Whole 30 - Day 20

Today I got called out by the guy working the cash register at my local Whole Food on my Paleoness. Why? you ask. Because of the seaweed snacks that I bought today. So as he's ringing me up, he turns to me and asks "Paleo?" While I'm packing my purchases into my backpack, I look up and ask "How did you know?" Then I looked down at the bottles in my hand and see my coconut oil (OMG I just cannot get enough of it, and I guess I have to buy it every time I see it on sale) and coconut aminos. Oh, right. He then looks at the seaweed snacks and mentions that he's never tried them before and questions whether they're Paleo. He flips over the package and scans the ingredients list. And then he points out the fact that there is canola oil in the seaweed snacks. "Oh. Well I wouldn't eat these because I'm really strict." Ooooohhh, burn. So so right though. After I left I realized that I picked up the wrong brand. There's another brand of seaweed snacks that doesn't use canola oil. Oops. So now I have seaweed snacks at home that I won't be eating. Oh well, I still walked to and from the Whole Foods (about a mile each way), and came away with coconut oil, coconut aminos, and some veggies. So overall, it was a good trip. And a relaxing way to spend my afternoon after a 6 a.m. row, followed by an unplanned nap, then a sushi lunch with LMR. So scratch that to say it's been a very relaxing and rejuvenating day.

Now for what I whipped up for breakfast...

2 eggs

2 cups baby kale

1/4 cup chicken breast, shredded

1/2 sweet potato

1/2 cup blueberries

1. Add 1 Tbls ghee to a pan and heat over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the kale and chicken. 

2. When the kale has cooked down, add the eggs and stir to scramble.

3. Cook for a few minutes or until the eggs are cooked through.

4. Serve with half of a baked sweet potato and a half cup of blueberries.

Paleo Pineapple Layer Popsicle

Paleo Pineapple Layer Popsicle

1/4 cup pineapple chunks with ~2 Tbls juice

4 Tbls grapefruit juice (1 Tbls for each popsicle)

1/4 cup blueberries

1. Place the pineapple and pineapple juice in the blender and puree until smooth.

2. Transfer to popsicle tray and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

3. Pull out the popsicle tray and pour in 1 Tbls of grapefruit juice into each popsicle mold. Freeze for 15 minutes.

4. Place the blueberries in the blender and puree until smooth.

5. Remove the popsicle tray from the freezer and pour in the blueberry puree until each mold is full.

6. Freeze for 2 hours. Then remove tray, dunk the bottom portion in warm water to loosen the popsicles, and enjoy!

Summer Salad

Summer Salad

2 cups mixed greens

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup chopped orange bell peppers

1 tsp flax seeds

1/2 cup lemon-herb chicken pieces

Can be eaten without dressing which is what I usually do, or whip up a Lemon Vinaigrette (1 Tbls olive oil, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, lemon zest, pinch of sea salt, 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard).

And in other news, I found this photo I had taken while I was packing up my apartment for my recent move and came across all of the presents that I've gotten from one of my best friends. See the photo below... I bet you can pick up on a theme. Anyways, I've kept them all over the years and for the most part they all get displayed on a shelf together. So all of these presents got packed into a box together. By the time I decided to take a photo of all of these, I had already packed my Nerd Chapstick and OCD Action Figure (still in its original packaging, of course), so sadly those are absent from the photo.

The bricks are "Two senior bricks fighting over a guy," with photos of the two senior guys in question. I believe these were a 16th birthday present, in return for the two bricks that I gave to her.

The cow wrapped in plastic behind Brick David is a stuffed animal that was dipped in scented wax. It can be unwrapped and left out to freshen your room. Obviously, you can see Cow-baby up front, with the cow Eiffel Tower in front of it. The box in the back is a decorated shoebox with a photo of KM and I from high school! On top is a cow planter and hand-standing cow salt and pepper shakers. The notebook in the front is a present from Prague, that KM gave me with the picture frame box just to its right. And on top of the picture box is a cow stuffed animal. Phew. That's roughly 10 years of friendship... in one photo. Amazing!

Chemo - Part 6 - Day 5

It was our last day of cladribine! Thankfully we've survived the first 5 days of chemo without any major issues. Overall the side effects have been tiredness, nausea, and a fogginess in the head, but we've attributed that last one to the anti-nausea meds. When I was talking about the fogginess with a few friends last night, we discussed how one of my friends thinks that the anti-nausea medications generally just makes you tired so you sleep through the nausea and wake up after it passes. I can see that being true. It's kind of the same way with migraine medications, though I'm not sure if it's the medication or the migraine that actually makes me pass out and sleep through the worst part of the migraine. I'd say that I'd experiment with it, but when I have a migraine, testing to see if I can stay awake through it is the last thing on my mind.

Some bone-deep leg pain has also kicked in. I think that's the hardest thing we've dealt with so far. We've tried ice packs, but I don't think there's anything to do for bone pain, besides maybe pain killers? Suggestions, anyone?

Anyways, I appreciate all of the well wishes we've received. It makes me relieved to know that my family has a good support system here in Atlanta. I won't worry as much when I head back to Texas. Our next-door neighbor called earlier today to see when he could bring some grilled goodies for us. And some other family friends have already offered to help out with the transportation to the future chemo treatments.

Last night, I went to Leon's Full Service in downtown Decatur. I ordered the Chicken Sausage, with charred scallion, ginger, baby bok choy, green curry, and fried shallot pickles. It was really yummy. And I had the Bitter in a Bottle cocktail. Go there and try it.

Though I think my friend LF got the best option: Bacon in a Glass, with a side of peanut butter.

Here's another banana-based dessert that I baked last night. It has a very strong banana taste, so if you're like my dad and don't like bananas, then don't make this. I know, it's a really complicated concept... Don't make something you don't like? Go figure.

Two-Way Banana Bread

5 frozen bananas, peeled

6 pitted dates

4 eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup almond flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Put the dates into the food processor and run until the dates have been broken up into little chunks.

3. Cut up the frozen bananas into a separate bowl. Mash the bananas with a fork (you could also put these into the food processor and use that instead of the manual effort needed to mash the bananas with a fork).

4. Mix with the dates.

5. Whisk the eggs, then stir into the banana/date mixture. Add in the rest of the ingredients in order, stirring after each one is added.

6. Transfer to two coconut-oil greased loaf pans.

7. In one pan, stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips. In the other pan, mix in dried or fresh fruit. I used dried blueberries and dried cherries.

8. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the loaves cool completely before trying to remove from the pans.

Cherry/Blueberry