Chaotic

As I write this, I have less than 6 hours before a cab picks me up to bring me to the airport.  I'm going on a trip to visit my family.  There's still so much I have to do!  Here's a quick update on what's been going on.

Salmon dinner was a flop.  Threw that out and made the monte cristo crescent sandwiches again.

I made this ranch potato dinner recipe (below)...yummy.  I used sour cream instead of mayo and the consistency of the sauce isn't all that appealing, but it tasted good.  Didn't have corn flakes for the top, so I dug out a cup or two from the Raisin Bran box.  :)  Recipe also called for 5 red potatoes, but they had huge gashes in them at Kroger.  I opted for a small package of baby red potatoes and it worked out just fine.

Ranch Potatoes

5 red potatoes
Butter or cooking spray
2 packages Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk ranch (ingredients needed milk and mayo or sour cream)
8 oz. Cheddar cheese
2 cups Corn Flakes
2 tablespoons butter

Make ahead: 2 packages Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk ranch, follow directions.

Boil and drain potatoes.  Put on low heat for 5 minutes to remove water. Cool in 9 x 13 pan.
Butter pan, cube but don't peel the potatoes.  Pour dressing over potatoes.  Sprinkle with 8oz. cheddar cheese.  Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter.  Combine melted butter with 2 cups Corn Flakes.  Spread over potatoes.
Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Hiatus Explained

It's been over two weeks since I last posted.  I have fallen back into my old habits of eating poorly.  I've had Carnation Instant Breakfast just about every morning even though I was wanting to cut down on it.  I need to stop buying it and get into the habit of making breakfast in the morning.  The last two weeks of my online JavaScript class really wore me down and stressed me out.  On top of that, I adopted two kittens somewhat on the spur of the moment.

My husband and I have, for some time now, been wanting to adopt two kittens.  Why two?  I have an 8 year old cat, Shadow, who doesn't like other animals.  She has had kittens in the past so I thought she might like them better than an older cat.  I always feel terrible about leaving Shadow alone and thought she would eventually get used to the kittens and they could keep each other company.  We wanted two kittens just in case Shadow didn't get along with them so that they would keep each other company.

My vehicle registration and plates expired at the end of June.  I was out running errands after getting my vehicle safety inspection sticker.  I wanted to get a public library card and went to the nearest branch.  (Off on a tangent, I really miss the Palatine Public Library and Schaumburg Library from back in Illinois.  The branches out here do not compare.  There are too many branches and they are all very small.  They are closed on Sundays and they mentioned they will be closed on another day starting this month.)  Just outside of that library was a Petco.  Every time I'm near a Petco or a Petsmart, I have to check to see if they have kittens for adoption.  Before I found the adoption center, I wandered around the store and saw 3 people who had kittens in boxes!  Once I found the adoption place there were two kittens, two brothers.  I find out they are having a kitty-palooza...one kitten for $25 or two for $40!  Petsmart wanted $100 per cat!  This was too good of a deal to pass up.  The lady set up gates surrounding the adoption area and let me play with the kittens.  I was so torn between getting them or not...I was there for over an hour!  We had nothing prepared at home, but they were too cute and it was such a great deal.  I got them!  Meet Thor and Loki!

It's been about two weeks since we got them.  We kept them and Shadow separated for the most part during the first week.  Except at night, the kitties and Shadow now have free range of the whole apartment.  At first, Shadow was reluctant to leave my bedroom (where we have her food, water and litter since she spends most of the day sleeping on the bed or on our dresser anyway).  She hisses at the kittens when they get too close but they all sleep on my bed now during the day.  Shadow shows an interest in the kitties, but likes to observe them from a distance.  It's a good sign that she will get used to them.  I don't know if she'll ever be cuddle buds with the kittens, but I can hope!  They will at least keep each other occupied!

When we first got them, Loki was the friendly one and Thor was scared of us.  Now, Thor is my new shadow, so loving and very vocal.  Loki is still loving, but not as much as Thor is.  Loki is scared of the brightly colored cat toy I got for them (string on a stick) and Thor attacks that thing and never stops.  Thor does this weird meow and sometimes it sounds like he is a creaky door.  He also snores!  See the videos below!

I need to get back on track with eating healthier and preparing meals.  It's not going to be easy considering I am taking a two week vacation to visit my family soon (so yes, expect another two week hiatus!).  I'm excited but nervous about flying.

If you want to see what I've been eating, follow MyFitnessPal food diary.  I usually struggle to meet the full 1200+ calories each day and I always go over on my sugar intake.  Nothing new there I guess!

Summer Solstice

I got a decent night of sleep last night.  It's going to be another early night tonight.  I am hoping I have officially reset my circadian rhythm!  I am going to try out that zumba class tomorrow...so long as I don't back down. I'm pretty apprehensive about going to a new gym for the first time.  I take comfort in familiarity.  I need to just force myself to go...it will be fun!  And I need the exercise.

I attempted a Pillsbury Monte Cristo Sandwich recipe but didn't read the recipes when I grabbed a few things from the commissary last week.  It called for two Pillsbury crescent rolls and I only grabbed one.  So my sandwich is a little smaller.  I also didn't get ham because my husband won't eat it.  I make this food but he usually eats breakfast, lunch and dinner on the ship.  When he comes home, he's not hungry.  So I guess I need to start cooking for one.  That raspberry-lemon no-bake cheesecake I made a couple days ago still has two pieces left...I've been trying to eat it, but I just wish my husband would scarf down the rest.

I also hate my oven.  When directions call for 15-20 minutes of baking time, mine cooks in like 8-10 minutes.  The edges of this sandwich on the bottom are slightly burnt.  I checked it a minute before I took it out and it was still a light golden brown.  One minute later and it got pretty dark.  It was good. I really like the raspberry preserves on top.


I obviously haven't been doing well in terms of meal planning.  I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow but still don't have recipes in mind.  I'm getting tired and will probably get to it tomorrow morning.

June 19

I didn't sleep at all last night.  My husband had to wake up at 3am for an early day of work, so I figured I would stay up until he left...then I caught my fourth or fifth wind and somehow managed to stay up until 9:30am.  Napped for only 3 hours so that I would be tired and able to go to bed early again.

When I woke up, I found out from a friend that Sallie Mae has changed their policies on private student loan forbearance.  It used to be up to 2 years and now it's only 12 months.  So in the 10-30 years of repayment one has on their private loans, they only get 12 months of forbearance.  It's ridiculous!  She was told she had three months left of forbearances and now, because of the policy change, she has none left!  I was pretty enraged.  They can just change the terms and not notify borrowers until it's too late.  More borrowers will be forced to default.  Sallie Mae benefits more when people default, so I'm not surprised in their evil policy-changing tactics.  It just pisses me off!

June 18

It's a Pie Day

I watched Forks Over Knives on Netflix last night while trying to relax after stressing out over my difficult homework.  After having difficulty falling asleep, as usual, I watched Burzynski, followed by The Gerson Miracle.  I recommend all three of these videos to everyone.

Being a brain tumor survivor, the way the FDA and the Texas Medical Board were treating Burzynski really pissed me off.  The guy was saving lives and using a treatment that doesn't poison the cancer patients.  What is so wrong with using a better alternative?  Why is the government so resistant to change if they won't profit from it?  I couldn't sleep after Burzynski.  I especially couldn't sleep after spotting this guy crawling around my bedroom door and probably all over the sweaters I had hanging on the knob (I washed them before I wore them again).  Not sure if you can see him on top of the door to the right, but he was huge...over an inch long!  I really hate living here because of these damn roaches (they're so huge!).  I am hoping that we are able to afford to move to a nicer neighborhood that is roach free at the beginning of next year.

After watching all three of these videos, I have come to the conclusion that if I ever get cancer again, eating healthy would be my first attempt at treatment.  I am trying to eat healthy now, but after watching these videos, I realize that I don't need as much meat, egg, and dairy as I am getting each day.  I could eat a lot healthier.  I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead a couple months ago and would love to try a juiced diet to see what kind of effects it would have on me.  Having a juicer would be helpful.  I have a blender, but it's still a pain in the butt.  If I still weren't better from just eating plant-based foods, I would try to seek out Burzynski's treatment.

I didn't do very well with sticking to my meal planning for today.  When I woke up, I was going to make eggs, but didn't feel like it.  I made some oatmeal and followed the directions on the package.  2/3 cup is A LOT!  It spilled over the edge of my bowl in the microwave and I still have a bunch left for breakfast tomorrow.

I didn't make a smoothie.  I have a tendency to skip eating when I'm busy.  I was busy doing laundry all day.  I found out that if I just add minutes to the dryer time, I can save about .50 per load.  In order to do that, I had to wash a load, and while that load was drying, wash another load, and while that load was drying, wash another load...I ended up saving $1.00 today.  It costs $1.25 each to wash/dry.  It's kind of time consuming, having to go back and forth to the laundry building and up and down the stairs.  In between I would either be folding clothes or doing dishes/preparing to make dinner.

When the laundry was done, I began preparing dinner.  I made the cheddary chicken pie.

I swear my oven is messed up.  The recipe called for 35 minutes of baking total.  I had this in for 20-25 minutes and it got pretty dark.  I had forgotten to get a pie pan when I went grocery shopping last week, so when Eric had to go to the NEX to get his hair cut on Friday, I quickly ran into the commissary to grab a tin one.  All they had was an 8 inch cake pan.  The recipe called for a 9 inch pie pan, so this has a bit of extra crust around the edges.  It's still good.  Should I make this again, I need a pie pan and one of those pie servers.  I would use less chicken (I like the veggies better), include potatoes, and have more gravy/creamy filling.  I bet I could use cream of chicken soup with this instead?  Maybe I will experiment sometime.  The cheese is nice in this and I liked it a lot.

While dinner was cooking, I gathered all the ingredients I would need for this no-bake raspberry-lemon cheesecake.  While it cooled, I began preparing it.  If I ever make real cheesecake, I need to get a hand mixer!  My arm will probably be sore tomorrow from mixing up the ingredients!  I didn't want to wait 3 hours for this to cool, so I definitely licked up any remaining batter before I rinsed the bowl out and the spatula off.  It was very yummy!  It's very creamy, not like normal cheesecake, but I guess that's to be expected as it's a no-bake.  It has fresh raspberries in it and I like it.

I drank over 5 cups of water today.  Good for me, as I've been averaging four.  Five is what I should be getting in a day, at minimum.  Since I skipped out on lunch (I did eat half an Atkins bar), I'm pretty short on my calorie intake.  No wonder I was so tired and exhausted all day!  Only 29g of sugar for today...not bad.  Oh crap, I forgot to log that I had added brown sugar and honey to my oatmeal.  I'm sure it's waay over that, lol.

Tomorrow (is today)'s meal planning...leftovers!  Leftover oatmeal for breakfast, leftover cheddary chicken pie for lunch and dinner, leftover cheesecake for a snack/dessert and hopefully I will have energy to throw in a smoothie somewhere!

Meal Planning

Based on my height, weight and age, I should be consuming daily 5 ounces of grains and things from the protein group.  I should be consuming 2 cups of veggies, 1.5 cups of fruit and 3 cups of dairy each day.  I figure once I can do this on a daily basis, I can up the ante to the recommended food pyramid guide.  1 ounce of grains is one serving.  A piece of bread is one ounce, so is 1/2 cup of rice or pasta.  I've been counting 1 cup of pasta as one serving, oops!  3 ounces of meat is about the size of the palm of my hand.  2 tablespoons of peanut butter is one serving of the protein group.  I took all this information and tried to do some meal planning for today.  After a while of trying to figure out where I can add things to get the RDA, I was starving and opted for a quick fix of carnation breakfast essentials...the stuff I'm trying to cut out of my diet.

I figure I really need to start having a real breakfast in the morning.  Not just carnation or just a smoothie.  I need to make eggs or pancakes or french toast; something to get more grains and proteins in.  Smoothies are my best option for getting my fruit intake since I don't eat a lot of fruits.  I snack too much on chocolatey things throughout the day and it would be nice to eventually snack on fruits instead.  I should try making smoothies as a mid-day snack.  Especially if when I start working out, it'd be a good boost to have afterwards.

Here's what I should be striving for when meal planning:

Breakfast:  1 serving proteins, 1 serving grains, 1 serving dairy.
Lunch:  1 serving veggies, 1-2 serving grains, 1 serving protein, 1 serving dairy
Snack (post-workout smoothie):  All the fruit I need in a day, 1 serving dairy, 1-2 servings protein
Dinner:  Remainder of proteins, veggies and grains (should be about 1-2 servings each)

With that in mind, here's what I hope to eat tomorrow:

Breakfast:  2 scrambled eggs with cheese  (I really need a toaster, and some bread...not sure how else to throw grains in here for now)
Lunch:  1/2 to 1 cup of creamy garlic pasta (whatever is leftover from today's leftovers), 1 cup mixed veggies with some grilled chicken.
Snack:  Smoothie, be sure to add 2 tbsp peanut butter (or snack on a handful of nuts)
Dinner:  One piece of cheddary chicken pie (with veggies)
Dessert:  One piece no bake raspberry-lemon cheesecake

I am missing about one serving of grains.  I really do need to get a toaster.  Having some toast with the eggs for breakfast would be nice.  Maybe I can try throwing some oatmeal into my smoothie.  My blender doesn't grind it up very well but I guess I'll let it run for a few minutes before I add any other ingredients.

update:  Ate horribly today.  I spent most of my day finishing up a chapter for an online JavaScript class I'm taking.  I tried to follow along with the book example but it just wouldn't work for me.  I truly want to understand what I'm doing, so I went back and tried it two more times and it still wouldn't work.  So I continued ahead with the homework assignments.  I get two case projects to do; usually have to make a mock website and it ends up taking over 3 hours to do one of the case projects.  Of course the ones my instructor assigns are ones that the book doesn't really cover.  Like in this first one that I'm still stuck on, it requires you to validate a check box (user has to select a check box before they can press the enter site button).  Well, the book says that since the example they use is optional, they skip over the validation code...the code that I need to complete this project!  It was really stressing me out yesterday.  I searched google and finally found one code that works but I spent hours trying to understand why it worked and got no where (the code is more advanced and doesn't reflect what I should know so far in the book).  It's frustrating.  I think I am just going to stop stressing over this homework so much and just find code that works and use it.  Since I'm learning entirely from the book, I will go back when the course is over and try again from the beginning.  JavaScript just hasn't clicked for me yet.

I didn't eat much yesterday, but what I did, was crap.  :/

No Mas Pimiento!

It's 6:30pm and I'm typing this while I'm eating the sauteed chicken with olives, capers and roasted lemon dinner I made.  Yeah, I'm supposed to be fasting right now.  I needed parchment paper for the recipe I cooked and had to wait for Eric to get home from work before I could go to the store.  It was already 5:30pm when I started cooking.  Oh well, I still hope I can go to sleep somewhat earlier this evening, maybe around 8pm.  Anyway, here's my dinner.

It's missing the spinach.  I only have a tiny and medium sauce pan (my one skillet would be used for the chicken) to use for the spinach.  I filled it as full as I could with the baby spinach so that I could still toss it to mix it up.  Holy moley does that stuff reduce once it starts to cook!  By the time it was done, I had about a cup of spinach.  I messed it up by burning the breadcrumbs because I confused the kitchen timer for the time I needed to cook the chicken, when it was meant for the lemons roasting in the oven.  I had to spend time trying to flip the chicken breasts when I caught the time error and left the breadcrumbs to burn on accident.  Need to invest in tongs.  Trying to flip chicken breasts with a cheap, flimsy spatula is too time consuming.  I also added waaay too many breadcrumbs.  So when I mixed the breadcrumbs with the spinach, it was more like having spinach with my breadcrumbs instead of the other way around.  Add to that burnt breadcrumbs...it wasn't good.  I will have to give the spinach another go.

As for the rest of the meal...well, I was supposed to add the chicken stock, capers and olives long before I actually did.  The olives are rather over-powering.  I used slightly more than the recipe suggested.  Maybe if it got to simmer long enough it would have lessened the effect?  Will definitely stick to recommended amount next time!  I also didn't realize the olives were stuffed with pimiento.  Maybe that is what is over-powering?

For lunch I tried another batch of that creamy garlic pasta, only I improvised a bit.  I know the grated parmesan cheese I have is loaded with sodium.  It's the stuff you buy dried that you shake on spaghetti.  I figure I would try just one serving of that (2 tbsp) and make up the rest of the cheese with mozzarella.  Didn't turn out too well.  It turned into a gooey, sticky ball of pasta.  I need to try that recipe again with a block of grated parmesan.

I started logging my food using the food diary on myfitnesspal when I couldn't sleep early this morning (see previous post).  I had a cup of carnation breakfast essentials then and once more for real breakfast this morning (after sleeping).  I'm already way over on sugar, I know.  I will update later with today's totals.

I did work on some homework today, but not much.  I slept until about 8:40am.  When I woke up, I saw the maintenance men heading over to fix the air conditioner.  Yikes!  I had sleep wrinkles on my face and was wearing my bright pink Betty Boop pajamas when I let them in.  My eyes were puffy from just waking up, but I at least had time to comb my bed head.  They had to keep turning the power on/off, so I couldn't use my computer while they worked.

Sometimes, when we turn the AC off from the thermostat, it continues to run and has to be shut off by flipping the breaker switch.  The maintenance men ran into this problem quite a bit today.  The first time, the unit outside even ran for over 5 minutes after they switched the circuit breaker.  What is up with that, I'm not sure...but I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons why the AC likes to randomly stop working.  They fixed the freon gauge and the AC is working again.  Hopefully it lasts the rest of summer!

 

My numbers for today are decent.  Fiber is low, as usual as is sugar very high.  No real fruit, except the juices of the lemons and less than one serving of veggies.  Four servings of fruit.  One serving meat and grains.

Insomniac

I haven't been able to sleep.  It's nearly 3:30am.  I am so tired but I was hungry and it was keeping me awake.  My middle of the night snack was carnation and while I was drinking it, I figured I would start today with logging my food over at myfitnesspal.com.  They only give you the option to track six things, so since I figure my fat and cholesterol are always low since I began logging, I will track calories, carbs, sugar, fiber, protein and sodium.  Myfitnesspal's recommended daily intake of each thing I'll be tracking:

Cups of water: 8 (Based on my petite size, I'm going to stick with aiming for 5)
Calories: 1280  (in the mid-range of what I was logging before)
Carbs: 126g (on the low end of what I had)
Sugar: 26g (I was aiming for less than 40g and that was hard...this will be impossible!)
Fiber: 15g (I was aiming for 20-35g)
Protein: 48g (lower/mid range of what I had)
Sodium:  2500mg!!

I don't know where I was getting my <1,100mg figure from.  I just looked it up again and they say it was once at 2500 but they lowered it to 1500.  Now they say the maximum intake is 2300 but it's not recommended to exceed 1500.  I will shoot for 1500.  Myfitnesspal subtracts the goal amount from your total amount to let you know how many are remaining for you to meet your goal.  I'll just have to consciously try to pick out low sodium things when I go shopping from now on.

I really need to attempt to reset my sleep schedule.  I read a while back that the easiest way to do that is by fasting 12-16 hours before the desired time you want to wake up.  I want to wake up at 6am, so tomorrow (it's really later today, I just say tomorrow because I haven't slept yet), I should stop eating between 2pm and 6pm.  My stomach usually growls and gets very gassy when I don't eat, so we'll see how this goes!

I think it's time to try this sleep thing.  I imagine the maintenance men will be here not long after 8am to fix my AC, so I better try to get what little sleep I can!  Tomorrow's goal:  HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK.  NO PINTEREST!