Simplify and improve

I couldn't wait to get breakfast in me today. It's funny because I used to not really care for it at all. I didn't hate breakfast foods, but nothing seemed appetizing, so I would just flop whatever breakfast-type food down on a plate and just grin and bear it. Not so much anymore!

Today's breakfast in a bowl is plain soy yogurt, banana, cinnamon, granola, and coconut. I'd seen a lot of coconut be used for yogurt bowls before, but was iffy on trying it out until today. I looove coconut, but wasn't sure how it would go with the rest, but was great! I love the idea of getting a little healthy fats in with the granola and coconut.

Went out to a doctor appointment, and unfortunately driving kicked my butt (Singing along to songs may or may not have contributed too, hehe) and I was in a lot of pain. But so hungry! Time for me to plop some store-bought butternut squash soup in a cup and make an easy sandwich. This sandwich actually is great as a late-night snack for me - it's cilantro and jalapeno hummus and lettuce on wheat bread. It's not a full meal by itself but it fills me up with the soup. I'd stay full for a while if I were able to cut up some apples, but with this pain now I'd better not. Times like this I wonder if something like an apple divider would be a good thing to have... hmm!

Speaking of kitchen tools, I have been looking around for gadgets to have that would make cooking with TOS more easy. So far the only solid ideas are electric pepper and salt grinders, and a water heater for my teas to skip using the kettle. A lot of devices out there I'm finding though cut prep time down, but are a pain to clean which is not good! Hard to clean equals an automatic "not worth buying" from me even though I'm usually not the one to do dishes in the house. I shall keep my eyes open for more products!

Botox and beans

But not together at once, thankfully!

Today is the start of a three-month treatment "experiment" of sorts. I just had a shot of botox injected into my scalenes on my affected side. If all goes well, this will begin to relax this muscle in one to two weeks and will last about three months. Kind of interesting, the thought of giving a specific muscle a kind of botulism for a few months, heheh.

I am hoping to look for additional treatment while the botox settles in so hopefully when it wears out, the rest of my body will be closer to where it was before I had chronic pain, which also hopefully means less pain! First thing's first though - I've got to see if the botox will work for me.

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I took the evening to ponder what tasty, cheap, and easy dish I could make. Rice and beans seemed like the perfect answer! Tonight's experiment involved black beans, garlic, onion, and a pinch of ginger made into a paste on top of brown rice.

The result? Not bad, but nowhere near perfect. The bean mixture seemed to lack enough flavor punch not to be drowned out by the mellow flavor of the rice. So back to the drawing board while I think of what different portions of ingredients I can play with next time to give it that perfect punch!

Stocked up my "food staples" today at Whole Foods and I'm good to go. I'm already excited for breakfasts this week!

Dinner experimentation is served

I've been delving into new worlds eating dairy-free. I've been doing moreso since receiving La Dolce Vegan! as a birthday gift last month. Richard if you're reading this, you are more awesome than you know for getting me this book, my goodness.

First up comes the "Creamy Basil & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta" recipe I decided to pick out. Pasta is always great in my book.

I wish I could make this look as delicious as it tasted. My home is full of not-so-photo-friendly lighting unfortunately. But anyway! Here's the version of this dish my mother and I came up with:

Ingredients for 4 people
12 oz dry pasta
1 small (8 oz?) jar sun-dried tomatoes (original recipe called for 7-8 sun-dried tomatoes for 2 people. I guesstimated with what I had on hand)
20 oz silken tofu (can use firm or soft as well)
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup fresh basil
1 tsp salt
4 cups broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces

Boil the noodles of your choice in a large pot. In a food processor combine tofu, tomatoes, garlic, salt, and basil until smooth and set aside. When pasta is almost done, add broccoli to the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain the pasta and broccoli. In a large bowl (or the cooking pot) combine the tomato sauce and pasta. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

My thoughts on this next time I make it is use a little less garlic, maybe 2-3 cloves, and maybe 1/3 cup basil instead. Those seemed to be overpowering, especially the garlic, whew! Other than that this was good! Not head-over-heels about it, but I'd make it again with the changes noted and see if I didn't like that more.

And the last tidbit of the day ends with smoothie experimentations! I love smoothies. They're fantastic because you can play with ingredients freely and see what makes the best combination of fruits, veggies, whatever you please.

This is my latest fantastically purple concoction. The past few days I've been using 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt, 1 banana, 2 large handfuls of blueberries, 1 small handful of raspberries, a little bit of orange juice, and 3/4 scoop of soy protein powder. It's a great mid-afternoon pick-me-up and another good way for me to sneak my protein in.

Tonight I tried using almond milk in place of the yogurt, and it wasn't too bad, but definitely not as creamy as with yogurt. I just don't want to use up all the yogurt I have so quickly! I have leftover silken tofu from my noodle dish, so I'll give that a go tomorrow and see how it is then. Next grocery trip will involve picking up spinach to make "green smoothies" as well. I bet these will be awesome for when I'm feeling crummy after surgery and don't want to eat much since they're so nutrient-packed.

I do end the day hurting quite a bit after cooking dinner. Even with help, doing things with my arm throughout the day lands me in a lot of pain. I think what really did me in tonight was holding up the plastic food processor bit with one hand while I scooped out the tomato sauce with the other. Seems like such a simple task doesn't it?

It does feel defeating since I wanted to cook dinner with my mom's help, but it might end up my mom cooking dinner with my help next time. Thoracic Outlet Syndrome leaves one quite dependent on those around you, believe you me. You want to be more active and not just a lump in the house, but your body only lets you do so much.

The rest of the night will definitely be spent resting. Tomorrow it's time for shopping for button-up shirts for post-surgery dressing as well as grocery shopping time!

Start to a new day

I thought that I would get right to posting! And what better way to start than with the first meal of the day?

I'd been intrigued with these really easy yogurt bowls that I decided to try one myself today. In this experiment, I have plain soy yogurt, 1/2 banana, and some plain Cheerios. After this picture was taken I found my cinnamon which made for a nice little flavor addition. I snuck some soy protein powder into my orange juice since with surgery upcoming, I need all the protein I can get so my body can easily heal.

The only problem was this experiment wasn't very filling! I could easily fix that by using granola and perhaps some walnuts instead of plain Cheerios. Granola is going on my grocery list now.

I thought I'd also share what has to be one of my favourite teas I've ever had: Black Lychee. It came from a store near Pike Place Market in Seattle called Vital Tea Leaf. My dearest and I stumbled upon it while out for my birthday, and being the big tea fan that I am we had to take a peek! It was an amazing little store. They have free tea samplings, and believe you me we sampled quite a bit that day. This ended up being the winner by far. It's got the black tea flavor you'll know and love, but also just a hint of natural fruity sweetness from the lychee.

I do love my teas with milk, and have been experimenting with different milks to put in my teas since I'm allergic to dairy milk proteins. So far I have tried plain soy milk, plain rice milk, and am trying out unsweetened almond milk. Soy tasted great, but I am trying to cut down on soy where I can so in comes rice milk. That was much too watery and I didn't care for the taste, so I switched to almond. Ding! We have a winner! I bought one plain and one vanilla carton of almond, so I'll see which I like best in the end.

Have some goodies planned for tonight with the help of my folks. Major cooking operations do require a helping hand or two because of my TOS pain unfortunately, but hopefully I will have culinary success to report on later!