Up Date on the Injury from the 3 Gallon Jug

After 5 long days of lying in the bed, on the floor, rolling around in pain, taking everything from Tylenol to Vicodin, I am finally feeling better. Not good enough to get to cardio-fit class but good enough to get up, eat, put some cloths on, sit at the computer and type. Good thing is, I lost 1 pound. I do not recommend putting one's back out just to lose weight but it was probably muscle and water combined since my appetite was completely shut down. But it still feels like a win.


I saw my Naturopathic Doctor last week. Oh she is just wonderful. We had a nice chat about my improvement. SO...she increased my medications. The goal is to get my EF to 51%. I have my work cut out for me. Now, it feels like I have a small pharmacy in my bedroom. Emotionally, this is taxing. When you look at my bedroom, it looks like a sick person lives in there. Oh wait, I am the sick person who lives in there. I was thinking, in order to make me feel emotionally better about the state of my sleeping quarters, I would visit IKEA some time tomorrow and purchase a little container and a small chest to house my pharmaceutical items. Things may be looking emotionally up.

On the Nutrition Tip

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I would try something new. Seven Grain Crispy Tender (I'm meat-free) by Gardein. One serving, which is about 2 to 3 nuggets, is only 90 calories. There is no cholesterol, no sugar, 9 grams of carbohydrates and 9 grams of protein. And the best part, a serving only has 290 mg of sodium. Oh happy day, it meets my dietary requirements. Now to see if they taste good.

OH, MY, THEY DO!!!

They have the consistency and taste of a chicken nugget. Not the nasty ones at Mc Donald's from what I remember 20 years ago, but more like the crispy chicken nuggets that you make yourself without all the frying. I would recommend this product for everyone. Unless you are allergic to something on the ingredient list, listed on the back of package like soy or wheat.

I found Gardein, Seven Grain Crispy Tenders in the freezer section of Whole Foods Market. The cost, $4.99. Not bad for 5 servings.

On the Recipe Tip

For the last 8 days, when I can, I have made myself whole wheat pasta, restaurant style. What is restaurant style you ask?

You take your favorite pasta, mine right now is Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Penne Pasta, I love that it keeps its shape while double cooking, and you boil enough for 5 or 6 servings. Keep that in the refrigerator until you need to use it.

When you need to use it, you take it out of the frig and place it on the counter...I am sure I don't need to be this literal. Sorry, I get carried away sometimes lol. SO, any who, you get your pasta. Heat a pan, medium-heat and put a little olive oil in the pan. Let it get hot. Saute up some spinach, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, kale, cherry tomatoes, basil, arugula, really anything produce. This will probably dry out in your pan before you finish cooking so, if this happens, add a little water and sort of steam, cook, saute the produce around. Now you can choose any produce and any amount for any combination. My staples are usually spinach, garlic, broccoli, and mushrooms. Once this is cooked down, add your pasta. This takes about 10 minutes total. You can add a little pasta sauce. Enough to coat the produce and pasta. Maybe 3 tablespoons at the most. Cook this for about 3 more minutes and VOILA.

You have restaurant pasta!

Everything is coated in your favorite pasta sauce and everything tastes seasoned and tasty.

Enjoy your Tuesday!!!

Somebody Stop Me Before It's Too Late

So for the last few weeks, after receiving my wonderful news,

Recap

My EF is at 40%

I have been tearing it up in the gym, through the neighborhood and in the kitchen.

I started weight training and long distance cardio, hiking for an hour and testing recipes.

It has been amazing. My energy has been up and my body has felt like it's old self...until yesterday.

Now, a 3-gallon jug of water has taken me down.

Let me explain

Instead of purchasing hundreds of bottles of water every year, I get my water at the local watering holes. PCC market and Whole Foods. Initially the 3-gallon jug costs $12.99. However, you soon begin to see the savings because a gallon of reverse osmosis water costs just $0.44. I figure, it will save me some money and a tiny bit of our eco-system. Just doing my part.

Well yesterday (it was yesterday when I wrote this but I am just now posting this so the day is actually 6 days ago), I went to the market to fill up my bottle. After getting it in to the trunk without incident I figured it would be a snap getting it out of the trunk after arriving home. Well, it didn't turn out like I thought. While picking up the jug, I sprang my wrist and pulled a muscle in my hip/back area.

Am I getting old or what? I think "or what." All of that medicine I am taking is wreaking havoc on my joints. I looked it up this morning and eureka!!! the medication for my heart is causing joint issues. This is absolutely unacceptable. They make drugs to help one thing and it ends up hurting something else. So, what do I do???

So now I am a little out of commission. I have taken the maximum amount of pain reliever I can find and have any applied Sombra ((http://www.sombrausa.com/) better than Icy/Hot and Tiger Balm)) to the areas of my body that are preventing me from having a good day.

Trying to get it write, right...

Disclaimer:

Okay. So, my husband, the "writer, editor and publisher" caught all of my spelling and writing errors, in my previous blog. I do apologize for not correcting "spell or grammar check." It will not happen again...well, it might happen again, probably will happen again. Just keeping everyone in the loop.

Dr T.K. Yeoh

My CHF Specialist

Gave me great news today.

My EF is 40%!!!!!!!!!!!!

(High-fived my doctor, his nurse, my Mom and did the happy dance)

What does this mean?

I have one more month of wearing the Life vest and I can fly (in an airplane). I am still on the same medication and I am still working out (exercising that is) the same although, I will be able to incorporate some moderate strength training into my workouts (so, I can look decent in summer dresses, shorts and t-tops).

I will still be here in Seattle (don't know how long) because I have not been released from my doctor's care.

Any errors sweetie pie?

STARTING SOMETHING NEW

Some of my FB family has let me know that they would like it if I posted some recipes, heart healthy tips and nutritional tidbits on my blog along with letting everyone know my continual progress. I am happily obliging.

As I am getting ready to make the final decision on what recipes should appear in the new cookbook, I am doing some experimenting.

Last night, I made a Low Budget, Vegan (Dairy and Meat Free), Low Fat, High Fiber, Low Sodium, Sugar Conscious dinner. It was easy to prepare; providing you have a handy food processor and a few pairs of food service gloves near by; and it really tasted quite yummy. Of course, I did alter the recipe a bit, making it my own (sorry Whole Foods, if I had made it your way, it would have been too bland and boring). Although, I do have to tweak the recipe a bit more before the final recipe can be acceptable for the book, I am going to share this wonderful recipe and menu with you today.

What will appear in the recipe

• Where you can get the ingredients
• Tips on how to prepare correctly for the most flavor
• Cost (I will present the lowest cost first to the highest)

Quinoa Loaf with Mushrooms and Peas

Serves 8 (use it like meatloaf: sandwich, wrap, or on its own)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon organic cold-pressed virgin oil (Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods)
8 ounces crimi mushrooms (Costco, Trader Joe's, Pike's Market, Whole Foods)
Seasoning: well this can be tricky. If you want to cut down on the salt, don't use any. What can you use instead? I used black pepper (no sodium), Trader Joe's no salt 21 Salute Seasoning and Red pepper for just a little kick. Feel free to experiment a little and use your own seasonings to create a one of a kind taste.
1 package of Trader Joe's Mixed Prepared Beans (Now you can use any beans. 1 15-ounce can of no salt added garbanzo beans, kidney beans, white beans, adzuki beans (not black beans because they tend to be a little small in the can but, make sure that it is the no-salt added variety. I would use organic and believe it or not Whole Foods has the cheapest and best selection of canned beans around. The reason I don't use canned beans is because of the BPA in the cans (Read the December 2009 of Consumer Reports).
3/4 cup rolled oats (Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's)
2 cups cooked organic quiona (Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods)

Cooking quiona

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup low sodium vegetable broth (Trader Joe's, Whole Foods)

Rinse quiona (use a small strainer with little holes)

Add water, broth and quiona in a sauce pan with a heavy lid and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes and let sit for 5 minutes

1 cup organic petite frozen peas (Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods)
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley and 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme (Pike's Market (Farmers Market), Trader Joe's, Whole Foods)
10 sun dried tomatoes packed in oil and jarred, drained and chopped (Trader Joe's, Costco, Whole Foods)
1 cup (about one medium onion) chopped red onion (finely chopped if you can)
1 garlic clove smashed

Putting it all together:

Preheat your oven to 350F. I find that putting your oven on convection bake 335F works best for my over. Lightly grease (spray with canola oil or olive oil (Trader Joe's, Whole Foods)) an 8-inch loaf pan with oil.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet (I got away with a medium skillet) over medium-high heat. Add thinly sliced mushrooms and seasoning and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden brown and tender. This will take about 6 minutes. Now let me tell you that I experienced a little dryness to my mushrooms so I added about a tablespoon of water to the pan while they were cooking and this helped with that.

Meanwhile, which means after you finish with the mushrooms, put beans, oats and 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup of vegetable broth into a food processor and pulse until almost smooth. It will look like chunky baby food. But your kitchen by this time with start smelling really good. Let that mixture sit for a couple of minutes.

Take those onions that you just chopped and throw them in the skillet you just used for the mushrooms (this means take the mushrooms out of that pan and put it in a very large bowl). Cook them on medium-high heat along with a smashed garlic clove (the easier thing to do would be to get frozen garlic from Trader Joe's. That way you will always have smashed garlic on hand and it wont go bad sitting on your counter). Add some seasoning to this mixture if you would like.

So, in that large bowl that you put the mushrooms in, add the bean mixture from the food processor, Throw in 2 cups of quinoa, 1 cup of frozen peas (make sure they are still frozen. Peas get really mushy in the oven), 1/2 cup chopped parsley and thyme, sun dried tomatoes, onion (the onion you just sauteed in that skillet), pepper, no salt seasoning, red pepper or anything else you think would add flavor to this mound of vegetable gloriousness.

Mix it with your hands (this is wear the gloves come in handy).

Transfer mixture to loaf pan (did you remember to coat it with spray or oil?), gently pressing down and mounding it in the middle. Now at this point, I brushed on olive oil on the top of the mound. Often vegan things can dry out really quickly in the oven.

Bake until firm and golden brown, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it rest for about 10 to 15 minutes before slicing (with a serrated knife) and serving.

Nutrition:

Per serving (6 oz, 172 g if you weigh your food): 180 calories, 5g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 254 mg sodium, 28g carbohydrate (6g fiber, 4g sugar), 8g protein

Budget: $0.82 per serving

Serve this with:

Amy's Vegan Macaroni and Cheese or Mashed Red Potatoes
and
Steamed Broccoli

Enjoy!!!

Updates on the happy heart coming very soon.