7QT Vol. 11: While I Was Out & Other Random Thoughts

So... remember that time I didn't blog for, oh, over a month for no reason? Yeah, sorry about that. I thought I'd give a little explanation for my absence from this little corner of the interwebs and catch you up on what I've been up to.

 -1-

Why I Haven't Been Here

I really have missed blogging.  Its just that I only have a couple of hours of free time when I get home from work to bed time, and most days I like to spend that time relaxing or hanging out with the hubs.  It only took a few times of me yelling at him to stop talking while I was trying to blog for me to realize that mayyybe I had my priorities backwards.  Free time is still pretty hard to come by, but we'll see if I can work this into my schedule more often.

-2-

Fourth Anniversary

The day after my last post in August was our fourth anniversary.  I really meant to write a post about it but, well, see above.  We made a week of it really.  We went out of town the weekend before and went wandering around in the mountains, which was a pretty good time.  Then we had a nice dinner on our actual anniversary.  I have to say ,this last year was a pretty crazy one on our marriage.  Lots of downs, like financial issues, medical treatment and surgery, but lots of positives too, like making it through the rough patches.  I definitely feel like we're stronger for it all.  Despite how cheesy and cliche it sounds, I do feel like I love the Hubs more each day, and I am so blessed to have him.

-3-

Hub's Promotion

Speaking of the Hubs, and my excuses for not writing, the Hubs got a promotion in the last month.  He has worked very hard for it, and I'm very proud of him! Of course it means longer work hours for the Hubs too now, and less time together, so take that as another excuse for why I haven't blogged recently.

-4-

Paleo Diet

I don't know if you caught the brief mention in my last post, but after my doctor recommended that I cut out gluten and dairy I decided to dive right in and give the paleo diet another try.  The Hubs got dragged along too, under some protest.  The first month, we went the easy route and got food delivery.  That ended a couple weeks ago though, and we've been on our own... a little scary, and I haven't been perfect.  I will say, when I'm actually complying with the rules I feel so good!  Oddly enough, the hubs has actually felt worse.  We're pretty sure he's highly evolved and requires food that is processed and includes chemicals to survive. My cooking skills also have much room for improvement, thought I will say, I made this chicken tikka masala recipe yesterday, and it was pretty awesome!

-5-

Other Miscellany

There's nothing else I have enough to say to write a whole blurb about, so I'll just ramble about some other random things I've been up to. Hmm, there was a random day trip to go apple picking (so fun!), a last minute 24 hour trip to as Vegas with my sister, a boat ride for my sister's birthday, the death of all of my tomato plants :( (apparently they require water), trying Indian food for the first time (so good), and arguing (and winning) a super important motion (with less than a day to prepare for it). So... lots going on!

-6-

Disneyland

My birthday isn't for a few weeks, but we're already making plans to go to Disneyland for it!  I'm so excited!  I had passes growing up, but stopped renewing when I went to college in a different state. I visited a couple times when I was home from college, but haven't been back since then, its so pricey.  I finally have convinced the hubs and rationalized to myself that it'll be worth it for my birthday!  It should be a good time!

-7-

The Pope!

I am so excited that the pope is in town (or the country) right now! I may be on the opposite side of the country, and not able to get to the east coast, but I'm still keeping up with everything going on over there as much as I can.  I'm loving his speeches and homilies, and pictures and videos are fun too!

I'm pretty sure this video is my favorite so far.  Though the pope in his fiat is pretty great too!

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That's all I have for you now!  What have you been up to lately?

As always, for more great posts, check out Kelly's at This Ain't The Lyceum.

My Big Fat Paleo Fail

I've been promising a post about how Paleo has been going for a while. The problem is, Paleo isn't really... going anymore. It really went well for a while.  I was feeling better, cooking new things,  eating lots of veggies and meat.  We even had bison. And well, then the cheating started.

I think it all slowly started going down hill around birthday. My 80/20 slid to 70/30.. 60/40... you get the idea. Then came Halloween... which means candy everywhere of course.  I started out good and bought some organic super dark chocolate from my neighborhood super healthy grocery store.  Of course that only started the candy cravings, which led to butterfingers and kit kats, and... well you get the idea.  Then we went away for the weekend and completely went off the plan and well... I haven't really gotten back on it since then.  I have cooked a Paleo meal here and there, spaghetti squash has become a staple around here, but no consistent sticking to the plan.

I avoided the scale for quite a while, and I'm still refusing to update the weight tracker on the weight journey page, but I have gained half the weight back.  I've also noticed that some fun PCOS symptoms have been flaring up more than usual too.  In general I feel not as great, and I'm especially not looking forward to travelling like this.  I know I need to get my act together, but I seem to have lost my motivation.  It was so hard to break the carb/sugar addition... and then I brought it back.

For now, I don't see it feasible to get back to Paleo.  We're travelling, then I have a week back, which will inevitably be crazy, and then I have my surgery, and recovery.  I'd  like to say after I recover I'll be back to Paleo.  But by the time I'm back in the swing of things, Christmas and New Years will be coming up.  So... I'd like to get back before then, but I think my deadline to get back on plan is New Years.  We'll call it a resolution? 

I know its a big old fail.  I really did feel better/ healthier on Paleo, and I really did want it to work. I thought putting it out there on the blog would keep me more accountable and help me stick with it, and I feel awful admitting it didn't work here.  But hopefully the next time I give it a shot it'll stick?

7 Quick Takes, a Change of Season Edition

I think the tone around here could use a little lightening up.  I hope this weeks 7 Quick Takes can do the trick!

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So the first time I linked up, I mentioned that fall was taking forever to show up.  I think I mentioned somewhere else that I thought fall was finally here, that was a lie, it got hot again.  Its slowwwly getting cooler, but there's still 80 degree days here and there.  Seriously ridiculous.  I've been wondering if I'm just going (more?) crazy, considering the fact that I live in the same area that I was born and raised (I moved away for 6 years, but I've been back for a few), I should be used to this by now, right? Sooo, I checked online, and the weather has been consistently about 10 degrees or more higher than the average this year.  I'm not completely crazy, this year is warmer than usual!  With that confirmation, I've decided to give up on it ever getting cool. I'm just going to pretend its getting fallish/wintery anyways.

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My absolutely favorite part of fall is apple pies. I was going to say apples or pies, but then I realized it isn't one or the other, its both together. I made my first apple pie in college with a friend... it was actually the first thing I ever baked from scratch(ish... I've never made a crust on my own).  Just in case you're wondering, this is my favorite apple pie recipe, though I do tend to add spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mmmm cinnamon, my favorite spice.  I feel like I've added cloves too, but I'm not sure, its been a while.

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Speaking of apple pie, I made an awesome discovery this week.  I was having a sweet tooth moment and discovered the most amazing combination, apple pie and gelato!  I was thinking that it couldn't possibly taste as good as it sounds, but oh yes it does! If you're an apple pie lover, but not feeling up to baking one yourself, and also like gelato (who doesn't like gelato?) you should probably pick up some of this.

heaven in a pint

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Another one of my favorite things about the change of seasons is fall/wintery clothes.  Over here in the land of sunshine, that means light sweaters and scarves mostly for decoration.  I finally got around to dry cleaning the sweaters that really needed it, but when I got them back, I discovered something super sad. My absolutely favorite sweater appears to have been a snack for some moths or something in the last year, it has holes everywhere :(.  Of course I realized this while wearing it at work... not embarrassing at all lol.  I haven't had the heart to check the others yet, but I have a feeling that it might be time to go sweater shopping.  Apparently I need to invest in some moth balls too?

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Despite the lack of cooler weather over here, it looks like we might finally experience some elsewhere.  Next week we're heading to the other side of the country to visit my in-laws in New York. I've been checking the weather and it doesn't look like we'll be seeing any snow, but at least we'll see some sort of season changing. We haven't been over there in a couple of years, so we're excited to get back there and see the Hubs's family again.  The plans we've made so far consist of nothing but hanging out with family and Hub's best friend, so I'm looking forward to the fun and relaxation.

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Related to the change of seasons is the change of liturgical seasons!  Advent is just around the corner!  I cannot believe its already that time of year again.  I'm not sure what we're going to be doing to participate in the season, but we did get an advent wreath.  Actually, we kind of accidentally ended up with two advent wreaths, one more traditional:

and one with a nativity

It had to do with a little mix up with the amazon account. You see, we recently got amazon prime and switched over to both using the Hubs's account instead of each having our own (I haven't figured out how that's going to work with Christmas shopping yet).  I have learned that the Hubs only puts things into the cart when he actually wants to buy them (such a strange idea), while I tend to put things I want to consider buying (but probably never will) in there.  So of course, when Hubs went to purchase some things, he just bought the stuff I had in there too.  Lesson learned, and now I have a wishlist instead, lol. I think I'm going to keep one and give the other as a gift, but I haven't decided yet.  I don't know which one to keep, they're both beautiful!

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Speaking of advent, another blogger is hosting advent prayer buddies.  I absolutely love the idea, have signed up, and think you should too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

So Easy a Caveman Can Do It

I haven't blogged much on the weight journey front, so I think its about time I gave an update on that lovely topic.  Well, on a kind of positive note, between April and July the rapid weight gain stopped and I seemed to have leveled out around 206.  Yes, that is still very far from a healthy number.   Dr. S tested my Insulin, and the number has more than double from last year.  It more than likely is a big factor in why I'm not responding to any of the meds and not ovulating.  I started googling around and really scared myself about what could happen if I don't get my weight under control.  Also, I have a wedding coming up at the end of the month, and I'm scared to try on my bridesmaid dress that I bought mach in February/March.

All that is a lead in to say, I've decided to try  something new.  This week I started easing myself into the Paleo diet.  In case you're unfamiliar with it, this chart, which I found here, sums it up pretty well:

Okay To Eat	Avoid
Fruits	Dairy
Vegetables	Grains
Lean Meats	Processed Food & Sugars
Seafood	Legumes
Nuts & Seeds	Starches
Healthy Fats	Alcohol

I can't tell you how many people have told me its helped someone they know with PCOS (which bugged the daylights out of me at the time) and even two of my doctors have suggested it.  For a while I dismissed the diet as ridiculous.  I still don't believe in the premise really, that we should eat like cavemen, but I've come to be impressed by the results, and the general low carb/ fresh food thing is attractive to me.  So I've caved (almost pun intended).

So far this week it hasn't been bad.  I've got a freezer full of proteins thanks to Costco, and I went back there to stock up on fruits, veggies, nuts, and coconut oil (part of me hated buying something so trendy). Luckily, the Paleo Diet is super popular right now, so finding guides and recipes online is super easy.  So far, I adjusted the blue apron poblano pepper recipe to be more healthy/Paleo friendly, which turned out great.   I also made myself a frittata from here which is amazing!

My biggest problem is dairy. Yes, dairy is on that avoid list, but I looove  dairy.  Seriously, since I was a kid I've usually had at least a glass or two of milk a day, cheese is my best friend, I'm a huge fan of Greek yogurt, and cereal (with milk of course) is my go to snack.  This was also one of my biggest reasons for not trying the Paleo diet sooner.  I tried to research whether dairy is actually good or bad for you, but the studies made my head spin.  There are so many contrary findings and opinions, I have no idea what to think.

So I've decided to make a compromise on the issue.  I'm going to limit my dairy the best I can, especially when it comes to straight up milk and cheese, though that makes me sad.  Yogurt gets to stay for the time being though, considering I've found some articles (like this one) that seem to indicate yogurt might not be all that bad.

That's my summary of starting up!  Here's hoping I can stick with it and see some results!

Blue Apron- Recipe 3 of 3

Sorry about not getting this review up sooner, I've been lazy and to be honest, not particularly excited about this recipe, but here goes:

The last recipe in the box was Summer Saute with Fergola Sarda & Buffalo Mozzarella.

Its all vegetables, and I'm still working on learning to like veggies, so I was worried, but I still had to give it a shot.

This time, I finally got my act together and got a decent picture of everything before the cooking got started:

so. many. veggies.

I got started with cooking the fergola (which I never heard of before) and immediately ran into a problem.  While all of the other recipes were incredibly specific, this one did not say how much water to boil or at what temperature to cook the fergola after boiling.  I guesstimated and it turned out okay, as far as I know I guess.

While that was cooking I worked on cutting up all the veggies.  This recipe was definitely more work intensive that the others, so prep took longer than I had thought. Okay, and can we talk about getting corn off the cob?  I really should've googled that beforehand, I got corn everywhere! I guess you've gotta learn some lessons the hard way?  

But i finally got that done and got everything cooking!

That part was easy, and it did look yummy!  Pretty soon it was done and I got it on the plate, all pretty looking!

 I have to say, out of all the recipes, I think this one looked most like its picture.  So for the verdict?  Well... it was a lot of veggies.  I know, I'm awful, but you can't change your tastes over night?  It was okay... but both me and the hubs felt like it was a little bland.  It needed some... zing.  So we did something I hate to do and added to the recipe, but a little balsamic perked it right up.  It seemed natural considering the recipe had mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.  And that was it for this blue apron box!

So all in all, I have to admit I'm a fan of Blue Apron.  I really like that we got out of our comfort zones and tried recipes that I would never pick on my own.  A lot of times I'll let the fact that I don't know how to do something keep me from trying something new, but this forced me to try and taught me some new skills along the way.  On the down side, its on the pricey side at $10 a meal per person.  So the final decision is ... drumroll please... not very exciting, haha.  Blue Apron allows you to keep the subscription but cancel a week in advance if you don't like the recipes. For now, we think we'll keep it to one to two boxes a month, depending on whether the recipes sound good.  Stay tuned for the next box!

By the way, as a disclaimer and if anyone is curious, I was in no way paid for reviewing, I just felt like it might be fun.

Blue Apron- Recipe 2!

Today was day two of my first Blue Apron Box!  On the menu tonight was Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce and Marinated Green Tomatoes.

Looks Yummy!

Once again, started out with rice.  This time I managed to not burn it! Yay!

Unburnt rice! (It's the little things)

Next I moved on to marinating the green tomatoes, not incredibly tough:

And then cooking the chicken:

smokin' hot!

Ok, I might've burnt the chicken a little bit, what can I say?  At this point, my one dog who is scared of cooking went and hid from the smoke in the corner.  The fact that I have a dog afraid of cooking might give you a better idea of my cooking skills (or lack thereof) haha.

Last I prepared the peanut sauce:

I know the picture isn't great, but I had to show the little bottles the liquids came in.  They're too cute, I just love them!  The sauce took a bit of whisking, and some worry on my part, but finally came together!

And here's the final product:

Not as pretty as the picture on the recipe card, but close enough for me!  And it was tasty enough to make up for it!  The rice was good, though I can't really tell the difference between this special(?) jasmine rice and normal white rice, or if there's supposed to be a difference?  The green tomatoes were... ok.  Honestly, I prefer my tomatoes big and red and juicy, not green and firm.  The hubs thought they tasted like apples... I thought they were just bland.  Still, it was interesting to try out something new.  And I'm definitely going to use the marinade, sesame oil and rice vinegar, on some salad in the future!  

Last, the chicken.  It was a little dry, which was my bad, but AWESOME with the peanut sauce.  I loved that sauce, and the hubs did too.  I had no idea it'd be so easy to make. That's easily my favorite part of this experiment, leaning how to make things I never would have thought of trying.  Since I'm not super skilled in the cooking department I tend to stick to trying to learn the basics, but I like that this pushes me and expands my cooking horizons!

Well that's all I've got for this recipe. Tomorrow I'll be cooking the last meal!

Blue Apron Review- Recipe 1

In the last month or so I've see a serious amount of ads for Blue Apron and, me being extremely susceptible to advertising, finally gave in.  Blue Apron is service that delivers all the ingredients for three meals to your door every week.  Considering the fact that I'm awful about cooking dinner and we really want to start eating more healthy, fresh food, I thought this would be a great little experiment for us.

Last week we finally decided to order, and yesterday we got our first box!

(Please excuse my bad photography throughout).  I was so excited to open it up and check everything out, I forgot to take any picture of the inside.  I was too tired to get cooking though, so I put that off until today.

For our first recipe we decided to try out Rice & Beef-Stuffed Poblano Peppers.

Honestly, I picked this first because this seemed like the recipe that was most outside of our box, so I kinda wanted to get it over with. So I pulled out the handy dandy recipe card and unpacked the ingredients, which were all nicely separated and pre-measured.  (Also please excuse the messy counter :) ). What I really liked about the recipe card is that it went step by step, and told you how to time things, that's always something I have trouble with.

I started off cooking rice as instructed... which didn't go so well.  I was so busy chopping the onions I forgot to turn down the heat and burned it :(.  Luckily I had some extra quinoa, so I got that started instead.  I figured it was a healthier option anyway, and it tasted just fine.

Next I roasted myself some peppers

It took a little longer than instructed (and I still don't think I got them fully cooked).  Then I got the meat cooked, stuffed the peppers, cooked them a little more, and we were good to go!  They didn't end up as pretty as the picture, but oh well.

Then came the real test, try them out!  I was a little worried at first, but they were great!  I finished off my plate, and the hubs finished his plate and all of the extra filling we had! Definitely out of our comfort zone, especially as we were both wary of the pepper, and I used some new ingredients I never would have thought of using myself, but its definitely something I'd like to make again.  My only complaint, more of a misunderstanding really, was that I had thought all the ingredients would come pre-prepped, but they didn't.  Really, not a big deal to have to chop up and onion and some garlic, but its not my favorite thing to do.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recipe!

A(nother) Direction

So since my last post... lets just say the eating healthy thing hasn't gone as planned.... I've had a hard time getting my act together.  I have been learning how to cook, but haven't quite been remembering to blog about it.  So... here's for giving it another shot?  Also, after some thought, I think I'll start blogging about the biggest reason I have for losing weight that I haven't mentioned yet... infertility.  It seemed too private to blog about before, but I think it might be helpful to talk about to work out my feelings.  So lets see how this goes.

An Update and A Fresh Start

So its been a while, almost a year since my last post. I wasn't so good at keeping up with the blogging last time around, but I'm going to try to give it another try!  So here we go:

Since last November, I did stick with the weight watchers for quite some time.  Lost about 60 pounds by May, which was amazing.  I was so much healthier and felt great!  I also fit well into that bridesmaid dress I was worried about :).  Unfortunately, that wedding had been my real focal point and after it was over I slowly lost motivation. Towards the fall I had gained some weight back.  Then, before getting my eating habits back under control, there was a whirlwind of change in my life.  I quit smoking, bought a condo and moved, had a crazy heavy workload, and got a new puppy, among other little thing.  All great things, but in the midst of it all my weight goals went to the back burner.  I've gained over half the weight back by now.

Now that things are finally settling down, I do want to focus on my health again.  I have learned some things in the whole trial and error process.  I know I need to find a healthier outlet for stress. I'm still figuring that one out, though both me and my puppy need to be getting more exercise soon!   I also need to make sure I'm developing sustainable habits.  Last time around I fell back on frozen meals and ordering food out (which I'm so happy was easy on weight watchers), but I got tired of frozen meals and eating out got a bit expensive and made it easy to slide into bad habits.   Lastly, I know need find better motivation than a one time event. I have to change my lifestyle permanently, not just temporarily.    I don't have these all worked out, but at least its a starting point.

As for the direction of this blog, I definitely want to use it as a tool to hold myself accountable. As part of my working towards better habits, I think I'll be focusing on my learning how to cook... and cook fresh and healthy foods.  We'll see how it goes!