Talk about cruel

On the way home, A went to the grocery store. Since we were gone for Thanksgiving, our fridge was pretty bare. I had asked him to pick up bananas and apples since he usually has a banana at breakfast and I had eaten half an apple without losing it. Safe foods, right? Since last night's disaster, I figured a modifed BRAT diet was the way to go. Of course, he couldn't resist and brought home a pie and just asked me to bake it. Ummmmm, isn't that rather cruel since I can't eat pie right now? Plus he bought ice cream so he could have it a la mode. He had taquitos for lunch, which I love and also couldn't eat. Which part of I can't eat much doesn't he get? And why does he have to eat all these yummy things in front of me?

Typos galore

Considering what I do for a living, it is embarrassing how many typos are in my posts here and on the various message boards I frequent. Yes, I try to do a preview so I can catch them, but you know what they say--it is easier to proofread someone else's words than your own. What does it matter really, that I have typos? I wonder if people will think that English isn't my first language. Or that I'm stupid. Or that I'm not good at my job (I'm very good at my job, by the way).

I don't think that message board posts should be held to the same standard as my professional life, though I do try to maintain a polite, but fun tone in my posts. No "shouting," no put downs, no political statements. But I try not to be boring. I want my personality to shine through. After all, if you're reading this, you must be somewhat interested in me, lol.

Progress

I had half of an apple this morning and so far so good (even though my stomach has been making horrible noises). I'm making jook aka rice porridge for lunch. Should have made it yesterday, but didn't feel like it. I was foolishly optimistic last night and had some xiao long bao (dumplings) for dinner. My stomach was gurgling so loud, A could hear it across the room. How embarrassing! But still, I was optimistic that I'd be able to go to work today. Unfortunately, I was up several times in the middle of the night, which caused me to oversleep and thus missed my carpool partner.

After more self-diagnosis and research online, I decided I do have food poisoning and not the flu. Who knows? Since I am slowly getting better, I decided to skip the doctor and hope that rest and light foods will get me back on my feet. Mom says to drink tea, honey water, and avoid fats. Cousin says to drink whiskey honey water and avoid cold foods. Online says to avoid caffeine and alcohol and diary. Me, I'm just happy if something stays in my system for more than a few minutes (or hours if I'm lucky).

This is my first (as far as I know) bout of food poisoning. I've got a pretty tough stomach and also have a sensitive nose and taste buds when it comes to off flavors. I'm much more likely than A to toss food or detect moldy cheese or the like so I think I'm pretty good at avoiding spoiled foods. I have no idea what could have caused this since everything I ate was also consumed by several other people. Guess I was just the (un)lucky one.

So why haven't I lost any weight?

Yesterday, I had a cup of coffee, half a Luna bar, a few sips of a milkshake, and some water. And none of it stayed in me. Today I had a bit of oatmeal, which didn't stay in me. Though the half cup of broth did. Along with half a package of ramen. Considering how many calories I've consumed (and lost), shouldn't I weigh less? I figure I should get something for my pain these past two days.

Thankful for

Family, especially A since he had to put up with me on the long drive home, friends, food. I'm thankful for a safe drive to and from visiting family for Thanksgiving. But I'm not thankful for the flu. I thought I had food poisoning, which I'm sure you can imagine made for an uncomfortable drive home. I slept almost the whole ride home. Had some water, half a Luna bar (and neither stayed in my system for long). But now I think I've got the flu. I'm feeling quite miserable at the moment.

Two left hands

That's what it looks like I have based on my dishwashing gloves. Sometimes it is three left hands. Somehow, the right gloves always get a hole, tear, or somehow wear out before the left gloves. So I always have an abundance of left gloves, at least until I get frustrated and throw them out.

Help me spend some (SB) money

Can you believe I'm asking? My favorite online scrapbook store is having a sale with free shipping (over $20, but that's way too easy to do), plus I have a gift certificate to spend there. Unfortunately, a lot of what I want is out of stock. Even though my wish list a mile long, I still haven't come up with $20 of stuff to buy. Guess I'm not in a buying mood.

A la Victoria Beckham

I'm still getting used to it. It is weird shampooing my hair because there isn't a lot of hair to lather. How do guys wash their hair? Also, my neck is always cold so I've taken to wearing scarves again.

Free rice

Check out this website. It is a fun way to test your vocabulary and get rice donated to the UN World Food Program. Each time you get a word wrong, the vocabulary level drops by one. If you get three right in a row, the vocabulary level increases by one. So it is really easy to drop levels, but not so easy to go up.

What I find surprising is I'm getting so many words correct. If you asked me to define, use the word in a sentence, or even pronounce the words, I couldn't do any of that for even half of them. What the heck does pellucid or homburg mean? Yet, by calculated guesswork, I'm getting most of them right.

In less than 24 hours, I've donated a few thousand grains of rice. :)

A little variety please

As I noted a few days ago, I made shepard's pie on Sunday. On Monday, A baked a meatloaf freezer dinner. Hmmmm, ground beef two days in a row? Then last night we had hot dogs. Yet another form of ground up meat. A little variety please! What about some chicken? shrimp? or even no meat? I guess I shouldn't' complain since A fixed dinner two nights in a row. But he just doesn't get that I need more variety since I bring leftovers for lunch. I had shepard's pie for lunch Monday and Tuesday. Can you tell I'm getting a little tired of meat and potatoes? Good thing I'm working offsite today so I'll have something different for lunch. It will be catered and I'm pretty sure shepard's pie and meatloaf are not standard on catering menus, lol.

Back to cooking

After a hiatus from cooking, I'm getting back into the swing of things. A is thrilled with the freezer dinners, but I'm not. But if it gets him to "cook" (throw the foil pan in the oven), that's one less dinner I have to plan.

So to combat that (and save $), I've gotta get back to cooking. Tonight's dinner wasn't totally from scratch, but I had a bunch of stuff to use up so I had to be creative. I had leftover gravy in the fridge, plus 10 lbs of potatoes. What does that sound like to you? To me, that sounds like shepard's pie. Browned a pound of ground beef with chopped onions. Added a pound of frozen mixed veggies and the gravy. Cooked up half the potatoes and mashed them (still have some left and will make corn potato chowder with it). Should have made the mashed potatoes a little drier, but still, the dish was tasty. And relatively cheap. We each had a huge serving, I made two lunches, and we've got enough for another dinner, if not two.

Had a bunch of apples and pears that were gonna go bad so made a crisp. It was a little too sweet and A thought the oatmeal in the topping was a little too raw, but not bad for making it up. On the other hand, anything with one and a half sticks of butter and one and a quarter cup of sugar has got to taste good, right?

Make and Take Freezer Dinners, take 2

Last Saturday, I did one of those freezer dinner things again. This time, I was by myself since A had to help his dad. It took me just over 2 hours to prepare 10 dinners. I went to Dinner My Way again since I had a coupon for their $199 special (12 entrees for $199). Now you're say, but wait, you just said that you prepared 10 dinners, what happened to the other two? This leads me to my tips for using these places.

First, don't go on the last day of the menu. There's a good chance that some of the ingredients aren't fresh or that they may even run out of ingredients. That's why I said I prepared 10 meals. Meal 11, she ran out of ingredients, but had one frozen already. That was okay with me. Meal 12, I thought the chicken had freezer burn so I asked for something else. She didn't have any more chicken for that dish so she gave me another meal that had been prepared. And, I didn't have to make the sauce for one dish because she had extras frozen. If I didn't have all that, I probably would have been there another 15-20 minutes.

Second, prepare the most complicated dishes first. You're not as tired and it is easier to follow the directions.

Third, it helps to have a large cooler (or two) to bring the food home in.

Fourth, before you go make these dinners, clear out at least two shelves in your freezer. I filled two freezer shelves and half a fridge shelf.

We're averaging 5 servings per meal. Not too bad, but still, more than what we'd spend on our own. It has been nice to not have to do any prep work though.