Tag: recipes

Are Things Looking Up?

So the Boston Bruins. They fired their head coach last week and replaced him (on an interim basis) with their long time assistant coach. They’ve played two games since the change. How are they doing?

Well they won both of those games. That’s super good news, right? Hooray and huzzah and all that happy crappy. Of course in those two wins they have scored a grand total of three goals. So… yeah. Let’s just say I am clutching at that bright side with all that I have. They don’t play again until Tuesday (the day after tomorrow) so we’ll have to wait and see for more information. Finger crossed that they both have turned a corner from their shitty play pre-coaching change, and that they remember how to score goals. That might be a lot to ask.

What else is going on. Bellana, my step daughter, was here last night. She just left. It was great to see her, as always. Harry, my step son was supposed to be coming over tomorrow but instead he’s coming tonight! Awesome! We’re going to see both kids today! Bonus!

Jen made French Toast this morning. I didn’t have any. There is nothing in the recipe that I can’t have but I was still nervous about trying it. Next time I will. I realized that my issue with French Toast boils down to maple syrup. I don’t want to have French Toast without having maple syrup on it… so now I have to go on a quest to find a decent sugar free maple syrup. I fear that might be a lot to ask for, but we’ll see.

What else. I haven’t done my morning exercise yet. I got up early enough to do it but other stuff came up and I had to push it off for a while. It is 9:44am right now. I’m thinking I’ll try to do it after lunch. I also need to go grocery shopping again today. I did a little bit yesterday, but today is shopping-for-Thanksgiving-veggies day. I’ll be going out to do that after I post this. Most important (not really, but… really) is that I MUST play guitar today. Preferably through a speaker and not just through headphones. I need to move the air today. Not at an ear bleeding volume, but at some kind of lower volume. It’s a must.

Okay. Time to start getting some shit done around here.

In closing, here’s a cat.

85/365

Food Experiment

This is one of those he-had-gastric-bypass-surgery posts. You’ve been warned.

I am doing a small food experiment today. I am hoping I do not get the results that I expect I will get.

I work in the office twice a week. Over the last couple of months I have noticed a trend. When I leave work I am dealing with some major gas pain. I thought it had to do with me having something to eat on the drive home and then being too stuffed for dinner, but the last couple of office days I have cut way down on the food I eat in the afternoon before dinner, and the gas pain has still been a thing.

I had a (very minor) epiphany on Monday. I think I know what’s going on. I bring the same lunch every time I go to the office. One serving of Purdue Chicken Bites (12 little mini chicken nuggets) that I heat up in the microwave, and then one serving (either 2.0 oz or 2.6 oz, depending on the brand) of peanuts. Combined it works out to 22 grams of protein, which is pretty good for that small a meal. Sometimes I’ll have some crackers or some sugar free candy with my lunch as well.

I have Purdue chicken, in various shapes and sizes, all the time. I have the sugar free candy and crackers all the time too. Peanuts though… in the early days of post-surgery solid foods I had peanuts all the time. Over the last year or so I have sort of lost interest in them and have only been eating them with lunch in the office. My question to myself then is this: Why didn’t that set off a red flag sooner?

Are the peanuts causing the afternoon/evening gas issues? It seems likely, doesn’t it? Today’s experiment then is to not have peanuts with lunch and then see what happens. I like peanuts. They are a good source of protein and they are tasty and while it’s true I have grown a little tired of eating them lately, I don’t want to have to stop. If peanuts turn out to be a problem… well that just sucks. I haven’t thought of an alternative yet. I will. Today I’ll just have a small protein bar with lunch to make up the difference, but going forward I’ll find something else.

We’ll see how today’s experiment goes, and then one day next week we’ll do it again and see if we get the same results. Then I’ll decide what to do going forward.

Until then… here’s an airplane for today’s photo a day challenge pic.

307/365

For the Birds

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite thing to cook?
View all responses

I cook a lot, but I don’t cook a lot of stuff. Does that make sense? It will.

I am a meat and potatoes kinda guy. Unfortunately for my family and their diet, when I cook I cook like a meat and potatoes kinda guy. There are only a few dishes that I am competent enough to prepare without supervision. If I had to pick a favorite it would be boneless chicken breasts. In the oven, in the air fryer (that’s been my go-to since the early days of the pandemic lock down), once in a while on the gas grill outside (though that often ends in fiery destruction), and on even rarer occasions in a frying pan on the stove.  I could seriously have chicken for dinner every night and not complain once. 

Side dishes are a little more varied, but I get into ruts in that area too. Lately it has been instant mashed potatoes or instant stuffing (Stove Top) or maybe a canned veggie. Sometimes I get a little more elaborate and air fry some mini potatoes or a fresh veggie. For a long time (before my gastric bypass surgery) it was almost always a quinoa and stir fried vegetables thing that my wife taught me to make. My new stomach and I have a tough time with quinoa now though so if I make it I can’t eat it. Jen likes it though so I have no problem making it, and I should make it for her more often.

In the interest of mixing things up, for the last few weeks we have been using one of those internet delivery meal prep services a few nights a week. Jen signed us up for Dinnerly. So far we’ve been very happy with it. They send us a few meals on Fridays and we usually cook them together. Jen does most of the heavy work, but I help her where ever she needs. Even with the service, most of what we make is chicken. Chicken is my favorite thing to eat as well as cook. Just call me a bird brain, right?

The Do-Not-Eat List

At most of my weight loss clinic check ins, they ask me if I’ve found any foods that I cannot tolerate. There generally hasn’t been anything other than sugar, and I have never tested eating sugar, I just know that I can’t eat it without getting sick.

My answer to that question is that there are things I’ve had trouble with, but I can usually pin the trouble down on something I did (ate too fast, ate too much, didn’t chew enough) that caused the problem rather than the actual food itself.

There was one item that I was unsure of though. Quinoa. I freakin’ love me some quinoa, but most if not all of the few times I’ve had it in the 1.5 years since the surgery have resulted in nausea and problems with my redesigned stomach. I still wasn’t sure if it was the food or something I did.

Tonight we had quinoa. I only had a couple of little fork-fulls. It didn’t go well. Damn it. I think I officially have one food on the do-not-eat list. There is one food that I think I am unable to tolerate. Quinoa. Shit.

Oh well. We live and we learn and we move on to the next challenge.