Life got complicated. Again.

 I had Covid for Christmas.  It only took me two years to get it. 

I also got Covid pneumonia which earned me an escort into the ER by three handsome, friendly EMT's.  I stayed in the hospital for 5 days until I could hold my oxygen levels above 92% without the canula of oxygen. In case you're wondering, the protocol for Covid pneumonia is continuous oxygen and a steroid called Decadron (dexamethasone). It's a doozy.  It can really jack up your blood sugars.  Especially if you are like me and are already borderline diabetic.

Type 2 diabetes has three main components: Diet, exercise, and genetics. Two of those three are totally within my control, but lets rest on that third one for a minute.  There are 6 siblings. 6/6 of us have T2D. In a way, it was inevitable.  But, that's only 1/3 of the story.  

I had an A1c panel done at the hospital which returned a result of 7.4. A score of 7 is considered diabetic. While I was in the hospital my blood sugars were in the mid 300's.  That was largely due to the steroid, but the A1c is an average over 3 months or so- meaning I can't blame it all on the meds. 

My plan is to use whatever means necessary to get my sugars under control, and to "eat my way out" of diabetes in the long run.

Anyway- Here's me again blogging about why food is so complicated. Let's talk about food.

I love Starbucks' sous vide egg bites.  I could eat them every single day.  Honestly. Buuuut... They're $5ish. That would be $35ish in egg bites alone. I would love that, but my wallet would hate it.

So, I did what any frugal gal would do, and I searched the world wide web for a copy cat recipe. 

you can find the original here: 

https://amomsimpression.com/instant-pot-egg-bites/

I make these at least once a week so that I have a grab-and-go breakfast ready.

Sometimes I skip the blender and stir my ingredients together for a different texture entirely.

Fun Fact: I have a six quart InstantPot.  It fits all the accessories for the Pampered Chef six quart Quick Cooker.  I like the Quick Cooker accessories much better than all the after-market items for the instant pot.  All of my racks, bowls, and lids are from The Pampered Chef.

 

 If you don't have all this fancy equipment, you can do mason jars in a hot water bath in the oven.  I think the original poster talks about that in her post.

 

I ran out of bacon this week, so I made them without bacon, but one thing is certain- even without bacon, this did not come close to the $30ish that Starbucks would have charged me.

Salmon cakes

 Eating well is pretty complicated. It takes time. It takes ingredients. No drive throughs. No quick stops. Fortunately, I have time.  What I absolutely hate is grocery shopping. Some times I don’t eat well because I am out of quality ingredients.  But not today. Today I had some great leftovers, all the fresh ingredients, and all the pantry staples I needed to eat well. And I had time. 

 

I started with the salmon I had leftover from Friday’s dinner. I flaked it apart and picked out any stray pin bones. Then I shredded it very fine with my electric hand mixer. 

I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks and followed the recipe inside pretty closely. 

I did end up adding an extra tablespoon of coconut flour because my salmon was too loose. I also didn’t have any ground mustard, but I didn’t miss it. 

And breakfast is served!  I only ate two of the salmon cakes, so I have another meal ready for later.  I slathered them with LiteHouse brand honey mustard dressing. Maybe that’s why I didn’t miss the ground mustard?

Turmeric Tea

I’ve been feeling stiff and swollen. It’s not a nice feeling. But suddenly I remembered the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric. So I decided to make some turmeric tea. 

I dumped some turmeric into my pot, among with a little ground black pepper and a healthy scoop of minced ginger. (Side note: when I buy fresh ginger I grate and mince the whole root and then put it into the freezer. That way I always have “fresh” ginger on hand without it dying in the pantry.)

I added water and simmered the spices for about 20 minutes. 

I used my nut milk bag to strain the spices out of the water.  You could drink it like this, but I like to go a step further and make  an Arnold Palmer of sorts. 

I added lemon juice, stevia, and ice to my cup. 

This is pretty strong- just like I like it- but you can adjust the water and/or the simmer time to your liking.

And, just in case you ever need to dye anything bright yellow- try turmeric. 

 

 

Dump Meals Aren’t Complicated.

I made chicken thighs for dinner last night. 

They were easy and SO good. 

I simply browned the chicken in a skillet with olive oil. Then I added the magic ingredients. 

                Drain, chop, dump. It was that easy. 

  After all the ingredients were in the pan,  I moved it to the oven to finish cooking the chicken. I guess this would count as braising. 

 The chicken was so tender that it was falling apart as I took it out of the skillet. I ate it just like this, but I served it to the carbivores over penne pasta. 

Each of my kids didn’t like some part of this meal, but there were no leftovers. I kind of wish there were. 

Less Complex Dinner Prep

Last week I decided to try a produce delivery system.  The jury is still out whether or not I will continue getting it.  I am going to get another week, at any rate.

The box came with a lot of things that I would reach for on a typical grocery shopping trip.  It also had a few things that, while not foreign, certainly aren't on my regular rotation.  Things like leeks.

Today I still had leeks and potatoes from the last box. That plus a quick trip to the store for ground sausage yielded this yummy pot of soup.

To start, I trimmed the dark green, woody stalks off of my leeks, and sliced them up.  I washed the leek confetti very well, then boiled them down in beef broth until they were soft.

While the leeks were cooking, I crumbled and browned two pounds of mild Italian sausage,

When the leeks were cooked I puréed them with the broth and returned the slop soup to the stock pot, and added the browned sausage.  I dumped it all in without draining it because there was no other fat in this soup.

At this point I took my portion of soup out of the pot.

I added heavy whipping cream to my soup as I was dishing it up.

But the peoples got the potatoes cubed up and cooked down in their soup.  When the soup was ready and the table was set, I added milk to theirs.  I would have taken a picture for you all, but the people gobbled it up too fast.  Trust me, though, it was beautiful and delicious.  And not all that complicated.

 

At Least One Thing Isn't Complicated

 I was just thinking over the weekend that I should have some test results by now.  I had made up my mind to call the office today to find out if they had the results of the Celiac test yet. I was sitting on my hall steps today, waiting for my 10 year old to take his shower, when they called me.

Good news!  As I suspected, I do not have Celiac Disease.  Which simply means that I can keep not eating wheat and grains, but I also do not have to buy my own toaster and cutting boards. 

I also asked if  they had gotten my records yet, which they hadn't.  So, to further uncomplicate things, I sent them a copy of the lab results from my previous blood draw.  That way we don't have to repeat any tests.  

Well, no is still an answer.  So we press on.

BLT-C

C for complicated. Because making a BLT does not involve grabbing a couple of pieces of bread. Instead, it involves getting out the paleo flour that I mixed up and making myself something that resembles bread. In this case I made waffles.  Waffles that I slathered with mayo/mustard. 

I keep cooked bacon in my fridge as a staple item. We eat a lot of bacon. So, I grabbed the bacon, the lettuce, and a tomato and made myself a “simple” sandwich. 

I like this waffle mix as bread. It is nice and soft, yet sturdy enough to hold my ingredients. 

YUM!