Menu Plan Monday

After not planning my menus for the past two weeks, I'm back in the saddle!

MONDAY--Sassy Potato Corn Chowder (crockpot) and salad

TUESDAY--Parmesan Chicken Nuggets, tater tots, broccoli

WEDNESDAY--Pack Meeting, and I'm assigned a salad. My son and the Den Leader are both gluten-free, so she asked me to bring something my boy can eat (and she can too). Since I don't know what else they will be having that he can eat, I'm planning a salad that can serve as a meal. We'll see if he eats it!

Black Bean and Corn Salad, Mexican Chicken (crockpot), Tostitos Scoops, sour cream

THURSDAY--BBQ at my aunt's house

FRIDAY--Cheesy chicken and rice casserole (crockpot), salad

SATURDAY--Wild Rice and Ham Chowder (crockpot) but I'll probably leave out the rice because there's already plenty of carb in it with the potatoes. I plan to use up the ham bone and some chunks of ham in my freezer.

SUNDAY--Pork Chop Bake (pineapple, bell pepper, onion)...so delicious and easy! I made this with thin chops, and it cooks up faster, so watch the time! Serve with salad.

Menu Plan Monday

On Mondays, orgjunkie.com has links to hundreds of menus for the week that moms/nurturers across the Internet will be feeding their families. If my menu plan wasn't already derailed, I'd play too.

Check it out! A lot of them are gluten free and a lot focus on cheap.

Try Something New: Mediterranean Chicken

**What can I say about this dish?** It was TO DIE FOR! I think I completely ruined my diet. Not in content, but in quantity. This is VERY LOW FAT and healthy, and the flavor is amazing.

Click on the picture for a bigger view. We've got chickpeas on the left, rice topped with almonds slivers browned/fried in a scant amount of olive oil, shredded chicken breast cooked according to the recipe on the hyperlink above, and steamed carrots.

My husband walked in from church and smelled this in the crockpot, and suddenly I was the most popular woman in Christendom! Pretty cool.

Several years ago, I borrowed a Mediterranean/Lebanese cookbook from our neighbor who was of Middle Eastern origin. I made this killer chicken, rice, ground beef, and almond dish. I haven't been able to find my copy of the recipe since we moved 3 years ago.

When my hubby walked in, he said he smelled this and instantly thought of that Lebanese food.

When I saw the recipe at the crockpot365 blog, it reminded me of the Lebanese dish too. The smell, though, was the kicker. It was the cumin and the cinnamon. About 1 teaspoon of each for 1-1/2 pounds of meat: Six giant chicken breasts, 1 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 cup of orange juice, (I added a tiny bit more liquid than the recipe calls for) and that tiny bit of cumin and cinnamon did the job! Those spices were what made it smell like our old favorite.

But the apricots and dates--oh baby! I have never eaten dates before. They are definitely an acquired taste, but delicious.

The secret of the almonds--use them on this meal like you would use croutons on a salad. Crunchy and perfect! You have to fry them. If you have leftovers, do not store the almonds with the main dish, because they will become soggy and ruin the texture of the meal.

I bought 1 pound of slivered almonds from the bulk foods at Sunflower Market and fried all of them. Most of them are not in the picture. There was a plate of them on the side to pass around for each person to add as needed. We used most of them. The ones on top of the rice were just for presentation. The orange and purple slices on top of the shredded chicken are 5 dried apricots and 5 dates saved out from the crockpot to use for a garnish.

Next time I make this, I will add the chickpeas to the meat for the last hour. These are also an acquired taste. I love them. One can was plenty for the entire meal.

BOTTOM LINE: I followed the recipe exactly except for adding an extra 1/4 cup of broth and extra 1/4 cup of orange juice. I cooked on high for 3 hours, shredded the breasts, and put them back in the crockpot. Turned it to low for 2 more hours to let the moisture soak into the meat more. Cooked the rice, chickpeas, and carrots separately, though adding the chickpeas and carrots at the end would certainly work.

For dessert we had Super Soft Gluten Free Sugar Cookies from the same yummo author on her other blog. My son was in heaven, and everyone else liked these too. My 14 yo not-allergic-to-wheat daughter LOVED them. She said they were better than regular.

Orange chicken with rice and broccoli

There's a Chinese/American restaurant on the corner of our street and the highway. My two favorite things there are halibut with a delicious, delicate egg breading thing on it and orange chicken. Yuummmm. My whole family *except the teenaged girl, who likes NOTHING I make* likes the orange chicken. Since we are doing gluten free again, you don't buy breaded chicken and who-knows-what in the sauce from the Chinese place. :( It's disappointing, but health is paramount, right? And what you do is focus on what you CAN eat--which is almost anything, if you get a decent recipe for it!

I told my son at the store yesterday--when I saw how down he was because there was so much he couldn't have--that I understood. Because I do, now that I'm working toward weight loss. And I was on his diet for 2 years while I was nursing him, so I really DO get it. And he knows it.

This was magnificent! *hyperlink to the source of recipe* It needs a bit of tinkering. It's made with orange juice concentrate, and I found it a bit TOO concentrated. Also I put red pepper flakes in it, and it was a bit too hot. And it cooked down too quickly in the crockpot, too. I had it on high for one hour, and the sauce was already crisping. Turned it to low for 2 hours, and it was really bordering on burned. I think adding a little bit of water would fix both the burning problem and the concentrated orange problem. My kids liked it but wanted it a little bit cooler.

Add some Uncle Ben's Ready Rice in roasted chicken flavor (which to the best of my knowledge is gluten free) and some broccoli, and it's another tasty restaurant-quality dinner to enjoy without getting sick! Cheap, too. I think I paid about $5 for the whole dinner.

Drawback: After cooking a labor-intensive dinner three days in a row and doing the clean up, I'm exhausted. Ridiculous, but that's fibro for you.

Sweet potato salad and fried chicken--Gluten and egg free

Man, that was good! The salad was a South Beach recipe, and the fried chicken coating is just corn meal and Italian seasoning. I would like to find a finer ground meal, but this was still mighty tasty! I couldn't find the scallions and fresh basil at the store I went to, so I put in some green onions and Italian seasoning (my favorite go-to spice). Delicious!

The kids tried the salad, but they didn't like it. DH didn't even try it. I think I will make it with red potatoes next time, because I think that flavor will be more palatable, especially as the yogurt-based dressing is enough to get used to. I thought this sounded great, since my son can't eat eggs (which are pretty much in all commercial potato salads).

Please take me seriously

As fibro/CFS patients, I think we have all been there at least once, probably multiple times. It's not just our family/friends/significant others who don't take us seriously. "Just do more. Be active. That's the only way to get un-tired." Sorry. Will power won't make me well. It just won't.

But I digress. It's not just the support group who thinks we should snap out of it. It's the doctors, too.

I tried to explain my post-exertional malaise to my doc, who told me that going to bed if I hurt was the worst thing I could do. What part of "I couldn't move for 4 days or wake up" did I not clarify?

Just stretch more--NO, that made my muscles feel like they were ripping. No matter how careful I was. After the 4 days, Yes, I started stretching again.

I didn't work out again for 1-1/2 weeks after the session that started the malaise. But I did start again. And that's what matters.

To the doc's credit, I haven't tried to talk to her about the fibro before, so now it's getting mixed in with the weight loss effort, and she's militant about that having to happen as a priority above everything else.

I am not exercising or dieting for her. I am doing it for me. So I can be strong again. My WHY hasn't changed, and it won't change, no matter how angry or disillusioned I may get.

Cheer up! Bob Mayer workshop

If you're a writer, this will mean something to you. If you're not, suffice it to say that I got to go to a workshop and hang out with my friends all day! The workshop was excellent. Bob is a fantastic presenter, though I would fail showing us movie clips without the sound and reading us the captions. The rest rocked, and he was a font of timely information about the industry as well as writing.

His other seminar, Warrior Writer, sounded just as good. I bought the book Who Dares Wins, which is what the Warrior Writer is based on. So far I love it. He's got a very interesting perspective. He's written romance with Jennifer Crusie, but he's a thriller writer, so he can relate to pretty much any writing audience well. He showed us a lot of skydiving deployment clips! "Easier to jump than to land" indeed!

Visit Bob's website! Check out his new publishing company, too.

And--back to the subject of this blog--I did great eating-wise today! First I stopped at Walmart and picked up some Goldfish crackers, some hard candy in case my blood sugar got low before lunch/break, and some breakfast bars. Then at lunch, I picked well, skipping the potato salad (a hard one during the summer, but so full of calories it's criminal) and eating a good portion of cottage cheese. I had 3 finger-sized eclairs and a bite of a my friend's cheesecake for dessert. Water to drink.

After my family picked me up, we went to dinner at Chili's, and I ate fajitas but only ate 2 tortillas and skipped the rice. Again drank water. Haven't added up yesterday's calories yet, but you start to get a feel for these things, and I think I stayed in my calorie allotment!

How did I let this happen?

I resolved to take my kids to the pool once a week this summer. Yes. Me. I don't swim, and I don't do fun. My husband does the fun stuff, but he's in school. So if it is to be, it is up to me.

My suit is too small. I squished into it and went off to the pool. Walking past the mirror in the bathroom, something inside me died.

I say all the time that I don't mind being fat. I don't. I really don't. Except when it keeps me from doing things. Hence the desire to get fit so I can do things like go to Mesa Verde and take the very reasonable hikes.

But standing there in the pool bathroom, oh how I minded being fat. Thought of my kids having a fat mom with them at the pool. Hating myself for letting this happen. I'm so blue. This is a tough process. I'm even bluer than when the nurse from my doc's office called the other day and said I had to exercise more because I'm not making fast enough progress with my weight loss. I'm exercising as much as I can handle already! And if I lose 10-15 pounds this summer, I'll be thrilled!

All I want to do is lie in bed and cry in my Pepsi and eat some Kettle Brand Crinkle chips, black pepper flavor. But since I have to squish into the suit again next Thu or Fri, I guess I'll just get this little tearfest over with and go back to work.

Compromise. I'm letting myself have a real Pepsi. Don't tell Lindsey (my coach). :) Back to work...

Living strong with fibromyalgia and obesity

I am working hard to make healthier choices and strengthen my resolve to exercise and lose weight. When I saw that number at the doctor--282 lbs--that was my "aha" moment.

My body is already changing--down to 272 pounds as of today!

So far yoga is the most fibro-friendly exercise I have tried. Low impact, still making my muscles tighter and my weight go down!

I have also hired a nutrition coach to help me monitor my intake. I am an emotional eater, so this is HARD for me. But I am finding new foods to enjoy and cooking more for myself. My nutrition coach.

Recent meal made from scratch: chicken parmigiana! Here's a recipe for it I plan to try next time. I didn't know about the baking part of the process. I just made my own gluten-free breading with cornmeal and Italian seasoning and fried/browned the breasts on the stovetop in a little tiny bit of olive oil.