Thursday, February 25, 2010

Best Omelette Yet

I was reading about how to make the perfect fried egg somewhere the other day and decided to apply it to an omelette instead. It's all in the heat level and time spent.

I succeeded in making the best one yet! Here are the particulars:
• 2 eggs, beaten with a little hemp milk (makes it so creamy! and it's not sweet at all so it doesn't mess with the savory-ness)
• poured to cover the bottom of our non-stick crepe pan, but with a butter base, of course
• a handful of chopped green onion, some chopped black olives, and half a slice of mortadella

I heated the pan on medium at first, so the eggs sizzled a little when they hit the pan. Then turned it to low heat and covered it with a lid. (Mine is glass so I can still keep an eye on it) Then just wait. The eggs solidify nicely WITHOUT getting all brown and rubbery on the bottom. It folded over perfectly, looked like something in a magazine.

Topped it off with a slice of avocado. Perfect!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Gorgeous Saturday starts with:

5 egg omelet (shared between 2 people!) with chopped Niman ranch bacon, sauteed mushrooms, shredded zucchini, broccoli tops, fresh chives and Italian parsley from the herb box on the porch. Cooked in olive oil this time, with fat slices of sweet red pepper and avocado on the side. I had some green salsa too, but Jesse went all out with little slices of Dave's Killer Bread "Peace Bomb" loaf with homemade peach jam and a banana. (jerk! ha ha)

I also had a mug of Rooibos tea (which is a weird, naturally decaffeinated root of some sort from Africa or something) with unsweetened hemp milk. Pretty fucking good.

Then, while we were eating, the mailman dropped the latest SUNSET magazine thru the mail drop. YAY! And of course, somehow, every coverline was speaking to me directly. Somehow I have become their demographic to a T.

I'm still kinda pissed at myself that I didn't register for that screen printing class in time. But it's from 11:00 AM til 5, and it's so pretty outside. Like, uncharacteristically so. Not a good day to be stuck inside, learning, even if it's something cool. So it's okay. I'll catch the next one, and hopefully it will be raining that day.

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Pain which will not go unmentioned

You know, I really skipped a lot between posts. I never told of the acute, intense pain I felt that first weekend of detox. And the first work week without sugar and caffeine was seriously so hard.

So, my last caffeine was that Friday. I wrote about my big mug of English Breakfast. The next three days after that were mind-numbingly awful. I'd get up, have breakfast, and then just lie on the couch. It was all I could do. I felt bad - just, well, bad. Like when you have the flu, and you just feel that kernel of blackness inside that keeps you still, and wishing like hell you didn't take all those healthy days for granted. But you did, didn't you? All those normal days of getting up out of bed, putting clothes on, brushing your teeth, conversing with other humans in a personable manner. Going about your business, getting things accomplished with an ease so natural, it never even makes an impression on you. That reality is gone for the moment. You are left with dread and pain. I felt as if I might have an inkling what it is like to detox off of hard drugs. I mean, you eat sugar with wild abandon for forty years and then stop one day. It's intense.

That lasted through Sunday. Monday I had to get up and go to work. To make matters worse, it was a relatively stressful week at work. I had to actually design something and not just build files. Trying to think was crazy hard. I was in a painful fog anytime I tried it. I couldn't find the right words, I wanted to cry. God. That is the reason I am actually kind of scared of sugar now. That's why it was pretty easy getting through Valentine's day without candy. All I have to do is think how awful that week was, and I don't even want to taste the stuff for fear I will have to feel like that again.

That was two weeks ago. I'm very adjusted. I still have the occasional dream of pizza, (no really, I had a bittersweet dream where I was eating pizza and feeling guilty about it) and I do very much crave cornbread from the Delta Cafe. I'm looking forward to my next appointment on March 1st, because we may be able to add fruit back into my diet. FRUIT! Holy crap. It's going to taste a-may-zing.

A sample diet for any old day, in case you were wondering:
Breakfast: two eggs, cooked all different ways, sometimes with bacon, sometimes with veggies. But always two eggs.
Lunch: gigantic salad with tons of stuff thrown in; olives, water chestnuts, mortadella slices, whatever.
Dinner: vegetable/chicken soup or Amy's black bean chili, or some kind of meat cooked up with vegetables. One of our faves is pork medallions with kale and parsnips.

I have lost 5 lbs without trying. A nice side effect.

I think I will go visit the coffee place downstairs for a cup of decaf tea. I need a little shot of normal.

Hemp Milk?

Yes. Weird-ass, unsweetened hemp milk. Don't ask me how they do it. All I know is that pouring it into a steamy cup of decaf earl grey and then drinking it makes me feel a little more like a normal person with no crazy dietary restrictions. And that is a nice feeling.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Being bad, being good.

Things I have been bad about: black pepper, gum ("natural" gum from New Seasons with xylitol), lemon wedges in my hot water (instead of just the zest). But come on. Black pepper? Lemon? I've just been having hot water because herbal tea could interact or cancel out my herbal supplements taken to correct the hormonal imbalance. Also I've been having cinnamon stick in hot water, and I don't think I'm supposed to have cinnamon either. Sigh.

Other things I Should Not Have Eaten But Did Anyway: I had Super Torta a few nights ago, which was SO FUCKING DELICIOUS. 2 tacos and half a cheese quesadilla. So that's Cheese and Corn (tortillas). But it was a difficult day and I felt like I deserved a break. It was the 1st day of my unexpected period. (It's another story altogether.) Then, things at work last night were especially crazy and I had to stay late. Dinner was ordered for us and I had a steak falafel. That means giant bready flat bread and gooey yogurty goodness.

OH WELL.

Oh well, because here's what I have been very very good at: Not having ANY caffeine, and not consuming ANY sugar. So there. And that is a really big deal. I feel that it is the most important part of this whole diet. People! I did frickin' Valentine's day with no chocolate or candy at all. I rule.

Friday, February 5, 2010

What I ate Today : DAY 1

I went to see Dr. Carlotta Watson yesterday, who is a highly-recommended Kinesiologist. She put me on a verrrry restricted diet. I am totally into this. I have been eating way too much sugar for way too long. Also: frozen Weight Watchers lunches galore, and other chemically, weird shit that isn't real food. I'm very excited to tune up my system from the inside out, and work out these hormonal imbalances for good. I really don't want to be on some sort of hormone replacement for the rest of my life.

Friday, February 5th
Breakfast:
Two eggs, scrambled in BUTTER with broccoli tops & red pepper. Topped with green salsa and a big ass slice of avocado, and a pinch of sea salt. Also, my very last caffeine for a long time- a big mug of English Breakfast tea, made with distilled water. The only kind of water I can have.

Sorry, Cereal and Berries. I was getting tired of you anyway.

Snack:
Turkey Jerky! Oh the insanity. I never thought Beef and Turkey Jerky would be a staple in my diet, but here we go.

Lunch Quandary: I bought a tuna salad sandwich yesterday at Mr. French, which I cannot eat. I think I will bring it home for Jesse on the way to counseling. Tuna is fine, but the bread, the mayo, and whatever else is in there is off limits. I think I will get an enormous salad at New Seasons.

BAD ALERT: I'm currently chewing a piece of gum. Evil, evil gum. It has Phenylalanine (also in diet sodas and Fiber One cereal, which I ate religiously for over a year) and also Soy Lecithin and Aspartame. Bad Bad Bad. I just wanted to get rid of the Turkey Jerky breath and flirt with disaster. Just a little.