Sunday, March 11, 2007

Cooking and nursing and cooking and nursing


DSCN3771
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.
and cooking and cleaning and....

i'm not whining. seriously, i know who reads this and i'm not whining. it has been a crazy couple of months. awhile back, we switched to a new very restrictive diet to prep for Superinkygrrl's surgery. as a result, we emptied our pantry and a couple of friends got a good stash of some amazing food. it only took us a few days and a couple of shopping trips to figure out the diet and what we could and couldn't eat. New Season's is a godsend and everyone who works there has helped us out in finding the proper alternative to what we are used to.
So, over the past few weeks prior and post surgery, I have been a cooking maven. I have tried new things, expanded on old faves and gone outside my comfort zone to make sure A is comfortable. Some of the faves:
Roasted Vegetable Soup - roasted root vegetales that are then put in a standard soup. MMMMM good. I even made this @ 12am the day after A's surgery in order to have it available at the hospital for A when she is ready to eat.
Spicy broiled catfish - Alton Brown turned me on to a wonderful rub which I then used for catfish. The first time we did it we broiled it and it was tasty. The second time was in the skillet and just as good.
Roasted Vegetabes - yep, just plain old roasted veggies. Squash and other root veggies caramelize when @ 400deg in the oven. The sugars leach out and .... well, they end up being amazing.
Lentil Soup - another recipe from our friends at Food Network. Lentils pack a punch of protein, so I wanted to make some up. The soup turned out well.
Modified BLT - there was no bacon, we used thinly sliced tempeh fried up in sesame oil. combine that with full on 100% rye bread (gluten free and no sugar), romaine, thinly sliced onion, avacado and nayonaise and you got yourself a great sandwich.
tofu tofu tofu - we have done some great dishes with tofu lately, mostly frying it up in the pan with spices. A does a great dish with cumin and tumeric that turns out wonderfully. i just don't know the portions.

what i have learned is that you can easily cut out the following items without much challenge if you accept that going out or getting any sort of take out is off the table - wheat, sugar, tomatoes, corn, meat, cheese, milk, soymilk, peanuts, fish (only once every 2 weeks,) potatoes, and much more that i cannot rememer.

oh, and it is a great diet if you want to feel better and have more energy and lose some weight.

so, week three of post surgery and A is up and about more and more every day. i'm looking forward to this week as i may have a chance to try some other recipes i saw on the tv today. mmmm. marinated red onions and roasted cipolinni onions...