A Whole New Challenge…

Something fairly big happened in our lives this past week.. or rather, something of a slightly larger than usual (I’m guessing) size left. On Friday morning T had his gallbladder removed. He is sleeping peacefully at the moment, or I’m sure he wouldn’t want me posting this, but hey, sometimes it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission right?

The whole event was a bit of a whirlwind, starting with the surgery being scheduled earlier in the day than we thought (crushing our plans to take the train into “the city”, thankfully a friend pulled through and gave us a ride to T’s parents where we spent the night), then the surgery being later than we thought (starting at 9, not 7), a dead car battery, a reaction to one of the anesthetics, an excruciatingly long wait in recovery, some nasty car sickness (though gold star for T for not puking!). Luckily the one thing that didn’t go wrong was the surgery itself. T was released about 4 hours after his surgery ended and we were back at home the same night.

Recovery was going pretty well until late last night when T woke up with a lot of pressure under his ribs, feeling like he was full of liquid. We called the Nurse’s hotline (if you have not heard of this please look it up: they are FANTASTIC help, and will tell you what your next step is. Whenever I have used them they have been calm, friendly and helpful and last night was no exception). In this case, they suggested we head to the ER, so after a flurry of activity and a ride in an ambulance (thanks to a snow storm, lack of license and panic) we went to the hospital. Blood tests were done and thankfully there is no infection or anything, just some high liver number stuff, but that’s normal after a gallbladder surgery apparently.  T was given some stuff for acid reflux and it seemed to help a lot, but we still aren’t too sure about the pressure and everything. We did some research at home this morning, and it sounds like bloating and indigestion are a common thing for people who have had this surgery. The people who have dealt with and experienced this suggested some digestive enzymes, but more importantly a very low fat diet.

From what I gather the gallbladder stores bile, and releases it when it senses that you have eaten something fatty. With out the organ, your body just kind of oozes bile (appetizing eh?) into the digestive tract, often causing acid reflux. In addition, because the gall bladder isn’t there to help release the bile, which breaks down fatty foods, it is harder for your body to break down the fatty foods, causing a lot of bloating and such.

So, to the point…

The challenge is now to learn how to cook without all of the butter (and those who know me know how much I love to cook with butter.. currently we go through about a pound per week), oil and fat. Of course, this is on top of the organic thing (which is probably a blessing in disguise: organic butter runs us about 9$ a pound), and also trying to eat vegetarian or vegan 3 or 4 times a week (again, a blessing in disguise as the fats people tend to have the most problems with are animal fats).

I can cook from scratch.. just about anything. No problem. I can cater to Vegans, Vegetarians, Gluten Free-ers. I have cooked without sugars, salt or grainy carbs. Fat free though is something new to me. Please don’t get the wrong idea.. we aren’t deep frying maniacs eating breaded sticks of butter for dinner or anything.. but we do enjoy cream based soups, butter chicken, some grilled cheese or quesidillas or veggie drenched nachos (I’m drooling a little bit thinking of it). Breakfast is usually home made scones, or waffles, drenched in butter with a side of fruit. We can eat avocados once or twice a day without blinking, and I personally will admit to a baked goods and chips addiction.

This is gonna be a bit of a challenge. And, to the best of my ability, I will keep you updated, and hopefully inspired.

If anyone out there has suggestions.. please let me know! Now, bring on the salads…

The Great Purge

I am currently in the process of purging out all of the foods in which I cannot name all of the ingredients in from my food supply.

I was (and still kind of am) excited about this, but it’s not the easy 20 minute sweep that I thought it was going to be.

First off, I am getting rid of more food than I thought I would be. Luckily, most of this is unopened and can be donated to the food bank. I will keep opened items until my roomie comes home to see if she will use them, and if not, bye bye honey garlic sauce.

Items being disposed of (and their unwanted ingredients) include and are definitely not limited to:

Beans: dextrose, modified corn starch, artificial flavour, caramel

Vegetable Thins: vegetable oil shortening, dextrose, monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed soya and/or wheat protein, natural flavour, more vegetable oil shortening, disodium guanylate, ammonium bicarbonate, glucose-fructose, monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, more hydrolyzed soya and/or wheat protein,  soybean oil with TBHQ, amylase, protease)

Kraft Peanut Butter: corn dextrose, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil

Golden Dragon Sweet and Sour Sauce: hydrolyzed (corn soy and wheat) protein, modified corn starch, maltodextrin, sodium benzoate, colouring, partially hydrogenated soybean and cotton seed oil

Vegetable Thins Ingredients (interesting: there is a "Sensible Solution" claim, a "Baked with Real Vegetables" claim and a "44% less Fat" claim on the box too..)

The Veggie Thins are by far the worst of it, and a lot of what I am getting rid of isn’t too bad except one or two things. Most of the beans have EDTA and Calcium Chloride (which is basically to help them keep their shape from what I could gather on wiki, but it sounds too sciency for me). Even Kraft Dinner doesn’t beat the crackers, but with sodium phosphates, natural flavours and colour is has to go.

I wavered back and forth on a few cans of fruit, because I love canned peaches and pineapple, and because the ingredients really aren’t that bad. Peaches have: peaches, water, concentrated fruit juice (apple and/or pear and/or grape) and citric acid. Citric acid was originally on my “no” list, but it’s really just lemon juice. The reason I’m not keeping the peaches (single tear) is because they can’t tell me which fruit juice is in the peaches, and because I don’t understand why they need fruit juices at all.. peaches are yummy as peaches. I am however keeping the pineapple, because it is pineapple, pineapple juice and citric acid.

Another surprising keep is ketchup (though, without frozen fries and KD for a year I’m not entirely sure what I will put it on). Heinz Ketchup (at least the one I have) has tomato paste, sugar, white vinegar, salt, onion powder and spices.

I am also needing to dispose of some alcohol. This is tricky, because it is opened, and I’m pretty sure you can’t give it to the food bank even if it is sealed, and I don’t want to chuck it and let some under ager or recovering homeless man find it.  This too can wait until the room mate gets home I guess (unless anyone out there over the age of 19 is in want of tequila, white rum and half a mickey of Sailor Jerry’s). Pending that, I may be celebrating New Years by pouring it all down the drain.

Other item’s that I am keeping though won’t be buying again in 2012 include my probably not so happy frozen meat, baking supplies (meringue powder, cream of tarter, baking soda and baking powder as well as white sugar and flour).

This has also made me think a little on what is or isn’t acceptable. For example, I am shunning canned tomatoes for a year, because the acidity in tomatoes is proven to chance the chemicals in the linings of the cans and well, it’s all bad (though tomatoes packaged in glass jars are all good). Also, EDTA is scary. Pretty much anything that is described by only letters is a definite no. I also want to stop eating hidden corn product such as dextrose, and maltodextrin, and the less hidden corn product high fructose corn syrup. Natural Flavours is a scam (if something was naturally strawberry flavoured, you would get strawberries or strawberry juice in it), and though I am keeping my own supply of (cough cough expensive high end) food colourings, I would rather not have them in my food. Though I have come to terms with citric acid, I am weary of anything else that sounds chemically (calcium chloride, disodium guanylate etc.).

While I am a little sad to see how many items I had stocked that I have to get rid of, I am also inspired by my simply stocked new fridge and cupboards. It’s kind of refreshing to see (almost) nothing but simple meats, fruit, veg, dairy and eggs.

So Long Unidentifiable Food!

 

 

Warm-Up Challenge: Lunches and Other Things

Happy Monday Folks!

    Usually on a Monday morning I am up at the gloomy, dark, cold hour of 4:45am to get my butt in gear and be at work for 6. Today however, I was switched and get the closing shift. Not starting until 2 gives me half a day to play or spend as I wish. Ahhh luxury.

  It also gives me a chance to get a start on my warm-up challenge for the week: Pack and eat a lunch every day.

  I work Monday through Friday this week (a rarity in my life) so thought it would be a perfect chance to practice the art of brown-baggin’ it. I am terrible at this. I am good at planning it. I am also pretty good at making extra food come dinner time so that I will have a lunch to bring. The problems come when it is time to remember to put that food into my bag when I leave for work, and, if I do remember it as I run out of the house, I seldom remember to actually take the time to eat it.

  Working a job where breaks are taken between serving customers during slow points and where croissants and scones run aplenty, it is hard to remember to actually pull my lunch out of the back fridge, heat it up and eat it before it gets cold again. Pathetic, I know.  

  I also run into problems when I am working a theatre contract. I usually end up working on Granville Island, right next door to the market. On rehearsal days it is just too easy to walk across the little alley way with twenty dollars and blow it on some yummy treat. During the run of the show I work 6:30-about 10:30, with two shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I’m not very hungry before I leave for work, so don’t think about bringing food, but by the time 7:00 comes around I am starving. Not to mention that the phrase “So, where are we doing dinner?” is the only thing I can think about on double show days. Traditionally the crews for whatever shows are on with the Arts Club meet up for dinner somewhere on these days. Nice, but pricey (usually I spend $25-$40 on these outings), not to mention that there is no way I could name the ingredients in most of the stuff I end up eating.

   Luckily, I am only at the coffee shop right now, so don’t have to worry about the theatre food dilemma just yet.  

My plan for today was simple.

1) Sleep in

2) Drink coffee

3) Eat breakfast

4) Make a lunch

5) Shower and all that fun stuff

6) Knit

7) Take my lunch/dinner to work and eat it

Sounds easy right? Even wonderful in a simple, relaxed kind of way. Wrong.. I was thwarted from the very start.

I was woken up at 8am to the sounds of pans knocking against each other, water, and footsteps. I threw the covers off, cursed like a trucker and stomped to the bathroom in a performance that would have made the Incredible Hulk proud. Then I saw the reason for the noise.

  I live in an old, old, house and things don’t always work. Sometimes (and not that rarely) they straight up bust. We have a tradition emerging in our house for December: The pipe in the kitchen bursts. Last year it was on Christmas Day as I was washing my dinner dishes. This year it happens today. Hoorah!

  Because our landlord enjoys trying to fix things in his own creative way, this means no kitchen sink for a couple of days, which makes cooking and cleaning really fun. Basically it’s like camping. You go to the bathroom for water when you need it to cook or clean, you eat your meal, and you trudge back to the bathroom tap to wash your dishes. Needless to say, I am excited and impressed (for those that don’t know me, this is sarcasm).

 However, I have a goal. I will make my lunch. Since I had a lazy dinner last night, I have no leftovers.

 The plan was originally to have chicken, potatoes, corn and a salad.. but that’s a lot of pots to wash in my bathroom sink, so I roasted a couple of chicken breasts and threw together a bigger salad. Because I close tonight and open tomorrow I can bring tomorrow’s lunch with me. This means that come 5:15am when I am running out of the house I don’t have to remember to grab it. Ha!

 

Booya!

 

 

Today (closing/dinner shift): Spinach and chicken salad with tomato, cucumber, cranberries and trail mix

Tomorrow (opening/brunch shift): Spinach/Kale smoothie with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, orange, and banana (don’t knock it ’till you try it.. you can’t really taste all of the green stuff, though it is kind of green/brown looking), almonds, toast with avocado

 How about all of you? Do you bring your lunches? Are you a sandwich person? Do you get creative? Any great tips lurking out there for a not-so-big-on-sandwiches type of girl?

The Countdown

Well Folks,

   I am one month to the day away from embarking on this adventure, and while I am excited and maybe a little bit nervous, I am also impatient.

  When I get an idea into my head I want to jump in with both feet curled up under me and cannon ball myself into whatever might lie ahead. It’s not my fault really.. I’m an Aries.

  One month to go means 31 days to slowly purge my pantry, freezer, fridge and candy stash of everything containing ingredients which I cannot name. This means the Kraft Dinner I have stowed away for those white-trash moments, crackers, miscellaneous sauces, and the frozen pre-prepared chicken kiev that I have stashed away in the freezer.

   Here is where I meet my dilemma. I don’t want to waste these foods. I also don’t want to eat KD for 30 days straight, get myself hooked on things like “tartazine” (I just looked at the KD box and it isn’t actually all that bad.. not like my soy sauce which is “blended from soya based hydrolyzed plant protein”) and then have to jump cold turkey into my “be able to name it all” diet.  I propose a compromise. I will eat some of these foods, as part of a more balanced meal, and not all that often, for the next month. If I concentrate on the frozen/open and refrigerated stuff, I can then give the other dried and preserved stuff to the food bank. In other words, chicken kiev for me and KD, Taco seasoning, unopened butter chicken sauce, and crackers for the food bank. Hazaa!

   I am also already scheming on my “cheats”. There are a few things, that even though I cannot name the ingredients in, I refuse to give away. So far this includes mostly baking supplies (meringue powder, food colourings, baking soda and powder, and cream of tartar – which doesn’t have an ingredients list).  This is because I love to bake, because these things (the meringue powder and the Wilton gel food colourings especially) were pricey, and because I’m sure that my great grandma knew what baking powder was and that it wouldn’t kill her or mutate her great grandchildren.

   Some of you that know me may be thinking “Ha! What about the cigarettes you hypocrite”.  Now those of you that don’t know me, or at least didn’t know I smoke are standing up behind those other people and saying “Yeah!! WTF, You can’t name all the stuff in your smokes. Smoking will kill you.”

 To you people I say “All in good time people, all in good time”, and to those two other smokers sitting sheepishly in the far back corner muttering to themselves that “technically cigarettes are not food and you don’t actually eat them” I say thank you for your support, but the giant mob has it right.

   I do need to quit (and you should too… when you’re ready), but am not adding that to the January first start line. Why? Because usually my New Years resolutions don’t last very long, and when I quit I want it to stick. That sounds petty, even to me, but it’s true. Plus with this whole eating shift, I’m going to have enough new stuff on my plate (pun intended – thank you).

 I have started to slow it all down, and will continue to do so until I am ready. I have decided that to be included in the “Eat” part of my adventure, I need to stop by March 31st. There you go, you have a date, now go back inside and let me smoke in peace.

 So I guess that’s where it’s at. Happy pantry raiding to any of those who are on the same journey.