My 30th birthday is in 15 days. Ten years ago I turned 20 and if that girl saw her life today, I'd dare say she'd be rather disappointed. Don't get me wrong, my life isn't anything to complain about. I have God, family, friends (albeit a small handful), and most importantly love. My disappointment is that my plans included taking over the world by the time I hit this milestone. I understand that my plans are not God's plans but I can't but feel a little...disappointed. Today, I decided to look for a part time job. Something to occupy my mind and supplement my income when I was faced with a harsh realization. The only thing I'm qualified to do is the absolute LAST thing on earth I WANT to do. I would rather pick up poop for pennies than go back to being a social worker. I love people and helping them, but I'm not the same person I was 3 years ago when saving people was my mission in life. So now I feel...stuck. I have no direction and I'm 30...hence my slight funk. I know what I want to do, but I don't have the foggiest idea how to get there and that's where I've been during my hiatus. Trying to figure out how to get to the next step. This blog very well may be the key, so I'm going to be a bit more disciplined in keeping up with it. I'm just praying for a breakthrough and some understanding. Until God says so I'll just remain faithful and obedient.
I will say I have been banging my pots more and eating wonderfully, lol...even took pics to share
Homemade meatballs in homemade marinara. When I cook I like to make double batches because the spirit of cooking is not always upon me, lol. Remixing leftovers is a weird obsession of mine and this is one of my better ones. I took a couple leftover meatballs, warmed them up in some of the marinara, put it all on top of a piece of toasted garlic bread, sprinkled it with chopped giardiniera hot peppers and blanketed it with some yummy provolone. Popped it in the oven to melt the cheese and it was good eating, lol (Excuse the mess on my floor...I wasn't feeling particularly OCD this day)
This was a sandwich I snuck into my treatment with me one day, lol. D'Amato's bakery tomato bread, low sodium turkey and provolone cheese. A-MAZING!
Now this was a thing of beauty! Blackened catfish fillet and shrimp over salad. I somehow skipped lunch that day and decided double protein would be a good idea.
This is the salad underneath the fish that you can't see. I was thinking about adding an egg for even more protein but got lazy and didn't want to peel it, lol. All of these bright, beautiful colors is a clear indication that I was putting some great nutrients and vitamins in my body. The more colors, the better it is for you. Oh yea, I made the croutons too!
This is my typical breakfast on treatment days. This is a strawberry orange protein shake and some of the KIND products I won with the Year of Wellness contest. The granola is amazing plain as a snack or with some soy milk and berries for breakfast. I believe that is a Madagascar vanilla nut bar which is not only delicious but it only has 5 gms of sugar making it lower in sugar than regular KIND bars. SCORE!
This is an amazingly healthy dinner. Seared salmon, quinoa salad and a plain baked sweet potato. Quinoa is such a great food that you must add to your diet...gluten free, high in protein and very tasty! I cooked this quinoa in chicken broth. I then added chopped tri-color bell peppers, cucumbers and grape tomatoes. I dressed it in vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash table seasoning. Again, you see all of those wonderful colors letting you know you're getting good nutrients in your food. Great thing about the quinoa salad is I made a big bowl of it and I was able to nosh on it for days. I looooooooove seltzer water...doesn't it look so amazing and refreshing in the cup with some crushed ice!
I made this last night for dinner and ate the leftover sauce for breakfast this morning along with some mandarins and blackberries, lol. Homemade bolognese with whole grain spaghetti. This was INSANELY delicious. Of course I didn't use any milk/cream or parm like traditional bolognese calls for, and it was just as flavorful and delicious. This also only took me about 45 mins. to make compared to the traditional 3-4 hours. I can't say enough good things about this meal...maybe I'll just have to share the recipe so you can find out for yourself.
And finally, this was my dinner tonight. We got a bit of a snowstorm so I was forced to dig around in the fridge and pull something together. I found some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I split them to make cooking them a little easier, seasoned with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, red pepper flakes and Tapatio hot sauce. I breaded them in breadcrumbs mixed with dried italian herbs and browned them off in a skillet with olive oil. I then let them finish cooking in a 425 degree oven for about 10 mins. I took some salad greens, dressed them with fresh lemon juice, topped them with a piece of chicken, added another squeeze of lemon and that was dinner. You will be surprised how wonderfully tasty it was despite it being so simple and let that be a lesson. You don't have to over complicate food with a million different tastes. You don't have to smother it with sauces for it to be palate pleasing. Simple tastes are usually the best tastes.
I hope all of those captions make sense...it's way past my bedtime but I wanted to update and share with you guys. Oh yea, I got my transplant eval date!!!!!! One step closer guys...one step closer!!!!! I'll update you on how that guys. Sweet dreams lovies!