium sized bowl. Add cooked rice and broccoli (may be added from refrigerated left overs or prepared ahead).

Melt butter in heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add flour and whisk together. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, whisking frequently, until roux turns tan in color. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Add salt and pepper. Cook another 2 minutes until mixture begins to thicken. Add half to three-quarters of the cheese, stir until melted. Add sauce to rice, broccoli, and onion mixture.

Spoon mixture into small baking dish (I have a 4x4 Le Creuset dish that fits this perfectly). Top with bread crumbs and remaining cheese.

Bake in 350F oven for 20-25 minutes until casserole is hot and bubbly.

Serves 4 bariatric or small side servings, or 2 larger portions.

Nutritional information (via myfooddiary.com, based on 4 servings): 195 calories - 10.2g fat, 19.3g carbohydrates, 3.6g sugars, 7.9g protein

Boozy Bistro Chicken

Epicurious.com has a take on the classic bistro Steak Diane, done instead with chicken breasts. My version is adapted slightly for our portion sizes and needs.

• 8 oz boneless skinless chicken breast - pounded flat or purchased in thin slice package
• 1 small shallot, minced
• .5 cup cognac or bourbon
• .5 cup dry white wine (I use Pinot Grigio)
• 1.5 cups low sodium Chicken broth
• .5 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard (I use Grey Poupon Country Dijon)
• 1.5 tsp butter
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• salt and pepper

Melt butter in heavy bottom saute pan. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper, saute until just cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side (at 1/4 inch thickness). Remove chicken from pan and cover with foil to keep warm.

In the same pan, saute shallot until translucent - about 3 minutes. Very carefully add cognac and the wine, then bring to a boil. Whisk in mustard, cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add broth, then simmer until reduced about in half - 5-10 minutes more. Reduce heat to medium, then add heavy cream. Whisk until incorporated and warm, but not boiling.

Return chicken to the pan, coating with sauce - rewarming for 2-3 minutes.

Plate chicken, spoon sauce over, and sprinkle with chives.

Nutrition information - 1/4 recipe (1 bariatric serving) - 238 calories, 9.1g fat, 2.3g carbohydrates, 0.4g sugars, 13.1g protein, 12.6g alcohol

Mussels and Recovery

Yes, mussels, not muscles. Before my surgery the Man and I went out to our favorite Italian place, and he had the linguini with mussels in a garlic white wine sauce. I've been afraid of mussels since an experience at the Pike Place Market in Seattle back in 1990 where I got a mouth full of still bearded mussel (shiver). However, I've been open to trying things again lately so I asked for one, and it was quite good!

He took me grocery shopping on Saturday since I was still taking Vicodin, and the fishmonger had bags of fresh mussels available. We brought one home and tonight I made my own version of mussels in white wine garlic sauce over a bit of thin spaghetti (far more pasta for him than me). They might have come out just a touch overdone, but they were still good and not rubbery at all.

Regular pasta is not something I can eat easily - nor do I really want to get in the habit of it - it's a high glycemic index carb and very caloric for how much you eat. Besides, it tends to kind of clump in your stomach and that makes it hard for me to digest it (and can lead to serious tummy aches).

But it did give me a nice tasty bit of pasta with parmesan and herbs and the lovely fragrance of the garlic and wine.

I'm recovering OK - still oozing, still using the chux pads in bed and on the recliner, though I have for the last 2 days worked from my regular office desk and chair with just a towel folded up several times on the seat. Not as comfortable as it was pre-op, but I'm getting there - haven't had a Vicodin today at all, so I'm hoping that may have been the end of that. Now to just stop the oozing and we'll be good (it can continue for 2-3 weeks and not be considered unusual).

So - starting to eat more normally (beyond the soups and yogurts I was having the first 4-5 days post-op), and feeling about 75% better - still a ways to go, but I'm getting there.

Oh - and I wore an Old Navy medium long sleeved tee the other day. Holy crap!

Anxiety - I Don't Need You

The ass incision has been mean to me again - I've resorted to diaper cream to keep the skin irritation around it in check. I changed my mind one what I wanted the surgeon to do - the rubber band treatment just seems overwhelming, 6-8 weeks of weekly visits to have it adjusted - where a visit to his office takes at least 2.5 hours in the middle of the day. My work is flexible, but that's just ... ugh. So I called them yesterday and asked that they use the "better" version of the plug they used last time, and I'm really hoping that it takes care of things this time. The rubber band, or worse - the cut through the sphincter muscle leaving me incontinent for 6 weeks until they can go back and sew up the muscle - aren't attractive at all.

I had my first Macro Economics exam last night, I won't know my score until the test window closes tomorrow night at 11pm, so Thursday morning for me, since that's way past my bed time. I think I did pretty good, but we'll have to see.

My anxiety has started creeping up a bit with work - the project I'm working on is going well, but some unforeseen situations at the corporate level have led to a lock-down on any systems changes for over a week now - it's scheduled to be lifted Monday morning. A couple of my installs have been delayed because of it, and I'm concerned that additional unexpected change control periods will come up, crowding an already narrow window to get all of my installs done before the year-end code freeze. The SVP I'm working with reviewed my install schedule today and wanted to make sure I had back-up dates for each of them (a bit of a misunderstanding on my part from a previous conversation with him), and pointed out how close to the year-end freeze a couple of the dates were. Those are very reasonable observations, and I have to keep reminding myself that comments such as those about my work or my plans are not negative criticism - as in he's unhappy with me - but observations meant to help me succeed. In response, I've pushed on my team a bit to deliver two of the projects a week earlier than scheduled so that we have that extra week leeway in install scheduling - we'll see if they push back too much on that in the morning.

I've been feeling the anxiety physically during the day, to the point I'm considering taking a half dose of my meds in the morning (vs the one dose I've been taking at night) - the usual prescription is twice a day, but the full dose makes me sleepy, so I've been avoiding the morning one - maybe not such a good idea for now.

Thursday I have my bi-monthly Emergency Management Advisory Council meeting - I'm the outgoing chair of the group, though I have been accepted for a second 3-year term. I'll do that in the mid-afternoon, then in the evening my WLS program is having an open house in their new offices away from the main Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center campus. That open house is in place of the usual support group meeting, but it will still be good for me to go.

I think I just need to get past the first few installs of the batch we're working on to feel better about the whole situation. I've definitely got some things for my "lessons learned" review - mostly about how doing things for the first time always takes longer than you anticipate, and particularly at the Bank, getting systems access to things takes time, and is never as easy as it seems. Also I need to be a bit more proactive in obtaining the help I need in new situations - I let the learning curve be a couple weeks longer than it should have been.  I think the SVP will appreciate those self-observations, and I hope that my assignment will still be considered a success.

Blergh. OK - Everything will be fine, constructive suggestions are good, not bad. Breathe in, breathe out.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

• Salad composed of 1.5 cups romaine, 1.75oz left over beef tenderloin, a pinch of slivered almonds, 1 roma tomato, 2 radishes, and 1 tbsp Ken's Healthy Options Peppercorn & Parmesan dressing

Snack

• 1/2 oz low-sodium cashews

Dinner

• 2.5oz pork cutlet
• less than 1/4 cup green beans with parmesan, shallots, wine, and a touch of cream

Planned Snack

•  Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt Bar - raspberry

Exercise - Increased the intensity on the treadmill by increasing the incline to 1.5% - 45 minutes, 3mph, 318 calories burned

Water - 60 oz

Daily Totals  781 calories, 39.6g fat, 56.2g carbohydrates, 25.4g sugars, 60.5g protein

What's For Dinner? Shrimp and Andouille in Creole Mustard Cream

The infamous ass incision is giving me a bit of trouble today, so I passed on another ride on Mabel. I did however, get out to get my grocery shopping done while the Man continued to work on the dining room floor. Though we rent, we've been here for years and don't intend on going anywhere for at least 2 or 3 more years. The dining room carpet was really ratty - it wasn't the best before we arrived, and the cats had honestly roughed it up some. So we decided to put down laminate wood flooring. I'll take pictures when it's done, but it looks awesome - he just has the moulding and transition between the dining room and the kitchen (which has linoleum on it) to go. It was an expense we were willing to take on to have a nice floor - and the landlord will get a bit of a bonus when we move out.

I don't know if I've mentioned, but we're going to New Orleans for a short holiday over the Thanksgiving weekend. In preparation, I've been wanting to try out some cajun and creole flavors, which guided my choice of dinner tonight. I modified the recipe heavily - as I know I'm sensitive to "heat" (vs. spice). I used just a dusting of cajun dry spice, and about half the suggested creole mustard. I added two tablespoons of heavy cream to the sauce at the end.

It was also a night to experiment with red bell peppers - I've always "not liked" peppers, but decided that I needed to try them again. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised! They were very sweet, and not at all mushy. I'll definitely be including their vitamin rich goodness in more recipes from now on.

My Meals

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

• Salad composed of 1.5 cups romaine, 1 roma tomato, 2 radishes, 1/2 oz   low-fat mexican blend cheese, 2.6 oz left over mojo marinated chicken, 1 tbsp chipotle ranch dressing

Snack

• 1/2 oz cashews

Dinner

• approximately 1/3 of a half recipe Andouille Sausage and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce (modified as above)
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa

Water - 60 oz

Daily Totals: 911 calories, 41.9g fat, 70.3g carbohydrates, 18.2g sugars, 74.4g protein

Salad Fail - Applebees, I'm Talking To You

We all know that chain restaurant food is hardly the most nutritious option around, but while some offerings looking healthy, they are deceptively full of calories and fat. 

Now I will be the first to admit that I should have asked for dressing on the side - but I've had this salad in the past, and it's not like it's slathered in ranch or other creamy/fatty dressing, so I didn't really think about it. I ordered Applebee's Grilled Oriental Chicken Salad in a half portion. Since it has almonds and a few other things in it, I figured I was in for about 400 calories, but no. I came home and looked up the nutritional information and was rather startled - the half portion as served came to a whopping 690 calories with 41g of fat. Holy Hannah. If I'd ordered with dressing on the side, the salad alone would have been a more reasonable 340 calories with 10g of fat. More than half the calories in that dish were from dressing. Ugh.

Looking at the rest of the nutritional information for Applebee's menu is positively shameful. The regular portion of the crispy Oriental chicken salad? 1390 calories. Even if you were eating a "standard" 2000 calorie a day mean plan, that's over 2/3 of your daily calories, on a fucking salad.

Don't even get me started on their pasta dishes, where all but two are well over 1000 calories each. The rest of the menu is just as bad. Portion size, of course, is one of the issues - but most people don't bat an eyelash at ordering just about anything on the menu - and as a result, consume in one meal the better part of the standard caloric intake for an entire day.

Now Applebee's certainly isn't the only one offending in this manner, various articles have been published about the worst offenders in national chain restaurant meals, but this seriously makes me rethink my ability to order something and have even a part of it fit in with my eating plan.

Someone at the company is mindful of their social media presence, as I got a response in short order to my tweet venting at my lunch salad taking up 4/5ths of my daily calories, and that I should have ordered dressing on the side. It wasn't a satisfying response (and I'm trying to shake off a feeling of condescension) but I suppose at least they're listening.

Blergh. I'm not going to go without dinner, even though I've met my calorie intake goal for the day, but this just leaves me so disappointed. I'll definitely think long and hard about all that comes in a dish next time.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt

Lunch

• Half portion Applebee's Grilled Oriental Chicken Salad

Dinner (planned)

• 3 oz beef tenderloin
• 1/2 cup steamed vegetables

Water - 60 oz

Exercise - 38 minutes bicycling, 6.25 miles, 316 calories burned

Daily Totals: - 1083 calories, 53.4g fat, 93.1g carbohydrates, 17.6g sugars, 67g protein

What's For Dinner? Mojo Chicken Tacos

It's Friday! I had a long day of meetings today, but it went well - the team I'm leading is going to get the development done by a date I'm happy with, and it gives me enough room to get all the approvals and installations done before we have a year-end lock-down on code changes. Yay!

I'm still a bit frustrated in the afternoons - while a lot of post-op RNY patients eat 5-6 small meals in a day, I find that trying to divide 800-900 calories into that many segments leaves me feeling unsatisfied all of the time, so I generally stick to 3 meals, sometimes with a snack. The hardest part is that my breakfast is typically 150 calories, and then I'll exercise on my lunch hour, before I have lunch. Given that my exercise sessions burn 300-400 calories, I'm really in deficit until I eat again - and sometimes just barely get back on the positive side. Then I go through the afternoon feeling under-fueled and hungry (in my new experience of hungry) until dinner. I don't want to slow down the weight loss, so I'm sticking with the nutritionist's edict of that 800-900 calories, but I wish I could find a better balance.

Tonight's dinner doesn't have any pictures to go with it, but it was just the thing. I marinated two boneless skinless chicken breasts in a "Mojo" marinade (found in the Mexican foods section of my local Food Lion), and then cooked them on my counter-top grill. I made taco shells from small yellow corn tortillas friend in just a bit of vegetable oil (the 8 shells absorbed maybe 2 tsp oil all together), and served them with diced avocado, tomato, lettuce, 2% mexican blend cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce. YUM.Turns out my little black cat Kara liked the mojo marinade too, as we found her up on the counter nomming on some of the left-over chicken.

Tomorrow morning I have a date with Mabel on the greenway - looking forward to it!

My Meals

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk 

Lunch

•  3 left over Norwegian meatballs 
• 1/3 cup egg noodles
• 1/4 cup peas
• half serving of meatball gravy

Snack 

• a medium carrot

Dinner 

•  3 tacos made with 3 oz shredded mojo marinated chicken, approx 25g avocado, diced tomato, 1/8 cup shredded 2% mexican blend cheese, 1 tbsp sour cream, and a sprinkle of lettuce and taco sauce

Water - 60 oz

Exercise - Jillian Michaels "No More Trouble Spots" toning DVD - 55 minutes, 296 calories burned.

Daily Totals 905 calories, 33.9g fat, 91.1g carbohydrates, 19.1g sugars, 67.4g protein

What's For Dinner? Shrimp with Corn and Basil

Ugh, what a week. Yesterday I went into the office to work with a group managed by an SVP that's one of my informal mentors at work. She's awesome, and her team's pretty cool too. One of the team members is a young man I started out with at the Bank, and his wife is expecting. They were having a baby shower for them at the same time. Now normally I avoid baby showers like the plague - originally I had declined to attend, and sent some money along for the group gift. But then, when I went to Charlotte last week for that Town Hall meeting, Danni invited me to come work with them, so I no longer had a good reason not to attend. I made it through mostly because it was so low key - pot luck, and presents, no extra games or silliness.

When I went, I wore my most recent clothing acquisition - a pair of size 14 Old Navy skinny jeans, and a women's size large long-sleeved tee shirt. I have to admit, with my hair curled and a light bit of makeup, I actually believed I looked kind of hot. I was looking in the mirror when I got home and actually saw small hollows below my cheekbones - holy heck! When I told the Man about it, he laughed, and poked me in the clavicle, saying he could see those bones too. It's starting, at times, to sink in that I really am thinner now especially if I didn't have the extra droopy parts.

Tomorrow I have a string of meetings all morning - the first to make sure my new work project is on track to deliver before the year-end code lock down, then learning a new process with a team mate, and then another on the new project to get a portion of it approved by the application owner. Definitely looking forward to the weekend, though it will be busy with homework for my macroeconomics course but I'll definitely be making time for at least one ride on Mabel.

My Meals

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! Cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

• left over Mu Shu Pork w/1 wrapper and hoisin sauce 

Snack

• Sargento Light String Cheese

Dinner

• approx 1/3 recipe Shrimp and Corn with Basil  (3 oz shrimp)
• 1/2 cup quinoa 

Planned Snack

• Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt bar - raspberry

Water - 60 oz

Exercise - treadmill, increased the speed to 3mph and walked the full 45 minutes, 299 calories burned.

Daily Totals: 856 calories, 34g fat, 80.6g carbohydrates, 19.5g sugars, 66.4g protein

 

I Want To Ride My Bicycle!!! Introducing Mabel

I finally bought my bicycle on Friday. I've named her Mabel, and I got to take her out for our first ride today. When I did a short test-ride at the bike shop, I was rather hilariously shaky on it - hard to imagine looking at me that I had been on an amateur racing team in high school. But then again, that was over 25 years ago.

Mabel's definitely not a racing bike, but I didn't want one. A good 95% of the streets here have no shoulder, and given my low confidence level in traffic thanks to being hit by a truck (or rather hitting a truck) when riding back in my racing days, I knew any riding I'd be doing would be on greenways and other off-road (but not mountain biking) situations.

I started rather small, and went to the Muddy Creek Greenway, a few miles down the road from my house. The trail length is officially 2.91 miles long - though there's a bit more paved through a private housing community up at the northern end, so I'd estimate probably 3.1 miles total.

I parked at the southern parking lot, rode north, then all the way back down south, and turned around back to the car making the full circuit. Despite being shaky at slow speeds, and not very confident on sharp turns, I had a BLAST. I could feel what I used to love about riding - the wind in my hair (under my helmet), the beautiful scenery, and nice deep lung-fulls of air on a cool, damp morning.

This trail has half a dozen or so bird houses along the path, and someone has painted them in vibrant colors.

My 6.2 mile ride took 41 minutes, and according to my heart rate monitor I burned 332 calories, with an average heart rate of 142 and a max of 160. Oh, and I did it wearing one of the Man's tshirts (Colonel Mustard in the library with a wrench!) - a victory in and of itself, and it was a bit big to boot!

  I did bring it home with a bit of muddy water in a line up my back - it had been raining overnight and earlier in the morning, so there was some standing water in a couple places across the trail. I went grocery shopping that way - too bad if someone couldn't figure out I'd been exercising, I didn't care!

I'll visit this trail again - it's a good length for me right now, and will let me get my confidence up to visit more populous areas or longer trails.

My Meals

Breakfast

• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt
• Sargento Light String Cheese

Lunch

• 1 serving Chicken and Farro salad
• 1 slice rye toast w/.5 tsp butter

Dinner

• 2 oz garlic rosemary marinated lamb loin chop
• 100g mashed red potato (a little bit of cream and butter)
• 2 medium carrots, steamed, then glazed with a tiny bit of maple syrup 

Water - 40oz (bad Annie)

Exercise - Cycling! 332 calories

Daily Totals - 861 calories, 32g fat, 94.2g carbohydrates, 27.7g sugars, 54.1g protein